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Pain slices down my body as I try to push myself up. The ground is hard and uncomfortable beneath me and the brick scrapes my palms as I lift.
“Rowan, you have to hurry.”
I blink my eyes, nostrils flaring as I heave. Atlas? The memories slam into me almost immediately. The gala. We found the papers. And then they got her. They got my girl and Ed—
Rage tears through me, more painful than any of the wounds I’m currently sporting on my body. They have Atlas. They have her and I can only pray she’s okay because I can’t accept any other outcome. I’ll burn everything to the ground for her, raze the world to its fucking knees to keep her safe.
Agony like I’ve never known cleaves through me.
“Rowan, hurry!”
I let the familiar voice guide me to a stand and when I do, the fog finally clears from my head and my vision brightens as I take in the woman who spoke.
Mom?
I must’ve been hit harder than I thought because there’s absolutely no way my mother is standing in front of me, gun in her hand, dress covered in blood. This can’t be real. Am I still unconscious? If so, I will myself to wake up from this nightmare.
“Rowan, you have to go! Now!” My mom waves the gun frantically, her gaze darting in several directions. It’s then I notice the flashing lights. The sounds of police fast approaching.
“What—”
Tears slide down my mom’s cheeks and for once, there’s sincerity there. “I couldn’t let him kill you.”
I blink again at the dead bodies littered on the grass, but none of them belong to Ed. Fuck.
“He’s left,” she explains. “But you need to go too. Hurry.”
My brain has finally caught up to everything and I don’t have time to waste. Ed has Atlas, and he means to kill her. I can’t let that happen. Not when it’s my fault she got taken in the first place. I never should’ve walked through that public space with her at my side. I never should have taunted Ed the way I did.
In my confidence, in my surety that he’s a useless sack, I underestimated him.
And it might just cost me the person I love most in this world.
Before I leave, though, I have to know.
“Why?” I croak out.
My mom sniffles, wiping her nose with the back of the hand not holding the gun. “You’re my son,” she whispered. “I couldn’t protect you before when I should have. I was so lost after he died, Rowan.” Her voice catches and I hate that I can feel her sadness in my chest. “I’m going to protect you now. No matter what.”
I wish I had words to say right then. So many mixed emotions flow through me, none of which I actually have the time to take out and examine. Not when there are more important things at stake.
“Go, Rowan,” she urges once again.
This time, I don’t wait. I turn and I run. Even as my ribs scream and my legs ache, I run and ignore that pain. Because that? It’s nothing compared to what Atlas is probably going through right now.
I keep that in mind and compartmentalize everything, keeping my singular focus on her and only her.
And how I plan on getting her back.
It takes me far longer than I have to make it to my place. I only take a few minutes to wrap gauze around my battered ribcage before I’m slipping into my secret room and shoving all manner of weapons into a rucksack. I grab everything, a vicious fury and vengeance burning through my veins that I can’t wait to unleash to the world.
My fingers graze against a bomb and I pause before I grab it and stuff it in there as well.
Once I’m stocked up, I whip out my phone.
I underestimated Ed, but his mistake has been to underestimate me. He thinks he’s untouchable. Safe in his corruption. He thinks I’m nothing more than a stupid kid, the same kid he beat nearly to death time and time again, but that’s where he’s mistaken.
I’m so much more than that.
