4. Riley
“Shit,”I whisper when I open my eyes. My throat is as dry as dust. That’s my first thought. My second is that Chloe’s been out there on her own all night.
I want to cry. Or scream. But I look around the room, and there’s no one to scream at.
Dante was here most of the night, but now I’m alone.
“Of course I am,” I mumble, fighting back emotions I really don’t want to deal with.
Not right now, and not ever.
It’s not like I want his company, or any of the Reapers’ company, but the part of me that felt… not alone for a while, the part that was starting to believe I actually had people who gave a shit about me for once in my life, people who’d have my back, I guess that part still hasn’t gotten the full memo that none of it was real.
Probably just a shitty side effect of the broken sleep I got.
I don’t even remember dozing off, but I do remember waking up over and over throughout the night, as my worries about Chloe tore me out of nightmares that were even worse. The low-key headache from those drugs Logan gave me didn’t help either, and no matter what the room flooded with daylight is telling me about how long I’ve been lying in this bed, it feels like I didn’t get any actual rest. Not any that counts, at least.
It doesn’t matter. I can tell I’m not going to fall back asleep this time. For better or worse, I’m awake now… and I’d kill for some water.
For some more water.
I do my best to push away the vague memories of Dante bringing me some during the night. Holding the cup for me while I drank. Brushing stray drops from my lips when he pulled it away.
Keeping his promise to keep me locked in these cuffs the whole time.
“Goddammit,” I hiss, yanking on them as desperation and hopelessness well up inside me in an unstoppable wave. It figures that the one thing that asshole didn’t lie to me about would be this. That there’s no way for me to get free.
But I have to.
Baring my teeth, I twist my body enough to gain some leverage and then jerk my wrists against the warm metal until it bites into my flesh like twin bands of bloody razor blades.
And I’ve got no doubt they really are bloody. I can’t bear to look, but it feels like the only thing I’m accomplishing is scraping my skin raw. Dante’s not here to tell me to stop this time though, and it’s literally the only way for me to get free, so fuck it.
I pant through the pain, happy to rip my own hands off if that’s what it takes. I won’t let them win, and no matter how empty this room is, after what they told me about the surveillance system in this place, I know that being alone in here means jack shit. They can still see me.
And I refuse to let them see me give up.
I can’t give up. Chloe may have my phone and a little money, but we had no time to make a plan. She knows just enough to know she’s in danger, to know that there’s nowhere safe for her to go, but the only other thing she’s got is my promise that I’ll find her.
And the brutal reality that there’s no way for her to reach me if I don’t.
Not without coming back here.
I squeeze my eyes closed and pull against the cuffs even harder. Pull until I really do feel a warm trickle of blood snaking down my arms.
It doesn’t matter. Call it an offering, a blood sacrifice, to anyone listening.
Please, please let her be too smart to come back.
Although if I’m going to bother with prayers when there’s fuck-all chance of getting them answered, what I should pray for is that Chloe gets herself out of Halston.
But I know better. She won’t leave the city without me. And even if I’m somehow wrong about that, it’s not like she has enough to make a new start anywhere else. Not on her own.
I don’t even try to stop the tears that slip out as I keep struggling in vain against the cuffs. The few thousand dollars in that envelope I gave her will run out all too soon, and she’s got no good way to get more, no ID of her own, and no way to use her own name safely even if she did.
Not with Austin McKenna’s gang thinking she’s dead right now.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, hating that I’ve failed her.
Then my eyes pop open and I go still, my heart suddenly racing. I’ve gotten used to thinking of West Point as the enemy over these last few weeks and the Reapers as some kind of fucked-up safe haven for us, but that’s only half true. West Point is the enemy, and staying out of sight might keep Chloe off their radar, but the Reapers? Well, now I know that they’re our enemy too. And they not only know Chloe is still alive, but Maddoc has probably had his people out looking for her all night while I’ve been lying here doing nothing.
What if they’ve already found her?
What if they brought her back to the house while I was sleeping?
What if they’ve already forced her to do… whatever the fuck it is they want to use her for?
“Chloe!” I scream before I can decide whether or not it’s smart, yanking so hard on the cuffs that the pain feels like liquid fire and a distant part of me, buried underneath the panic that claws at my heart at the thought of my sister back in the hands of these liars, is surprised I haven’t ripped my hands off already. “Chloe!” I can’t stop shouting for her. Can’t stop the fear that all but chokes me. “Chloe!”
Blood runs down my forearms in earnest now, and I don’t care if calling out for her is smart. If she’s here, I need to know it. If the Reapers found her, if they’re holding her, I need her to know that she’s not alone. I need her to trust that I’ll… I’ll…
Fuck. I don’t know what, but I’ll do something.
Protect her.
Save her.
Whatever it takes.
“Chloe!” I yell again, desperation fueling my voice even though it’s so hoarse that the word feels like sandpaper scraping my throat raw from the inside out.
But at least this time, I get a response.
Just not one from my sister.
The door bursts open, and Maddoc—flanked by Dante and Logan—strides into the room like he owns it.
I glare at them, panting. Trying to ignore the way seeing them walk in together as a group, a united front, makes my heart stutter with a whole different kind of pain than the fire in my wrists. Each one of them is intimidating on his own, but with all three men together—together and clearly aligned against me—I can’t even pretend that I have a chance here.
But I can still fight for one.
And I’ll be damned if I let them see how hopeless I feel at the thought of standing against them.
I grit my teeth and use the handcuffs as leverage, pulling myself up into a sitting position. A fresh, hot wave of agony makes me hiss, threatening to steal all my attention for a moment.
But it can’t have it… and neither can Dante when his eyes dart toward my wrists and his lips turn down, just for a moment, in a fierce frown. Or Logan, whose icy gaze flickers with something else as he rakes it over me before blanking out his face again.
I ignore both of them and lift my chin, fixing my own gaze on Maddoc. He’s in charge. Dante and Logan had made it crystal clear that they’re loyal to him, so he’s the only one who matters right now.
“Why are you screaming your sister’s name?” he asks me, so coldly that only the telltale twitch of his jaw muscles proves how furious he still is.
I lift my chin, refusing to answer.
“Chloe’s gone, remember?” he presses on. “You helped her run.”
He’s goading me, I know he is. But that doesn’t stop relief from slamming into me at the words.
Maddoc may be a piece of shit who betrayed me, but he was right about one thing. He never actually lied, and I can’t bring myself to believe he’s doing it now. There’s just something about his dominant nature that makes it impossible to picture, like he’s arrogant enough to think lying is beneath him.
And right now, that means he’s telling me the truth. They haven’t found Chloe yet.
But that still doesn’t mean she’s safe.
He smiles grimly, like he’s reading my mind. “But we will find her.”
I swallow hard. “What do you even want with her?”
No one answers me.
Of course they don’t.
“You asshole,” I hiss, narrowing my eyes at Maddoc. “Just fucking tell me already!”
“The way you’re prepared to tell us where it is she’s gone?” Maddoc asks in a clipped voice that betrays no emotion at all.
I laugh. It’s either that or cry. He’s the most stubborn, unbending man I’ve ever met, and for all that I thought we’d had some moments, some kind of connection growing between us, he’s put my sister in danger and betrayed my trust.
And he has the nerve to be angry at me.
My throat closes up. No, that’s not what guts me. It’s that he doesn’t even seem sorry about any of it. Not at all.
“You don’t know where she is,” Maddoc says after a breath, stating it like it’s a fact. An accusation that I’ve failed her.
And he’s right.
“But you probably know the parts of the city she’s familiar with,” he goes on. “Places she’d feel safe. People she might have turned to.”
I shake my head, turning away and blinking fast as tears sting the back of my eyelids again.
There’s nowhere in Halston Chloe would feel safe. No one in the city for her to turn to for sanctuary.
“I’m not telling you anything,” I whisper, hating the way my voice gives me away when it cracks.
Maddoc’s jaw tightens. “Then you’ve done more than just put her in danger by sending her out there on her own. You’re the one who’s going to be responsible for leaving her out there in harm’s way.”
The harsh truth in his words hurt worse than when he belted me.
“You asshole!” I scream, lunging at him only to have the handcuffs rip into my abused wrists like molten steel. This time, I don’t ignore the pain, I let it fuel me. “You did this, not me. Chloe is in danger because of you fucking Reapers! Because all she is to you is someone else to be used! Because you don’t fucking care—”
I choke off my words. I’ve already shown them too much of my heart. They don’t get any more.
Maddoc doesn’t flinch, but his glare turns murderous. Still, when he finally answers me, his voice is so calm that it cuts into me before I even know he’s sliced.
“Wrong, Riley. This one’s all on you. And all you have to do to fix it, to save your sister, is tell us where to look. Help us find her before it’s too late.”
Fear twists my gut.
Fear that he might be right.
But doing what he wants would mean trusting him again, and been there, done that… and instead of a commemorative t-shirt, all I got was fucked over and made to look a fool.
No, all I got was this. Chloe is gone again. I’m still the Reapers’ prisoner.
But this time, there’s no one to turn to.
No one on my side.
“Never,” I whisper, turning my head away when my emotions threaten to betray me again. “I will never tell you anything, ever again.”
I close my eyes.
I can still feel the way Maddoc’s eyes bore into me, though. The way he waits. Stares. Glares with a frustrated intensity that he probably thinks will break me.
He’s wrong.
Eventually, he clues in to that fact and somehow signals to his seconds, because when I finally hear the door click shut behind them, I open my eyes again and find myself all alone.
Again.
Always.
Alone with my thoughts, my worries, my hate.
But mostly, alone with the harsh, inescapable truth Maddoc reminded me of—that Chloe’s in danger again.
Even if the Reapers are the ones to blame for that, it’s still my fault, because I’m the one who came to them. Led them to her. Fucking trusted them. And knowing it’s a mistake I won’t ever let myself make again is a cold comfort when there’s nothing I can do to change any of that.
Nothing I can do to help Chloe.