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This should be enough to get me a bus ticket. Or a plane ticket, even. To somewhere else.Anywhereelse.
The Voronin brothers can go up against Ilya on their own. I’m done with this, and I’m done with them. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. It never did. From the very beginning, I was just somewhere I shouldn’t have been, and I got swept up in their shit.
Not anymore.
I take the money and my small bag and leave the warehouse, creeping quietly out the front door. It’s still pitch black outside as I hurry away from their home, heading off down the street. Since it’s imperative that they not be able to find me, I do my best to keep out of sight of any security cameras, so Victor can’t use his hacking skills to figure out where I’ve gone. That means sticking to back alleys and cutting through people’s backyards.
I climb over fences and sneak past houses, moving as quickly as I can.
All the while, I keep my jaw clenched, trying to hold back my emotions. There’s a part of me that just wants to curl up somewhere and cry, that wants to give in to how hurt I am and mourn the loss of the things I thought I’d found.
It was just yesterday that I was worried about them. Just the other night that I felt like I’d found somewhere I belonged.
I was facing things that scared me, doing things I never thought I’d do. I think about the tattoo Malice put on my chest, and my fingers curl, wishing I could claw it off my skin.
Even then, even when he was putting it there, he had to know that they were just using me. And he marked me up anyway.
“Don’t think about it, Willow,” I whisper. “They’re not worth it.”
Eventually, I’m going to have to let myself feel all of this pain, but hopefully I’ll be far away by then—somewhere they can’t get to me and make things even worse. So I drag in a deep breath and keep moving. The faster I move, the lower the odds are that they’ll manage to find me.
Usually, I would be afraid to be out alone this late at night in these parts of Detroit, but my mind is focused on only one thought.
Get away.
It’s like a mantra inside my head, and any time I start to think of something else or a memory of the guys pops up, I shake myself and reorient to that one thought.
Get away.
It takes a while for me to stop jumping at every sound I hear, but by the time I’ve walked several miles away from the brothers’ warehouse, I start to feel a little more confident that they didn’t see me sneak out and follow me. I’ve never been outside Detroit before, but I know where the Greyhound bus station is, so I start heading in that direction, debating about where I should buy a ticket to.
I’m passing a row of shuttered businesses with faded signs above them when the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly prickle. I start to whirl around to look behind me—
But I never get the chance.
Strong arms wrap around me from behind, pulling me tight against a broad body. A choked noise bursts from my lips as all the air is forced out of my lungs, leaving me gasping for breath.
For a second, I’m certain it’s one of the brothers. That they’ve caught me after all and are going to drag me back to their warehouse. But then an unfamiliar voice speaks low in my ear.
“Don’t scream. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
My eyes widen, because that’s definitely not Malice’s voice, or Victor’s or Ransom’s either. I don’t know who the fuck it is, and that realization makes panic explode in my chest. I start struggling hard, fighting against his hold, trying desperately to get away from my unknown attacker and put some distance between us so I can run.
But his arms are like iron, and before I can break free or even loosen his grip, a cloth comes up to press over my mouth and nose.
A sharp, acrid scent fills my nostrils, and the world around me blurs as my eyelids droop. My limbs turn heavy and clumsy even as my mind continues to scream at me, repeating a single phrase over and over.
Get away.
Get away.
Get a—
46
VICTOR
My alarm goesoff the way it does every single day at six thirty in the morning. My eyes snap open, and I reach for my phone, shutting off the sound before it can wake one of the others.
