Page 68 of Hidden

“I will, I promise,” I said, stepping closer to him. I could see how panicked he was, so I mimicked his earlier movement and cupped his cheeks with my hands. “I’ll flick the light on and off. Everything is going to be okay.”

He brought his hands up to mine, grasping my wrists, and then turned his face to kiss the palm of my hand.

“Go,” he said, his eyes blazing with emotions I couldn’t comprehend, yet understood instinctively.

Obeying him, I turned, and I ran back to the house.

Luke

Sitting back on my bike, clenching and unclenching my fists, I forced myself to take steadying breaths. I couldn’t fight the sheer terror that had flown through me when she had first whispered my name on the phone. It had hit me like a tonne of bricks, and the feeling hadn’t left since.

Her whispers… the gasping sobs…

Fuck!

My hands were still shaking, my knuckles throbbing from Darren’s stupid face.

She scared the shit out of me.

I had only felt like that once, and that was when I had found my mum’s dead body. The entire drive over to Gabby, I thought the worst. I thought he had done something to her. That he hadhurther.

That he had taken something from her that he had no right to take.

My jaw tightened at the thought, and I scrubbed a hand down my face, dragging in a long breath of cold night air. The quietaround the house felt too loud after the roar of the bike and the chaos of the alley.

I flexed my fingers, wincing slightly as the skin across my knuckles pulled tight.

Worth it. Every single second had been worth it.

The house lights were still dark.

For a moment, I wondered if Darren had beaten her home. If he were waiting inside. If she had walked straight into something worse than him, if he had got to her dad first.

My stomach twisted.

I pushed myself off the bike and paced a few steps across the gravel, scanning the road behind me out of habit. Rider territory stretched out in every direction, quiet for now, but that didn’t mean much. Darren might have had enough sense to walk away tonight, but there were plenty of others who would happily cause problems if they realised a Devil had crossed the line.

None of that mattered to me at that moment.

All that mattered was that house.

I stopped pacing and leaned against the bike again, my eyes fixed on the dark window I knew belonged to Gabby’s room.

Come on.

The seconds dragged.

Then, suddenly, the light flicked on.

I straightened instinctively, every muscle in my body tightening as I watched the window.

The light flicked off.

On again.

Off.

I let out a quiet laugh under my breath and shook my head at myself, the tension bleeding out of my shoulders at last.