Chapter 54 Lexi
FIFTY-FOUR
LEXI
All I’ve managed to do since Grant left is make the knots around my wrists tighter.
Without being able to see how he’s restrained me, I’ve mentally run through all the types Colten taught me when we were in high school.
While most kids our age were sneaking out and getting drunk, we were learning how to escape hostage situations, and that’s all you need to know about how weird the life of a Mafia kid is.
Laken has her head bowed and shoulders hunched, but as far as I can tell, she’s not trying to escape.
I glance toward the hallway, and when I don’t find Grant or Jay anywhere in sight, I risk speaking. “How long have you been with them?” I whisper so softly I barely hear my own words, but her eyes glance up and meet mine.
Laken does the same assessment I just did before returning her gaze to me. “I’m not sure. A month maybe?” Her voice is soft but hoarse, and it’s clear she hasn’t used it much recently.
God, I can’t imagine. Spending weeks with her captors with no idea if anyone is coming for her, accepting her fate as the days pass.
“Where are you from?”
“Philly.” She glances around again, making sure they aren’t checking in on us.
Recognition washes over me.
Laken Lancaster.
We’ve never met, but I recognize her from social media because we follow each other.
All I know about the Lancasters is that they’re known for their ruthlessness, which makes me wonder how I didn’t even know she was missing.
I sweep the area again before dropping my voice even lower. I’d rather have to repeat myself than for them to overhear what I’m about to say.
“I have a gun.”
Her eyes widen in surprise. “They didn’t find it?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know how.”
“Do you know if anyone is looking for you?”
“My boyfriend for sure. My brother was coming home from his honeymoon today, so I assume him as well.”
Her shoulders relax ever so slightly, and as desperately as I want to ask why her family wouldn’t be doing the same, the more I say, the more at risk we are of being drugged again.
“They’re going to find us,” I promise.
“How do you know?”
“Colten is a bit of a stalker.” I nod at my shoes.
“He has trackers on you?”
“Yep. There are few things he values as much as my safety.”
Thinking about Colten is hard right now, because although he’ll be tearing this city apart to find me, and his obsession with me and keeping me safe will likely be what saves us, I’m furious that he hacked the matchmaker algorithm to match us.
And not only that, he didn’t tell me.
Even after I accepted his stalking behaviors. Even after everything we’ve been through the last few weeks, he still didn’t trust me, trust us, enough to tell me.
How is our relationship supposed to last when he’s constantly lying to me?
Laken falls silent for a moment, her shoulders shifting slightly is the only sign that she’s testing her restraints.
“Jay doesn’t like it when I’m marked. I think I can get out of mine.”
“Do it,” I say, turning my attention to the hallway. “I’ll keep a lookout.”
The warehouse falls quiet, the only sound is the wind rattling the door on the other side of the wide-open space.
A shiver racks through my body, the cold settling into my bones the longer I sit here immobile. I’ve lived in Seattle my whole life apart from the few years I was away for college, but this cold feels different.
Maybe it’s the dread that weaves alongside it, making my body shudder every time I consider the possibility that we won’t be able to escape.
What if this is my life now?
What if everything Cruz did to protect me from a life like this was for nothing?
What if I wasted years being too afraid of being in hurt to live my life to the fullest?
I don’t want to live the rest of my life with regrets.
“How are you doing?”
“I think I’ve almost got it.”
Footsteps in the distance make us both pause, and my stomach rolls with their urgency. Something’s wrong.
Laken stares at me with wide eyes, terror dancing in the depths.
“The gun is tucked into my left side,” I whisper urgently.
She shakes her head, but I break our eye contact, dropping mine to the concrete floor. They’ll be pissed if they find out we were talking and our exit window is closing.
“It’s time to move,” Jay announces, stopping in front of me and tipping up my chin. “I don’t want any funny business from you. Laken knows her place after a few weeks with us, but you’ll quickly learn what happens to whores who don’t follow the rules.”
I glare at him but tip my chin slightly in acknowledgment. I’m not willing to bow to him, but I’m not going to purposely provoke him either. I have enough survival instinct to know that would be a terrible idea.
He seems satisfied with my response, so he moves behind me, untying my wrists from the chair and resecuring them in front of me. I tuck my arms close, my heart thundering each time his fingers slip closer to the weapon I have smuggled down my pants.
Once again, he checks the restraints more than once before moving on to Laken.
Her body trembles, and I can’t tell if it’s from fear, the cold, or a mixture of both. Where I’m wearing one of Colten’s T-shirts and sweatpants, she’s wearing a sweater and yoga pants, so I doubt she’s any warmer than I am right now.
Grant steps into the open space, a gun drawn as he moves toward the doors.
I glance over my shoulder when both their attention is elsewhere, searching for an alternative door, but there isn’t one. At least not within the main warehouse space.
There has to be an emergency exit somewhere, but if we make a run for it, one wrong turn and we’re done for.
I need to be sure of my path if I’m going to make a break for it.
When I turn back, Laken is staring at me with renewed resolve, like a switch has been flicked somewhere in her mind.
I take a step closer to her at the same time she does to me, before we both pause and wait for them to notice. When they don’t, we repeat the same series of movements until we’re close enough to touch.
You know how to shoot? I mouth.
She nods quickly. She knows as well as I do that we have one shot at this, and if we fail, we’re done.
There’s no room for error.
No room for mistakes.
I press my eyes closed, breathing through the panic that weaves through every muscle.
I’ve been training my whole life to be able to save myself, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
What we’re going to do.
Grant and Jay have their backs to us, speaking in whispered shouts I should probably be paying more attention to, but all I can focus on right now is getting Laken the gun.
Laken and I lock eyes again, offering one another the strength we need to pull this off before I bend to the side and move my arms out of the way.
She dips her bound hands into the side of my sweatpants and pulls the gun free.
You’ve got this, I say silently, and she gives me a shaky nod.
Laken lifts the gun, flicks the safety, and aims at the back of Jay’s head, her hands shaking slightly as she locks in on her target.
But before she can get the shot off, a loud bang accompanied by a bright flash of light fills the warehouse, and all hell breaks loose.