Victoria pulls into the garage, and as she turns the car’s engine off, Dominic opens his door and slips out. I slide out quickly after him, watching him suspiciously. We took a risk by letting Victoria drive us here, and we’re taking another risk by stepping into an unknown house with a man who was our enemy up until last night.
Victoria, at least, didn’t betray us by trying to alter the route or deliberately crashing the car or anything, but that still doesn’t mean I trust Dom not to try anything.
The men must all have the same thought I do, because all three of them have their weapons in hand as Dominic leads us toward the door to his house. He punches in a key code on the pad next to the door, shielding it with his body, then opens the door and steps inside.
Theo and Marcus go after him, with Victoria behind them and me and Ryland bringing up the rear. Ryland rests a hand on my lower back as we step inside, and I can feel the tension in him through that connection.
The house is old-looking, the furniture and moldings looking like they’re from the seventies or something, but I don’t really care. There’s no tangy scent of blood here, no dead bodies on the floor, so I’d consider it a vast improvement from our previous location.
“Make yourselves at home,” Dominic says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Bathroom’s down the hall. There’s only one bedroom, so…” He cuts a glance at me, and I can’t quite read his expression. “Guess the biggest group should get it.”
Victoria huffs an annoyed sounding breath, but I ignore it, trying to pretend that wasn’t a decent thing for Dominic to do. It’s hardly enough to make up for the fact that he kidnapped me and held me at gunpoint.
But he also helped us in the fight back at the other house.
I don’t know quite how he survived after Adrian’s man broke into the room, but he must’ve been ready and waiting for the guy. And instead of trying to run or joining our attackers, he chose our side. Again.
Fucking hell, Ayla. Stop trying to redefine his personality now that you know who he is. You can’t make him something he’s not.
I grimace, annoyed at myself, but Marcus just nods.
“Fine,” he says coolly. He strides into the living room and sets his laptop on a small table next to an over-sized chair. The rest of us follow him, and his gaze flicks up to Victoria. “How well do you know this hacker? You trust him?”
“Yes.” She nods, pulling her auburn hair out of the ponytail before smoothing it down and retying it. “And he’s no friend of Luca’s either. He’ll do what we need and won’t ask questions.”
“Will he pick up at this hour?”
She shrugs an elegant shoulder. “For me? Yes.”
Marcus rolls his eyes, jerking his chin to gesture her over as he flips his laptop open. As they discuss plans to send her hacker all the files Zee couldn’t crack, Ryland rests a hand on my shoulder.
I blink, and it takes serious force of will to get my eyes to open again. I’m dead on my feet, the lack of sleep and the exhaustion of an adrenaline crash making me feel groggy and fuzzy.
“You need to get some rest, Ayla,” Ryland murmurs. “Some real sleep. We won’t be able to do anything until Victoria’s guy comes back to us with whatever he’s able to decrypt. And then we’ll have to go through all of it. So you should sleep while you can.”
“What about you guys?” I lean back against him, my body melting into his.
He chuckles, the sound vibrating against the bare skin of my back. “We’ll get sleep too. But you first.”
“We’ve got this, Rose,” Theo adds. Then he punches Ryland lightly on the shoulder. “You go with her. Marcus and I will get settled in here.”
Ryland looks like he wants to object, but I like the idea of at least one of the guys getting a break if they’re going to tell me to take one. We’ve all been through the same shit, and I know we’re all feeling the effects of it.
Taking Ryland’s hand, I shoot a questioning glance at Dominic.
He waves. “Down the hall. Second door on the right. There’s a bathroom across the hall.”
His body sways a little as he speaks, and my jaw clenches. Dom looks worse off than any of us. He barely got medical attention back at the other house, and he’s got to have a minor concussion and probably some whiplash too.
I hope he’s all right.
The thought rises up before I can stop it, and I don’t try to force it down this time. I just give him a nod of thanks and lead Ryland down the hall toward the bedroom.
Chapter 18
A little hand, smaller than mine, grips my own.
“I don’t want to go, LaLa! Don’t make me go!”
My heart twists. I’m not making him go. Can’t he see that?
Shadowy figures crawl through the space around us, their large forms towering and imposing. They terrify me. Each one holds power over me just being a grown-up. By being so big when I’m so small.
I want to take Caleb and run from them, but there’s nowhere to go.
Why won’t one of them help me? Help him?
He grabs my other hand too, his blue eyes shining with tears as his lower lip quivers. “I don’t want to go. Please!”
I swallow, opening my mouth to speak, but my throat is clogged. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to make this right. The low hum of voices surrounds us, and I try to pick out the individual words, to figure out what a grown-up would say at a time like this, but I can’t.
So I just wrap my arms around Caleb and hold on to him, humming the tune I made up for when he gets scared of the dark.
It doesn’t help this time though.
He cries harder as he clings to me, his body shaking with it.
I hold him tighter, squeezing so tight that I feel him shrink in my embrace. He gets smaller and smaller until I’m not holding Caleb at all. I’m just clutching a beat-up stuffed elephant with one eye. It stares accusatorially at me as I look up, searching between the tall shadows for some hint of my brother.
“Caleb!” I scream. “Caleb!”
But he doesn’t answer.
He’s gone.
And when I look down, the elephant has vanished too.
“Caleb!”
I jerk upright, the cry tearing from my throat. Ryland startles awake beside me, sitting up and wrapping his arms around me as I gasp for breath.
I clutch his forearm where it rests against my chest, clinging to him like a lifeline as I claw my way out of visions that I hope like fuck aren’t memories.
Caleb.
Did he really cry in my arms? Did he beg me not to make him go?
Fuck.
“You all right? What is it?”
Ryland’s voice is rough from sleep, warm in my ear as he rests his chin on my shoulder. I don’t answer right away, just keep my tight grip on him as my heartbeat slowly returns to normal.
Gradually, I lean back, and he releases me to let me lie back down. Once we’re both lying down again, he rolls onto his side and pulls me close, sliding his fingers through my tangled hair as our heads rest on the same pillow.
I barely remember falling asleep, and I have no idea how long we were out. I feel marginally better than I did when we arrived at the house, but most of the benefit of the rest has been erased by the harsh awakening.