“Okay.”
Conversation stalled. She was no longer crying, even through the thick grief in her voice. I wouldn’t attend his funeral. I wouldn’t return to Charleston for any reason any time soon.
So what else was there to say?
“I love you,” my mom said, shocking me enough I dropped the bottles of shampoo and conditioner and soap in my hands. “I’ll let you go. Be safe. Call me when you can, okay?”
Right. “Okay. And Mom? I…love you too.”
It felt foreign on my tongue, odd since those same words had rolled off my tongue so easily earlier. I cared about her. We just didn’tsaythose kinds of things very often.
“Goodbye, Adrianna. Take care.”
She ended the call before I could return the warning, and I caught sight of the messy pile I’d made. Bottles had knocked shoes out of my bag, and I laughed quietly.
I’d packed sneakers. As if I actually worked out or ran or did all the things I’d planned on doing the day I’d bought them two years earlier.
I simply wasn’t a workout kind of girl, and the only time I’d worn them was on a treadmill in my parents’ house to try to break them in.
I grabbed them and flipped them over. Maybe they’d be good in the mountains. Would we hike? I wasn’t exactly a nature girl, normally choosing to enjoy a view from a distance and not experience nature up close and personal.
“You ready?”
I spun, shoe in hand, and grinned at Shawn in the doorway.
“Yeah. At least, almost.” I tossed the shoe back in the bag. Who knew where the mountains would take us, but as long as it ended with this over, I didn’t really care.
I finished cleaning up the mess I’d made, zipped up my bags, and once they were ready, Shawn grabbed them, one in each hand like they didn’t weigh more than a grocery sack.
“I’ll follow you down.”
“Don’t you need to pack?” He hadn’t been upstairs at all.
“I keep a go bag in my truck. I’m ready.”
Well, that was…efficient? I didn’t question it.
Downstairs, the living room was swarming with a half-dozen of the beefiest, angriest men I’d ever seen. The room pulsed with anger and revenge. No—justice.
They craved it, and they’d fight for it.
Jaxon stood closest to the kitchen, and fanning out from him were Mason and Briggs. Cort and Lincoln stood off to the side, looking equally fierce, as if the threat to me personally offended them.
“Hey,” I said lamely as I took the final step off the stairs, Shawn at my back.
Each man, all dark, tanned, and muscled, gave a quick chin dip as a greeting.
“We’re taking three vehicles to get out of here. All are outside. We’ll pull them into the garage, load up two at a time, and take off. So far, we haven’t found video surveillance set up anywhere, so if he’s seen you here, we’re hoping to get out without him knowing which truck you’re in.”
“Hoping?” They were pinning this on ahope?
“Unfortunately, with rushing the time to get out, it’s the best we can do. You’ll follow each other out of town, peel off outside the city, and then come back together before you reach Beech Mountain. That way we’ll be able to figure out if anyone’s picked up a tail. I’ll follow you and Shawn in another SUV until you’re outside the city and then double back so you’re always protected.”
I gripped Shawn’s forearm like I was falling off a cliff and only he could save me. This was it. We’d head off to the mountain, and Jaxon and his team would take down Daniel.
Hopefully, this would all be over soon.
Jaxon inspected my expression and resolve and must have found I measured up to whatever he wanted, because he simply stared me right in the eyes and said, “Let’s go. We’re ready.”