28. Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Freya
A mirah flashes her phone light, and Mia walks over, raising her hands in surrender.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask.
Mia stops in front of us.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. I saw you leave, and I wanted to come.”
I look at Amirah, who’s watching her with a frown.
“From where? You don’t exactly live close,” Amirah retorts, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I was with Dominic.” Mia glances away, and I want to warn her away from him, but it’s not my place.
“So, you followed us?” I ask, and Mia nods.
“You know that sounds creepy as fuck, right?” Amirah says, scanning her up and down with disgust.
Mia bites into her bottom lip, and I notice the dark ring below her eye.
Her heavy makeup covers it, but the skin is puffy compared to her other eye.
“What happened?” I ask, pointing at my own face.
Tears fall down her cheeks, and she tucks her straight black hair behind her ear.
I may hate her for the way she was too close to Lucas the other day, but I’m still worried about her.
“Your brother would have never treated me like this.” She hiccups and my chest squeezes at the mention of him.
As much as I hate Mia, she doesn’t deserve this.
Nobody does.
“Did Dominic do it?” Amirah asks, her fists balling at her sides.
“Yeah.” Mia looks down at her feet.
Of course, Dominic fucking did this.
He’s a monster.
The sooner someone kills him, the better.
The number of lives he’s fucked with, and the number of times he’s gotten away with it, is crazy.
Amirah steps forward, taking Mia’s hands in hers.
“It’s no secret that I don’t like you, but if you feel trapped, I can get you out of here. Get you a new identity and you can be free.”
Can she do that?
Here, I thought I knew my best friend, but apparently not.
I could have used that info before everything that happened when Alec went missing.
I don’t want to leave now.
Wherever they go, I go.
“Thank you, I’ll message you,” Mia says, and Amirah drops her hands, coming to stand beside me.
“Look. since you’re here now, you can come with us. Just stick behind me and don’t say anything. Got it?” I say, and Mia nods.
“And for the record, if I see you that close to Lucas ever again, I won’t hesitate to ruin you. Understand?” I stare Mia up and down, while Amirah steps up beside me.
Mia licks her dry lips.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.”
I scoff, turning back around.
I don’t know if I believe her or not, but one thing I do know is that my brother trusted her.
He may not have loved her, but he cared for her deeply—and Alec was one of the best judges of character I’ve ever met.
I owe it to him to be kind.
“Women get the short end of the stick,” Mia says, and I glance over at Amirah, who watches Mia closely.
“But it was cool that you made some headway with The Brotherhood for change. I’m here for the girl power.”
“They are just scared of the power women can hold,” Amirah says, and Mia nods.
We continue walking toward the tracks, and as we near, the air changes.
Ash clings to my lungs.
I cover my nose with my hoodie, trying to filter it out, but it’s useless.
The smell brings me back to the town hall.
My skin tingles, and fuck, I hope I never have to go through being burned again.
My arms haven’t healed yet, but the pain has subsided.
Amirah coughs next to me and brings up her arm, covering her mouth and nose.
“I’ve changed my mind. Let’s go back home,” she says through the sleeve of her hoodie.
“No way. We’ve already made it this far.”
She sticks by my side.
We reach the tracks where there once was an outpost with multiple guards; now it’s burned to a crisp, with one wall still standing.
Broken pieces of bricks are scattered all over the road.
Smoke tarnishes the air, clinging to my skin and lungs.
We come to a stop on our side of the tracks, Mia on my right and Amirah on my left.
There, written in bright-red paint on the brick wall, are the words:
The Brotherhood is dead.
Amirah grips my wrist and sweat beads down my neck.
This isn’t good.
A war between Daringhood and Daringville is only going to end in one way—death.
I’m on both sides, and I can’t lose anyone else.
I refuse to.
Three figures come out from the tree line over the tracks.
The closer they get, the harder my heart pumps in my chest.
Kai leads, a cigarette hanging from his lips, the flame casting light around his sharp jawline.
He stares right through me, like I don’t even exist, and damn, that hurts more than getting burned.
Bear and Zion stand next to him.
Bear flicks his knife in and out with his fingers while watching me with a blank expression.
He gives me nothing, but that’s not completely new.
Bear always holds his feelings close to his chest—hell, if he even has any.
All the time I’ve known him, he’s never opened up about anything.
Nothing ever fazes him—he’s deadly like that.
He’s someone I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of.
Zion looks at Amirah, Mia, then finally he stops at me.
The corner of his mouth lifts slightly, but his smile is gone just as quickly.
“What do you want?” Kai asks, putting out his cigarette.
I take a step forward, praying that he’ll look at me.
“Kai let me explain—”
He grabs a gun from the front of his jeans, holding it in his grip.
My stomach drops.
He would never hurt me.
“You chose them, Freya,” Kai says, his voice full of anger.
“No, I didn’t!” I yell, taking a step over the tracks.
Amirah reaches for me, but I step out of her way.
Kai’s grip tightens on his gun, his knuckles turning white.
Bear and Zion don’t move.
“I love them, and I won’t apologize for that. I want to be with them, and if you think that means I’ve chosen them, then that’s on you. Not me,” I say, moving closer until I’m halfway over the tracks.
My lungs burn from the smoke lingering in the air.
I should be afraid, but I know Kai would never hurt me, even if he hates me.
“We always have a choice. I asked you to choose whose side you’re on, and you did. You made your bed, and now you’ll lie in it,” Kai says, moving forward until he’s only an arm’s length away.
He finally looks at me, though it’s as if he’s a different person.
Tears prick behind my eyes.
“You’re not welcome in Daringhood anymore. You’re one of them now.” He points toward Amirah, and she stays frozen to the spot with her phone in her hand.
“An enemy to us.”
“Kai, please, it doesn’t have to be this way. You’re like a brother to me. Please, don’t do this. We can work this out,” I beg, stepping closer.
He points his gun at my chest, and I step into it.
Fear courses through my body.
I’m hyperaware of each breath, each movement—but I have to trust he won’t do this.
He won’t hurt me.
“I’m still with you,” I repeat, praying that he won’t actually pull the trigger, but I can’t leave now because I need to know he doesn’t really hate me, that there’s hope for us yet.
Kai is stubborn as shit, and when he’s decided something, like thinking I’ve betrayed him, then that’s it.
His mind is made up, and it takes some serious convincing to tell him otherwise.
But I won’t stop fighting for him, for our friendship.
If he walks away, it’ll be like I’ve lost two brothers these past few months, and I can’t handle that pain.
Kai’s dark-brown eyes glare into mine.
I can see the war he’s fighting from within—the voices telling him to do it and not to at the same time.
“My fight isn’t with you—it’s with them—but now you’re caught in the middle. I can’t protect you if you’re with them,” Kai says, his eyes softening slightly, and my shoulders relax.
He won’t hurt me.
He’s pissed off but still cares, and I’ll take that.
If there’s one thing Kai and my guys have in common, it’s that they want to protect me from themselves and each other.
“Can’t we settle this between us all? We don’t need a war,” I plead.
Kai takes a couple of steps back, placing his gun into the front of his jeans.
“It’s too late for that. They had their chance, and they blew it when they blamed us for the town hall. Something we didn’t do,” Kai explains.
“So you just blew up this?” Amirah says, stepping up next to me and looking around at the destruction.
Kai casts his gaze up and down her body.
He pulls out a cigarette from his pocket, and the sparks from his lighter fill the dark night.
He inhales, then exhales a cloud of smoke.
“Tell your brother we’ve got more than just bombs up our sleeves,” Kai says, and Amirah shuffles next to me.
“Men, you’re all the same. Measuring how big your weapons are.” She huffs before checking her phone again.
“Uhhh, Freya, we should go. They are blowing up my phone, wondering where we are.” Amirah shoves her phone back into her pocket.
Bear chuckles.
“Time to go, princess. Your kings await you.”
I open my mouth to reply, but Amirah pulls me away.
Kai turns around, walking off in the opposite direction.
Part of me wants to run over the tracks and be with them, to settle this and make them see reason, but the other part understands that now isn’t the time or place.
I won’t watch my best friend fight my boyfriends.
It’s going to be a bloodbath—one I don’t want to be in the middle of but already am.
Mia stands in front of us, frozen in place, watching them leave.
I almost forgot she was even here.
Her phone rings.
She checks it, and her chin wobbles slightly before she answers and walks off ahead of us toward Daringville.
Where is she going?
My heart hasn’t stopped beating at double its usual speed, and the farther we move away from Kai, Zion, and Bear, the harder it gets.
I wish I could just pull my heart out of my chest and be done with the stupid bitch.
I’m over feeling so much.
Whoever designed us to have all these feelings, I need their number to call and ask for a refund.
“This isn’t good at all,” Amirah says, and she isn’t wrong.
Kai isn’t bluffing—blowing up the train tracks is just the beginning.
“Did you hear me?”
I realize I haven’t replied yet.
I’m stuck in my head.
“Yeah, sorry. It’s not, but I’m going to do everything in my power to prevent an all-out war,” I say, meaning every word.
I have no idea how, but I’ll try.
“Fuck,” Amirah blurts, pulling out her phone, and she stops in the middle of the road.
“We have to get back to the house now. They know we left, and it won’t be long until they find us.”
“Where’s Mia?” I ask, searching the quiet, dark road.
I can’t see her anywhere.
“Mia?” Amirah yells, but only silence greets us.
“Just leave her. Let’s go.” I take Amirah’s hand, and we walk quickly along the road.
I try to watch out for Mia, but she’s the least of my problems at the moment.
She’s a grown-ass woman and can take care of herself.
Headlights illuminate the road, and tires screech to a stop in front of us.
Gage rolls down the window to his red Range Rover, with Lucas and Hazen in the backseat.
He glares at me before shaking his head.
“Get in the fucking car,” he growls, and I scoff.
These guys never learn.