25. Ari
25
ARI
T he rain kept coming down hard, stinging my skin.
“Damon, stop him before he gets away,” I groaned as my arm started to throb. I had to move. He was escaping. Why wasn’t Damon doing anything? I struggled in his arms, forcing him to put me down.
Damon shook his head. “Are you joking, Ari? You’ve been shot.”
I slipped and stumbled in the mud as I tried to start in the direction Lane had gone. “But he’s getting away.”
Damon wrapped his arm around my waist. “No, sweetheart. Stay with me. You’re hurt. This is my fault. Let me get you to safety first.”
Before I could argue my case, Lucas came running back, all the while shaking his head. “I think Lane did something to trigger an alarm. More guards are coming. I disabled the cameras back here, so we have a moment, but the last thing we want is Reaper’s men finding us. We have to get out of here. You two leave the property. I have to find Penny and tell her what’s happened.”
I shook my head. “We can’t leave. We have to go after Lane.”
Damon hauled me to his side. “You’re bleeding. You’re not going to make it if Reaper’s men are coming. We need to focus on getting out.”
I glowered at my shoulder, hating that he was right. “I think our best egress route is that way,” I said, pointing to the south, around the lake, in the opposite direction of where Lane had gone. “We have to go get him. We can’t just wait.”
Damon tugged me behind him. “I’ve got her, Lucas. You get out of here. We’ll have to regroup.”
Lucas nodded, eyeing me carefully. “Get her to a hospital.”
“A hospital?” I argued as I fought Damon’s grip. “Seriously?” I tried to shake him off, but he easily tugged me behind him. Think, Ari. Think. If I didn’t get Lane now, I’d never get him. I had to go after him.
“You’ve been shot, Ari,” Damon shouted, and I could hear the fear in his voice.
Water was running down his face, soaking his hair, matting it to his forehead. He brushed the sudden curls out of his eyes. “You’re shot,” he said more quietly. “We’re done.”
I shook my head and fought his hold. “We can do this. We just need?—”
Before I knew it, Damon picked me up and flipped me over his shoulder. I was already wet and soaked through, and my arm was killing me now.
Lucas stepped back into the shadows, and Damon took off with me at a dead run. It wasn’t until we hit the lake that he put me down. “Can you run?”
I smacked him. When he didn’t move, I tried to shove him hard. “You did this. You brought me into this and made me care, and now you’re letting him get away.”
Damon took both my hands. “Ari, don’t you get it? You’re more important to me than the necklace. You. My only goal is to get you out of here safely. That’s all I care about. I don’t care about the necklace. I’ll find another way to repay Lucas.”
I scowled at him. “No, we said we could do this. I can’t fail.”
He cupped my face, the rain making it hard to see as the droplets and their close cousins, my tears, clung to my lashes. “I know, Ari, but let me take care of you. When that’s done and you’re up to speed, we can get retribution or whatever. But for now, let me make you safe.”
My head was starting to spin. I glanced back toward the mansion. I could see the guards on the top levels, flashlights ablaze, looking for people hiding.
There really was no going after Lane right now. I’d failed. To make it worse, I’d almost lost Damon. What would I have done if Lane had killed him? My heart cracked in two as I thought about not having him. He’d only been back in my life for a short time, but I loved him.
Losing him now . . . I wouldn’t survive that.
With a groan, I followed Damon, taking his hand as he dragged us around the lake through the soft marsh to the boat hidden there.
“I thought you were worried about visibility.”
“I am. But use your ears. Guards are coming. We’re not going to make it around on foot. Get in, Ari.”
The water was choppy, and rain and waves began to fill the boat as we shoved off from the makeshift shore. I held on tight to the side as water sloshed in and the waves tipped us from side to side.
When Damon had finally rowed us to the opposite end, he jumped out and reached a hand to me. “Take my hand, Ari.”
Without even thinking, I placed my hand in his, knowing I was safe with him. We weren’t dressed for the rain, and with our clothes soaked through, a chill started to set in as we tried to move quickly to the tree line.
Without any of our gear, the trek through the woods felt treacherous with the downpour. The little light there was, was diffused and hazy in the rain.
In the distance, we could hear dogs.
“Fuck. Are they seriously sending dogs after us?” Damon said.
Twigs snapped around us, and branches whipped us in the face. I knew my hair was a sodden mess. The clips I had used to secure it were long gone, and my braid was unraveling. My hair soaked up the water like wool, curling into big fat clumps.
I didn’t know how long we’d roamed around in the woods, but eventually, we came across the Jeep nestled right where Lucas had left it for us.
God, this was not the way I thought we’d be leaving. Not at all.
This definitely wasn’t the worst of the worst scenarios. At least we weren’t sitting in a jail cell or dead. But twice now, Michael Lane had come for my family, and twice he’d walked away the winner. As Damon started the car, I vowed that as soon as we were patched up and safe, I was going after Lane.