Page 48 of Blood Ties

Riley

“R iley.”

I jolt awake, a scream rising in my chest. I almost lash out as a hand presses across my mouth — but then I recognize Kai in the darkness.

My heart surges. He’s still in a bad state, his face bruised and swollen, but there’s a determined set to his jaw, a new steel in his eyes. He removes his hand from my mouth, and holds up the other, which holds a pair of bolt cutters.

My breath hitches. Hope hits me so hard and fast it leaves me dizzy. Is this real? Can it really be happening?

I hold out my shackled wrist. Kai raises the bolt cutters and carefully, carefully squeezes until the metal snaps.

I pull my wrist out so fast I nearly cut it on the jagged metal. My skin is red and raw where the metal rubbed it, marks carved deep into my skin, but... I flex my fingers, staring, hardly able to believe it.

I’m free.

Kai takes me by the hand and helps me to my feet. I walk on rubbery legs toward the staircase leading out of here. He pauses at the bottom, and turns to me.

“There’s a red car in the scrapyard,” he whispers to me. “You’ll know it when you see it. The keys are in the ignition, and it’ll run.”

I grab his shirt with my free hand, struck by a sudden, dizzying fear. “You’re not coming with me?”

He presses a kiss to my forehead, eases my fingers off of his shirt. “I have to get my Momma first.” He smoothes my hair out of my face, looks me in the eyes. “Go to the car. Wait for five minutes. If I don’t show up, or if you see someone coming, just go.”

I stare up at him for a moment. Then I grab him by the back of the neck and pull him in for a searing kiss. “You better be there,” I whisper fiercely. “You fucking better.”

He smiles against my lips. “Okay. I will.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.” He kisses me again before pulling back.

I hold that promise in my heart. Still, as we part in the living room — me heading for the front door, him going upstairs — it tears at me, like a physical part of myself ripping free.

Even in the living room, it is so much brighter than I’m used to. When I step outside into the sun, I stop for a moment, teetering under the blinding light. It’s been so long since I felt its warmth or breathed fresh air. But there’s no time to savor the moment. Freedom is so close I can taste it.

I clutch the bolt cutters tightly as I walk toward the scrap yard.

My stomach is in knots as I remember running through here, the day my friends died.

It hurts to realize how long it’s been since I thought of them.

But as I walk through the piles of scrap metal, it’s like the scab has been ripped off again, leaving the wound fresh and bloody.

Felix’s smile. Caleb’s laugh. May’s arms around me as we danced in the bar.

I’m getting out of here , I promise them silently. For all of us .

But what would they think, if they knew I was escaping with one of the men who helped kill them?

The one who carved their bodies up and fed them to the animals?

I think back on that kiss in the basement, the way I begged Kai to promise me he was coming, and I feel suddenly sick to my stomach.

How the fuck did I get here? I almost lost sight of what’s most important.

I shake it off. It doesn’t matter now. I’m surviving.

The red car is waiting in the scrap yard, just like Kai promised. It looks beaten as hell, missing a window and its bumper crunched up like a tin can. But if Kai said it will run, I have to believe it will run.

I pause outside of the door, glancing around the scrapyard. For a moment, I feel a weird prickle on the back of my neck, like someone is watching. But it must just be my paranoia. The night is dark and silent.

I climb into the car, shutting the door as quietly as I can. The keys are in the ignition, like Kai said.

I could drive away now. Head for town.

But Kai isn’t here.

My teeth worry at my lower lip.

Five minutes, he said. But a lot could go wrong in five minutes.

I don’t know where his family is. His dad, his uncle, Knox.

.. any of them could catch him sneaking up to the attic, or out of it.

What if he comes running out with them on his heels?

Will I have the resolve to wait until he gets in? What if they shoot out the tires?

The more I imagine the scenario, the tighter my chest feels. My hand wanders to my stomach and curls there protectively. I’m not going back to that basement.

I take a couple deep breaths, trying to calm myself and stop imagining worst case scenarios. But my eyes wander back to the keys, again and again.

I should at least make sure the car starts, right? If any of his family members are around, the sound could attract them, but... I have to make sure. I hold my breath as I turn the key.

And — nothing.

I blink. Try it again. The car sits still and dead. I swallow and climb out, trying not to panic.

For a moment I swear I can hear Felix’s voice in my ear, feel his calming presence at my back. “Hey, you’ve watched me fix up my piece of junk a hundred times. You’ve got this. You know what to look for .”

I take a deep breath, nod to myself. Maybe I can figure this out. I climb out, head to the front, and pop open the hood. Nothing leaking where I can see. My eyes dart to the alternator, the battery, to... where the starter fuse should be, but isn’t.

Fuck.

Then I see a flash of color. Something that shouldn’t be there. I frown, leaning in, and pull it out a sticky note.

Jagged letters scrawl out: TOLD YOU TO WAIT KIDDO.

My heart skips a beat before starting to thump double-time.

He knows. Knox knows.

But if that’s true, then—

This is a trap.

Just as I whirl around, a body presses into mine. A hand darts up to grab my wrist, and twists so hard I drop the bolt cutters.

Knox reaches behind me to slam the car hood shut, and then shoves me onto it, standing between my legs.

One of his hands is still gripping my wrist hard enough to hurt; the other caresses the side of my face.

But there’s a hard look in his eyes, a deep-seated anger different than his usual volatile temper.

I curl my free hand around my stomach again, sucking in a shaky breath.

“Where’s my brother?” he asks.

I bite his hand. He jerks it back with a curse, and then slaps me across the face.

“Little bitch,” he grits out. He grinds his teeth together, runs a hand through his hair as he looks around.

“Fucking Kai,” he says. “All he had to do was wait. We could’ve done this together.

We could’ve started somewhere fresh, just the three of us, together.

But now... now...” He turns back to me, his expression darkening.

“You did this. You turned him against me.”

“Kai chose me ,” I spit at him. “And if you hurt me, you’ll lose him forever.”

He only smirks. “And if I tell him you left without him? You think he won’t believe me?” He leans in, grabbing me by the throat. “But where the fuck is he? Did you do something do him?”

I hesitate for a split second. Am I willing to give up Kai to save myself?

“Come on now, you’re smarter than that.” Goosebumps prickle over my skin as I hear Caleb’s voice in my ear. I can practically see him pushing his glasses up his nose. “Think this through, Ry.”

I take a breath. Of course — Knox won’t kill his brother. He will kill me. And I might have leverage I can use against Knox. “Kai’s getting your mom.”

Knox stares at me, his grip on me loosening. “...What?”

“Your mother. Your Momma .” I stare at him, waiting for a reaction, but there’s a look of dull incomprehension on his face. “Did you know she’s a prisoner here?”

Knox’s grip tightens again, but his expression is still. “I’m not as stupid as my brother.”

And obviously not as empathetic as him, either, but I still assumed he’d feel something for his own mom . “Did you know your dad cut her fucking legs off when she tried to run?”

He twitches. Not quite a flinch. But there’s no surprise on his face. He knew , and that makes disgust curdle in my stomach. “Of course I do,” he says, his voice low and dangerously soft. “I was there .”

“And you haven’t done a thing about it?” I search his face, but there’s nothing there to indicate any kind of emotion. It’s sickening. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I breathe. “It’s your mom. Your brother. Just... just let us go , Knox!”

He looks at me for a long moment. Turns his head to stare toward the house.

Is he cracking? I can’t tell, but I have to keep trying. Maybe I can at least keep him busy until Kai gets here. “You know Kai doesn’t belong here,” I plead. “Neither does your mom. Neither do I. Just let him take us out of here and—”

Knox lets out a sharp sound. It takes me a second to recognize it as a laugh. Then he releases my wrist to rub his eyes, and I think it might’ve been a sob instead. But when he lowers it and stares at me, there’s nothing but venom in his eyes.

“Our mom is dead, you manipulative little cunt,” he says. “She’s been dead for years.”

Before I can speak, he wraps his second hand around my neck along with the first. He’s not squeezing yet; the grip is almost a caress.

“And Kai is fucking crazier than I thought,” he says, his eyes darkening into a look of flat determination.

“I almost thought you were right. That he might finally be ready to leave this place. But I was wrong. He won’t make it in the world outside.

.. and you’re just making it worse, the way you’re fucking with his head. ” He leans down. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

His lips press against mine again as he starts to choke me.