Page 63 of Raze
He looks behind him, then at us. At the wicked smile on Vera’s face as she advances toward me with her knife. “I’m not leaving you. I’ll find a way down, and we’ll both get out of here.” Then he disappears from the hole, and I have no way of knowing if they’ve taken him or if he’s evading them.
“This was a trap all along,” I hiss at Vera.
She smirks. “I told you. I wouldn’t come back unless he came with me or with your dead body. I just found a way to give me both.”
“You’re a complete psycho, you know that?” I offer her a sharp smile that tells her to go fuck herself, then turn and run. The catwalk ends at a ladder and then stairs, so I slide down the ladder and jump down the stairs. I need to get back to Dane as fast as possible.
I can hear her clanging behind me, but other than the faint light coming through the hole in the roof, it’s pitch black in here. No technology or electricity for her to use, but also no light for either of us to see by.
It’s just the sound of our heavy breathing, feet pounding the floor, and my heart stampeding in my chest.
My hand drags along the wall on one side while my other hand is extended out. I can’t move at a full run without risking hurting myself if I bash into something, so I keep it to a light jog while I try to get my bearings. As soon as I feel a door, I turn the handle. I could cry with relief when it turns without needing a key. I close it quietlybehind me, knowing that unless she has perfect hearing, she won’t know where I’ve gone in the dark.
It also means I have to move quietly in this room.
I feel around, taking my time to place my feet somewhere solid without bumping into anything until I make my way to the windows. They offer a bit of light, so I can see exactly which one is in front of the fire escape. I silently break the window with my gift and put it away again.
I’m pretty sure there are tears in my eyes from the pain of everything, but I ignore them and pull myself out of the window. I climb up like my ass is on fire
I search for Dane before I’m even completely up the ladder and stare for a second when I see Aiden and Kellan up here fighting along with Dane. Aiden sees me first, his eyes dropping to the blood on my arm and then back up to my face.
“She’s here,” he tells the others with a raised voice. “Let’s go!” Aiden’s arm swings from behind, throwing the whipsword at the helicopters. The metal narrows and extends to make the distance before it slashes downward and slices one of the two helicopters clean in half. He flips it back to the other one and removes its tail.
Dane punches the guy he’s fighting in the face, throwing his entire back into it, and the guy is lights out on the roof. He runs to me with Aiden and then Kellan at his back after taking care of the ones they’d been fighting. More agents hop out of the helicopter, but we’re already hurrying down the fire escape to the ground.
“Dane and Raegan, in the car. Kell, take Dane’s bike,” Aiden orders before my feet can touch the ground. Dane tosses his keys toKellan, and then we’re all flying down the road.
My heart thunders in my ears as we make sharp turns again and again, then finally park under the cover of trees once we’ve reached the edge of the city. I check out the window to see Kellan right next to us and look up to make sure there’s no sign of another helicopter that might have been out for Dane tonight.
“Let me see your arm,” he demands, grabbing my hand and pulling it to him. I bite my lip as the adrenaline recedes now that we’ve escaped, and the pain creeps in.
“Do I need to call Cassandra?” Aiden asks from the driver’s seat. He looks pissed, and I wonder if it has anything to do with me bleeding all over the back seat of his fancy car.
Dane answers for me since he’s the one inspecting it, “It doesn’t look like it’ll need stitches, but—”
I pull my arm back to me and hold it against my chest to keep the bleeding to myself. “Then it’s fine. I’ll just wrap it when we get back, and it’ll be good.”
“Good,” Aiden croons. The car moves again. “Now you can both listen to everything fucking wrong with tonight and how you willneverdo anything like that again.”
Dane and I look at each other, but there are no words for how either of us is feeling right now. The things Vera said about me, about my mother, come back to me, and I rip my gaze from his with shame.
We remain silent the entire drive back through Aiden’s reprimand and then some.
Chapter sixteen
Raegan
There’s absolutely no wayI can sleep after what happened tonight. I take a long, hot shower, re-wrap my arm in dry bandages, and then wait until everyone else is fast asleep before I sneak out. The bars are still open for another hour or two, so I go where it’s familiar.
The bartender, Susie, recognizes me with a scoff. You’d think she’s pissed I didn’t show up tonight, but she’s probably thrilled about that. It’s my arrangement of showing up when I want and taking away tips from the working bartenders that make her and the rest of them hate me. “Really? A city full of bars, and you came to this one to look miserable?”
I give her my best I-don’t-give-a-fuck smile. “Yes, a jack and coke sounds good. Light on the coke. You know what? Scratch that. Just jack.”
My face falls. Where is Jack? He didn’t come tonight. I’m not saying that I wasn’t able to handle myself without him, but he’s almost always appeared when I’ve been in trouble in this city. Buttonight, my stalker was nowhere to be found.
Crap, that sounds stupid. I should not be upset that he’s not stalking me like he used to. That should be a good sign. Definitely less toxic.
Instead, it feels like an omen. Like something bad must be keeping him from me. I didn’t realize how attached I’d gotten to my shadow last month, but his absence is a tangible ache in my chest whenever I think of him.
