Page 27 of Run, Little Rabbit (Blood & Bonds #1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Echo

I awake with a start, my body flinching and sending a wave of pain coursing through every limb.

Everything aches, even muscles I didn’t know that I had hurt.

But I suppose if you’ve been hanging from a meat hook for a few hours, then chased through the woods and thoroughly fucked, you’re bound to feel a little exhausted and sore.

I open my eyes slowly and wince as the light burns my retinas. The lights aren’t even that bright, but it feels like staring at the sun. The familiar sights of my bedroom fill me with both comfort and sadness. I’m glad that I’m home, but I feel like I’ve lost something.

“Echo?”

I flick my eyes to the side of my bed and see Veon sitting there, relief flooding his features as he stares deep into my eyes.

“How long was I out?” My voice is raspy, and my throat is dry and scratchy.

Veon grabs a bottle of water and a straw and helps me to take a drink. It’s a vastly different experience from the last bottle of water I drank. The memory of Maxim feeding me the water flashes through my mind, and I repress the shiver that threatens to make my limbs tremble.

“Only a few hours,” Veon says as he puts the bottle back. He sits back in the chair, but he won’t look at me. His eyes trace the floral pattern on my duvet, and his hands clench together, his thumbs rubbing against each other as his mind wanders.

“It’s not your fault,” I say. I reach my hand out towards him, but he just stares at the ring of purple bruises around my wrist.

“It is, Echo,” he says with a sad smile. “You are mine to protect, and I lost you.”

“Veon…”

His eyes shine in the low light with unshed tears, and I hold my hand out again. He runs a gentle finger over the bruising before settling his large hand in mine. It’s warm and rough against mine, and I wrap my fingers around his, holding tightly.

“What happened, Echo?” He finally meets my gaze, and I suddenly feel guilty. He looks devastated, and I know he saw what happened.

I take a deep sigh and start from the beginning and tell him everything. I don’t leave anything out, and the more I talk, the more devastated Veon looks. When I finish, he doesn’t say anything. I lie there and watch the expressions play across his face as he digests what I went through.

When he finally talks, his voice is raw and cracked. “So you wanted to stay. With them.”

Guilt threatens to choke me, and I have to swallow it down. “Yes.”

Veon pulls his hand away, stands up and walks to the window. He stares out at the night sky, his hands braced on his hips and his shoulders tense.

“Why?” he asks, disbelief in every inch of the syllable.

How could I possibly put into words how Maxim, Niki and Angel made me feel?

Do I tell him that they made my body feel like it was on fire?

Or that they saw me for who I am and who I could be, not just the woman who sits on the sidelines or the man who sees me as nothing more than his duty?

“Because I don’t want to lead a double life anymore, Veon.

I’m sick of pretending, sick of hiding who I really am, and with them, I got the chance to just be .

Can you even begin to imagine how freeing that feels? ”

“But they’re Volkovs!” he yells as he turns back towards me.

I sit up in bed, flinching at the ache that spasms down my spine, but I don’t care. “So? They had the chance to hurt me, and they didn’t. They’re not my enemy.”

He shakes his head in exasperation. “Don’t be so na?ve, Echo. The two families are on the cusp of war. They were probably just using you to get what they want.”

I reel backwards as if his words had physically slapped me. No. That can’t be true.

Could it?

Had they just been placating me? Was it all just fun at my expense?

But then I think about the way that Niki signed ‘precious rabbit’ and how Angel kept checking to make sure I was alright. Maxim was the only one I was unsure of, but even then, there was something in my gut telling me that I had meant something to him. That I wasn’t just a pawn in a game.

“You’re wrong, Veon.”

He snorts in disbelief, and I can’t take it anymore.

“Fuck you, Veon.”

“Fuck me?” he says, pointing at himself and walking closer. “I’m not the one who put on an orgy for everyone to see.”

A blush rises up my cheeks as I realise exactly how much Veon saw.

“And I’m not the only one,” he adds.

“What?”

“I took Sphinx and Kai with me.”

I hold my chin up. “I’m not ashamed of what I did.”

Hell, if I get the chance, I will be doing it all over again.

“Then I’m ashamed for you, Echo,” he says, and his words cut through me like a knife.

“Get out,” I say through gritted teeth and tears burning in my eyes. How could Veon say that? I thought he was my friend, that he wanted to be more.

The man doesn’t budge. He runs a hand through his dark copper waves as a look of horror passes over his face. “Echo, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?! You’re the one who only ever saw me as your duty .” I spit the word out like it’s toxic. “Your pride and your honour wouldn’t let you touch me, and now someone else has; you’re ashamed for me.”

“Echo—”

“No. I don’t want to hear it. You’ve already said enough.” I can’t even look at him. I’m just so angry and hurt, and my heart shatters into a thousand pieces as he stands there, staring at me. “Get out!”

“Please. Just give me a chance—”

“A chance to what, Veon? Hurt me more? Tell me I misunderstood you because I’m too na?ve to understand. I thought we were friends!”

“We are,” he yells back. “We’re more than that.”

“Are we? Could have fooled me.”

His hands grab my face, and his eyes burn as they hold mine.

There’s so much pain and hope twisted with sorrow and anguish that I nearly fold and grab him right back.

But I can’t. I won’t. “Veon, you don’t want me.

I think you’ve put me on some pedestal, and you like the masks I wear, but you don’t like me . ”

“Echo, I love you.”

“Bullshit,” I cry. “If you loved me, you’d have done something. You would have sacrificed your pride and canned your duty. You don’t love me. You love the idea of me.”

“You’re wrong, Echo.” He leans in to kiss me, but I push him away.

“Get out!” I sob. I can’t take any more. My chest constricts as I try to breathe through the pain. “Please, just go.”

Tears brim over his eyes, and he exhales a shaky breath. “Echo—”

“I think you should leave.”

I spin my head towards the doorway and see Sphinx holding the door open, his brows drawn down in an angry slash.

Veon drops his hands from my face, and I turn away from him. I refuse to look at him. I know that if I see him break, I’ll forgive him, and I can’t. Not after this. I’m not sure I ever will.

I hear the door close softly and then the bed dips behind me as Sphinx climbs in.

He pushes me to lie down, and I curl in on myself as Sphinx wraps his arms around me without saying a word.

He just holds me as I fall apart, catching the broken pieces and holding them safe until I’m ready to put them back together again.

He hums a soft tune that I can feel rumbling from deep in his chest and strokes his long fingers through my hair.

I don’t know how long I lie like that, but I must have dropped off at some point because I wake up cocooned in the safety of Sphinx’s arms, my head tucked under his chin and our legs tangled together.

I take a moment to look up at him, and he seems so peaceful in his sleep.

So carefree and at ease. The lines of worry and focus have vanished from his face, making him seem so much younger.

“You should take a picture,” he grumbles, his voice heavy with sleep. “It’ll last longer.”

I snort and snuggle back down into his embrace. “Why are you still here?”

“Because you needed someone.”

His words hit the spot behind my solar plexus and sank heavily to my stomach.

My body feels better than it had earlier, but my heart is in tatters, and my head is all over the place.

I’m still reeling over Veon’s words, and I’m worried about the others.

Niki had been shot. Was he okay? And someone had tackled Maxim, and I didn’t even know if they were alright.

I probably would never know if they were okay.

And nope. I am not going to cry again. I have shed enough tears, and now it’s time for action.

But where the fuck do I even start?

I gingerly sit up, my bones creaking a little, and fluff up the pillow behind me so I can lean back against it.

Sphinx watches me from under an arched brow. “What are you doing?”

His eyeliner is all smudged, and his hair is sticking up in all different directions.

“You look adorable.”

“You take that back,” he says with mock offence. “I am not adorable.”

A giggle bubbles out of my throat, and I brush his hair back. “You totally are, and I’m sitting up because we need to put a plan together.”

His face turns serious, the playful expression falling from his features. “I need to show you something because it might affect what you choose to do next.”

“What is it?”

Sphinx leans over the side of my bed and pulls his laptop out of his bag.

“I’ve been running a program to organise the data we found on the phone.

” He fires the screen up, and there’s so much code running on it that it makes no sense to me.

He clicks a little icon, enters a string of characters—which I’m guessing is the longest, most complicated password ever—and a folder opens with a list of names.

“The program sorts the data by name, be it a person or a place or organisation.”

There are hundreds of names. Politicians. Society leaders. Ministers. “Fuck. Bennie knew a lot .”

“You’re telling me,” Sphinx huffs. “But this is what I want to show you.”

He scrolls down through the alphabet. N. O. P… finally stopping under Q.

QUINN, Rory .

I can’t say I’m surprised that Bennie had a file on my dad, but I am curious as to what’s in it. I wonder what secrets Bennie had on the infamous Rory Quinn.