Page 7 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune (The Wayward Sons #4)

H alf an hour. For half an hour I stood in the parking lot and clamped down hard on my power to not feel a damn thing. It didn’t work. Not really. What Gray was doing…

I exhaled slowly and tried to stop the runaway train that was my thoughts. This was my fault—always was. That same nagging thought popped up in the back of my brain, trying hard to convince me that Gray would be better off without me. Without my past. Without my mess.

The motel door opening drew me out of my anxious thoughts.

Gray came out with our bags in hand and a cigarette stuck between his lips.

The hard expression on his face was a punch to the gut.

He said nothing as he popped the trunk and tossed our stuff in.

One quick survey told me it was everything we had.

He’d cleaned out our room. And very likely, he did whatever the hell he could to erase any trace of us.

His emotions were intense but not quite mad. They clashed together in a myriad of feelings that I couldn’t put a name to. Just overwhelmingly, nauseatingly intense.

“We need to drag two bodies out to the woods,” Gray told me quietly. He lit the cigarette as he stopped next to me. His gaze remained fixated on the motel room door. “And then we need to get the hell out of here.”

The pit of my stomach dropped out. Deep down, I’d known what he planned to do to them, but hearing him say it was different.

I was the trained killer. He was the hunter.

That was how this whole thing was supposed to go.

I signed up with the military. I signed up to kill people when ordered to. Not Gray. I didn’t want that for him.

“You killed them?” I asked, needing to hear for sure.

“You or them, baby,” he snapped. “I don’t give a fuck who I kill to protect you, got it?

We bury the bodies, and then we get out of here.

I want to lay low in the hustle somewhere for a few days.

Find a cheap place and pretend like we don’t exist. Harder to make a whole fuckin’ scene when we’re surrounded by people. ”

“Or easier to get others killed,” I pointed out.

“Ask me how much I care about the others,” he retorted. I knew the answer to that. Gray warned, “Don’t give me that look, baby.”

“What look?” I knew exactly what look he was talking about.

“There wasn’t a fuckin’ choice.”

“There was—”

“If it comes down to you or them, I’m pickin’ you every fuckin’ time, Ryder.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered, but he didn’t reply. He didn’t say another word as he started around the side of the motel building. Making sure the car was locked, I followed.

The back wall of our room was gone. Thank fuck that this was a pay-as-you-go kind of place—a cash-only and no-names one. Granted, the faster we got out of here before anyone noticed, the better.

My chest tightened at the sight of two bodies wrapped up in leafy vines. This had to happen. I just kept telling myself that.

Me or them.

That was what it came down to, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, that wasn’t a pill I was sure I could swallow. They were human. They probably had families and no clue what they’d taken on by picking up the bounty on me.

Gray’s hands flared with green light as he neared the bodies. Roots separated from the ground and hooked around the bodies. They trailed after him as he stormed right into the woods unexpectedly.

Granted, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Killing people for the government was one thing. Murder—even in self-defense—wasn’t supposed to be the life Gray had.

“Where are you going?” I called after him.

“Well, I ain’t buryin’ them outside the motel,” Gray said. “I ain’t that stupid, baby.”

No, he wasn’t. And I wasn’t about to let him do it alone either.

With two bodies in tow and no one following us, we trekked a good half a mile into the woods. I tracked our progress to make sure we could get back with ease.

Gray picked a spot with close-knit trees and waved his hand over the ground. As the roots dragged the bodies forward, the dirt split open.

And just like that, they were gone.

The earth folded up around the two as if they never existed. Lush grass flourished with Gray’s power until the place was nothing more than a tiny cluster of trees to sit under.

“We’re headin’ to Arizona,” Gray informed me.

“Why Arizona?”

“I don’t know. First state alphabetically.”

“That’s Alabama,” I corrected and cringed at the flare in his temper.

“We’re goin’ to Phoenix. We need to go to a big city.”

“People get kidnapped in big cities.”

“It’s harder to kidnap someone in a fuckin’ crowd without makin’ a scene than in a fuckin’ cornfield,” he snapped. “I ain’t askin’, baby, and I will drag your ass to the car if you fight me.”

From the look on his face, he’d do it too. I hated this.

“Okay. We go to Phoenix,” I agreed softly. But I didn’t like it. Running right into a big city full of people felt like the wrong move to make.