Page 131 of Requiem
Her breathing is uneven, rushed by adrenaline. “We’re okay. Adriana stopped the SUV and pushed Heather and I into the woods.”
My grip on the steering wheel tightens. “What?”
“She said we’d be safer hidden.” Snow crunches loudly beneath her footsteps through the phone. “Jude, she just drove away.”
A cold feeling crawls up my spine. “What do you mean she drove away?”
“I don’t know,” Emma admits, panic beginning to edge into her voice now. “She just...she looked at the cars following you and made us get out.”
Behind me, Micah groans loudly in pain.
Nico curses. “He’s bleeding through everything.”
“Fuck,” Kieran breathes.
I shove harder on the gas. The mansion.We just have to get back to the fucking mansion.Then another call suddenly flashes across the dashboard screen.
Adriana.
Every muscle in my body locks.
Emma picks up on the silence instantly. “What is it?”
“I’ll call you right back, baby.Please,stay hidden. I love you,” I say, answering the new call. “Adriana, what the fuck are you doing?”
For a moment, all I hear is shaky breathing. Then her voice finally comes through, quieter than this moment calls for. “I dropped them in the treeline before the little bridge,” she says. “They’re safe.”
The words don’t help because she’s pissed me off.
Headlights flare behind us again as the two SUVs tear down the snowy road, close enough now that I can see armed silhouettes moving inside them.
“What are you doing?” I repeat, harsher this time as I struggle to stay on the road. “Why thefuckdid you leave my girl outside? If they get to her and hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you.”
Micah suddenly chokes on a breath behind me, pain ripping through the sound.
Heather’s horrified voice crackles through the phone speaker from Emma’s side. “Micah?”
“We need to get him back,” Adriana says quickly, like she’s running out of time. “You need to save him.”
A terrible feeling settles into my chest. “Where are you?”
Adela slowly lifts her head from Rafe’s shoulder, her expression shifting as she listens.
“I’m sorry,” Adriana whispers.
Snow lashes harder against the windshield while I grip the wheel so tightly my knuckles ache. “For what?”
“For everything.” The words come out broken now. “Forallof it. For not stopping sooner.”
I freeze, the realization beginning to crawl up my throat, my pulse hammering beneath my ribs.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” she continues shakily, almost like she can’t even hear me anymore. “I can’t forgive myself either.”
The road bends sharply ahead, and then headlights appear in the distance.
Fast.
Comingdirectlytoward us.
