I wipe my tears on the back of my arms. I’m so close. I can’t fail now.
Forcing myself to my feet, I cringe with the pain and start searching around the empty gas station. Cars are starting to pass on the road, getting ready for their busy days, blissfully unaware of the evil that surrounds them.
I find a quarter and after a minute, I find another. I could keep searching but I don’t have the patience. It’s just going to have to be a quick call.
I start crossing the road and get honked at by the busy drivers who have to slow as I pass in front, though I’m sure if they knew that I spent my night becoming a murderer on the run, they’d rethink their choices.
The cars finally pass and when I reach the payphone, I quickly start loading it up with my quarters. I hash in the one number I have memorized and as the phone starts ringing, I sink down to the ground with the phone glued to my ear, crying for the promise of freedom.
“Hello,” comes a groggy voice, clearly my call waking him.
“Blake,” I say, my voice sounding alien to my ears. “I need your help.”
Chapter 16
Slade
I sit up in bed staring at the wall just as I’ve been doing all fucking night. It’s just after eight in the morning and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what last night meant for Skylah.
She’s fucking married to a rich prick who would have tried taking advantage of her the second he could. He’s been waiting four years to take her and I can guarantee that he wouldn’t have waited a second longer.
The moment Skylah walked through the doors of his big ass home, she would have been raped while I was sitting here in my fucking bed not able to do a goddamn thing about it.
It makes me sick. How could these people be so fucking wrong? She’s a beautiful woman who deserves to be treated like a fucking queen. Why can’t they see that? All they see her for is a sexy as sin body with a pair of tits that needs to be dominated. They don’t see her kind heart, the compassion in her soul, or the way she desperately needs to be treasured.
Yesterday was a fucking joke. I don’t know what I was thinking barging into that wedding with Shay and Damian but it was my last chance at getting her back. We’ve tried everything over the last twelve days to the point that I nearly got my best friend killed.
I’m fucking surprised the security guards let us go yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, Shay had to watch as Damian and I were ‘punished’ for destroying the ceremony, but after a thorough ass-kicking, they tossed us out as they had a wedding reception to attend.
Shay drove us back while Damian and I groaned from the backseat of my truck. We got home just after 9 pm and rather than making his way to his own place, Damian instantly crashed on the couch. I sat up with mom holding a packet of frozen peas to my face while she tried telling me that it was all going to be alright.
I don’t see how it is though. Skylah is married to that fucking dick. He’s never going to let her out of his sight. If I thought trying to free her from Lucien’s mansion was hard, then this is simply impossible. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fucker had her chained to the bed.
My phone rings on my bedside table and I stare down at it. The only name I want to see appearing on the screen is Skylah’s but that’s never going to happen. She doesn’t even have a fucking phone anymore.
Blake’s name flashes up at me and I let out a heavy sigh. I was supposed to call him last night to let him know how it went but I didn’t have the strength to tell him that I failed…again. I don’t want to talk to him right now, but this is his sister. He deserves to know that she’s now married and slipping farther and farther away.
I hit the answer and press the phone to my ear. “Hey, man,” I sigh. “I’m sorry-”
“You’vegottogoback,” he rushes out. “She got out. She fucking got out.”
I sit up out of bed before throwing myself to my feet. “WHAT?” I demand, hoping I heard him correctly as I reach for my keys. “What do you mean she got out? Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She said she’s at a gas station about ten miles out of town, hiding by a fucking pay phone. She ran all fucking night, man. I don’t know what’s going on or what happened, but she didn’t sound right. You have to go and get her.”
Fuck.
I grab my shoes and throw them under my arm, not having a second to sit down and put them on. I race from my room and start heading for the door. “I’m on my way.”
“She has a plan,” he tells me. “I don’t know what it is but she said to bring back up.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What is she going to do?”
“I don’t fucking know, but she said she wants to end this. She’s not coming back home until it’s done.”
“Fuck. Alright. I’ll call you when I’ve got her,” I tell him, ending the call and jamming it deep into the pocket of my sweatpants.
What my fucking girl wants she gets.
Finding Damian sprawled out of the couch, I grab his shoes and hoodie and throw them down on his back. “Get the fuck up, man. We’ve got her.”
Damian shoots off the couch as though he wasn’t just in a deep sleep. His eyes are wild and desperate as he looks back at me. “The fuck? We got her?”
I nod and start heading for the door with Damian on my heels, shoving his things into his pockets and racing behind me. We get out to my truck and just before Damian goes to open the passenger side door, I stop him. “She’s not coming home until she ends this. I don’t know what she has planned but this is Skylah we’re talking about, you know this could get fucked up.”
“You said the words yourself, man. This is Skylah we’re talking about. I’m in and don’t fucking try to talk me out of this again.”
With that, he tears open the door and climbs up into my truck. I rush around to the driver’s side and in seconds, my truck is rumbling to life and I hit the gas, more than ready to go and get my girl.
We get three seconds into our trip when I slam on the brakes outside Skylah’s home. “What the fuck are you doing?” Damian roars as I throw open the door and scramble out.
“Wait here.”
I rush to the front door and reach up to the top of the door frame for the spare key. Shaylee stopped keeping it here when the Lucien threat became all too real but put it straight back when Skylah went missing, wanting her to have access to her home at all costs.
I throw the door open and find Shaylee gawking at me from the kitchen. “What’s happened?” she demands as I race through the house to Skylah’s bedroom.
I don’t waste time stopping to explain and begin rifling through Skylah’s things. “What happened?” Shaylee demands, now at the bedroom door.
“She’s coming home,” I tell her, searching high and low.
“I’ll get my things.
“No,” I rush out as my hand curls around the little piece of paper that I’ve been desperately searching for. “We’re ending this and Skylah would never forgive me for bringing you along. This shit is about to get fucked-up.”
Understanding dawns in her eyes as she steps back out of my way. “Bring my girl home.”