Page 69

All of my emotions must’ve been evident on my face, for Beau took an automatic step toward me, hands extended.

“Don’t touch me,” I hissed. “What’s going on?” Finally, I addressed all four of them. Tanner had the decency to look sheepish, but Aiden met my gaze defiantly.

“I think you already figured it out,” he said tersely. Each word was clipped, succinct, the biting slash of a whip. I felt it ram into me physically.

“You’re escaping,” I whispered. Not one of them denied it.

“That’s right.” It was Kace that spoke, his eyes still trained on his hand. “We can’t stay here any longer. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I repeated numbly. There was this roaring sound in my ears. A scream.

I turned my eyes onto Beau, who was watching me helplessly.

The air around us practically vibrated with tension. I kept my gaze locked on his as I finally dared a step closer.

“You knew.” It wasn’t a question, but he nodded in assent anyway. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I didn’t bother to brush them away. I wanted him to see the hurt, the pain, the anguish. “You would’ve left me behind?”

At my soft words, he began to shake his head vehemently. His shaking hand reached for my arm to write on the sensitive skin, but I wrenched it away.

“No, you don’t get to do that. If you have something to say, then say it. You talked to all of them. Why can’t you talk to me?” I took a step closer until the tips of my shoes were touching his. Until our noses were a mere inch apart and his hot breath wafted over my face. “Talk, Beau. Fucking talk.”

He remained stubbornly silent, his eyes begging me, beseeching me, to trust him. There was something near pleading in his golden-flecked gaze.

But my nerves were alight, my stomach a tumultuous mixture of dread and anger, and the last thing I wanted to do was trust him.

What people failed to tell you was that the people you loved the most were capable of hurting you the most.

“Talk, dammit!” I screamed, pounding on his chest. “Talk!”

My only answer was the slightest shake of his head.

Suddenly, I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t be near him. It hurt too much.

Despite his anguished gaze and reaching hands, I ducked away, moving to sit beside Kace. The auburn-haired man immediately shifted until our arms brushed, his own eyes flickering with sympathy.

“So you’re escaping,” I whispered harshly. Grit and other unsavory substances clung to my clothes, but I paid them no mind.

“Yes,” Aiden answered immediately. “And we need your help.”

A strangled laugh escaped me. “Is that the only reason you brought me? Allowed me to join your little club? Because you need my help? What if you didn’t need me? Would you have left me here to die?”

Nobody answered, but their silence was answer enough.

“Fuck you,” I snapped. “Fuck you all.”

“It’s not like that,” Tanner snapped. “We have come to…care about you. We wouldn’t have left you behind.”

Care about me? I wanted to scoff. The only thing they cared about was themselves. I was just the girl who dared to defy them, the girl who had gotten in the way of their plans, the girl who had found herself in a dead girl’s room.

“Down that staircase,” Aiden began, pointing toward the door he had attempted to lure me down before, “is a tunnel. We don’t know how long it’s been here or what its purpose is, but we believe it will get us out of here.”

“Or…” I met his stare with a quirk to my brow. “The tunnel will just lead us back to where we once were. Like the gates.”

Aiden shrugged, undisturbed. “Maybe. But it’s the only option we have. It’s either leave through the tunnel or leave through a bodybag. And I don’t want it to be the latter.”

His words made sense, in a twisted sort of way. I filed the information away to look into at a later time.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “So you found this tunnel. Why haven’t you left yet?”