Page 160 of Distress Signal
Understanding what I was doing, Lainey said, “You don’t think I’ve already done that?”
I glared. “No need to get snippy. I’m a fresh set of eyes. There could be something you missed.”
“I’ve been down here forfour months, Rea. Trust me, I know this place better than our house in Tennessee.”
Having been so caught up in the current predicament, that I’d now found myself prisoner here as well, I’d failed to consider the exact toll all the solitude and monotony had taken on my sister.
“Goddesses, Lainey, I’msosorry.” Unbidden, my eyes welled, tears slipping free and cascading down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come for you sooner.”
“You came as soon as you could.”
“I didn’t want it to be likethis. We were supposed to find you and send the whole fucking cavalry in to get you. I wasn’t supposed to end up here too.”
“Look at me.”
I did, though reluctantly.
Now that we were back together, I was forced to finally confront the thing that had scared me the most about her return: that she would hate me. That she would begrudge me my freedom all these months while she’d been held here, little better than an animal bound to the whims of its master. That she’d be angry I spent these months falling in love while she’d been falling apart.
I saw none of that in her eyes now, felt none of it radiating from her.
There was only…gratitude.
Though a prisoner myself, she was happy I was here, that I’d been looking for her.
“You’re here now, and we can’t change that. But we’ve always been better together, and we’veneverneeded a man for anything, right? Fuck those Lawless boys. We’re the heroes of this story.”
I choked on a laugh, vision blurring as I blinked, trying to expel and quell the tears.
“You know what?” I said, angrily swiping at my face, dashing away my weakness. “You’re right. Let’s fuck this guy up and get out of here.”
Lainey’s answering grin was downright feral, the kind she’d wear when we were kids and she was about to get us in a fuckton of trouble.
“Let’s do it.”
forty-four
. . .
REAGAN
“First things first—”
“I’m the realest…” Lainey rapped, like we always did whenever one of us brought up the first line of “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea.
I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips. “Not the time.”
Lainey giggled. “Sorry. Continue.”
Though I rolled my eyes, a little chuckle escaped me as well.
Lifting my leg as best as I could, I indicated the shackle around my ankle. “First, we need to get the fuck out of these.”
Lainey sighed. “You think I haven’t tried? There isn’t anything down here to pry them open or pick the lock.”
“Do you even knowhowto pick a lock?”
“Obviously not,” she said, “but I’m sure I could figure it out if properly motivated.”
