Chapter 40
ASHLEY
Abigail: I told you to watch your back, and you didn’t listen. Now look what you’ve done.
I didn’t totally pass out in Nate’s arms after losing count of orgasms and getting fucked by all four of my guys in the middle of a forest while they wore masks to hide who was who. That would be crazy.
Okay. So I passed out a little bit, but then I managed to pull myself together long enough to find my pants because waddling back to the house like a cum-drenched Winnie the Pooh with nothing more than a breezy robe over me wasn’t an appealing idea.
Heath crouched and gestured for me to climb onto his back. “Hop on, beautiful. It’s a decent way back to the house from here and you deserve a rest.”
I was too tired to argue, just did as he said and held on tight as he started trekking back through the dark. A long yawn stretched my jaw less than a minute later, and I snuggled my face into his neck. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take a little nap.
“Close your eyes, Ashes,” Heath said softly, his breath huffing as he stepped over a fallen tree. “I’ll take care of you.”
“We all will,” Carter agreed from somewhere nearby, and I yawned again. I’d be needing a shower when we eventually got back so it was just a little catnap on the way.
I woke again as Heath carried me past the crowd of drunk Society members in their robes, celebrating wins or commiserating losses.
“Who won?” I mumbled, my face still squished into Heath’s neck.
“We did,” he replied with a dark chuckle. “Oh, you mean the laser tag? No idea. I’ll find out once you’re in the shower.”
“Cool,” I replied, lacking the energy for anything more. We’d already agreed to stay the night, since it was Royce’s family home, but everyone else would be probably partying the rest of the night.
Carter led the way upstairs and down the hallway to the bedroom that I’d parked my bags in earlier, while Heath continued piggy-backing me like I weighed nothing at all.
“Hey! What happened?” Carly called after us, sprinting up the stairs two at a time when I glanced back. “Ash, are you okay? Did you get hurt? What— oh … ohhhhhh. Never mind, then.” She’d just locked eyes with Royce when her mood shifted and a smile spread over her face.
Whatever Royce had just conveyed with his eyes gave her all the info she needed.
“Well, just so you know, Ash, we came second!” Grinning, she gave Royce a wink. “I’ll leave you to it. Where’s Nate, by the way? He didn’t join your party?”
“Yeah, he was dropping all the laser-tag gear off,” Carter replied, ruffling his fingers through his dark hair. “You want to gloat about beating him?”
Carly shrugged. “It’s not every day.”
“Wait, we didn’t win?” Royce asked in outrage. “Who did?”
“Blue team,” Carly replied with a shrug. “Apparently one of them is a competitive target shooter or some crap. Anyway, you all…have fun.” Her wink was so exaggerated, it was impossible to miss, even with how sleepy I was.
Heath continued on into the bedroom, leaving Carly to return to the party downstairs, and carried me all the way into the bathroom before placing me gently down on the vanity.
“You good, babe?” he asked with a loopy smile as he turned to face me, brushing my hair back from my face. “Want me to help you shower?”
I almost accepted that offer, except then he plucked a leafy twig from my hair and I had a sobering flashback to the eyeball incident. “No…thank you, though. I’ve got it.” Because sometimes a girl just needed to shower alone and get clean rather than use the excuse to get railed again.
As it was, once I was in the warm water and all soaped up, I found it hard to force myself out again.
So I took my time scrubbing every inch of my body, getting all the dirt off my skin, and gently washing the shallow scrapes and grazes on my knees.
Shampooing my hair produced enough leaves and twigs, I could have fed a whole family of guinea pigs, but when I eventually transitioned back to the dry place—out of the shower—I was pink all over and smelling delicious.
The bedroom was empty when I wrapped up in a towel and headed through to find fresh clothes. I was just pulling on a sweatshirt—one of Nate’s that I’d somehow acquired recently—when Heath knocked on the door and let himself in.
“Hey,” he said with a troubled frown. “I think we have a problem.”
Dread flooded through my belly. “What kind of problem?”
“Nate’s missing,” he replied, looking grim. “The vests and guns were never handed in. Someone just found them dropped at the edge of the forest.”
Shock made my knees weak, and I sat on the edge of the bed with a thump. “That…that doesn’t mean he’s missing. Right? He could be…somewhere?”
Heath shook his head. “We tracked his phone and found it about fifty yards from where the gear was left. He wouldn’t drop his phone like that. Not unless…” He trailed off with a wince. I knew what he meant, though. Not unless he was in a fight or someone had taken it from him and tossed it.
Panic tightened my throat, and I rubbed at my chest in a vain attempt to calm myself.
“He’s missing,” I repeated in a small voice.
“Where’s my phone?” I looked around the room, trying to remember where I’d put it.
I hadn’t taken it with me in the woods because it didn’t fit in any of my pockets, so it was beside the bed, plugged into a charger.
I just had a horrible feeling…and that jump scare when I thought I’d seen Jocelyn? It was sitting on my mind like a lead weight, and the moment I unlocked my phone, I found my fears confirmed.
“No,” I whispered in horror, seeing the most recent message staring back at me.
“What is it?” Heath demanded, coming closer to read the message from “Abigail” over my shoulder. “Fuck. Fuck! ”
“ I told you to watch your back, and you didn’t listen. Now look what you’ve done.” I read the text aloud, my stomach clenching painfully with fear. “She has him. Heath, Jocelyn has Nate somehow.”
Heath was already on his way out of the room, bellowing for Carter and Royce, but I was utterly frozen. My hands shook as I opened the text thread and read the message over and over and over, then hastily typed out a reply.
Ashley: What do you want?
I was pretty sure my message wouldn’t even send.
In the past, Abigail’s number had presented as no longer in service somehow, but this time, my phone displayed the little tick that showed it’d been received.
Holding my breath, I stared at the screen for the longest time imaginable, but no response came.
The guys all returned to the room a moment later, and I handed the phone over to Carter when he asked. He scowled at it, then flicked his angry gaze my way.
“You replied? Why?”
I frowned back at him. “Why not? How else are we going to get any information?”
“I’m trying to get ahold of Uncle Henry,” Royce replied, his phone at his ear already. “We need to know if Jocelyn is still at Clearview or if this is someone she’s working with.”
“How sure are you that Abigail was…not a threat?” Heath asked, flexing his hands and making his knuckles pop. “You said she was mostly catatonic, but what if that was a ruse?”
I blew out a long breath, hanging my head. “That never even occurred to me. I assumed she had somehow become a casualty of Jocelyn’s experiment, but it never even crossed my mind that she might have been faking it.”
“If she was, then Jocelyn has an accomplice on the outside ready to do her—” Royce broke off his sentence as his call connected, and he raised a finger to tell us to wait.
“Henry, we need—” His eyes widened at whatever his uncle just said, and his face paled.
“Hang on, let me put you on speaker.” He lowered his phone and pressed the speaker button, his expression grim. “Go ahead.”
“There was a level-three riot, high threat, at Clearview earlier today. We’ve only just been informed that seven inmates escaped in the ensuing chaos.
Jocelyn was one of them.” Henry sounded pissed off and understandably so.
This was bad. Really fucking bad. “I’m sorry, guys.
I only just found out myself, or I’d have called you immediately.
They’ve already alerted the Marshals and the fugitive task force.
Are you somewhere safe? Do you need me to arrange security? ”
“Nate’s missing,” Royce replied in a hard voice. “We think Jocelyn has him.”
A long pause filled the phone line, then the sound of breaking glass made me flinch. “ Fuck! ” Henry exploded. “I’m calling your father, Royce. Keep your phone on.”
The screen showed he’d hung up, and we all just stared at the phone in Royce’s hand for a moment. Then my phone vibrated in Carter’s grip, making me flinch.
Instead of handing it back, he unlocked it with my passcode and read the message. How the hell he had my passcode, I had no clue. They were all too smart for their own fucking good.
“It’s from an unknown number,” he announced out loud, “but…I’d put money on it being Jocelyn.”
Heath reached out to take the phone and read it with a scowl. “She wants a trade. Fuck that. Ignore the message?”
“Obviously,” Carter agreed, even as Royce put his own phone down to snatch mine out of Heath’s hand.
“Is anyone going to tell me what it says?” I demanded, more than a little irritated that they weren’t sharing. “She texted me, so don’t pretend it’s nothing more than a generic ransom message.”
Royce glowered at me, shaking his head. “It’s not an option. We will get Nate back some other way.”
“Show me,” I demanded, holding out my hand. My tone and stare let him know in no uncertain terms, I wasn’t asking . This was nonnegotiable.
Royce held my gaze, his left eye twitching as his jaw clenched, but eventually he extended his hand to pass my phone back to me. Smart boy.
Unknown Number: I’m willing to trade. You for my son. No need to involve the authorities again, Ashley. I’m sure by now you’ve seen how well that worked out at Clearview.
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. She had to have worked out that Mom and Max were still alive…that was why she’d broken into the funeral home to verify their corpses with her own eyes. If she’d worked that out, then she was not satisfied. Mom hadn’t been hurt enough. Nor had Max.
I just had to hope she’d be satisfied with my death and leave Nate alive. Surely, somewhere deep down, she still loved him. At least a little bit.
“You’re not doing it,” Carter snapped, his voice rough with anger. “Stop thinking about it.”
I wet my lips, keeping my gaze lowered to my phone. It was too hard to meet their eyes. “I don’t really think that’s your call to make, Carter.” My statement landed like a flash-bang, causing the three of them to all flinch hard enough I didn’t need to be looking to see it.
“How do you think Nate would feel,” Heath said softly, his voice choked with emotion, “if you were killed to save his life?”
I dragged my lower lip between my teeth, feeling calmer and more sure than I could ever remember feeling. “I think he’d be alive, and that’s all that matters.” Gripping my phone tight in my fist, I strode to the bathroom and locked the door behind myself before replying to Jocelyn’s text.
She wanted a trade? So be it.