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“Promise me you’ll tell me when you can?” I asked, and Micah pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
“We will, I promise,” he told me. “It’s just a story for another time. Now we only have a couple of hours left to the airport; you should try to get some rest.”
I’d started to let my eyelids drift shut, but I blinked them open again at his words. “Wait, what happens at the airport?”
“We called your aunt,” Devan told me. “She’ll be there to meet us.”
I lifted my head from Micah’s shoulder. “You called my aunt?”
“She’ll take you back to Chicago,” he said. “You’ll be safe there.”
“But I want to stay with you,” I protested again, but he shut me down as efficiently as Garrett had.
“You can’t. But it’s not forever. We’ll be done with what we need to do by the end of break, and we’ll all be together again when school starts for the spring semester.”
My eyes flew wide. “We’re going back to school? After…”
I didn’t have to say the words. After you killed another student? After we all fled, leaving behind a dead body? Instead I said, “Holy shit. Whoever you called must be pretty good, if we’re just supposed to go back like nothing happened.”
“They are,” was all Devan would answer.
I leaned my head back onto Micah’s shoulder and snuggled deep into his side, my drowsiness growing stronger.
“Hey, I want in on this,” Devan said, and a second later he had unbuckled his seatbelt and was climbing through the divide between the seats to join us in the back. Careful not to jostle me he wedged himself against my other side and I gratefully threaded my uninjured arm through his, drawing him close.
“Promise me,” I said, closing my eyes again.
“What, sweetheart?”
“Promise me we’ll all be together again soon.”
“I promise,” came the voices from either side of me.
“And you can text us whenever you need us,” Devan told me. “I put your phone in the outside pocket of your backpack, next to your parents’ letter. Text us every ten minutes if you want.”
“I might,” I threatened.
Warm fingers threaded through the hair on my scalp, pulling the strands lightly, and I relaxed, feeling warm and secure between the two bodies pressed tight to my sides. Just before I let the rhythmic sound of the tires gliding over pavement lull me to sleep, I opened my eyes one last time and looked up at the rearview mirror. Garrett met my gaze there, and for once his eyes weren’t hard and intense, but soft, his expression surprisingly gentle.
“Sleep, love.” He mouthed the words to me. And I did.
46
It was late—or early, depending on your definition—when we reached the airport and Micah gently shook me awake, laughing at my mumbled protest. Devan was sleeping as well, his head resting on mine, one arm locked tightly around me, but he also grumbled back to life as we parked at the terminal.
The trunk held fewer bags than I’d expected, and I commented on this, but Micah just smiled as he pulled my bag out and set it on the pavement.
“We didn’t take everything out of the room. I told you, we’re coming back next semester.”
I was mollified at his statement, but confused when he and Devan, rather than joining me on the sidewalk, returned to the open doors of the car.
“Are you not coming in?” I asked, frowning when Devan shook his head.
“We’ll wait by the car while Garrett runs you inside. We can’t stay long.”
The sting of tears was hot against the backs of my eyes, and I blinked them away. I didn’t want to leave the guys, even for a second. Terrible things always seemed to happen when they weren’t around, and I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from them for three whole weeks. I wasn’t even sure I could sleep alone at this point.
Turning, I flung myself at Micah, who caught me in his arms with an “Oof.”
