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This wasn’t what I came here for. I came here for a fresh start. A chance at a new life free of violence. Free of gangs and guns andhate.
Each day that image of what I wanted when I set foot in Thorn Valley has shifted. Every day spent with the Crows has been another bar welded onto a cage that I might never escape from if I’m not careful.
And that cage would trap me in the life I swore I was leaving behind when I took my Aunt up on her offer.
I didn’t know what the fuck I wanted anymore, and that was a terrifying thought. But one I needed to figure out before it was too late.
“Thanks,” I muttered, but still he hesitated. Wanting to say something more? Wanting to feel useful? It was hard to tell, but I knew they all partially blamed themselves for the Hunt. For letting it happen even though they didn’t have a choice. Or, at least, that’s what I was trying to believe.
“Maybe, if you don’t mind, I’ll take another piece of Rook’s cake?” I said with a shrug, and his eyes lit up.
“Yeah,” he said in a relieved sigh. “I can do that. Be right back. I’ll make you some tea. I have this Rooibos blend that’ll be really good with the cake. Might help you sleep, too.”
He was gone before I could say anything. Like, what the actual fuck is Rooibos? I didn’t peg him as an herbal tea kind of guy, and the new information made a small laugh escape my lips as I shook my head. I could use the sleep aid, though. It was already half past ten and I wasn’t even remotely tired yet. Probably something to do with my three-hour morning power nap in Rook’s bed. With Rook.
I hadn’t planned to fall asleep there. I’d just wanted to sit with him a little longer after the blinding sun got to be too bright for our overtired eyes. Next thing I knew, I was drooling on his pillow, not for the first time.
I slumped in my chair, but sat bolt upright again as my phone buzzed violently with a new message. Becca’s name flashed over the screen.
About fucking time.
Lifting my cell, I saw that it wasn’t a message at all, but a video. I unlocked it and hit play and felt my whole fucking world crumble around me.
Becca screamed through the silvery tape covering her mouth, her black eye makeup running four inches down her face. Cords of metal chains hung in heavy circles around her slender neck, the skin beneath red from her struggling.
The clip was only four seconds long, and played again when it ended, starting a loop of horror.
I jumped to my feet, rushing to the bathroom to scream for the guys when another message came in, this time, a text. Making my racing pulse stop dead in my chest.
Becca: She’s at the warehouse in no man’s land. Come alone. Your trial begins now. You have thirty minutes. D.
What?
I replayed the horrific video of Becca, my hands shaking, stomach in knots.
There was a red glow over her right shoulder. I paused the video. It was blurry, but clear what it was. A timer. The red numbers 29:32 telling me the countdown had already started.
The chains around her neck…
He wouldn’t.
But the guys’ words echoed clearly in my mind, and I had to clutch the edge of the desk to keep myself from passing out at the wave of adrenaline going straight to my head.
Anyoneor anything is fair game.
Come alone.
I couldn’t even remember getting my blades strapped on, or putting on my shoes, but suddenly the keys to the Rover were in my hand and I was sneaking out the garage door, rolling beneath the seven-inch gap to keep from making too much noise. At least until it was too late for them to stop me.
“AJ,” I heard Grey call out from upstairs in the loft just as I got to my feet.
Fuck.
The Rover chirped when I unlocked the door and got inside, and I saw Grey’s face in the octagonal window as I started the ignition. His mouth opened wide as he shouted something I couldn’t hear. Something not meant for my ears.
But I was already gone, peeling out of the gravel drive and bumping down the road, the Nest flickering to nothingness in the red glow of my tail lights in the rearview mirror.
Becca.
