Page 50 of The Claiming

She glances at Ben, who is mightily pissed right now because of everyone he is still minus a victory, Jack aside.

“Well, it’s impossible for her to just disappear.”

Frankie addresses Ben. “Did you see her at all?”

“No.” He shrugs. “When we were released, I followed you and when the tunnels appeared, we all took one, except for you and Jack, who couldn’t figure out who was going in first.”

I stare at Frankie with interest, and he merely shrugs and sighs.

“Then we’ll check once again before calling it a night. Kennedy’s probably right and Abigail is already back at the house and laughing at us.”

Kennedy nods and turns to Autumn. “Come on honey, let’s leave them to their game. I need a hot shower.”

“Not so fast.”

River’s commanding tone rings out in the chamber and he grasps Autumn’s hand. “There are rules to run through first, and I’m not leaving Autumn to wander through the dark woods without my protection.”

Amos nods. “I agree. We don’t know if anyone else is involved, so we will escort you back to check it’s safe.”

The girls appear stunned butI don’t miss the spark of happiness in their eyes as they share a look and then Kennedy nods and sighs heavily. “Come on. I can’t get out of this place soon enough?”

As they leave, she casts one last longing glance at Frankie and sighs, before offering me a watery smile. “Good luck guys. If Abi is back at the house, we’ll let you know.”

As they leave as a group, my heart twists in agony for Kennedy James. Despite everything, I do quite like the girl and she didn’t deserve her fate in the slightest.

TWENTY-FIVE

FRANKIE

We leave the guys to conduct a thorough search and head straight for the medical room to check on Siri.

As we walk, Cassie is silent and I’m guessing her ego is bruised, as well as her wrists and ankles. I wasn’t careful when I claimed her and she looks as if she was dragged through the dirt a thousand times.

I don’t offer her any reassurances because there aren’t any, and as we walk, we both remain silent for the entire time.

As soon as we reach the medical room, I notice Jack and Siri exiting and Cassie runs toward them.

Siri’s smile lights up her face and my relief is enormous. Thank God I won’t have to endure my uncle’s anger because he would definitely blame me if anything happened to his little girl.

“I’m okay.” She smiles at me as I approach. “It’s just a scrape, but the nurse was concerned about infection, so I’ve been given some meds to counteract that and she patched up the wound.”

“What did you tell her?” I’m curious because if the staff learned what went down tonight, that would be the first and last Claiming challenge.

“I told her we were walking in the woods and Siri tripped.” Jack replies in a low voice. “She bought my story, so it’s all good.”

“How did you explain the fact you’re both wet through?”

I note they are both wrapped in a towel over their soaked clothing, and Jack grins.

“I told her Siri slipped on the riverbank and I went in to rescue her.”

I’m impressed with his handling of the situation and jerk my head toward the door.

“We’ll head back to the house for a debrief.”

Siri and Cassie are behind us, their heads together as they link arms and as we walk, Jack says in a low voice. “She was lucky. It could have been worse.”

‘’I guess but we have another problem.”

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