Page 47 of Walking in Darkness

The brown-haired girl pointed across the street. “Keep going between the buildings for three blocks. Once you get to the third street, there is a bar just off to the right. Catch a ride there, and tell them your girl is drunk and you want to get her home. We need to clean her up first.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and cleaned the droplets of blood that had splattered on Aria’s face.

My throat thickened. I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was supposed to say. I’d always gone it alone. But now, Aria had taught me that every fucking thing was different.

“Thank you.” The words were gravel.

A sound of disbelief huffed from her mouth, and she dropped her gaze to Aria. A riot of emotion rippled across her face. “I don’t knowwhat the hell just happened, but I’m pretty sure it’s us who should be doing the thanking.”

She was back to clutching the other girl’s hand, and she shook her head as if she didn’t want to contemplate what she had just seen and felt.

“Go on. Get yourselves to safety,” she said, urging me with her chin in the direction she’d pointed out.

I hesitated, then asked, “What are you going to do?”

She squeezed the blond girl’s hand firmly in hers. “Soph and I are gonna start a new life. Right now. We’re gonna disappear from this horrid place, just like I suggest you do.”

I attempted to shift Aria around so I could get to the pocket where I’d stuffed the cash I’d poached from those fucks. She must have known my intention, because she gave a slight shake of her head. “No. We don’t need it. We’ll make it.”

Aria groaned through the exhaustion, my name a garbled roll on her lips.

Both came forward and brushed their fingertips over the back of her hand before the older one sent me a knowing glance.

A clear understanding.

She was promising to hold our secrets.

Then they rounded the corner and walked away.

I watched them disappear into the thick mist before I darted across the street beneath the cover of night and into the next alleyway.

I kept Aria tight against me as I followed the brunette’s instructions.

The pathway dumped us out exactly where she’d said.

Music and a drone of lifted voices seeped out of a dive bar that was on the right side, and a few people loitered in a roped-off section out front, smoking cigarettes and sipping beers beneath the orange glow of outdoor heaters.

I angled in close to that area like we were two more patrons, and I waited at least half an hour before a cab finally came by. Wasn’t about to risk making a fake account for an Uber or some shit like that.

I hailed it, and the guy barely grunted at me as I gave him an address across the city. As far away from our motel as we could feasibly get.

Once he dropped us off, I did the same thing three more times, grabbing cabs and having them drop us off in random places.

Making sure the two of us disappeared without a trace.

I had the last driver leave us half a mile from the motel.

I paid him and stepped out, clinging to Aria, who had fallen into a foggy state of coherence.

She gazed up at me with those pale, pale eyes, cognizance as heavy as the clouds that covered us as I carried her the rest of the way to our motel.

I climbed the steps, let us into the room, and laid her out on the bed.

She blinked up at me through the bleary light. Sadness pooled there, all mixed with that glorious, unfathomable strength.

“I won’t say I’m sorry.” The words were hoarse when she whispered them.

I dropped to my knees at her side, gathered her hand in mine, and brought her knuckles to my lips. “No, baby, I’m the one who’s sorry,” I murmured against them.

She shifted so she could curl her hand around mine. “We’re in this together, Pax. Wholly. In every way. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. You can’t protect me from this life.”