“One can only hope,” I snarl.
The man continues to chuckle. “Maybe I will.” He steps closer, his eyes raking a trail over my billowing T-shirt. “Maybe I’ll teach you to keep that smart mouth closed.”
“Please do.” Luca steps closer to me. “Everyone keeps making it clear that I can’t put hands on her, but they never said anything about scrawny assholes who don’t know their place.”
Again, he says it so smoothly. With calm and poise and a shocking amount of level-headed arrogance. And again, I shudder, this time in pleasure.
The man doesn’t quit his laughter as he beams a bright smile. “I’m only playing.” He backtracks, moving from the sidewalk to the desolate street. “I will leave you to enjoy your night.”
He continues to a nearby car, his taunting gaze still on mine as he climbs inside and drives away.
All the while, my protectors remain quiet around me, the silence growing thick.
Sebastian scrubs a hand over his face, probably trying to wipe away the shame I’ve placed upon our family. Hunter is tense, his clenched fist clutching the duffel at his side. Then there’s Luca, the man whose fierce attention burns the side of my face. He’s staring at me. Judging me. He’s seeing all the things I’ve done in an effort to keep air in my lungs. He’s picturing the depravity. The sickening reality.
“He’ll be dead by the end of the week,” he murmurs. “I swear it on my life.”
His vow catches me off guard. I thought I’d receive a reprimand for my spite. Or a warning not to draw additional attention. Instead, he gifts me with the promise of murder.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Hunter dumps his duffel on the sidewalk, opens the zipper and pulls out the communication devices stashed inside, passing one to Luca and another to Sebastian. “Put them on in the car. We’ve got too many eyes on us here.”
He refastens the bag and stands, handing over the heavy weight to my brother. “We’ll give you a ten-minute head start. Let us know if you need more time.”
Sebastian nods, then turns to me, a duffel weighed at each of his thighs, his gaze solemn. I don’t want to read into his silence. I can already hear his thoughts.
He wants to say goodbye. Maybe even good luck.
I glance away, my nose tingling at the thought of the danger he’s about to place himself in. The danger I’m placing him in because I refuse to leave this nightmare without my sisters.
“Look after her.” He lugs the duffels to the closest car to place them on the passenger seat. “I’m holding you both responsible.” He slams the door shut, then rounds the hood, not saying another word before he slumps into the vehicle and takes off.
I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to watch him drive away.
Ten minutes is going to be the only thing separating us. Six hundred measly seconds, while each heartbeat creates a cavern of space between us. Despite who he’s become, I couldn’t live with the thought of being the cause of his death.
My eyes burn behind the closed lids. I have enough guilt to contend with. I can’t withstand anymore.
“He’s going to be okay,” Luca whispers. “This will all be over soon.”
I hope so. I don’t know how much more of this adrenaline high I can take. The arrhythmia won’t stop. The tremble in my hands is incessant. And the pessimistic thoughts continue to multiply.
“Picture the end result.” His gravel-rich voice brushes my ear. “Focus on what it’s going to be like once we’re out of here. If not, your thoughts can become your biggest enemy.”
I comply, squeezing my eyes tighter until I see the smiling faces of my sisters as I help lead them to safety. I can’t wait to tell them they’re free. Or to fully drown in the sensation myself.
I’ll apologize to Chloe and make sure she knows I’m sorry for remaining silent while Luther made her a guinea pig to the sedative trial. And I’ll beg her forgiveness for whatever the guards took liberties to do to her limp body after Tobias and I were escorted from the mansion.
I keep picturing those moments as footsteps sound a few feet away, followed by a car door opening and closing.
“Come on.” Rough fingers provide a feather of friction against my arm, the touch lasting the slightest second before withdrawing. “We need to get moving.”
I blink him into focus, his comforting concern bearing down on me. There’s something in those hazel eyes that undo me. They unravel my focus. Create havoc. I’m sure he knows, too, because he’s the first to look away and start toward the remaining car.
“You’re in the back,” he offers over his shoulder as he makes his way to the driver’s side and climbs in behind the wheel.
Hunter already rides shotgun.
I’m left on my own. Out in the open. With no cage or threatening figure by my side. It’s a strange sensation. Welcoming and suffocating at the same time. I can breathe freely, the air seeming to carry twice as much oxygen.
Hunter lowers his window, his narrowed focus silently telling me to hurry up.
I’m not ready. Not yet. Just one more moment. One more breath before commonsense has to take over and I need to pretend I’m still a prisoner.
“I’m not an athlete,” he mutters, “so run if you like. I’m not going to chase you. But if you want to help your friends I’m fucking ready to bust some skulls.”
“I’m not running.” I stalk to the car and slide in behind him. “I want those busted skulls more than you do.”
“Then let’s do this.” Luca starts the ignition and drives lazily through the narrow streets, taking wrong turns and doubling back more than once on his way to Luther’s house.
I lean forward as my panic ratchets up a notch. “Do you know where you’re going?”
“It’s all in the plan.” He takes another wrong turn. “We’re still buying Decker time to get set up, and I want to make sure we don’t have a tail.”
“Oh.” I settle back into my seat, slightly appeased.
The confidence in Luther’s men had always been something I despised. And somehow, the trait on a good guy has the opposite effect.
No, not a good guy. Just a different type of bad. I can’t forget that.
“I’m headed in the right direction now, though, right?” He flicks me a glance in the rear-view. “Straight down this road, then take the next two lefts?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
The closer we get, the more my pulse builds. My nausea increases at the thought of my sisters already being dead. Slaughtered. I’ve seen too much death already. Vacant eyes and lifeless bodies. Sisters who came and went from this world, the scars of their suffering the only thing left behind.
“You okay?” Luca asks. “What’s wrong?”
My throat tightens, the bile climbing from my stomach. I can’t escape the darkest depths of my memories. I’m battered with snapshots. Pummeled with remembered sounds. I know what those guards are capable of and if they’ve found out Luther was murdered—
“Penny?” Luca reaches into the back seat to jostle my leg. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I fight the panic and swallow down the sickening taste building at the back of my throat. “I’m fine.”