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He drags me through the thick smoke, shoving a door open with his shoulder. Then we’re outside the room, moving down a hallway. It’s clearer of smoke out here, although a haze still hangs in the air, and the hallway is dark and shadowed, making everything look ghostly and surreal. A second later, another figure bursts from the door behind us, firing back into the room.
“Go!” Marcus yells over his shoulder at Theo, practically running backward as he keeps the gun in his hand trained on the open doorway. “Fucking go!”
I turn my focus forward just in time to see steps rise up out of the darkness ahead of us, and then we’re charging up them, my feet stumbling and shuffling as I try to get my tingling limbs to work.
I was right. It is some kind of old house, long-abandoned from the looks of it. I catch flashes of shadowy bare walls and dusty light fixtures as we race through the empty rooms. When we burst out into the cool night, the flare of headlights nearly blinds me, and a new wave of dizziness makes dark spots dance at the edge of my vision as Marcus crashes through the door behind us.
An engine revs, and tires squeal. I’m shoved gracelessly into the back seat of a car, and then we’re peeling out, doors slamming shut even as the vehicle is already in motion.
Loud shouts rise up behind us, and more gunshots follow. There’s a metallic ping as one hits the side of the car, and Theo curses, sticking his hand out the window to fire back.
I slide across the soft leather seat as we whip around a corner, smashing my head against the side door as I bring my arm up to try to protect myself. Several long pieces of gray tape still cling to my bicep, where the skin is red and angry from the tight pressure of the binds.
“Motherfucker. Ayla, are you all right?”
Theo hauls me up, his free hand grabbing my shoulders roughly as his gaze darts over my body, scanning me for injuries. The car is still driving fast and erratically, tearing down an empty road with its headlights off now. I don’t know where we are, but what little I can see of the dark scenery flying by outside isn’t familiar—it’s a part of Halston I don’t know.
“Carson’s car is fucked, so he won’t be able to follow us right away. But we need to get the fuck off the road. Take the left up there,” Marcus says. He’s in the front passenger seat, and Ryland is in the driver’s seat.
The stoic man grunts as he slows the car slightly and cranks the wheel, whipping us around another corner. I slide across the seat again, and Theo tightens his grip to steady me, still staring at me with wild blue-green eyes. “Are you okay? What the hell did he do to you?”
“Why the fuck did you leave my house?” Marcus turns to look at me, fury blazing in his eyes.
“Maybe because you didn’t tell her why she should stay!” Theo snaps at him. “If you’d told her why it mattered, maybe she would’ve stayed where it was safe.”
“You don’t think I was trying to keep her safe?” Marcus’s gaze whips up to Theo, something dangerous and feral lurking in his tone.
It’s the first time I’ve heard true anger in the way these men speak to each other, and it jerks me out of my shock a little. Half my brain still feels like it’s back in that basement with Carson and Dom, trying to figure out a way to free myself from my restraints. Too much has happened in too short of a time, and it feels like I’m about to spin out.
“Safe. From. What?”
The words are harsh. My throat feels ragged and raw.
The sound of my voice drags both men’s attention back to me. Ryland is still focused on the road ahead, taking us who-the-fuck-knows-where at a speed that makes me think he should’ve been the goddamn race car driver.
Marcus’s face hardens as he stares at me, his lips pressing into a line, and I realize with a sudden tightening of my chest that he’s not going to tell me.
Even now, after every fucking thing.
He’s not going to tell me the truth.
“You son of a bitch!”
I launch myself toward him, heedless of the fact that we’re in a speeding vehicle, heedless of the fact that my arms and legs still tingle numbly. I may only have one hand, but that’s all I need to scratch his fucking eyes out.
Marcus jerks away, and Theo wraps an arm around me, hauling me backward until I’m sprawled awkwardly on his lap. I elbow him in the side and lunge forward again, my heart slamming against my ribs as something powerful and uncontrollable rises up in me.
“You lied!” I scream, grappling one-handed to try to reach the front seat. “You fucking lied to me! About everything. Who the fuck are you?”
Anger cascades through me like burning oil. I’m furious at Marcus—at all of them—but I’m just as pissed at myself.
How could I have been so goddamn stupid? After years of numbness, I felt something when Marcus touched me, when he looked at me. I felt a strange connection to all three of them. And I let those feelings override every scrap of common sense I have, every harsh lesson the world has taught me about putting trust where it doesn’t belong.
And now I’m paying the price for it.
The hot, buzzing feeling inside me doesn’t go away. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger, building up inside me like air in a balloon, pressing against my skin until I feel like I might explode.
I can’t contain it.
