All this time here makes me twitchy. I feel exposed and out of control—and I don’t fucking like it.
“Rush?”
The sound of Alaina’s drowsy voice snaps me out of my paranoia spiral. I turn to take her in. There wasn’t anything I could do about her hair, but I ran a washcloth over her face. I got most of the blood and dirty smudges. I didn’t want to press too hard—she was so covered in blood and scratches and dirt that it was hard to tell what was hers and what was his.
I want to resurrect him just so I can bring him down to the basement of the carriage house and kill him myself. Though judging by the way my brother hasn’t gone more than two feet away from her, I’d have to fight my brother for the opportunity.
Like I said, though, I don’t mind sharing.
Chapter Ten
Alaina
I wake slowly with a groan. My head is on something hard and scratchy, and my throat is on fire. I cough on instinct, and the hard surface moves, jostling my head. Another groan escapes me, and this one feels like it’s reverberating in my head. I reach a hand up to the spot that’s aching when warm fingers stop my progress.
“Open your eyes, baby girl.”
I know that voice. I think I’d know that voice anywhere. My eyes feel like they’re glued shut, and it takes me more than a couple of tries to open them. When I finally do, everything is fuzzy around the edges.
“Aye, there she is,” Wolf murmurs as he runs his hand over my hair, smoothing it off my face. “Here, have a sip.”
I turn my head to the side and see a straw poking out of a water bottle next to my face. I wrap my lips around the straw and practically inhale the entire bottle.
“It’s the meds. It makes everyone thirsty.”
I clear my throat and ask, “Where am I?”
Wolf’s eyes are warm when he looks at me. “You’re safe now—I promise. Here, take these.” He hands me two white pills. “We’re taking you somewhere safe.”
I swallow the pills with another drink of water before I register his words. Panic wells up inside me, swift and demanding. I clutch his t-shirt as nausea rolls through my body. “You’re not leaving me, right?”
He strokes a hand down the side of my face, never taking his gaze off of me. “Never. Never again.”
“Okay, good. Because I don’t want you guys to leave me now . . .” My words trail off as my eyes get heavier and heavier, until finally, I don’t bother opening them.
The sound of crunching gravel and the repeated bounces of my head against something is enough to rouse me. I don’t really remember falling asleep. Everything is kind of hazy, but I remember being in a hotel room and then Rush carried me to a car.
My head pounds and my body aches. I’m not sure how long I’ve been in this same position, but everything protests when I even think about moving.
Pop punk plays through the speakers, so I assume Sully is here too. That boy always did love pop punk from the aughts. The corner of my mouth ticks up when I remember how we used to share playlists.
I open my eyes with effort and use my hands to push up to a halfway sitting position, groaning when I feel something pull along my ribs. My mind races as I look around.
“Easy now, baby girl.” Wolf’s words come from above me, and it takes me a second to realize that I was lying on a pillow on his lap.
“Wolf?” My voice carries a thread of panic as I swipe my tangled hair out of my eyes and look around the dark car.
“Aye. I’m right here,” Wolf says as he sweeps a stray lock of hair off my cheekbone.
Relief sinks into my limbs as my surroundings start to make more sense. I don’t feel quite like myself—almost like I’ve been sleeping too long or not long enough. Everything feels foggy, and I’m struggling to stay awake even now. I look at Wolf, but the interior of the SUV snags my attention.
“Are we—are we in a different car?” My words end on a yawn that feels like it cracks my face in two.
“Aye. How are you feeling?” Wolf’s hands glide down my back in long, soothing motions as I try to get my bearings.
How am I feeling?
Like one giant bruise. Like one giant, confused bruise.
“At least she still has her sense of humor.” Rush’s wry voice comes from the front seat, and I startle a little. I didn’t realize I said that out loud.
“You’re talking right now, Red.” Amusement colors Wolf’s voice as his hand makes another gentle sweep down my back.
My eyebrows pull in. “Huh.”
“And so eloquent,” Rush says with a chuckle.
“Oh wow. Oh, wow, wow, wow,” I say. Hearing Rush laugh feels like a monumental thing—like a triple rainbow or getting your favorite latte for free. “Oh my god, an iced chai latte sounds sooo good right now.” I lick my lips as I think about drinking my favorite drink. I’m so parched. I feel like I could drink an entire lake and still be thirsty.
“Red, look at me.” Wolf’s voice startles me out of my fantasy of having a chai latte lake in my backyard, and I open my eyes.
With one finger on my chin, he applies a little pressure and I turn my head to meet his gaze. My breath hitches when I stare into his eyes. I watch in fascination as they darken the longer he stares at me.
“Your eyes really are the color of espresso,” I say with a sigh. The corners of his lips turn up and dimples wink at me. “Whoa,” I breathe the word. “Your dimples are lethal,” I tell Wolf as I sway a little closer.
“Well, at least we know the pain meds kicked in,” Wolf says with a smirk, and Rush chuckles again.
Something about that sound settles into me, burrows into my bones. And it might be because I’m on some serious pain medication—I remember bits and pieces of some doctor patching up the worst of my injuries—or it might be because I just had a near-death experience. But I crave more of that feeling. Not the feeling of thinking I was going to die. The feeling of Wolf’s voice sinking into my skin and settling into my very soul.
Sully’s so quiet in the passenger seat that I didn’t realize he was still in the car—not in my current state at least.
The car bounces along in silence for a few more minutes. Hamilton Leithauser’s “In a Black Out” plays from the speakers. He sings about everything going away in a black out, and it feels like he’s singing directly to me. My life has been forever changed. And it all started in a black out at O’Malley’s.
And now, now nothing will ever be the same.
It just occurs to me that I have no idea where we are. And what’s stranger is despite the last twenty-four hours, I’m not afraid to go anywhere with the three of them.
We pull up to a small guardhouse in front of a wrought-iron gate. I half expect a guard to stroll out of the small building, but everything is dark. Just as I open my mouth to ask where we are, Sully pushes open the door and jumps down from the SUV. He doesn’t say anything as he rounds the hood of the car and heads toward the guardhouse. After entering some code embedded on the door, he opens it up. Thirty seconds later, and the gates unlock and roll open.
To my surprise, Sully doesn’t get back in the car—he turns left and runs along the fence line. I quickly sit upright and clench and unclench my fist.