Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
I am woken by Eli, getting ready for work. Rolling, I see him tap Cyrus’s shoulder, waking him.
“Up. Something happened at the office,” Eli tells him.
Cyrus groans. “No, can’t do. Go yourself. I have things to deal with here,” Cyrus tells him before jerking me toward him.
“Cyrus, I wasn’t asking. We had a breach. Get up,” Eli tells him, chucking clothes at him.
“Wait, what’s happened?” Cyrus says, jerking upright.
I remain silent, trying to figure out what is going on. Cyrus gets up, chucking his clothes on.
“Addie, get up,” Cyrus tells me, tugging the blanket off with his free hand.
“No, we haven’t got time to wait for her. We need to leave,” Eli says before walking over to me and pecking my head.
“Come here, quickly,” Cyrus tells me, but I shake my head, moving to the other side of the bed.
“Addie, now,” Cyrus says before jerking me to him by my foot.
“What are you going to do?”
“Make you forget,” he says when Eli rushes into the room.
“Cyrus, whatever you’re doing can wait. Move it now,” Eli says.
Cyrus looks at me funny, a worried look on his face, when Eli suddenly walks over and grabs his arm, ripping him from the room.
I let out the breath I’ve been holding, relieved he doesn’t have a chance to do whatever he was going to do. One thing I do know is that I need to find out why they have that cell down there.
I hear their car leave and walk to the bathroom to shower. Stripping my clothes off, I hop under the stream of water, letting the water warm me up.
Grabbing a razor, I quickly shave my legs and underarms before grabbing the shampoo and washing my hair. While scrubbing the soap, I hear a loud bang. The noise makes me jump. My heart skips a beat as I try to wash the shampoo out.
“Ada?” I hear a familiar voice yell out before hearing the sound of running on the steps.
“Sam?” I yell back, turning the shower off and grabbing a towel.
I wrap myself in it before rushing out only to run directly into him, both of us headbutting each other and falling on our backsides. My legs go up in the air in a not-so-ladylike manner, a squeal leaving my lips.
I rub my head and get up. Sam, I can see, does the same before he jumps to his feet. He grabs my arm, ripping me to my feet.
“We need to go now!” he says, pulling me away from the room.
“Calm down. They’re not here, and I am naked,” I tell him, and he stops, looking at me.
He runs back to the room before rushing back out. He shoves some clothes in my hands that aren’t mine but theirs.
“Get dressed in the car. We need to go before they realize,” he says, yanking me down the stairs while I try not to slip with my wet feet.
“Wait, where are you taking me?” I ask as he pulls me outside.
I see his car in the driveway, and he looks around nervously, like he is waiting for them to jump out.
“Sam?”
“Addie, we haven’t got time. Just get in the car, please. I will explain on the way,” he says, pushing me toward the passenger-seat door before opening it.
Sam shoves me into the car, shutting the door before racing to the other side and jumping in the driver’s seat.
He tears out of the driveway in a rush. Dust and smoke go everywhere as he drives off down the long driveway.
I pull the shirt over my head before maneuvering the pants under my towel, removing it, and tossing it on the back seat.
“What’s going on?” I ask him as he jerks into the highway, making me grab the handhold, the car skidding out before it regains control.
Cars behind us blare their horns as he cuts them off. He puts his foot down.
“Sam?” I yell, gripping my seat as his speed continues to climb.
“I set fire to their office,” he says, looking in the mirror, paranoid.
“You what?!”
“Don’t worry, I got what I needed first,” he says, tossing a file on my lap from between the seats.
“Wait, what are you doing here? I thought the organization sent you home.”
“They did. I spent all night driving back to get you,” he says, tapping the file.
I open it, and it is a heap of documents.
“I don’t get it. What am I looking at?” I ask, flipping the pages.
It isn’t even in English, and he expects me to read it?
“I can’t read this. Just tell me what it is,” I tell him, and I pause when a heap of photos falls out.
I pick them up, and they are photos of my father, a whole bunch of them. I don’t recognize the places, but it is definitely him.
“What is this?” I ask him, and he glances at me before adjusting the rearview mirror.
“Proof. I knew you wouldn’t believe me. They were watching your father before they caught up to him.”
“What are you talking about, Sam?”
“Cyrus and Eli killed your dad when he was going to expose them,” he says.
My stomach drops somewhere deep within me at his words.
“They killed my dad?” I whisper, my blood running cold.
“Yes, they killed him when your father figured out you were their mate. They have been watching you for years. Your father found out and confronted them, so they killed him.”
“No! I don’t believe you,” I tell him.
“It’s all there, Addie. Why else would they have files on your father?” he says, and I think back to the photo I found in the basement.
Sam turns off the highway before speeding down a back road. My throat suddenly feels dry; I just can’t fathom how I haven’t figured it out.
It still doesn’t make sense, but what reason would Sam have to lie to me?
* * *
The drive is silent. We drive for hours, and I know they would have figured out that I was gone by now. I can feel different flickers of emotions coming from them through the bond: worry, fear, and anger.
Yet where did Sam think he could take me that they wouldn’t find me?
The further away I get from them, the more my mark burns and itches, and despite what he tells me, I just can’t believe it. Something isn’t right about the entire situation, but I have also known Sam for years and trusted him.
A cold feeling settles over me when I see how close I am to going home when Sam suddenly pulls off the highway and onto a dirt road around forty minutes from the city limits.
I am actually excited to see my family. My thoughts instantly go to Maya, my mother, and Taylor, and I remember that Sam has never told me he knew my sister.
I will have to remember to ask him about it.
“So, you aren’t taking me home?” I ask him when I realize we are driving away from the highway.
“That would be the first place they look, but don’t worry about it.
I have a place out here,” he says as we continue to drive for what feels like hours down this dirt track.
The cold feeling gets worse as we suddenly pull over, and Sam gets out of the car, my instincts telling me something is off.
Sam seems unusually calm despite everything that is going on, while my head is questioning every little detail of my life.
I follow, wondering what he is doing. We are literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by thick, dense forest on both sides of the road.
“What are we doing?”
Sam doesn’t answer. Instead, he walks over to the tree line, where there is a heap of shrubs and debris from the trees.
He starts pulling them aside, and I realize there is a hidden path, just big enough for a car to get through.
I don’t know how he can see what he is doing when I can barely see anything in the darkness.
“Wait there,” he says before hopping back in the car.
He drives the car through the narrow gap before he gets back out, going to the trunk and opening it.
He pulls out what looks like a camouflage net.
He throws it over the car while I stand barefoot on the dirt road, wondering what the hell he is doing.
I watch as he then arranges the shrubs and debris, obscuring the car from view to anyone driving down the road, not that I can see anyone driving this far out.
Once he is satisfied that the car is completely concealed, he then walks over to me and grabs my hand, tugging me toward the other side of the road.
“What are you doing?” I ask him when he suddenly pulls me through the trees, walking into the forest.
Sticks and sharp rocks cut my bare feet as we trek through the forest. We walk for around forty minutes. I have a stitch, my feet are killing me, and I am freezing and sore all over.
“Sam, will you answer me? My feet are killing me,” I tell him, and he stops, looking down at my feet.
“Shit, Ada, I forgot. Can I carry you? It’s not much further,” he offers, looking down at my feet.
I shake my head. “Where are we going?”
“I have a cabin out here,” he says, tugging me along.
There isn’t even a path, so I am unsure how he knows where he is going, though he does look at some device with a screen in his hand a few times.
“How can you tell where we are going?” I ask, trudging along.
I jump when I feel something run across my bare foot, making me practically jump on him as I cringe away from whatever it is. Breathe, Adeline. It was a butterfly, just a friendly butterfly, not some creepy insect with eight legs, I tell myself.
Who in their right mind would own a cabin this far into the woods that doesn’t even have car access?
After another twenty minutes, I see a small clearing. Sam squeezes my hand, and I look at him.
“Home sweet home,” he whispers, kissing my hand.
My brows furrow, confused at his words. As we step out of the trees, I can see the outlines of a decent-sized cabin.
“Watch your step,” he says as we walk toward the door, and I go up the three little steps.
Sam pulls a key from his pocket, unlocking the door. He flicks a light on, and I see we are on a little porch.
Walking inside, Sam lets go of my hand and walks off, flicking the lights on. It is a cozy little place with a brick fireplace. I can tell it is an A-frame cabin. The floorboards under my feet creak as I step inside, looking around.