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This time, though, we were unlikely to walk out of this again.
It had hit me as I watched the others preparing. Hayden, Tor and Char all checked their weapons and ensured they had whatever they needed.
They couldn’t bring much with them—security was tight at the auctions, after all, and there was no doubt Bradley would keep a closer eye on us. Still, all that mattered was that we got Tor close enough to Lorien to finish this.
We all had our parts to play—I had to show my face to reassure Lorien that we were there. Hayden would make the rounds near where we’d rented a room for the fake handoff, pretending to watch for signs of danger. Char would blend in as a staff member to keep tabs on Lorien, and Tor would be the one to actually make the move.
The plan, on its surface, would work. We just had to focus on our tasks and by the end of the night, all of this would be finished. It was strange to sit here andknowit was my last day, that I wouldn’t see the sun rise tomorrow. I’d often lived my life as though each day were my last, savoring every pleasure the world had to offer. This was the first time I knew it for sure, though, and I didn’t feel the relief I expected.
Maybe it was because I had things I would miss, now. I’d tasted real happiness for the first time, and I found myself reluctant to sacrifice that, even if I knew it was for the best.
A noise on my phone made my heart beat faster, the stupid hope I’d had each time it chimed. Before even looking, however, I knew it wouldn’t be the one person I wanted, that it wouldn’t be Kenz.
I picked up my phone and frowned when the notification came from a banking app.
Not just any app, either, but the shady one that we had used to pay the auction house for Kenz. I opened the notification, waiting as the phone accessed the highly encrypted files, to find…
A refund?
It showed all the money we’d paid for her refunded back into our account. I blinked as I tried to make sense of that. Could it have been an error? No, an error like that would have occurred right after the purchase, not over a month later.
I opened the note associated with the transfer.Refund after return of purchased merchandise.
Return?A cold spark ran down my spine.
Bradley wouldn’t return funds like that out of the goodness of his own heart, given I doubted he had such an organ in the first place.
“Char,” I said, my voice shaky.
He must have noted the tone in my voice, because he jerked his gaze my way. “What’s wrong?”
“We just got a refund for the money we spent on Kenz. The note says it’s because we returned the merchandise.”
Hayden, who was across the room, checking items in a bag, pulled his phone out before I’d fully finished the statement. He pressed buttons on the phone, then at one last one, activated the speakerphone, the ringing on the other side loud in the deathly silence of the room.
“I was wondering how long it would take for you to contact me.” Nem’s voice was one I would never forget, and the fact she answered in such a way said she knew something was going on.
“Where’s Kenz?” Hayden asked.
“I thought you let her go. In fact, when we spoke last, you assured me you would leave her be for good.”
“And you assured me that youcould keep her safe. We just received a refund from the auction house. Bradley would only do such a thing if he had her back, if he expected to make that money back another way. So I ask again—where is Kenz?”
Had I ever heard Hayden speak like that? He was usually so calm and collected, and even when he stood his ground, he rarely used such an outright threatening tone.
“You’re lucky that Kenz would be upset if I killed you, because I don’t allow people to speak to me that way. I’ll overlook it this time for her, but be careful, because my patience only lasts so far. Kenz left last night.”
“And you just let her do that?”
“She isn’t a prisoner. She isn’t a pet to be locked up or chained for our ease or comfort. She’s her own person, and she makes her own choices.”
“Even if those choices put her in danger?”
“You can’t protect people who don’t want to be protected,” Nem said, her voice softening slightly. “You can’t force people to behave the way you want and expect them to simply accept it. They will fight back, and it’ll eventually fail.”
“That sounds like you taking the easy way out. If something happens to her, that will be onyourhead.”
Nem said nothing back at first, and it went on so long that I feared she’d hung up. Finally, she went on. “You know better than that. Doing what’s right is rarely the same as doing what’s easy. Sitting back and allowing people to make their own choices, and potentially their own mistakes, is far more difficult than trying to control them. You made your choices, to face Lorien knowing Kenz would never want you to risk yourselves like that. You can’t fault her for making her own choices in response. That girl has a will of steel when it comes to protecting others, and she’ll face down the devil himself because, for some reason I will never understand, she loves you all.”
