Page 63 of Inside the Wicked

“Get her out of here!” Rhett calls to those behind me.

There are two men shooting, and we barely have cover in a small dip in the wall. I don’t know who tries to take my arm, but I’m glued to Rhett.

My hand falls down his back, and I still at the second gun I feel in his waistband.

I can’t think logically in this moment as I pull it free.

Like I said, adrenaline is a powerful, stupid drug.

Ducking so Rhett and the others are their prime visible focus, I take a deep breath and peek out to spot one guy dipping around the bend. I wait for his next attempt to shoot, then I fire once. Twice. Three times.

One of them hits him as he cries out, and Rhett twists out of cover fully to take out the other assailant. I can’t quite believe I hit him. Unlike Rhett’s fatal bullet in his target, mine only wounded my guy’s knee, and he army-crawls around the bend. My gun in still aimed, my arms still outstretched.

Rhett’s hands cover mine, taking the gun from me. He pulls me back to standing, and I snap my wide eyes from the body to his face.

I don’t know what to do about the disturbance that crosses Rhett’s face. Is he horrified by what I’ve become? He met a woman who had never held a gun before. One who never would have been able to pull the trigger no matter the wickedness it was pointed at. What if he can’t accept that all that has changed?

Rix drapes a jacket over my shoulders and Rhett helps me into it, zipping up the front. I’m glad it hides the blood.

Wordlessly, he takes my hand and our fingers entwine. I grip him for dear life as he leads us out the door. A car speeds up to us, and there’s chatter, commotion, but I barely register it. I climb inside the back when Rhett yanks it open, and to my relief, he slips in with me. Rix is driving. Someone I don’t know is in the passenger seat talking to him.

“Come here,” Rhett says softly.

I’m reminded all over again that Rhett is right there. The high of the escape is cooling my body, and I’ve turned so cold I’m afraid to even look sideways at him.

“Ana.”

His hand touches my thigh, and my trembling fingers reach for it.

Then everything I’ve packed against a straining dam finally breaks.

I bite my lip hard as I shuffle over and end up sitting on his lap, feet on the seats. All he does is hold me, and my sobs are painful as I try to suppress what I can.

“We obviously can’t take you to your parents, though they should hear from you,” Rix says. “I was thinking we’d go to the Den in the meantime.”

“I want to go home,” I say.

Rix looks at me through the rearview mirror. “Alistair knows your apartment.”

“You got your apartment,” Rhett says, more to himself, and my heart cleaves at the distance in his tone. It’s the first cry of agony in my chest for the things he’s missed. I know he’ll blame himself for not being here, but I’m ready to show him how much he always was. That I’ve kept him so close to me every day since we were torn apart.

“I got it for us,” I whisper.

His hand cups my cheek resting against his chest, and he presses his lips to my head. I clutch him tighter. This still feels like a dream riddled with corners of terror.

“Take us there,” Rhett says. “I want to see our home.”

CHAPTER 26

Anastasia

The apartment is searched by Rix and the other man before they leave us. The moment Rhett and I are alone, I don’t know what to do. How to feel.

I drop the keys onto the kitchen island and watch Rhett float around the place. There wasn’t a day I didn’t imagine him here, and it’s hard to believe he isn’t just in my imagination right now.

I’ve pictured the day we would be reunited a hundred times, yet nothing comes close to the reality. I expected the heaviness, but it doesn’t make facing it any easier.

“We can change anything,” I whisper, because I worry he’s going to shut me out any second.

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