Page 91 of Blood Ties
Riley
“Riley.”
I jolt awake, a scream rising in my chest. I almost lash out as a hand presses across my mouth — but then I recognize Kai in the darkness.
My heart surges. He’s still in a bad state, his face bruised and swollen, but there’s a determined set to his jaw, a new steel in his eyes. He removes his hand from my mouth, and holds up the other, which holds a pair of bolt cutters.
My breath hitches. Hope hits me so hard and fast it leaves me dizzy. Is this real? Can it really be happening?
I hold out my shackled wrist. Kai raises the bolt cutters and carefully, carefully squeezes until the metal snaps.
I pull my wrist out so fast I nearly cut it on the jagged metal. My skin is red and raw where the metal rubbed it, marks carved deep into my skin, but... I flex my fingers, staring, hardly able to believe it.
I’m free.
Kai takes me by the hand and helps me to my feet. I walk on rubbery legs toward the staircase leading out of here. He pauses at the bottom, and turns to me.
“There’s a red car in the scrapyard,” he whispers to me. “You’ll know it when you see it. The keys are in the ignition, and it’ll run.”
I grab his shirt with my free hand, struck by a sudden, dizzying fear. “You’re not coming with me?”
He presses a kiss to my forehead, eases my fingers off of his shirt. “I have to get my Momma first.” He smoothes my hair out of my face, looks me in the eyes. “Go to the car. Wait for five minutes. If I don’t show up, or if you see someone coming, just go.”
I stare up at him for a moment. Then I grab him by the back of the neck and pull him in for a searing kiss. “You better be there,” I whisper fiercely. “You fucking better.”
He smiles against my lips. “Okay. I will.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.” He kisses me again before pulling back.
I hold that promise in my heart. Still, as we part in the living room — me heading for the front door, him going upstairs — it tears at me, like a physical part of myself ripping free.
Even in the living room, it is so much brighter than I’m used to. When I step outside into the sun, I stop for a moment, teetering under the blinding light. It’s been so long since I felt its warmth or breathed fresh air. But there’s no time to savor the moment. Freedom is so close I can taste it.
I clutch the bolt cutters tightly as I walk toward the scrap yard. My stomach is in knots as I remember running through here, the day my friends died. It hurts to realize how long it’s been since I thought of them. But as I walk through the piles of scrap metal, it’s like the scab has been ripped off again, leaving the wound fresh and bloody.
Felix’s smile. Caleb’s laugh. May’s arms around me as we danced in the bar.
I’m getting out of here, I promise them silently.For all of us.
But what would they think, if they knew I was escaping with one of the men who helped kill them? The one who carved their bodies up and fed them to the animals? I think back on that kiss in the basement, the way I begged Kai to promise me he was coming, and I feel suddenly sick to my stomach. How the fuck did I get here? I almost lost sight of what’s most important.
I shake it off. It doesn’t matter now. I’m surviving.
The red car is waiting in the scrap yard, just like Kai promised. It looks beaten as hell, missing a window and its bumper crunched up like a tin can. But if Kai said it will run, I have to believe it will run.
I pause outside of the door, glancing around the scrapyard. For a moment, I feel a weird prickle on the back of my neck, like someone is watching. But it must just be my paranoia. The night is dark and silent.
I climb into the car, shutting the door as quietly as I can. The keys are in the ignition, like Kai said.
I could drive away now. Head for town.
But Kai isn’t here.
My teeth worry at my lower lip.
Five minutes, he said. But a lot could go wrong in five minutes. I don’t know where his family is. His dad, his uncle, Knox... any of them could catch him sneaking up to the attic, or out of it. What if he comes running out with them on his heels? Will I have the resolve to wait until he gets in? What if they shoot out the tires?
