Page 8 of Lost to Thievery
“Fuck!” Owen cursed as my stomach turned.
“It’s a diversion! He’s still in the house!” Owen screamed over the comms, but all we heard was static. There were no more shouting voices, just static.
“The hell?” Owen stared down at the radio in his hand. “Jesus, they jammed the fucking signal.Fuck it,” he huffed as he kicked the doors open, making a beeline for the house.
I darted after him. No way was I letting Grayson get away. Just as we made it to the porch, both of us stopped in our tracks.
“You hear that?” I half whispered to Owen.
“That’s a fucking helicopter. We don’t have helicopters.”
“Then where’s it coming from?” I asked, panicked.
Officers started running back from the field, realising there was no one in the crashed truck. They pointed at the barn, screaming something we couldn’t hear.
We looked to where they pointed, just in time to see the decrepit barn’s roof silently sliding open, the noise of the helicopter getting louder.
We watched, horrified and utterly defeated, as a helicopter lifted out of the barn, large spotlight on its front end turning on. Gemma was in the pilot’s seat with Hunter next to her. Grayson was standing by the open door, rifle in hand. The spotlight swept across the area as the helicopter lifted higher and higher. As the light swept closer to me, I stepped off the porch right under the beam. Owen stepped up beside me.
The light paused on us. Gemma’s hand came up over her mouth as she saw me. But there was nothing more euphoric than the complete and utter shock on Grayson’s face as he noticed me. I locked eyes with him and grinned.
Who’s the one laughing now?
The elusive devil who could predict and plan his way out of anything was taken by surprise. He hadn’t seenmecoming.
I kept his stare as the helicopter lifted, sparks flying as the bullets hit their mark. But Grayson didn’t move from the door, staring at me, not even flinching as sparks scattered just above his head, his shock turning into brutal anger. But it only fuelled the sick pleasure pulsing through my body. The sound of gunshots died down as the helicopter became smaller and smaller, the officers accepting defeat.
But I fucking beamed. Grayson might have gotten away, but I’d fucking won this battle. For the first time, he wasrunning.
Fromme.
“I think you just started a war,” Owen said from beside me.
I laughed coldly, wind whipping my hair around me. “I’m ready.”
Ava
Iwalkedthroughtheupper floor of the farmhouse, away from the covered bodies downstairs, stopping at the door of a study room. It was Grayson’s. I could tell by the feeling it emanated. It felt like him, that strange change in the air that had always let me know when he was close before I’d see him. It lingered in the air, making my heart ache. This was where he was before they fled.
I looked around to see if anyone would notice, then slipped inside Grayson’s study. All officers were pulled back as the forensic team started on their investigation, leaving the big house almost empty. Owen was still in the living room with the captain, fighting over who got to examine the evidence first.
There were no bare walls in the room, only bookshelves covering every inch of vertical space. It was so like Grayson. Ihadn’t seen any of their houses that hadn’t been stacked with books.
The desk was littered with papers and photos. The photos were of me, and some of Agent Becket. But that was no surprise. We already knew he was watching us. Another reason why we decided against informing the FBI of our situation.
I picked up the photo at the top of the pile. It was one of me eating lunch with Rachel in the park, laughing. It was the first time I had laughed since my return to Bentley Cove, and somehow Grayson had captured the moment, stealing it.
The adrenaline had worn off, along with the high I felt for getting so close to capturing them. Now it was just the same old emptiness that hounded me. Especially in this room, a place that so obviously belonged to Grayson but was foreign to me. It just drove home that I never truly knew him. I never truly had him.
A flash of gold caught my attention, peeking out from underneath some papers. My throat closed up as I uncovered it. I picked it up, closing my fist around it and pressed it against my heart, letting the pain wash through me.
Aegis. The pin I had given to Grayson on our last day.
Why had the gods allowed this man into my life? Why had they allowed him to shatter me so completely that I didn’t even recognise myself anymore? I was a shell of a person because he was still walking around with pieces of me he had no business having. And I didn’t know how to take it back. I didn’t know how to undo us. I’d been trying to outrun the memories of him, but they were alwaysthere, haunting me. Reminding me how good we were together, how much I loved him. I had made him my whole world, and he ripped it away, leaving me utterly alone, floating through space with no goal and no hope.
It was pathetic.Iwas pathetic.
I pushed away from the table, pocketing the pin. I wasn’t going to leave the evidence of my patheticness lying around.
