Page 20 of Betrayed

Am I losing my mind? Here I’m trying to find her and instead I’m lost in another flashback:

I slip behind her, dropping the crop. “That’s why I need to know the truth. To see if I can trust you moving forward.” My calloused fingers trail over the ropes hugging her ribs, then wind down to the apex of her thighs.

I spread her legs with my fingers, and she moans, “Oh my God,” as I find her slick heat.

Gentle, reading her body, her breaths, so I know where to touch, how to stroke, how much pressure to use…

I drag the truth from her.

“You want to tell me more, sweet girl?” I whisper against her ear, aching with need.

“I’m scared,” she breathes. “Not of this. Of you leaving. If I tell you everything.”

She’s scared. But I know her better than to think she ran away in fear. She’s too brave for that. She’s running towards something.

“What did they want from her?” I ask, Cass, already knowing.

“What do you think?” Cass stares at me. “The one thing you gave her the second you decided you trusted her.”

Of course.

“The key.” She needed that fob to buy Moretti's protection from Caleb. The only key they couldn’t override with their technology.

She could have given it to Bambi’s brother, Valentino. Surely, that’s who she ended up working for. But she didn’t. She brought it back to me.

And when she was avoiding me?

Was Erin trying to find a way to avoid giving them that key and still save her family?

My chest clenches.

Cass’s uniquely raspy voice pulls me from my thoughts. “She thinks she has to go fix it. For you. For Ryan. Me. All of us.”

“She decided to find Caleb herself. Didn’t she?” I ask.

Drained of emotion, Cass nods. “It’s the only possible answer.”

I kneel beside her chair, looking up at her. “Where did she go?”

“I told you, she didn’t say,” Cass takes a breath. “But we’ve heard that Caleb is staying in a town outside the farmlands where Erin and I grew up.”

“Why there?” I ask.

“He’s probably staying put, waiting for us to come home. He knows eventually we’ll have to at least check on the farmhouse.”

“Why now?” I ask.

“Because she’s run out of time. The Morettis want the key, or they’re going to roll the red carpet out for Caleb, bringing him straight to us.”

“Why didn’t she ask me for help?”

She doesn’t answer.

“She went to hunt him down,” I murmur.

“Lucian?”

We lock eyes. Her gaze holds mine a beat too long. “I think…I think she went to end it.”