“The attic’s across the roof.” I took us toward the bathroom, knowing now how she got in. “You climbed across the roof?”
Jesus, fuck. And I was worried about getting to her before my father did.
She could’ve died. How could they be so stupid to bring her?
“Rika’s outside your bathroom window,” she said in a hushed voice. “Would you shut up now?”
Fine. She was already here. Damage was done. I’d deal with them later.
Walking into the bathroom, I shot a glance to my bedroom door behind me, making sure it was still closed and no one was onto us.
I stepped on top of the toilet, seeing the small window already propped up and Rika crouched down on the roof, waiting.
Where was Will? Why were the girls the ones doing this?
I could understand Kai not wanting to leave Banks alone with my father, but where the hell were Michael and Will?
I stepped back down and lifted Winter up, the slice in my side burning, but I maneuvered her through the window, Rika taking her arms and pulling her up.
I took short, shallow breaths, trying to tap down the nausea creeping up again. I was going to need some fucking stitches. Goddammit. I didn’t have time for this.
Hopping up on the toilet again, I planted my foot on the wall for leverage and shot up, digging my elbows into the windowsill and pulling myself forward on my arms while I slipped up and out.
“You okay?” Rika asked.
“Just go.”
I breathed hard, hearing her whisper instructions to Winter before they both found the ridge and began crawling it over to the attic window.
My leg was wet from the blood, but the night air chilled my skin, cooling me off and waking me up.
They would have to have a car nearby. Just five more minutes. I’d get to rest.
Following them over the roof and keeping low, I climbed through the circular attic window, falling in and crashing onto the floor.
Winter rushed over to me, touching my face.
The room was dark, but moonlight shone through, and I looked up, seeing not only Rika, but Alex standing there, too, all three women staring down at me.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I whined, holding my side and trying to get my feet under me.
“That’s how you thank three females who just saved your ass?” Rika remarked, sounding all too amused.
And then Alex tipped her chin at me, taunting, “Who’s your daddy?”
Winter snorted, and I just fixed a snarl on my face as I stood up. “Just get me out of here,” I told them. “And don’t tell anybody about this, for Christ’s sake.”
The girls laughed and led the way through the panel in the wall where Banks and I grew up shimmying down beams of wood to get around the house in secret, either for fun or for pranks.
Rika and Alex went first, then Winter and then me. We made our way down between the walls, vaguely hearing voices on the other side as we descended floors, and now I kind of understood why the girls were sent. This was a lot tighter space now that I was grown. We went slowly and quietly, since everyone whom we didn’t want to find us was only a piece of wood and a layer of wallpaper away.
Landing at the bottom, I stepped through the hole in the rocks which made up the walls of the cellar and summoned every muscle and ounce of determination I had to get Winter out of here, so I could push forward and make it to the car.
I heard a phone vibrate, and Rika’s face lit up as she looked at a text.
“Okay, now,” she said, glancing at us.
What?
I didn’t have time to ask, though, because she ran up the steps and pushed through the cellar doors, Alex, Winter, and I quickly following.
She jumped into the passenger seat of a black SUV parked right there for us, while Alex opened the rear door and dove in, Winter and I doing the same.
Alex sat in a seat, while Winter and I fell into the rear bench seat way in the back.
I didn’t have time to see who was driving, but I crashed down, falling back into Winter as she slumped back, too, wrapping her arms around me.
“Go, go, go,” I heard Rika tell whoever. “I’ll text Banks and tell them to get out of there.”
Whoever was driving shot backward instead of forward toward the gate, and I held on as the car bounced over the ground and veered left to right, probably to avoid trees. We must be going out the back way.
Winter’s chest rose and fell behind me, but she held me tightly, like she wouldn’t let anything hurt me.
I closed my eyes, listening to the terrain under us, hearing what she was hearing to know when it was finally safe.
The car rocked over the bumpy land, leaves kicked up under the tires, but I didn’t hear any other engines following, shouts, or alarms. So far, we’d gotten out undetected.
I didn’t know what Banks was doing or agreeing to in order to distract my father, but I wanted her out of there now.
And Winter should never have come, either. It was insane to think we were going to get out of this alive.
Why did she even come?
She was pissing me off. Screaming at me one minute, all over me the next, running away this morning, and now she was here. Was she going to decide she needed more space tomorrow?
We pulled onto a paved road, swinging around, and driving forward, and I started to breathe a little easier as the car grew quiet and the engine hummed.
“You left me,” I said, her chin tucked on my shoulder as she held me from behind. “Everyone is always doing that.”
“I needed to think.”
“Think,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Fuck you, baby. It was perfect last night. There were no problems.”
I reached behind, ruffling her hair.
“You’re going to do it again,” I said, dropping my hand. “You should’ve just left me there. Why didn’t you?”
She was quiet, nudging her cheek into mine as she found her words. “Because I was afraid of life without the hope of you to look forward to.”
I fell silent, understanding instantly what she meant. Looking back, I’d always felt the same way. Whether or not we were together, I wanted her, and I’d always want her.
“We can’t hide forever, though, Damon,” she said. “Not in our mazes, our fountains, our treehouses… We live in the world with other people, and I want to respect myself. I just…I needed to think.”
“You want them to respect you,” I retorted.
This was about what people were going to say about us. She thought they weren’t going to trust her now that she was in love with the same guy she sent to jail.
“People think because I’m blind that I’m dumb,” she told me. “They treat me like a child. I want to prove I’m capable. That I’m someone.”
“You should’ve been strong,” I replied, my fingers freezing now all of a sudden. “If anyone knew what a vile cunt this world could be, it was us. But all I needed was you, and all you should’ve needed was me, and fuck all the rest. We would’ve done it. We would’ve won.”
“I came back,” she said again. “I was barely gone fifteen minutes. I came right back.” She kissed my temple. “And we will win. We will.”
Sure. Maybe.
“Okay, there’s Banks and the guys,” I heard Rika say and noticed the headlights coming through the rear window. “We have about three more seconds before Gabriel figures it out.”
My eyes grew heavy again, and my heart was pounding in my ears. I didn’t feel so good.
I swallowed. “I sometimes wonder what I’d be like if I grew up in Michael’s house. Or Kai’s.”
She laughed a little. “You wouldn’t be like them.”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “People are a blend of external and internal influences, not all controlled variables. Sometimes, just sometimes, we are who we are. Even in the sea, a snake is a snake.”
“A lion, a lion,” she added with a smile in her voice.
Blood from the wound dripped from my skin under the shirt.
“I should’ve taken you to St. Killian’s,” I told her. “There’s a room down in the catacombs.”
I paused to make sure she was listening.
“You turn left at the bottom of the stairs and keep going,” I instructed, knowing she was mapping it out in her head. “When you feel a draft from your left, you’ve hit a hallway, and you turn right. Drag your hand along the right wall until you feel the fourth doorway, and then enter it. Water from the snowmelt on the hills above the church seeps through the ground and spills down the walls like a tiny waterfall.” My arms started to fall, unable to hold her anymore. “You can smell the wet rock, and there’s a little pool where the water sits before it drains into a well. In the pool, there’s something you can have. Something of yours I saved. Something you forgot about.”
She waited a moment, probably thinking.
“I’m not missing anything,” she informed me. “There’s nothing I’m forgetting, Damon.”
I closed my eyes. “There is so much you’re forgetting, baby.”
She moved her hand and then sucked in a short breath. “What is this?” She panted, fear filling her throat. “Damon, what happened? Are you injured?”
She lifted my shirt, touching my wound. I grunted. Jesus, it felt on fucking fire now.
She started gasping. “Will, go to the hospital! He’s been hurt!”
“What?” Will shouted.
He must be who was driving.
“Get the flashlight on your phone,” Rika told someone. “Look at it.”
I kept my eyes closed but winced when a bright light shined on me.
“Oh, my God,” Alex cursed. “He’s soaked. Damon, how long have you been bleeding?”
I just grunted, their voices fading.
“Will, just go,” I heard Rika bark. “Speed. Hurry up.”
“Fucking Miles Anderson,” I growled under my breath. “We gotta kill that motherfucker.”
This was really going to ruin my day.