Page 73 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
“They are closer than you think, and Arek understands him. It will be fine,” Trev reassured her as he laid a hand on her shoulder.
Giving her a smile, he turned to walk away and then stopped to look back over his shoulder at her. “If you have any reservations about what we do…this is the time to leave or be all-in.” Trev peered through the glass at Kes and then back to her.
“He’s going to go after whoever did this, isn’t he?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“I would be shocked if he didn’t.” Trev continued on his way, and she took a deep breath as she stepped into the small waiting room once more.
She slowly made her way over to the man that had owned her heart for as long as she’d known him. Sitting herself down beside him, she entwined their fingers and laid her head on his shoulder. No matter what her ethical compass warned her about, she already knew she was all-in the moment she found him in her home. She’d follow him through whatever hell he dragged her through willingly because he was the other half of her soul.
She’d never believed the fairytale stories about once-in-a-lifetime soulmates, but she was now a converted believer. He was hers, and she would die before she turned her back on him.
What did that say about her? She didn’t know, but she was getting to the point that she didn’t give a fuck.
Kes glanced toward the door, but it was only Vanessa, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, that came strolling in. Ashley’s chair had remained empty all week since the locker incident.
“We did it,” his girlfriend said. Her voice annoyed him with just those three words. Why was he still with her? Because his father and her father were good friends, and dumping her would make his father look bad.
“Did what?” he asked, the rest of the group they were hanging around with turning in their seats to listen.
“Your pet is leaving.” She smiled wide and clasped her hands together like it was fucking Christmas.
“What do you mean, she’s leaving?” A pain formed in his chest, making it hard to take a deep breath.
“I heard from Stephanie, who was in the main office, that she overheard the principal and your Pet talking.” Vanessa paused and bit her lip like she was keeping the juiciest secret in the world, which at the moment, she was. He was on the edge of his seat, but not for the reason they all thought. “Apparently, she decided to do the right thing and switch to a school more suitable for someone like her.”
“This can’t be true,” he said, mostly to himself, but Vanessa answered anyway.
“Oh, it is, and it gets better. She’s cleaning out her locker right now. I had to go and check for myself, and there she was, box in hand. Isn’t this, like, the best news?” Vanessa gave the rest of the group a high-five, but he needed to go. He couldn’t sit there and let this happen.
Jumping up, he rushed to the door as his chair slammed to the floor.
“Where are you going?” both the teacher and Vanessa chorused at the same time.
“Give me detention, I don’t care, but I’ve got to go.” He stopped with his hand on the door and looked at Vanessa. “And we’re through. Consider this our final breakup.”
Kes didn’t bother waiting for a response—instead, he ran like a fucking track star through the empty halls. He was annoyed that he had to slow down to push through the double doors leading to the stairs. Three at a time, he stormed up the stairs to the second floor. He burst through the doors at the top and turned right. There she was, just as Vanessa had said, a box on the floor as she piled her binders and whatever else into it.
His feet loudly echoed as he ran past the long line of lockers and closed classroom doors. Ashley glanced his way and her eyes went wide, but she turned her head away and resumed what she had been doing.
He halted, panting, leaning a hand on a locker a few down from hers to catch his breath.
“You come to do your victory dance?” Her eyes found his, and there was so much hate in them. “Or maybe lock me in a locker again?” Ashley tore pictures off of the inside of her locker and let them fall into the box.
He’d never paid much attention to them before, but as the last one fluttered down, he grabbed the small pile and lifted them to leaf through. The first was a news article with a black and white photo of Ashley smiling as her old principal held out a plaque. He scanned the article, which said she had a perfect school average and that it was the first time in the school’s history—they were awarding her a special grant to go to any school of her choosing. The next was a family photo—they were camping, or at least he assumed they were, tents in the background with a bonfire they were all sitting around, smiling.
“Can you put that back in the box when you’re done? Unless you plan on burning them or posting them all over the school or whatever else you come up with,” she shot at him.
Ironically, he hated the sound of her voice all bitter. He’d done nothing but pick on her for almost two full years. What else could he expect?
“No, I didn’t, I swear.”
“What are you talking about?” She clutched a school sweatshirt to her chest as she peeked around the edge of her open locker door to stare at him.
“I didn’t come here to….” Kes paused, the words frozen on his tongue.
“Bully me? Pick on me? Torture me? Choose a word. There are so many options.” Ashley dropped the sweatshirt into the box and grabbed her backpack before closing the door. She swung the backpack over her shoulders, and his panic tripled alongside his mounting heart rate.
“Don’t go.”
