Page 10 of Silent as Sin
The last thing I saw was my reflection in the side mirror, eyes wide, terrified, already fading.
When I woke, it was in the dark. With Venom.
I gasped in the present, sitting up. Steam clung to my skin, water sloshing against porcelain. My chest heaved like the memory had stolen air all over again.
The bathwater rippled around me, cloudy with lifted dirt, but it couldn’t wash away what happened on that road.
And I hated myself for remembering the way I ran to help, because mercy had been the trap that damned me.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE HALLWAY OUTSIDEthe back rooms feltlonger than any road I’d ever ridden.
I stood there, back to the wall, arms crossed over my chest while Elara and Jewel guided her inside. The bedroom door shut with a soft click, leaving me with the hum of pipes and the faint thrum of voices from the common room.
Every instinct screamed to stay close. To guard the door. To make damn sure nobody so much as breathed wrong in her direction.
She’d followed them, that was the only reason I’d let her out of my sight. The trust it must’ve taken, for someone who’d spentGod knew how long behind a locked door, to walk away with strangers. My chest tightened thinking of it.
“Ashen,” Warden said as he came down the hall. He stopped beside me, running a hand through his hair, worry etched deep into his face. “She’s in good hands. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my thumb over the scar in my palm. “Doesn’t mean I like it.”
He huffed, low and dry. “Never pegged you for a mother hen.”
“Fuck you,” I muttered, but there wasn’t much bite in it.
We stood in silence after that, listening to the pipes groan as water rushed through them, the faint clink of Jewel moving around, Elara’s voice muffled. My gut twisted anyway. I hated walls between me and danger. Too many times, walls had meant failure.
Not again.
Time stretched. My boots tapped restless against the floor. I counted my own breaths, forced myself to stay put when every muscle in me wanted to rip the door off its hinges.
At last, the handle turned.
Jewel stepped out first, towel slung over her shoulder, her cutting eyes flicking to me before softening a fraction. Elara followed, one hand pressed against her back, moving slower with her belly.
And then—her.
She hesitated in the doorway, hands tugging at the hem of her borrowed shirt. Damp hair framed her face, dark strands clinging to her skin. Clean, she looked like someone entirely new and yet unbearably the same—fragile, marked, but so achingly alive it made my chest ache.
Jewel touched her shoulder lightly, guiding her forward. Wren moved like every step was a decision she had to remake, but she followed.
The common room went still the second she stepped in.
Pool cues froze mid-shot. Cigarettes burned low between fingers. Conversations cut off like a blade had sliced them in half.
Every man looked.
But this time it wasn’t shock at the dirt and silence.
It was her.
Clean, she was impossible not to see. Long dark hair damp and shining, ocean-blue eyes startling under the glow of the neon signs. The bruises stood out sharper now, but they didn’t dim her. If anything, they made her seem more real. Fragile, yes. But beautiful. So beautiful it knocked the air out of the room.
And every bastard noticed.
My chest went tight, jaw clenching until my teeth ached.
