Page 84 of Code Name: Scorpio

“Have to.” She opened her eyes halfway. Glassy, unfocused, the pupils blown wide. “Give me a second.”

He gave her thirty. Then he got an arm under hers and lifted. She leaned into him because she had to, and he took her weight and got them moving toward the door.

They came out of the hallway into the common area. Some fucker had drawn the short straw and cleaned up the vomit.

Arlo spoke first, hands in his pockets. “You good to drive? She looks⁠—”

“I’ve got her.”

Heath stepped into their path close enough that they had to stop. Heath’s hand came up and cupped the back of Cassandra’s neck and just looked at her.

The gesture seemed like concern. Ryder wasn’t fooled for a second into believing it was.

Cassandra flinched. The pain and the violation hit at the same time, and she pressed harder into Ryder’s side.

If that fucker didn’t let her go, she was going to throw up on him or Ryder was going to knock his teeth down his throat. Maybe both.

Heath held on for one more second. Then he let go.

“Feel better, sweetheart.” His voice was almost soft.

Every instinct Ryder had went hot. Maybe that hadn’t been a test. Maybe it had been interest. Either way, they were getting the fuck out of here.

“Appreciate it.” He kept moving. Through the door, down the steps, across the driveway to his car.

She was shaking against him with every step, her breath hitching in a rhythm that told him the pain was spiking.

He got her to the passenger side and opened the door, helping her lower herself into the seat. He pulled the seat belt across her, and she didn’t react. Didn’t have the energy.

He shut her door, tossed the stuff in the back, and got in.

Behind them, the lodge sat in the dark, ordinary and quiet, holding the men who sold children and called it sustainable.

He started the engine.

Cassandra leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. Still shaking. Still paying for the exit with her own body because it was the only play that couldn’t be picked apart.

He pulled down the road toward the gate and watched the lodge shrink in the rearview mirror, praying the contents of that thumb drive were enough, because what Cassandra had paid for it sure as hell was.

Chapter 24

Cassandra opened her eyes and didn’t know where she was.

Ceiling. A crack in the plaster above the light fixture. A pharmacy bag on the nightstand, a glass of water next to it that she didn’t remember anyone filling. Her room at Rogue. She was in her room at Rogue.

Her body felt like it had been taken apart and reassembled by someone who didn’t quite know the order. Her legs ached, her jaw was sore from clenching in her sleep, and her mouth tasted like metal. She turned her head and looked at the clock.

It took her a minute to do the math. Fourteen hours.

She’d been out for fourteen hours.

The drive back came in fragments. The dark interior of a vehicle, the highway in the headlights, her skull splitting itself apart while she pressed her hands over her eyes and tried not to throw up again. Ryder’s voice, low and even, saying something she couldn’t hold on to.

His arm around her waist in the hallway, her weight against him, Fallon there, talking to them both. The door to her room opening and the bed coming up to meet her. A blanket being pulled over her shoulders.

After that, nothing.

She lay back in the bed. Letting the spiral run unchecked had worked. The vomiting, the collapse, all of it real enough that nobody had questioned it. They were out.