Chapter 1
Riley
“TELL ME A PRETTY LIE.”
(THE NIGHT OF THE KIDNAPPING)
I’m awakened when an all-encompassing pain radiates from my shoulder, the agonizing heat spreading like wildfire to every corner of my body.
I attempt to blink away the darkness that consumes my vision, but the effort is futile.
Where the fuck am I?
My body is jostled again, and my exposed skin scrapes painfully across rough carpet, earning a deep groan that bubbles up from my chest. My shoulder throbs uncontrollably in a never-ending pain.
At the same time, a sticky warmth seeps through the fabric of my shirt.
The pain is excruciating, and I don’t understand what the fuck is going on.
When I try to reach up to the wound to investigate, it takes me a moment to realize my wrists are bound tightly together behind my back.
I hear cars honking around me and a dull hum ringing in my ears that I finally register as the vibration of an engine.
Am I in the trunk of a car?
The faintest whimper catches my attention, and I turn my head—albeit slowly—towards the sound.
I can’t see shit, and I don’t have access to my hands to feel around.
I feel so weak and cold, and I can’t get my limbs to move.
The familiar rasp of a tiny cry pierces my senses again, causing my sluggish heart to pick up its rhythm fractionally.
“Co…Collins?” I try to say her name, but my lips are so numb, and my senses are fading in and out so uncontrollably that I’m not sure if I actually said her name or not.
“Ri—” My name on her lips breaks off on a sob.
All at once, the memory hits me of how I—we—ended up in the trunk of this car together.
I remember feeling confused by the lack of security around the buses when I’d first stepped out of the venue. I brushed it off, thinking that maybe they were inside doing a sweep of the perimeter or something.
I remember running to the bus to grab my headphones only to find the door hanging wide open and Jones was nowhere in sight.
I remember the shock of finding some man I didn’t recognize hauling a dazed and bleeding Collins over his shoulder.
The raised gun in his hand.
The shot fired at me.
Laying in a pool of mixed blood after I’d collapsed, I could do nothing but stare at the destroyed interior of what had become a home-on-wheels to us.
The fear that crept into my bones and the anguish of knowing—fucking knowing—that he found her, that we weren’t careful enough with her safety and failed to protect her.
I remember when the man had returned and dragged me off of the bus by my feet.
The asphalt that had ripped my back to shreds along the way.
The loss of blood left me unable to fight back when he zip-tied my hands behind my back so tight that the plastic dug into my skin painfully.
He then dumped me into this tiny trunk next to an unconscious Collins.
Everything faded to black just moments after the trunk slammed shut.
A soft touch pokes awkwardly at my face, and it pulls me from the haunting memory. I wouldn’t flinch even if I had the energy because I know it’s Collins feeling blindly for me in the dark. Hard, sharp plastic scrapes across my neck, and I realize that her hands are bound, too.
My stomach plummets with how helpless I feel.
The car takes a sharp turn, the movement forcing Collins’ hands away from my face, and I find myself wishing I could chase her touch, despite the situation.
“I’m so sorry, Riley…” Her voice is no more than a whisper through every hiccup and sob that passes her lips.
“Don’t—” I groan in pain when the car hits a pothole, causing white to spot my vision when my body bounces and thumps against the unforgiving surface. “Don’t you dare apologize,” I gasp, finding it awfully hard to breathe through each word. “None of this is—”
“It is!” she cries softly as her fingertips find my face again. “It is, because you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
How could she possibly think that?
“Baby…” My words fade, my mind too sluggish to complete what I want to say.
I start to shiver as the metallic tang of blood creeps through my senses.
The pain in my shoulder accompanied by the blood loss threatens to pull me under, but I don’t want to slip away.
I can’t die, knowing that Collins needs me.
The tips of her fingers are like a ghost of a touch, trailing deftly along my skin. She navigates my face and neck, then lower until she reaches my shirt, which is now thoroughly soaked with my own blood.
“You’re hurt,” she chokes, devastation coating the two heavy words.
She sniffles, clutching the soiled material tightly between her fists.
A quiet, broken sob rips from her chest while she feels around for the wound.
I hiss when she comes in contact with my shoulder, and I can tell it makes her jump by the way her fingers twitch against my shirt.
“H-he shot you.” She says the words so quietly, but they’re etched in sorrow and agony.
My speech is robbed from me when Collins balls the fabric of my shirt again and tries to press it to the wound to staunch the bleeding. It’s so blindingly painful that my body flinches away on instinct. She sobs as she pushes again, though, intent on her actions that may be a lost cause.
How much more can I bleed out before it’s too much?
The thought terrifies me.
I finally found the family I’d always dreamed of having. I even managed to fall in love along the way. Fuck, something new had begun to take form with Creed. Something that I’ll never get to fully explore.
The thought of leaving either of them births a new sense of dread in the pit of my stomach.
Even in the dark of the trunk, everything feels like it’s tilting and I’m so fucking dizzy, my head won’t stop spinning and spiraling.
My eyes threaten to roll back and let the darkness claim me, but I fight like hell to regain control of my mind. Fuck, I need to stay awake. I will my lips to move, to speak to her.
“Baby?” I think I say. She’s quiet, so I try to form my lips around her name. “Snow?”
“Riley?” I commit the sound of my name on her lips to memory.
“Tell me—tell me a pretty lie.” I stammer out.
“A… pretty lie?” she echoes softly.
“Y-yeah, I want you to… paint a picture for me, Snow.” Every word is labored but I think I manage to choke them out.
She’s quiet for another moment, probably wondering if I’ve lost too much blood and am now losing my mind. Unfortunately, both of those assessments are becoming truer with each passing moment.
“We’re gonna be okay.” She sniffles, pressing a little harder against the bullet hole in my shoulder.
“Creed and Asher are going to find us before you know it, and we’ll both be okay.
” Even through her rasping whisper, it sounds like even she can’t believe her own words.
But I see them for what they are. I asked her for a pretty lie, and she told one.
The reality of the situation is that only one of us will most likely survive this ride into a place unknown. Even then, what does Guy have planned for Collins? My body flushes with anger at the thought of him anywhere near her.
“Riley, you have to calm down, please.” She begs, her desperation pulling me from my nightmarish thoughts. I do my best to refocus on her voice. “You—you’re bleeding more. Fuck, what do I do, baby? How do I stop it?”
Here she is, held captive and bound in a trunk just like I am, and she’s only worried about me?
I try to take a deep breath, but each expansion of my lungs feels like white hot knives are piercing the failing organs.
Agony sweeps through me with one harrowing thought.
I’m not gonna make it much longer.
A tear slips from my eye at the heartache and despair I feel for leaving Collins to fight alone. I have to have faith that Creed will find us—find Collins—quickly.
I want to scoot closer to her, but I can’t get my body to move. There’s a disconnect happening between my brain and my extremities as I feel myself shutting down.
“Now…t-tell me an… ugly… lie.”
She’s crying now, too. I can tell by the way her hands shake where they’re pressed against my skin.
She sniffs hard once before a rogue sob and escapes her lips.
Her hands leave me, and I hear her shift across the carpet of the trunk.
Her warm breaths fan across my neck and chin as her touch returns, putting as much pressure as she can muster against my wound.
The problem is, I don’t feel the pain anymore.
The cold is gone, too.
But then her words spark what remains of the little embers that cling to my lifeblood. “I hate you.”
More tears fall freely from my eyes, cascading down my nose and soaking the carpet that is now saturated with my blood.
My slowing heart thuds just once in my chest.
I know I told her to tell me an ugly lie, but if this is my last moment with her, she has to know my truth. I cannot allow death to wrap its arms around me until she knows how I’ve felt from the very first moment she emerged into my life.
With the last of my strength, I push my head forward until my forehead rests against hers. Nudging her until her head tilts up, I place one last kiss upon her lips as I murmur the words with clarity, “I know, but I’ll love you enough for the both of us.”
Her cry is enough to rip my soul from my body and shred it, but she can have all of what remains if it will help to keep her whole.
On a heavy exhale, my body goes lax, completely free of pain and blissfully numb, which sends Collins into a state of panic.
“Riley, please!” She begs against my lips, but I can’t comfort her, no matter how hard I try.
My eyes fall closed, and Creed’s face lights up the forefront of my mind.
I hope and pray to whatever entity is out there watching over us that he’s able to save her, to bring her home and keep her safe.
To live a long, long life together, so he can love her the way she deserves.
They’ll need one another to move on and find peace once I’m gone.
I want to tell her to be strong.
To fight like hell…but I can’t.
Each breath is slower than the last, and it only sends Collins further into hysteria.
Pulling in a shallow breath, I release it and my body rocks forward with the compression of my lungs and it allows my forehead to press against hers. I hope she can feel the words I so desperately want to say, but my lips refuse to craft the words.
Thank you, Snow, for showing me what unconditional love should feel like.