“What do you mean, we need to go underground?” I hissed into the phone.
The voice on the other end was quiet and…guarded. “Just that,” Benjamin Rossi answered. “It’s time,” he said and a chill raced along my spine. “It’s time to go, son.”
“You’re not telling me a goddamn thing here, Ben.” Anger filled me, but I tried to keep it leashed. “And where the hell is my brother? I know he’s been out at night for you, doing things he won’t talk about. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I’d tried to keep my voice down, still she’d heard me. Her shadow spilled across the doorway and my body reacted to that alone, making my pulse race as every cell in my body came alive. My stepsister still had that effect, drawing my focus as she stepped into the doorway. Her intense stare found mine as she reached up and brushed her hair behind her ears. Her once long auburn hair was shorter now, making her look even younger than she was.
I turned away, giving her my back. “Give me a goddamn reason.”
“Not like this,” Ben said quietly.
“Then when?”
“First, get Ryth and the baby out, then I’ll text you the address on the burner. I have to make sure Kat and the baby are safe. They’re my priority now. You get that, right? I have to look after my own.”
I froze, the fight dropping away instantly. Kat…Kat was in danger? “Ben, talk to me.”
“The burner, son.” His thunderous steps sounded in the background, his rushed breaths telling me he was running. “Get the burner. I’ll talk soon, okay?”
“OK—” I started, not liking this one goddamn bit, but he was already gone, leaving me whispering to an empty line.
“What is it?”
I closed my eyes and gathered myself for a heartbeat before I opened them and turned around to meet her piercing stare. “We have to leave.”
“Leave?” Her eyes widened as panic moved in. She jerked her head to the room at the end of the hall. The room where Nick and our son were. Not just our son…my son.
I moved forward, reaching out to grasp her shoulder. “Yes, baby. We have to leave now. Pack your things, we’ll get Ali, just take whatever you need.” I stepped past her, hurrying for the end of the hall as I called over my shoulder. “Now, baby, please.”
Go underground, some place no one can find you. Go there now…
Benjamin’s words rang in my head, punctuated by the heavy thud of my steps as I pushed into a run, tearing through the open door of Ali’s playroom. Nick jerked his head upwards, tearing his gaze from the laptop screen before he glanced at our sleeping son.
“You wake him, T, and I swear to God, you’ll be the one up all damn night,” my brother started.
“We have to run.” I moved fast, cutting across the room, looking for my son’s bags…where the hell were all the bags?
Nick rose instantly. “What do you mean, run?”
I stopped and lifted my gaze to my brother’s. “Ben just called. There’s trouble, trouble with Kat. He said to go underground, some place where no one can find us.”
There weren’t any arguments. He didn’t even need clarification, he just reacted. “Princess!” my brother roared. “We have to leave now!”
Ali flinched on his foldaway cot. I left the bags and his nappies and toys behind, moving to him as he opened his eyes and unleashed a wail. He was so small…so fucking small and vulnerable. If my heart sped when Ryth was near, it fucking ripped in two when I touched him. He was every good fucking part of me and Nick and Caleb and Ryth all wrapped up in a tiny body. There was no way I wasn’t protecting him with all I had.
I have to look after my own.
Ben’s words surged to the surface as I slid my hands under Ali’s perfect little body and lifted him, cuddling my son against my chest.
“I’ll get the bags.” Nick rushed to a cupboard in the corner of the room and yanked out three stowed getaway bags.
“His nightlight.” I turned around. “Don’t forget his damn nightlight.”
He wouldn’t sleep without it. Nick unleashed a snarl and lunged for the damn thing as I clutched Ali to my chest and raced for the kitchen. I grabbed everything I could. His formula, his bottles, his sterilizer and his pacifiers. Still, there was so goddamn much.
Ryth dumped three packed bags onto the floor, then glanced my way to our son first before swiveling around. “I’ll get the rest. Nick has the guns.”
I gave a nod, shoving teething jelly and any other medication we might need into another bag. Nick’s heavy steps invaded the kitchen. “I can’t get hold of C.”
“Leave him.” I swept all the plungers and thermometers and the thousand other things we had for emergencies with the sweep of my hand. “We’ll call him from the car.”
Nick gave a nod and headed out, carrying the guns and the weapons to the rear of the Range Rover. The car was registered to a false name, as was this house. But still it wasn’t enough. It was never enough, not while Haelstrom Hale still lived.
I have to make sure Kat and the baby are safe…
Something was happening. Something Ben wouldn’t talk to me about. Whatever it was, it was bad. My thoughts returned to Laz as I carried Ali toward the four-wheel drive and loaded his bags onto the back seat. I cradled his head as I lifted him into his car seat as Nick returned, carrying more bags. “You take Ryth and Ali, head to Margrave Street Warehouse. It’s as safe as we can get right now. I’ll get rid of the Mustang and follow.”
Click.
Ali’s seat belt snapped tight. I checked it once…twice…three times just to make sure. Still, it didn’t ease that tightness in my chest.
“Hey.” My brother grabbed my shoulder, drawing my gaze to his. “We’re going to get through this.”
“They can’t take her again, Nick,” I whispered my worst fears. “I won’t let them.”
“That’s not going to happen, brother. We’ll kill them all before they even come close to Ryth or our son.”
I slowly nodded, but an ache settled in the back of my throat, One that refused to budge.
“Okay,” Ryth said breathlessly as she heaved three bags of our clothes into the back of the four-wheel drive. “I packed most of your clothes and all of Caleb’s, not like he has many anyway.”
She wiped her hands on her jeans and lifted her gaze to us, stopping cold. Concern raged. “What is it?”
I shook my head.
“Nothing.” Nick answered for us as he stepped close to her and brushed his thumb across her cheek. “We just need to get you and the baby to safety is all.”
“As long as we’re together,” she said, “That’s how we stay alive. We stay together.”
She was right. She was always right. I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out my cell as I stepped away, hurrying for the house and the last remaining bags. But what I really wanted was my brother to answer his goddamn phone. I pressed his number and listened to the cell ring.
And ring.
And ring.
“Goddamn you, C,” I whispered. “Don’t you know we need you?”
He didn’t answer, so I left a message, short and to the point. “Call us back, asshole or the next time I see you, I’ll throat punch you.”
If that didn’t do it, then I didn’t know what would. I walked through the house, scanning the skeletal remains of what had been our home for the last eight months, and walked out, heading to the Range Rover. Ryth was already in the passenger’s seat, watching me as I opened the door and climbed in.
Nick’s Mustang started with a snarl. He waited for me to start the engine before he opened the towering steel gate and backed out into the street of this quiet middle-class residential suburb. I shoved the four-wheel drive into reverse, gripped the back of her seat, and backed out after him. Only, Nick turned one way and we turned the other.
“Are you going to finally tell me what happened?” she asked quietly.
My…perfect…little…mouse. I glanced her way, reached for her hand and gripped it tightly. “I don’t know myself. All I know is that something is going down with the Rossis and it’s bad. Ben said he has to take care of Kat and the baby. He has to make sure they’re safe.”
“Safe?” Her eyes widened as I drove, taking the back streets and watching the rear-view mirror. “Something’s happened.”
“I agree.” I knew right now Lazarus must be losing his goddamn mind. “But like the man said, we have to take care of our own.”
I gave her hand a gentle squeeze and let it go, focusing on the streets as they became busy. There was no way Hale or his fucking men were getting anywhere near us. We needed a plan…and we needed to know where the fuck he’s hiding.
My cell rang. I glanced at the caller ID. Riven Cruz. That motherfucker was lucky he was alive. If I had my way…Ryth’s gaze was fixed on the screen. “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
Fuck him.
I fought the need to snarl.
But I couldn’t, because somehow the vile motherfucker had found some good in that black heart of his. Enough good to make Ryth’s sister fall in love, at least. With a growl, I leaned forward and swiped to answer the call. “What do you want, Principal?”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
The name hurt.
Or pissed him off.
I was good with either of those.
“Benjamin Rossi,” he started. “Has he contacted you?”
My gut clenched tight. I wanted to tell him to go to goddamn hell before I answered any of his questions. But one look from Ryth and I clenched my jaw. “Yes.”
“And he told you it was me, I assume?”
“Assume all you fucking want.” My anger spilled over.
“It wasn’t me.” His voice broke. “Do you hear me? It wasn’t ME. I’d never hurt Helene like that. I’d never…never hurt her like that. The video was doctored, made to look like I was the one who hurt her. But I wasn’t. It was Coulter. He was the bastard who did that.”
What the fuck was he talking about? I glanced at Ryth. She shook her head, not knowing a thing. She reached for her cell, pulled up her sister’s number, and started typing.
“He wouldn’t even take my damn call.”
It wasn’t like The Principal to be torn up about something like this. Maybe the sick motherfucker had changed?
“Look, I don’t think he’s even seen whatever you’re talking about. He’s dealing with some problems of his own.”
“Problems?” His tone deepened. “What kind of problems?”
I swerved in and out of traffic, watching the rear-view mirror. “I don’t know myself. He called and told me to go underground. Said that he’s doing the same with Kat and the baby. Something’s happened and it’s a lot more than some doctored video. Look, we’re heading underground. I’d suggest you do the same. You have the burners London sent, activate them and kill this one. We’ll be out of communication until we’re sure we’re not being followed, or led into some kind of trap.”
“Okay. Jesus…okay.” He was finally understanding what was going on here.
“And Riven.”
“Yeah?”
“Find that motherfucking Order and raze it to the goddamn ground.”
“We’re trying. Believe me, we’re try—”
I was already reaching out to end the call.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Ryth whispered, staring straight ahead. “This is really it.”
There wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do to comfort her. “I think so, baby. I think so.”
