Page 16 of Freeing Souls

“You’re not going to tell me what it is, are you?"

Gabe just laughs as he pulls back and ruffles my hair, making me grumble at him. “Let’s head over to the club.” He gestures for us all to follow.

As soon as we step out of Gabe’s back door and start walking through the yard to the club a big black blur comes speeding from the woods across the yard and slams into Cade hard.

“Fuck,” Cade grunts as he pets Bear. “I need to go for a run soon, huh?”

“Maybe we can go on one later today?” I ask, hopeful. None of us have been working out the last week.

Gabe scoffs. “Good luck trying to do that without Ryker. He can’t go running with his arm still in a cast.”

“Grayson can distract him.” Cade smirks at Gray, whose cheeks turn red. As soon as we step inside, we are met with more chaos.

Chapter Six

Cayden

As soon as Rage gets everyone to shut the fuck up, he finds out Oakley came back this morning. No one knew she was coming, and as soon as she was here, she ran upstairs and found the pills Brielle had been giving her. Noah tried to take them from her, but she has since locked herself in the bathroom, and now everyone is arguing about how to handle the situation.

As Rage listens, I notice Harley sneak off to the hallway where the offices are, where Oakley locked herself in a bathroom. I nudge Grayson, and we follow behind her, giving her some space as she approaches the door and lightly knocks. “Oakley?” No response. “It’s Harley. Just me. No one else. Can I come in, please?” she asks softly.

After waiting a minute with no response, Harley steps back but then stops when we hear shuffling and then the sound of a lock clicking.

Reaching forward, she tries the door handle, and when it opens, she says, “Okay, I’m coming in.”

Stepping in, she leaves the door open so we can see and hear from the hallway. Harley moves slowly to the opposite wall in the bathroom and squats down in front of Oakley, who is sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up to her chest, clutching the bottle of pills.

“I haven’t taken any yet,” Oakley rasps.

“That’s good. Can you tell me what happened?” Harley asks, sitting down and crossing her legs in front of her.

At this point, Rage, Noah, and Sugar have made their way down the hall, but Grayson holds a finger up to his lips and mouths for them to wait. “I was trapped. I couldn’t breathe,” she rasps, clutching the pill bottle tighter.

“At the rehab place?” Harley questions.

“Yes. They told me I just needed time to adjust, but it was—I couldn’t breathe,” she reiterates.

“I know. I understand how that feels, like you just need to get out right away.”

“Yes,” Oakley cries. “They said I could sit outside for a while, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be locked away again, so I–well, I ran.”

“Well, I’m glad you felt like this was a safe place to run to. You are safe here,” Harley reminds her. “What about the pills?” she asks hesitantly.

“I–I need to feel in control again. I thought they would help, but then all I could do was stare at the bottle. Pills are what allowed others to have ultimate control over me to begin with. I don’t want to take them. I really don’t. But Ineedthem.”

Harley hesitates, seeming unsure of what to say. Rage must notice, because after Harley doesn’t respond, he walks forward and raps his knuckles on the doorframe before slowly entering. Squatting down behind Harley, he places a hand on her shoulder.

“We can help you, Oakley. If you really want to beat this, I will help you. We all will help you. Someone will be with you every step of the way. We can find an alternative to inpatient rehab. But in order to do that, I need you to show me you want our help.”

Oakley looks up at him for the first time, weariness with what I think is a little bit of hope shining in her eyes as she asks, “What do I have to do?”

Rage holds his free hand out. “Give me the bottle of pills. That’s it. Just hand them to me, and we will help you.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Oakley takes a moment before exhaling and giving him a fierce look of determination that reminds me a lot of Harley as she uncurls her fingers from around the bottle and drops it into his hand.

After we get Oakley settled, Noah and Harley leave to go get Ryker and check in with Lincoln for any updates on Atlas.

Grayson had been planning to go with them, but while we were getting Oakley situated, he said he was going to stay back and has since disappeared. I know he is more than likely in the tech room, so I head to it and walk right in, finding him sitting at Nerds’ desk, working.

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