"We need to keep my dad off the scent," Fox said roughly. "Then we need to wait for cover of darkness, meet at the crypt, take everything and run. I've got a few ideas about where we can go. We can take my truck and Rick's bike and-"
"Wait," Chase said. "You can't seriously expect the five of us to just up and disappear? We might as well just admit to being guilty publicly. We were all set to join the Harlequins soon anyway so why don't we just come clean, sign up and prove our loyalty by-"
"I don't wanna join the fucking gang," Fox snarled. "That's the life that was picked for me, not the one I chose for myself. All I want is Rogue. And all of us together. That's it."
My heart fluttered at that declaration and I felt a blush rising in my cheeks as I locked eyes with Fox and felt exactly how much he’d meant that.
"You know Luther won't just accept us saying sorry and joining up," Rick added darkly, stepping up in front of me too and twisting his fingers between mine. "He'll make someone pay for this. And I'm not risking Rogue's safety on the unlikely hope that he might grow a fucking conscience."
"So, we're running?" I breathed, feeling like the whole world was crashing down around me. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe this was just what we needed, for the five of us to escape Sunset Cove and the Harlequin Crew and just be free to carve our own path somewhere far, far, away.
"Yeah," Fox said, leaning down to press a hot kiss to my cheek which made my skin tingle with pleasure. "Be at the crypt at nine tonight."
"We'll see you there, beautiful," Rick promised, kissing my other cheek and sending the electricity Fox had already started beneath my flesh haywire.
The two of them nodded to the other guys and turned to stride out of the room. I watched them go with my heart in my mouth.
The next time I saw them we'd be leaving the only place I'd ever known. Turning our backs on this life and starting a new one. We just had to survive until then.
***
Nine pm came and went as I stood in the darkness beneath the trees where we were due to meet Fox and Rick, shivering a little as a cool breeze raced around us and lifted a lock of my brunette hair to dance across my face.
Chase and JJ kept exchanging nervous glances and I shifted uncomfortably.
I'd spent a big chunk of the day alone, my stomach growling and my mouth parched as I hid in the abandoned arcade on the pier and waited for the two of them to sneak home and retrieve their keys.
Chase had been gone for so long that I'd really begun to worry about him, but when he showed up with a black eye and refused to talk about it, I knew what had happened to hold him up.
I stayed close to him now, not forcing him to talk about his dad or any of that shit but just showing him that I was here for him no matter what. Maybe we all should have run a long time ago for his sake. Or for all of our sakes. I didn't know and I guessed it was irrelevant now. After tonight, everything was going to change.
"Where are they?" JJ growled, lighting up his phone in the dark for the hundredth time and showing me and Chase the display.
It was a quarter to ten and not only were they stupidly late, but neither of them were answering their phones.
My gut tightened with anxiety and I tried calling Maverick again all the same, cringing as it went to voicemail.
"Something must have happened to them," Chase growled.
"They'll be here," I said firmly, refusing to believe anything else. "They promised. They'll be here."
Chase and JJ exchanged a look but didn't say anything else and the three of us continued to wait in the dark.
"W hat the fuck is this?" Dad bellowed in my face, my backpack upended at his feet with everything I'd packed to run with. Clothes, food, cash and my key to open the crypt at Rosewood Manor.
Maverick stood beside me, shoulder to shoulder, his own bag clutched in his arms as our father stood in front of us in the hall, barring our way to the exit. My heart was pounding out a wild beat as I tried to figure out what to do. How to get out of this. He wasn't even meant to be home. When the fuck did he get home??
"Answer me!" Luther roared and I swear the walls shook as my mouth dried out like a desert.
Lying wouldn't save me now. My dad knew the truth, I could see it in his eyes. He just wanted me to say it. Wanted me to own up and offer him the final piece of betrayal I was delivering to him.
Maverick gazed at him with this hopeless fury that dug right into my heart. He looked to me, shaking his head ever so slightly, imploring me not to tell. But he already knew. Couldn't he see that? Dad already fucking knew.
"I love her," I told my dad the deepest truth I had to offer and Maverick frowned. "And I won't let you hurt her."
Dad's eyes narrowed and he released a heavy breath, rubbing his eyes.
"I'll kill you if you do anything to her," Rick gritted out to the most notorious killer in Sunset Cove.
To the guy who'd raised him, raised me. And I found I agreed with him on it too. My dad might have been family, but he was also an asshole who wanted a life for me I'd never chosen. And if it came down to it, I'd pick Rogue over him every time.
Dad's eyebrows arched then he laughed darkly as he stared at us. His eyes snapped onto Maverick and his laughter cut off. "You're my boy," he growled at him. "You aim that anger at our enemies, son. Not me." His gaze flashed onto me, softening a little. "You love this girl, then fine. But I'm not letting my prodigy run off for anybody. Especially not some bitch who kills my men."
"That asshole tried to rape her!" Maverick shouted and Dad rubbed a hand over his jaw, looking to me for confirmation.
"He hurt her, Dad," I snarled fiercely.
He shook his head at us. "So you two ran in like the big, brave heroes you are, no doubt with your lap dogs Chase and Johnny James at your heels too, right?"
We said nothing, but our silence basically confirmed it.
"And the little princess got you to dispose of the body," he guessed then pointed a finger in my face as he sneered. "Women will fuck you over the first chance they get. They use and manipulate then discard you like yesterday's fucking trash."
"She's not Mom!" I roared, my temper overflowing. "And I won't stand here listening to you talk about her like that."
I stepped forward, aiming to push past him but he shoved me back and my heart juddered with fear as his hand fisted in my shirt at the base of my throat. He'd never hit me, but I knew what this man could do to people. Everyone in town whispered about the things he did to his enemies. He ruled with an iron fist, a fist he could turn against me whenever he liked.
"No," he growled in warning. "You're staying right here."
"If you try to hurt her, I'll go to the cops," I blurted, my blood pounding furiously through my veins. "I'll tell them I did it. I'll tell them I hit him with a poker, that I cleaned his house with bleach. That I took my dad's boat and-" He shoved me back against the wall, getting in my face as his lips pulled back in a snarl.
"You'll do no such fucking thing," he hissed. "My son is not throwing his life away for some worthless girl."