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40
Ash
Natalie dragsCody to a car parked in the lot near the school’s sprawling campus, her grip firm on his arm and a hard look on her face. She opens the backseat of the car and ushers him in, then walks around quickly and slips in behind the wheel on the driver’s side, starting up her car and driving away.
“Follow her,” River bites out.
Gage is already doing it even before she speaks, pulling away from the curb to tail Natalie at a bit of a distance—hopefully enough that she won’t see us behind her.
“What the fuck?” River breathes. “What the fuck is she doing? What does she want with him?”
Her body is so tense that she feels like a statue beside me, and her jaw clenches as she stares out the front window. We’re not losing sight of the car, but she keeps craning her neck, trying to keep it in view. I know she’s freaking out a little because this wasn’t a part of the plan. And after last night turned into a shit show pretty quickly, I can’t really blame her for being worried about it.
We didn’t think to account for this. Didn’t think Natalie would have any interest in Hannah’s son, especially since she clearly hated Hannah.
All the shit we did to dismantle Julian’s life before we killed him fucked his sister over pretty thoroughly too, and I figured she’d be too busy dealing with the fallout over that to worry about her brother’s kid.
“That fucking bitch,” River mutters under her breath. She throws herself back into her seat for a second but never stops staring at the car ahead of us, like she’s afraid if it gets out of her sight, they’ll disappear forever.
Her worry is palpable, filling the car like a sixth passenger. I know killing Julian was the main focus of our planning sessions over the past weeks, but getting Cody back is the part that ultimately matters most to her. If we fail at this, she’ll never forgive herself.
“Natalie won’t get away with Cody,” Gage says from the front seat, as if he’s read my damn mind. “That’s not going to happen.”
“What’s the plan, though?” I ask, my fingers moving restlessly. I don’t have a coin in my hand at the moment, but the habit is ingrained in my muscle memory by now. “We can’t just attack the car. The kid is in there. It’s too fucking risky.”
Gage lets out a rough breath. “I know. For now, we’ll just follow her. See where she’s going. If we can get the kid away from her, then we can figure out where to go from there.”
River grinds her teeth next to me, and I put my hand on her knee, squeezing it lightly. I know how much she hates this.
I think of that conversation we had in the shower all that time ago, about how she wasn’t sure she could ever see Cody without seeing his father and grandfather in him. It was a fair point then, considering her history with them and all they put her through. After Julian nearly killed her, her hatred for these Maduro men probably only grew.
But this moment right here, watching her get so protective of this little boy, proves that’s not true. She has it in her to love this kid. She probably already does without realizing it, just because he’s the last living piece of her sister.
It makes me just as determined to protect Cody too. He matters to River, so he matters to me too. I’m not going to let anything happen to the kid.
None of us are.
“Hang back a bit more,” Priest tells Gage. “We can’t let Natalie know we’re tailing her. If she realizes she’s being followed, shit could get bad for Cody.”
“Yeah.” Gage nods, slowing the car down a little.
We keep following Natalie’s car, all of us leaning forward a little to peer out the windshield. I expect her to turn toward one of the neighborhoods along the way that we know she and her brother usually frequent, and I chew my lip absently as we trail her at a safe distance. I keep waiting for her to take Cody to her house or Julian’s house or any place that has to do with their old business, but she just keeps driving.
River is back to sitting straight up in her seat now, glancing around at where we are as she tries to figure out what Natalie is planning.
She’s not alone in that. I have no idea what Natalie would even want with Cody, and the ice queen has passed by most of the places I thought she would’ve taken him.
Finally, she makes a turn off the main road, driving to an abandoned little spot near the side of the river. We’re practically outside of the city by now, in an area I’ve never been to before.
“What the fuck is she doing?” River asks, glancing around as Gage slows our car to a crawl.
There’s nothing here. Just some trees, set back from the road, and the rush of the river that sweeps along. It’s not even a nice part of the river, too close to the highway to be peaceful, and full of deep, murky water.
We pull to a stop far enough away that Natalie can’t see us, our car blocked from her sight by a few trees. All of us tensed and ready, and I crane my neck to peer through the small gap in the trees to where Natalie stopped.
After a second, Julian’s sister gets out of the car. But instead of getting Cody out too, she just slams the door closed once she’s out.
There’s a beep as she locks the doors, and I have a second to wonder what the fuck she’s doing before the car starts to roll forward. She never cut the engine, and she must’ve left the hand brake off too, because the car begins rolling down the embankment toward the river.
