“Please,” I mutter, turning to look at the man behind the wheel. I know I look wild. Insane. Possessed by something. But I don’t give a damn about what I look like. All I care about is that we need to move. Now. “I need help.”
The driver, a young guy who doesn’t look much older than Gray, looks at me with wide eyes. I can feel him taking in the bruises, the blood, the sweat. The dirt. The scratches. God knows what else he can see that I don’t feel.
“I need… help,” I repeat, stuttering out the words with each breath.
“I can see that,” he says slowly. “Are you okay?”
He looks back out to the forest where I came from as if wondering what monster is hidden in there. I’m not sure what he makes of me, but I can’t just tell him the truth.
Yes, my best friend was kidnapped, so I tried to rescue her. But then I got kidnapped myself by a crazy psycho who’s in love with a man old enough to be her father. As it turns out, I ended up in this bunker I spent most of my childhood in, controlled by a man who owns most of this town.
“Just drive,” is all I say.
Whatever he sees in my face, it’s enough to keep him from asking more questions. He just nods, looking thoroughly freaked out, and puts the car into drive. I want to faint with relief when the car pulls away from that damned forest. From the bunker. From Reagan and Alan.
“I need to borrow your phone,” I blurt.
The guy doesn’t take his eyes off the road as he tugs a phone out of his front pocket. The car swerves slightly as he glances at me, and he faces forward again as he hands the cell phone to me.
As soon as it’s in my hands, I punch in the number, praying that I remember it right.
The phone rings once.
Please pick up.
Twice.
Please.
“Where the fuck do you have her?” Gray growls from the other end, his voice forceful and angry.
My heart stops beating for a second. I stop breathing.
Fuck. I didn’t realize until right now just how badly I needed to hear his voice.
“Gray, it’s me.” My voice cracks on the words. “It’s Sophie. I got away, I’m…”
My throat catches. For the first time since Reagan took me, tears burn at the backs of my eyes, threatening to spill over.
“Oh fuck, Sophie.” The hardness melts away from Gray’s voice, replaced by a relief so palpable I can feel it through the phone. Then he practically growls, “Where are you? What happened—”
“I got away,” I tell him, trying to find a little bit of the numbness I’ve relied on for so long inside myself. “I found a way out.”
I’m losing my ability to call it up like I used to, to turn off my emotions. Maybe that’s a good thing, but right now, I really fucking need to keep it together. When I’m not in the car with a stranger, I’ll let myself cry. But not yet. Not until I know I’m safe.
He curses. “What the fuck happened?”
I glance at the guy next to me. He’s keeping his gaze purposefully on the road and not looking at me, pretending he’s not listening. But he sure as shit is. I have no interest in protecting Alan Montgomery, but my own self-preservation instinct tells me not to just blurt out the full story in front of this guy.
“I’ll tell you in person,” I say quickly. “Is Max okay? Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine. All of us.” As he speaks, I can hear voices in the background, rising in intensity and volume. The others must’ve come into the room. “We’re at Declan’s house right now. Where are you? I’ll come get you—”
“It’s okay, I’ve got a ride,” I tell him, glancing over at the guy in the driver’s seat again. He doesn’t raise any objections, thank fuck. “I’ll see you soon.”
Gray gives me Declan’s address, and I repeat it to the guy who picked me up. My hand shakes a little when I go to hang up the phone, my body physically rebelling at the idea of cutting off that connection to Gray. To all of the Sinners.
After I cut the connection, I hand the phone back over. We drive in silence all the way to Declan’s place, and I rest my forehead against the window, willing time to speed up.
When we turn down a long street that ends in an almost equally long driveway, my body goes lax in relief.
“Thanks, this is it,” I say as Declan’s house comes into view.
The guy looks at the mansion, then back at me. For a second, I think he’s going to ask questions, but he’s quiet as he puts the car into park. I unclip my seatbelt, realizing I left a smear of blood and dirt on the side window when I leaned against it. Shit. I hope I didn’t wreck his fucking seat.
“Thank you.” I glance over at him. “For the lift. And sorry about…”
I gesture vaguely to myself and to the seat.
He shrugs and shakes his head. “It’s okay.” I’m reaching for the door when he asks, “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
I try to answer that, but I can’t. He’s concerned, just like a normal person would be, but what can a guy like him do about it? A perfectly normal guy who hikes with the sunrise on his Saturday mornings. He’s probably vegan and owns a cat. He probably has one of those cute downtown L.A. apartments with plants and essential oils and organic foods. He probably works a nine to five, probably doesn’t know anything about rich brats and monsters who manipulate people like me.
He wouldn’t understand.
I nod. I don’t trust myself to say the words I’m fine out loud, knowing they’re total and complete bullshit.
I swing the door open, slamming it shut behind me. He doesn’t linger, turning around and heading off to wherever it is he was planning on going before I threw myself in front of his car.
As I turn toward the house, a deep voice calls my name.
“Sophie!”
Gray runs down the driveway, Declan and Elias right behind him. I don’t even consciously decide to move, my legs stumble into motion, pushing me forward.
I didn’t think I had anything left in me, but as long as I’m running toward them, I’ll run forever.
4
Gray reaches me first, our bodies colliding with almost bruising force. The impact should hurt, but if it does, I can’t feel the pain of it. Instead, it feels like it shocks my heart back into rhythm.
As if I was dying, and he just brought me back to life.
He doesn’t say a word, just clings to me as if he’ll never let go, his fingers digging into my skin as he breathes in the scent of my hair.
Declan and Elias reach us a second later, knocking us backward a step as they wrap their arms around me too. I hear Max let out a soft sob as she joins us. The men must’ve beaten her out of the house, their longer legs carrying them faster than hers did.
For a moment, I’m surrounded completely by the four of them, enveloped by their bodies so all I can see and hear and feel is them. Something clicks into place inside me, solidifying in my heart.
I need them.
My men. My best friend. People I never thought I would have in my life—but ones I can’t imagine living without now.
I didn’t realize how much I need them until I thought I fucking lost them. I didn’t realize how much I need them until I was running from Alan, the bunker, running from my past. I didn’t realize how much I need them until it was almost too late.