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“Promise me, Z? Promise me, we leave together.”
“Promise.”
Cole nuzzles his face into my chest, pressing his entire body against mine. Meek and fragile, he needs me to take care of him. To reassure him. To chase away the demons while he shuts his eyes.
So I do, the only way I know how, by making promises I can’t keep.
What’s one more lie in the grand scheme of things?
Chapter thirty-five
Riot
“Are you fucking kidding me Hannah!?” My whisper is elevated, closer to a yell, but we are alone in the room and I’m fairly certain that no one else heard me. Well I know damn sure the brothers didn’t, otherwise I’d be face down getting rug burn on my cheek and a boot to the back of my head right now for snapping at her.
“Riot, I - I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“What I want you to say? What I want you to say?” I rake my fingers through my hair and throw my hands into the air. “I don’t know. How about you tell me everything I just heard in that room was a bullshit fucking lie?”
Her expression instantly falls, “I can’t.”
“All this time Han? All this time you knew?”
“I didn’t, I mean - it wasn’t fucking like that Riot. I knew, but I didn’t know that I knew.”
“What the fuck is that even supposed to mean Hannah?”
“It means I never connected the dots ok? This place, it’s my past. It’s my fucking past. I haven’t spoken to Amelia in nearly a year. I wanted out - I fucking got out. I completed my jobs, paid my dues and I left. I didn’t know that these pieces of my old life were somehow intertwined with literally every last one of you guys! I didn’t know that part, I swear to god.”
With one hand on my hip I pace back and forth, chewing on the thumbnail of my opposite hand. Wracking my brain, I try to come up with a reason to trust these people. A reason beyond Hannah’s word. Any reason to hold off running head first into that fucking safe house where Cole and Zeke are being held captive.
I can’t think of a damn one.
“That’s it, I’m going in,” I turn around to make my way out of the room.
“The fuck you are,” Hannah hisses at me, gripping me by my elbow and yanking me backward.
“Try and stop me you fucking cunt!”
Slap!
Hannah’s hand whips across my cheek and she recoils immediately, bringing her hands to her lips, a look of shock spreading across her face.
“I- I’m sorry, I -”
“No, you’re right. I… too far. I’m going to get them though, Hannah.”
“Didn’t you fucking listen to her? You will die if you go in there Riot. Then what? Charles’ plane boards tomorrow morning. It’s an 18 hour flight. You will sit tight until he is here. We will sit tight until he is here. Because he is the only one who can help us, and Amelia cashed in a lifetime of favors to get him out here.”
“He should want to be here!” I snap. “ She shouldn’t have to cash in shit!”
“I’m not saying it’s not fucked up Riot. What I’m saying is, be smart.”
“Any…” I choke on the sob that sinks its claws into my throat. “Anything could happen to them while we sit around and wait.”
“And if you don’t?” she reaches out and grips the back of my head, pressing her forehead to mine. “When we rescue them - because we will - they are going to come home only to have to turn around and plan your funeral.”
“Fine. I don’t like it. But fine. I just… I need to go, I don’t know, breathe.”