AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I want to walk in on the guys. I want to join the conversation, be part of this, whatever it is they are talking about and planning. I need the peace of mind that will come with knowing I’ve done what I can to make myself and my sister safe, or as safe in this world as we can be.
And yet, the guys keep cutting me out. They’ll say it’s for my own good—I’m not ready yet, I don’t understand their world, blah, blah, blah. They may be right. But I don’t really care. I know what I need and no one is going to get it for me, except me. I’ve always been alone in this world. Why should things be any different now?
But in case the guys are still inclined to cut me out, which it seems they are, I continue listening.
“So why bother going over, if we know he’s not there?” Vadik asks.
“We’ve discussed this,” Kir says. “Charleigh remembers some sort of private room from when she was there. We need to see if it holds anything that might link him to our parents’ murders. We take that to thePakhan, and all this bullshit will be over.”
Or, they tip Dimitri off and he leaves the country never to be heard from again. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, excepts he has tentacles that reach anywhere he wants, just like the Alekseev brothers do.
God, I’m starting to think like they do. I don’t like it. In fact, it makes me feel sick.
“Fine then,” Vadik says. “Let’s head over there in twenty. If the guys watching the house say it’s okay.”
“They’ve been watching it. Seems no one’s around.”
I race back up to my room before I’m discovered, but I’m not fast enough.
“Charleigh, hey. What are you doing up so early?” Kir calls after me.
I look back down the stairs as I continue to my room. “Oh hey. Morning. I can’t sleep, so thought I’d get some tea.”
He tilts his head. “Where’s the tea?”
Shit.
“Oh, we don’t have what I wanted, so I bailed on the idea. See ya later,” I say, closing my bedroom door.
I pull on some jeans and a sweatshirt and my trusty old Converse Chucks, and peek back out my door. The guys have all dispersed to do whatever they have to before heading over Dimitri’s. I grab a book in case I come across someone, so I can say I’m going to read for a bit, and sneak down the stairs and out the front door. Just as I hoped, one of their SUVs is parked in the drive with engine already running. I take a look around and with no one in the vicinity, open the back and scramble in, plastering myself against the backside of the rear seat.
I’m not fooling anyone, though. All they have to do is glance in the trunk area and I’ll be discovered.
Still, when I hear their voices drawing near, I make myself as small as possible. I squeeze my eyes closed—why, I have no idea—and force my breath to slow, as if that will possibly help.
And to my surprise, the guys hop in without noticing me. I brace myself so I don’t roll when they peel out, and we hit the road.
Holy shit. What have I done? To be honest, I didn’t really think this was going to work. And now here I am.
What will the guys do when they find out I’m a stowaway? Will they be pissed or just mildly annoyed? Will they take to locking me in my room like they did in the beginning, or will they be pleased with my initiative?
Kind of late to worry about it now. I’m freaking committed.
With my head plastered to the floor of the trunk, I try not to think about how many dead bodies have been back here. The carpet smells vaguely of chemicals, so I guess if there was anything incriminating around, it’s been cleaned to within an inch of its life.
But still. Gross.
The guys’ voices carry over the rumble of the engine, but the noise drowns out anything specific. The mention of my name pricks my ears a few times, but I hear nothing more than that.
After thirty minutes or so—I tracked the time as well as our location with my phone—the SUV comes to a stop.
Oh shit. Now what?
I’m such a fucking idiot.
Sure, I’ll go for a ride to the home of the man who’s been after me since the first time we met, who beat me to within an inch of my life, and whose people also recently tried to nab my sister, Evie. The man who is responsible for the murder of the Alekseev brothers’ parents, for whom thePakhan—for some incomprehensible reason—is protecting or at least keeping our thirst for revenge against at bay.
Yeah. Let’s go over to his house. Take a look around. See what we find.
