The walk back to the car through the trees is just as long as the walk away from it was. I don’t even know how Sloan remembers his way, but we make it back to where the car is waiting easily enough.
Sloan opens the door to the back and helps me inside, closing the door gently instead of slamming it this time. My hands are still bound, but this time I feel less like a prisoner.
He gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car, taking us out of the woods and back toward the highway and civilization.
The ride is silent. There’s no taunting, no arguing, just the two of us lost in our own thoughts. I have no idea what Sloan might be thinking. Every time I glance at his face in the rearview mirror, his gaze is locked on the road ahead, and he’s as impassive as ever.
My head is a total mess, of course.
The confusing tangle has just gotten worse, and every time I try to pull one thought free, a hundred more come tumbling after it. My body is still buzzing from the sex, that deep, sated feeling spreading through me. I can still feel all the scrapes and the slight soreness from how hard Sloan was plunging into me, but none of it is unpleasant.
I still can’t believe it happened. That we fucked right there in the dirt and leaves right after Sloan nearly killed me. It brings our whole push and pull thing to an entirely new level, and I’m still not sure how I’m supposed to feel about it.
On top of that, I have no idea what’s going to happen now.
Sloan had orders. Orders that he disobeyed. I don’t believe he’s taking me to some other place to kill me there, because if he couldn’t do it in the woods with no one around, then he’s not going to be able to do it anywhere else.
Probably.
I have no idea where he’s taking us, and as night starts to fall, we merge back onto the highway. We’re headed back toward the city proper, but that could mean anything.
For a second, my heart leaps back into my throat when I consider the possibility that he might be taking me back to his father. Sloan couldn’t kill me, but I bet Gavin could without batting an eye. Maybe he plans to let his dad handle the dirty work?
I sit with that fear for another few minutes, until the landmarks and exit signs start to look more familiar.
We’re not heading back to that bar where we met Gavin before, but back toward the guys’ house. Relief settles in my gut, and I let out a soft breath that I hope Sloan doesn’t hear.
We pull up into the garage, and Sloan comes around to help me out of the car. He grabs a knife from the glove compartment and uses it to cut the ropes around my wrists, sawing through them until they fall in a heap on the garage floor.
The skin around my wrists is red and a little raw from our scuffle and the sex and being bound for so long, and I rub at each one absently, happy to have my mobility restored.
But I’m still not sure what to say as I stand here. Part of me wants to thank him, but another part of me wants to scream at him. I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong. So grateful to be alive and back in this place I’ve started to consider home, or at least home base, especially after everything that’s happened. I’m also still fucking angry, though. There’s so much between us, so much we’re both still holding back and refusing to show. I’ve come to terms with my feelings for him in a way, but I still have no idea how he truly feels about me.
Neither of us says anything, and instead we just walk into the house together.
Levi and Rory are there, in the living room. I can tell they’re both worried, sitting on opposite sides of the couch. Levi has his arms folded, and he’s staring blankly at the black TV screen. Rory’s hands are clasped in his lap, and his thumb brushes back and forth over the back of his other hand while he stares at a random spot on the rug.
I lost track of time being out there in the woods with Sloan, but the two of them can’t have been back long from trying to hunt down the Jackals and figure out where they might have taken the money. The fact that they’re here and not with Gavin probably means they didn’t find anything.
As soon as Sloan and I step into the room, they both swivel their heads to look at us. And as soon as they see me, two sets of eyes widen.
I have no idea what I look like, exactly, but I know it can’t be good. There are probably leaves and pine needles and who knows what else in the messy tangle of my hair, and I can feel the sweat dried on my skin from the fight with Sloan and the sex with Sloan and the panic of thinking I was going to die.
“Holy shit. What the fuck happened?” Levi demands, getting up from the couch. He crosses the distance between us a bit, but stops before he reaches us, a little flicker of uncertainty coming into his eyes. Rory is right behind him, and he stops too. It’s weird to stand on one side of the living room with Sloan of all people, but I know the two of them want an explanation.
I keep my mouth shut and leave it for Sloan to say.
“We were out in the woods,” he tells them after a beat of silence. I wonder if the other two know which woods. If that’s a common place for getting rid of people when they’ve made an enemy of the Black Roses. “I was supposed to get rid of her.”
He says it matter-of-factly, the same way someone else might talk about picking up milk from the store or remembering to bring an umbrella in case it rains.
The awkward tension in the room ratchets up another notch and then erupts when Rory steps around Levi, hands balled into fists at his side.
“What the fuck do you mean you were supposed to get rid of her?” he growls, and I’ve never seen him so angry before. “You were going to, what, take her out there and shoot her like a dog?”
I wince internally at that phrasing and try to block the image of Sloan pointing that gun at me out of my mind.
“I can’t fucking believe you, Sloan.” Levi’s usually soft brown eyes glint like steel. “We trusted you to handle this.”
“I obviously didn’t fucking do it!” Sloan snaps back. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
They both look at me again, and I can tell they’re thinking that yeah, I’m here, but something clearly happened between us that wasn’t good.
The bruise on Sloan’s face is darkened enough to be noticeable, and they’ll know it’s no accident that it’s there.
The tension in his posture is clear to see, from the rigid way he’s holding his shoulders and the way his jaw is clenched. I can practically hear him grinding his teeth from the stress and strain of it all. He’s right, though. I’m alive, and that’s something he’s going to have to explain to his father.
I look at him, but he doesn’t look at me. He keeps his gaze on the other two, even though there’s nothing to be seen in them other than anger and disbelief.
“I have to talk to my father,” he says, and I can tell it’s not something he’s pleased about. “We have to figure out what the fuck to do now.”
Rory and Levi just nod, and Sloan turns on his heel, heading back out the door without another word or so much as a glance at me.
Usually, being dismissed like that would piss me off, but I’m too numb at the moment to give a fuck. The shock of everything that’s happened over the course of this crazy day is finally catching up to me, and I have to shake myself to snap out of it.
“I need to clean up,” I mumble to Levi and Rory, then I turn away and drag my exhausted body up the stairs before they can respond.