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“Caleb.” I stumbled as the guard yanked me toward the door. “No, it’s okay. Look, I'm okay.”
But rage glinted in his eyes.
“Say another fucking word, Banks,” The Priest warned. “And I’ll make good on my promise.”
They walked us out of the interrogation room and into the hall, past the room they'd kept us in, and through the automatic doors.
Ghosts stared at us as we passed. Ghosts of the women confined in this place.
“Please.” One of them pressed her hand to the glass.
But we were gone before I could even answer. The guard’s long steps forced me to take twice as many to match.
“Keep walking.” He shoved me forward.
Behind us, Caleb unleashed a snarl. I looked over my shoulder, seeing him and the three men who'd kept us in this place following.
We were close now, so close.
Please.I prayed Caleb saw my plea as I was jerked toward the scanner for another set of automatic doors. Abeepcame before we pushed through. My bare feet were a blur as I hurried. They moved on their own now, quickening as I lifted my gaze to the massive front door and those two terrifying words carved into the black steel,The Order.
We slowed, leaving The Principal to step close to the door and press his card against the scanner to open it. With a jerk of his head, he glared at me and commanded. “Out.”
I would’ve walked barefoot across broken glass if it meant freedom for the both of us. It was my turn to all but drag the guard out as I hurried through that oppressive door.
Cold night air rushed around me as I stepped out, my bare feet stinging with the cold stone of the pavement. But I didn’t careat all.
Silence waited. Caleb stepped out, but they didn’t let him touch me, holding me too far away for the connection. I stared down that long, empty driveway to the towering, guarded gates.
My teeth chattered and my knees shook, the sound grating in the night. At least I had a sweatshirt and long fleece pants. Caleb stood there in the same white cotton shirt and black pants they'd taken us in. He had to be freezing, but he never said a word, just fixed that careful stare on me.Easy, princess,it whispered.
I gave a nod and turned my attention to that darkened road as we waited, and waited, and waited. Slowly, a seed of doubt sprouted.
Maybe he just wasn’t coming.
Maybe…maybe—
He isn’t now…or ever was, your father, Ryth.I glanced at The Principal as his words resounded in my mind.We’re not abducting you. We’re reclaiming what was already ours.
But I didn’t believe them. All they did was manipulate and tell lies. He was my father…dad was my father.He had to be.
In the distance, far back along the road, the tiny glint of headlights shone in the dark.
“Easy…” Caleb whispered, his gaze riveted on the same glimmer of lights.
As the spark grew bolder, I held my breath, watching the headlights come toward the compound. There was a second set of headlights, ones that stayed back from the first, maybe it was backup? Some kind of bodyguard from the Rossis…
The Rossis. My panicked thoughts caught on them as a squeal of metal on metal reached my ears and the gates to The Order slowly opened. The first car nosed in, leaving the second to slow, until it followed behind. But I didn’t watch that car. It was the first one…with the driver shrouded in darkness I cared about.
“Well, well, well,” The Principal muttered beside me. “So he does have balls after all.”
I clenched my jaw at the words.Fuck you!I wanted to scream in his face.Fuck you all.
He’d get us out, then we’d leave. The faint burn on my cheek lingered. It would bruise too, in the shape of Mother's hand. Pain flared in my chest, but I shoved it down. It didn’t matter now that dad was here.
He’d fix it for me.
The first car drove closer to the building, but the second car stopped further back, the engine still running, the headlights on. How could a bodyguard protect him there? I tried not to look ahead. I tried to trust that dad and the Rossis knew what they were doing, and as the engine died and the driver’s door of the first car opened, I knew without a doubt, those bastards had lied.
