Page 65 of This Blood That Breaks Us

I motioned for Luke. “You look for your thing. I have an idea.”

While Luke rummaged through drawers and cabinets, I moved every piece of furniture and tested the weight. With one arm, I lifted the leg of the bed and chipped a piece of wood in the bed frame, that way when he got on it, it would cave, and he’d never know it was me. I moved through various other places in the room, jamming the drawers and removing pieces of the furniture legs. I even pinched the pipe in his bathroom sink.

“I found it!” Luke said.

We gathered around a singular polaroid picture.

“Pres gave me this one. He said it was his favorite.”

It was all five of us together sitting by the fire on Kimberly’s birthday. Luke had an arm wrapped around me while I held upmy drink. Presley was grinning, and his clothes were dirty from where he’d drunkenly fallen earlier in the night. Kimberly wore a tired, content smile next to Aaron, who was looking at her with wide-eyed admiration.

They were out there somewhere. Did they think of us? Were they waiting by the door?

“Totally worth it,” I said, and they all nodded in agreement.

Eighteen

Luke

Will scowled while he moved into his disguise. It was early morning, and the contractors had already come over on the ferry. Thane and Will had them memory wiped and stored in thecargo hold, ready to go back over to the mainland. The outfits helped keep them from sticking out in the stark white they usually wore.

“No one speaks of this,” he hissed.

“Where’s your little brother with the camera when you need him?” Thane joked while adjusting his collar with a wide smile.

I rubbed my chest, but the dull ache didn’t bother me as much because, for the first time in a long time, I hoped this plan could work. I’d gone through all the possibilities. Sirius and Ezra were occupied enough. Zach and I would attend our meeting, and Thane and Will would get to the tunnels. We’d meet up where the tunnels ended across the city. There would be enough distance between us and them. It would work. It had to. We had to try.

“Okay, you have to wait for the window between seven a.m. to eight a.m. Remember?”

“Yes, we fuckin’ remember.”

“The ferry will dock, and you’ll need to get there however you see fit.”

“I got it, alright?” William sighed.

I didn’t think Will was that hopeful for our plan. That, or he was tired of this place. I was too. Tired of walking with Her in the garden every morning. Tired of training and pretending. I longed to be home with my family more than I’d ever wanted anything.

Thane wrapped an arm around Will. “He means, ‘We got it, Boss. Great plan.’”

“This is where we part ways and hope for the best,” I said.

Thane smiled. “See you both on the other side?”

Zach shrugged. “I’m not hugging you. But hopefully, this is the end of this nightmare.”

“Alright. Enough pleasantries. Don’t fuck up the plan,” Will said.

Zach and I brought the attention to the front of the ship while Will and Thane came out of the storehouse and jumped on the back. We said little on the way to the mainland. Ezra called me to tell me where we needed to go to meet the client and that he’d meet up after. He’d been happy with me lately. I’d met his clients. I was nervous each time, but it was easy to appease them. And I was good at, molding myself to be whatever they needed me to be.

“We’re meeting Aine at some library next to the college.”

Aine was lead volunteer coordinator of the blood donor system in Ireland. We hadn’t met her yet, but it was “imperative” we get in her good graces, according to Ezra. We were their largest money donor, so they agreed to supply the castle with a small portion of the blood they brought in. It was a new deal now that the castle was occupied.

“Don’t talk too much, or we’ll be stuck talking to her forever.”

“I don’t talk too much.” A rare smile crept on my face.

Zach lit another cigarette. “I thought Mr. Good Boy didn’t like to tell lies.”