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“Yeah.” Her throat worked. “All of that.”
I shook my head and got out of bed. “I’m going to take a shower.”
When I returned, Ridley was downstairs.
I took out my phone and hurriedly dialed Gabriel. The cold shower had helped clear my mind. I’d decided that for now I’d keep stringing Ridley, and thus SI, along.
But I had to get my father to back off. I knew he had people hunting me. If I could get him to back off, maybe I could come up with a plan to salvage this without staking him.
I had to go through a couple of layers to get to Gabriel, but when he finally came on the line he sounded so goddamn normal, I started to shake.
“Zaq? Where are you? Are you okay?” Despite the questions, he sounded distracted. And he was apparently outside, because I heard wind crackling over the microphone.
“I’m fine.”
“Then where the hell are you? Father’s been look—”
I blew out a breath. “Shut up and listen. I don’t have much time—they could trace this call any second. We’ve been on the run for the past week.” That last wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was close enough.
“Who’s we?”
I made a frustrated sound. I didn’t have time for this. It had taken me good ten minutes just to get through to him. Ridley could come back at any second.
“Listen, damn it. The short version is I was kidnapped by the slayers.”
“We know. But who’s we? And where are you now?”
“I can’t tell you. Not over the phone.” The soft scrape of the ladder against the floor warned me Ridley had returned. “Fuck. I have to go.” I dropped my voice. “Tell Father to call off the hunt. I’ll be in touch. And bro?”
“What?”
“You and Rafe be careful. They’re gunning for all three of us. Whoever’s behind this wants to bring Father to his knees.”
Gabriel started to say something, but I cut the connection and returned the phone to my pocket.
Ridley opened the door and frowned at me. “Who were you talking to?”
“My brother Gabriel.”
She grimaced. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Wrong. I should’ve called him sooner. If SI has targeted us, he deserves to know. Besides, I wanted to check in. He must’ve been going out of his mind wondering where the fuck I am.”
She sucked her lower lip in. “I’m just afraid it will come back to bite us. My alpha—” She shook her head.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him where we are.”
She nodded, sighed. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. It’s hard for me to understand”—she waved a hand—“families.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. And I meant it.
Her eyes flickered. “You don’t miss what you’ve never had.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. She must have seen the compassion on my face because she added, “SI’s my family now.”
And that was just sad.
“Ridley—”
