Page 167 of Crave
I turned slowly, the back of my neck tingling.
Gabe reappeared. “It’s clear.”
“Is it?” I asked, barely recognizing my own voice. “Because it doesn’t feel like it.”
He didn’t argue. He looked at me the same way he had in the warehouse—like he was seeing something he wasn’t ready to believe.
“I need to check in with Silas,” he said. “We’re blind out here. No signal. We’ll try from the second floor.”
I nodded slowly, not trusting myself to speak.
Gabe turned and disappeared up the stairs. Marco hadn’t come back in. The creak of the boards above me faded.
And I was alone.
Alone in a place that didn’t feel abandoned.
It felt like it was waiting.
I backed toward the front door and pressed my hand against it. Not opening it. Just touching it. Like if I kept one part of myself close to escape, I’d be okay.
But deep down, I knew.
We weren’t safe.
We’d never been safe.
Not with me—the liar—at the centre of it all.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
SILAS
The silence was louderthan the gunfire.
Echoing.
Haunting.
Blood still clung to my hands, sticky and warm, but my fingers didn’t shake. I’d bled so much I could barely feel the wound now. I should’ve been flat on my back, unconscious. Instead, I stood at the edge of the street outside the warehouse, every muscle locked in place, watching the shadows stretch across the concrete like they were waiting to swallow us whole.
The others were scrambling—repositioning, regrouping, trying to make sense of the mess. I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. My ears rang with more than just the aftermath of gunshots.
I replayed it again.
The attack.
The timing.
The retreat.
Too fast. Too clean.Too simple.
But my brain wouldn’t stop—wouldn’t let it settle as just that. I saw it all unfolding again, not like a memory, but like I was still inside it.
The moment the first shot rang out, slicing the silence like a scream.
The way Lucas’ body jerked.
