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The kind of darkness where I kept her safe.
“Princess?” I murmured and stepped toward her.
“It’s me,” she whimpered.
Tobias snapped his head toward her, then so did Nick. Everyone else faded from our thoughts. It didn’t matter about them anymore. Not her dad or the man who was trying to keep us alive. There was only us, onlyher.
“What are you saying?” T snarled.
She just shook her head. “You know. You all know. It’s me they’re tracking. Me they…branded. They put something inside me.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m the one putting you all in danger.”
The way she spoke sent chills along my spine. Shots cracked out, sounding closer now—sounding like they’d broken through the door. I held out my hand. “We have to kept moving, baby. You need to trust us on this. You have tomove.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Ben snapped.
I flinched with anger and wrenched my gaze to his. “Then wegoddamnmake time.”
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
I shoved the panic aside, listening to the shots ring out in the warehouse behind us and stepped closer again. “We stay together, right?” I licked my lips, trying desperately to bring her back from that place. I couldn’t do it with sex, not this time. So I had to try any other way I could. “You know what we went through. We’re not doing that again.”
“No,” she whispered, those eyes shifting back into focus. “We’re not.”
“So we stay together,” Tobias added.
“Just as we promised,” Nick finished.
One more step. I held my hand out to her as the echo of boots thundered in the warehouse. “With us, princess.”
She took my hand and it was all I could do not to sag with relief. I pulled her with me as we raced back to a gate that led out to some kind of alley.
Ben never said anything, neither did her father. He just looked at her with a sad fucking stare. He pitied her. She sure ashelldidn’t need that.
The hinges of the gate howled as shots rang out, blasting the door behind us. I blocked out the screams of the gunmen, gripped Ryth’s hand instead, and pulled her with me through the exit until we were out the other side.
Cold night air hit me like a slap. I exhaled hard as the door behind us flew open. But T was there, taking aim and firing.Crack! Crack! Crack!
I jerked at the sounds, wrenched her hard against me, and shoved her forward. “Run!” Nick was there, grabbing her hand, pulling her away as Tobias unleashed a savage roar. “FUCK YOU!”
Our movements were a blur of terror. Flashes ignited as we raced along that small alley and out into an empty street.
“Where?”Nick barked at Ben as he spun around, lifted his gun, and took aim.
“Wait!” The deep snarl came from the darkness.“It’s me!”
“Neon?” Ben gasped, then exhaled with relief. “Fuck, I’m glad to see you.”
Three of Rossi’s men ran toward us, coming from an alley next to a building across the street. The one he called Neon scanned us, sucking in hard breaths. All three looked like they’d been sprinting for their damn lives. But as he stepped closer and slapped Ben’s hand with his, I knew it wasn’t his life he was trying to save—it was his boss’.
“There’s more coming,” Neon gasped as a shot rang out with acrackbehind him.
The guy next to him opened fire, leaving us to focus on the swarm of men dressed in black that rounded the corner at the end of the empty street.
There was no one out here to help us, no cops to serve and protect. There was just us…and a block of empty buildings to be cornered in. They’d never find the bodies—crack…crack…crack crack crack—maybe that was their plan all along?
