Page 57 of Lawless
Their voices and footfalls eventually faded away. Still I waited, barely daring to breathe.
When my legs fell asleep from being tucked under me for so long, I dared to sit on the ground and stretch them out. After a few more minutes passed, I stole a peek at the thin sliver of sky up above me. No faces looked back at me.
Fucking now what?
They had to be at least walking along the edge of the gorge in both directions. I'd probably be safest if I stayed put. But what the hell was happening to the guys? Would they be killed? The explosion meant someone must have died or was badly injured.
Reaper!
A gasp of realization escaped me before I clapped my hand over my mouth. The SDMC president was alone. He was the most valuable person of the club, surely they wouldn't kill him. Maybe the explosion was a distraction?
A cold horror came over me, bringing goosebumps to my skin. I crossed my arms and rubbed them as I paced, trying to figure this all out.
The Steel Demons came here in good faith, I knew that for a fact. They were trying to work out an honest arrangement like what they had in Old Phoenix. I didn't know all the details of their plans, just snippets that I overheard, but I never once heard any of them trying to double-cross anyone.
They weren't the bad ones here. The owner of this place had to be in someone else's pocket. Someone trying to bring the Steel Demons down.
I was so absorbed in making sense of this mess in my head, I didn't realize that I stopped pacing and started walking.
Stopping in my tracks, another shiver came over me. But not from fear this time.
Tiny trickles of ice-cold water flowed through my sandals. I knelt down and washed off a bit of the coagulated blood and dirt off my feet. Water down here was a good sign, especially if I had to hide out for several days.
I looked back to see how far I walked. About a hundred feet, give or take. The rational part of me knew staying in one place made the most sense. But once my feet started moving, something else in me didn't want to stop.
It felt like an invisible string from my chest pulled me to keep walking through the ravine. Every instinct in me screamed to follow it, to keep going. If the feeling had a voice, it would be saying,Someone needs you.
I remembered this feeling. This was exactly how I felt right before checking on Kitty that last night at the service center. I chalked it up to being concerned about her, knowing about her cyst, but now without the distractions of kitchen duties, I knew it was this exact tugging sensation in my chest.
I froze for a moment, torn. For all I knew, it could have been pulling me to one of the guards looking for me. One of them might have tumbled down and sprained an ankle. Jandro and Gunner were adamant that I couldn't get caught, no matter what. Even an injured guard would likely sell me out to his boss.
But that pull was so strong. And the thought of someone injured who needed my help only made it stronger. I nearly had to brace myself against the rocky wall to keep from moving forward.
Fuck it.
I followed the trickling water, the pull immediately lessening as I placed my feet in front of each other. With one hand on the wall I kept moving, kept following my instinct.
I'd been a medic for three years and never felt this instinctual pull before. But finding whoever needed me outweighed the weirdness of this new sensation. I'd deal with it later, after getting the hell out of here and finding the guys.
The trickle of water eventually widened into a small stream running through the center of the canyon. It was still gentle and shallow, but sprang hope for a larger source of water up ahead.
I stayed glued to the wall as I continued on, not wanting to splash or give anyone above a chance to spot me. The stream gradually spread out into multiple trickles nearly the entire width of the ravine when I spotted it.
Among all the sharp-edged rocks, it was impossible to miss the softer, human form that held onto what looked like a large, black garbage bag. As I grew closer, the bag squirmed and let out a high-pitched whine.
"Oh my God!"
I broke into a run, immediately recognizing Hades squirming in the arms of Reaper.
"Mariposa?" Reaper's voice was harsher and raspier than usual. "The fuck are you doing down here?"
"I could ask you the same thing." I knelt by where he sat, leaning against a boulder with the whimpering dog squirming in his lap. "What happened?"
"He saved my life."
Reaper's voice cracked. Whether from dryness or emotion, I couldn't tell. But hearing the stoic president as anything but stoic shocked me.
"He pulled me out of the path of the explosion right before it went off. The blast still sent us rolling down the hillside into this ravine. I tried to shield him, but he's hurt bad." Reaper's hand shot out, wrapping around my upper arm with an iron grip. His eyes glittered like two green gemstones in the darkness. "You have to help him. Please."
