Page 20 of Raze
I roll my eyes and bite my tongue to keep from reminding him he has also abandoned me in the past. I knock my fist into the door repeatedly. “Hey! Open up! I don’t have my key for the back door.”
Finally, I hear movement and running footsteps. The door swings open, but I don’t get to see who it is before I’m wrapped in a hug. They’re bigger than me, though not by much, so I know instantly that it isn’t Portia.
I’m not really the hugging type, so my arms remain at my sides and I try to turn my head enough to see who it is. But they’re ripped away from me with a snarl from Kellan. “Don’t touch her!”
Dane steps up next to me and folds his arms over his chest.
“Fucking chill, man!” Ethan, the Hype bartender who was friends with Portia, shouts. His expression shifts to relief and a smile when it’s turned on me. “I’m glad you’re okay. No one has seen you since what happened to Portia, and I was getting worried. Come on, we can catch up.” He waves me in, holding the door open for me.
Once I pass through, he starts to close it, but Kellan’s hand slams against it. “Do we look like delivery boys to you?”
Ethan releases the door but stands between me and the other two. “No, you look like controlling dickheads.”
“Guys, knock it off. You can hang tight in the bar while I go up to get my things. I don’t need any help.” I barely have anything anyway, so it’ll be minutes for me to pack.
Dane’s eyes narrow at me as if he thinks I’m hiding somethingfrom them. What the hell that could be, I’ll never know. “Wasn’t your friend kidnapped from these very apartments?” he asks instead, surprising me.
“We’ve beefed up security, so that can’t happen again,” Ethan snaps.
“Sorry, beautiful, but he has a point. We’re coming up with you,” Kellan adds, ignoring Ethan entirely.
Ugh. Fine. I sigh and shake my head. “Just give Ethan and I a few minutes to catch up, then.” I wrap my hand around Ethan’s arm to walk us away from the other two. When I hear boots behind me, I glare over my shoulder at Kellan until he stops. He gives me a nonchalant shrug and a grin.
Dane closes and locks the door behind him, then leans against it.
Ethan and I slide into a booth along the back wall, and I release another sigh. “Hey, are you okay?” His hand touches my arm.
“Yeah, sorry about them. They mean well.”
“Do they? It seems like you’re their prisoner. I can get rid of them if you need me to. Bryant’s just around the corner, and the others are walking the halls on each floor.”
I frown at that. Am I? Aiden wants us all to stick together, but if I really wanted to leave, would he let me? Or am I a prisoner to them so they can keep an eye on me?
I push those thoughts aside to worry about later. “We’re just running errands together. I’ll be staying somewhere else for a bit, so I’m here to grab my things.”
His hand tightens on my arm. “Are yousureyou’re okay? Blink twice if you’re in trouble.”
“Ethan, I swear to you that I’m fine. How is everyone here?” I ask to change the subject.
He shrugs and retracts his hand. “They’re scared. They came here for safety and then the danger came to them, anyway. But they’ll get through it. We always do.”
It’s all my fault. If I didn’t stay here, if I hadn’t befriended Portia, none of this would have happened. I’m the reason GE got a whiff of this place. And Portia.
It also means GE hasn’t realized there are other gifted staying here as well.
Even if I’m not sure about staying with Aiden and the others, I at least know I’m doing the right thing by not staying here anymore. They shouldn’t be in danger so long as I stop coming here and leading GE to more gifted. Now, I’m itching to get my things and get out of here as soon as possible. “Good. I should go pack up.”
Ethan stands with me and casts a look at the other two by the entrance. “Stay safe, Rae. You always have this place to come to if you need it.”
“Thanks.” I’m tempted to kiss his cheek, but I’d rather not be the reason he gets a fist there from Kellan, so I squeeze his hand instead. I head into the back and the stairs that lead to the apartments. Before long, two sets of footsteps echo behind me.
I punch in the code to my apartment and throw the door open for us. It’s still decorated and styled to Elias’s tastes, very sleek and modern, with grays, blacks, and whites. The knickknacks are almost all gone, though, most of them having not survived my encounter here with Aiden, so only big furniture pieces fill the space. Otherwise,it looks empty. Un-lived in.
That’s me. A ghost in the world who comes and goes as she pleases without leaving any trail. No family or friends to miss me, nothing to my name, not even an ID to prove that my name is my own. I don’t have the luxury of collecting or keeping anything from one place to the next. On more than one occasion, I’ve been forced to abandon whatever I had and run away.
Kellan and Dane look around the room, but there’s nothing they’ll see or find aside from what the decorators put in here. “Beautiful. Are we in the right place?”
Embarrassment floods my face, and I keep walking through the room toward the single bedroom. “Of course, it is.”
