by Leia Stone
“Noooo!” The word ripped from my throat as I ran for the door. Becca’s hand came out quickly. I paused long enough to see that the note she was holding was in Ryder’s handwriting.
“For you,” she said.
I could barely see through the tears overflowing down my cheeks. I knew that last “I love you” had been different. Fuck. This couldn’t be happening. Why would he just leave us like that? We could have helped him.
Clutching the note, I forced myself to read it.
Charlie,
I’m not the man you fell in love with. The genocide of the enforcers has broken me. I can’t sleep without seeing their blood spilling. We should have known that our anarchy would bring about more consequences than just for us. We never warned them and they paid the ultimate price. I can’t live with my mistake one second longer. Leave no man behind. I failed them and I need to make up for it. Justice will be had.
I love you and I’m going to make it right.
I’ll be back for you.
Ryder
I collapsed into a sobbing mess, and of all the people to close his arms around me it was Sam who held me tight and rocked my body.
“Shhhh, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out,” he whispered in my ear as I clutched onto his shirt.
The pain settled over me, weighing my limbs down so that I could barely stand. That motherfucker. The love of my life just went off on a suicide mission. He was a badass, but one man couldn’t take on the Hive, could he?
Heavy footsteps caused me to pull away from Sam and meet Kyle’s wide eyes as he ran up the stairs.
“What’s wrong? I heard you scream.” Kyle was scanning me for wounds. He wouldn’t see them; my wounds were internal. I couldn’t even find the words, so I just thrust out the note.
The enforcer observed mine and Becca’s drawn features as he took the note. As his eyes hit the paper, his face fell. When he was done he crumpled it up and threw it against the wall. His face was an agonized mesh of emotions, his eyes screaming. I knew Kyle would share my pain. All of these guys were close with Ryder, but Kyle and Ryder had a special bond. A lifetime of friendship.
Breaking away from Sam I stepped into Kyle’s space. Our eyes met and something passed between us; no words were needed. Like the time we’d waited for hours in the hospital room, not knowing if Ryder would live or die, this was another moment for us, and I knew without any words that Kyle and I would get Ryder back.
Sam never missed a thing. “You can’t go running off after him like idiots. We already risked ourselves once. Let’s think this through.”
I turned on Sam and I knew my eyes would be blazing silver. The fury and fear was filling me, washing away the tears and leaving pure bitch in its wake. “Ryder is not thinking clearly. If he was he’d know that storming into the Hive out of anger will only get him killed.”
Sam put his hands out. “I know, and that goes for you too. Let’s take tonight and think up a proper plan. Ryder is long gone, you won’t catch up with him. I’d bet my life that he took the chopper. I showed him how to fly. He knows I have contacts that could get us another one if we needed it.”
I felt sick. Ryder, alone in a chopper, hell bent on taking down the Portland Hive? FML. What was he thinking? Boys were stupid.
“In the morning we’re leaving.” I gestured to Kyle and myself. We all knew the others would have to stay. Becca and Jayden couldn’t handle all those vampires alone.
Sam shook his head and I walked to the door. “I need some fresh air. When I get back, we figure out a plan.”
I brushed past Becca and burst out the front door of our little remote cabin, taking off into the snow-drenched forest. I missed my running, the days when I could jog without a care in the world. Jumping over fallen logs, the anger subsided slightly, and with that there was a sliver of space for the pain to hit again. Crap. Tears started to flow.
As a girl with daddy issues, Ryder leaving me felt like total abandonment. I know he didn’t think of it or mean it like that, but it tore a hole inside of me. It felt like the lives of his men trumped our future together, because even he must have realized the odds of making it out alive were slim. And why? We were so close to curing them all and ending this forever. But no, that wouldn’t have been enough for Ryder. He had to make the Quorum pay. His men deserved this from him, and he would not rest easy until he fulfilled his vengeance. I just wished it didn’t come at such a steep price.
Footsteps behind me caused me to slow my pace and turn. Kyle was barely winded, standing before me with blazing silver eyes. Neither of us were wearing a jacket and neither cared. The pain was keeping me warm for now.
“I’ve known Ryder since before I could walk. You’re his soulmate and he would never hurt you on purpose. He isn’t thinking clearly. He thinks he’s protecting you.”
His words just made me cry harder, because most of me knew he was right. I nodded as the tears fell down my cheeks and onto the forest floor. My wet lashes were starting to freeze on my eyelids.
“We’ll get to him before he does anything stupid,” Kyle promised, but I didn’t see how that could be possible. I wanted to run out right now and be hot on his trail, but Sam was right. If my lead enforcer was hell bent on enacting revenge, than he couldn’t do it alone and we needed a solid plan.
Kyle’s arm came around me and we walked back to the cabin slowly. Every step I took away from Ryder made my gut tighten in anxiety.
Back in the cabin I began to load up my backpack for the trip to Portland. The second the twilight of day hit I was out of here. Going through my personal stuff my stomach dropped when I realized one very important thing was missing. I charged into the lab, where Becca was doing her science nerd thing and Sam was hunched over his laptop.
“Sam, please tell me you took the Sanctum phone from my bag?” My heart was pounding in my chest.
The look Sam gave me told me all I needed to know. That little fucker!
“So that’s his plan. Get Sanctum to help him.” I couldn’t believe Ryder had stolen the phone from me!
Sam thought about it for a second, his head tilting to the side. “It’s actually brilliant. We’re days out from the plan going into place. Paperwork arrived this morning from Cellway. Our covers are assured. But Ryder is still worried about their loyalty. He’s going to make them jump through a few hoops before the plan.”
I growled, despite Sam making a lot of sense. I didn’t want to see logic right now. Ryder took that phone and left me, that’s all I saw. Although a part of me felt slightly better. Involving Sanctum meant this wasn’t a complete suicide mission. Ryder really did plan on returning to me alive. Of course, I might kill him when I got my hands on him, so that would be redundant.
Sam’s computer buzzed and he read something for a second and then grinned.
“Ryder is using the secure phone to contact us. This definitely wasn’t as irrational as we thought. He seems to actually have a solid plan.”
Becca stopped what she was doing now and I strode across the room, avoiding the wires and machines. “What does it say?”
Sam smiled. “He says: I bet our little unicorn is fuming mad. It’s safer this way, she’s everything to me, tie her up if you have to but don’t let her come after me. I’m not alone here, the plan is already in place.”
My mouth opened at that last part and I found myself flexing my muscles, readying myself for his attack. Sam’s eyes locked on me, and I could tell he was actually considering it. Ryder was still their leader, and they were used to his orders. I straightened, and started thinking of every self-defense technique Markus had taught me. I was going after Ryder, and none of these assholes were stopping me.
That’s when Becca said, “Samuel! You can’t be serious. What if I had run off on my own and said you shouldn’t follow me?” She put one hand on her hip.
Sam’s face was frozen in hard angry lines, as if the mere thought of Becca disappearing without him had his in
sides turning to ice.
“I’d kill anyone who got in my way of going after you, Becca. You know that. I’ll always come for you.”
Becca swallowed hard, clearly not prepared for the emotional depth of his answer. The fact that they had had sex once and never again continued to astonish me. The feels were real between them. I could practically see the attraction and emotion spiraling through the air.
Since it seemed Sam was not about to attack me, I left them to their eye-screwing and slowly crept out of the room. I needed to find Kyle. We were leaving, stat; Ryder was stubborn as hell but so was I. There was another ding from Sam’s computer just as I was crossing the threshold.
Pausing, I turned around. “Tell him unicorn and BFF are inbound and I’ll be the one tying him up later. And not in the fun way.”
Sam smiled, and with a shake of his head turned back to his computer to read the note. His face fell. “Oh shit. Tessa.”
Those three words were enough to bring my whole world crashing down.
Chapter 8
It was 5AM and I had barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Tessa in the pit being starved to death by Fugly, and Ryder being killed the second he stepped into the Hive. Lucas had written to tell us that Tessa was caught doing something suspicious against the Quorum and they threw her in the pit for a month. That was two weeks ago. He could only now get word. He said the entire Portland Hive had been turned into a military regime where Fugly’s word ruled all. Any rebellion was met with the pit or death. Sounded like Tessa was lucky to get the pit, but something told me they still had plans for her. Plans which involved me.
Sam had called in a favor and got us new identification and a chartered private plane. Being rich really was awesome. Thank you, Deliverance.
I was itching to go. When Sam and Kyle entered the room, a burst of excitement flooded me. We might be finally ready to go.
Sam looked at Kyle and they seemed to be considering something, then I saw the scissors in Sam’s hands. Both ash faced me.
“Hey, Charlie … how attached to your hair are you?” Sam asked.
Oh hell no. “How attached to your penis are you?” I countered, hands on hips and eyes narrowed.
Kyle tried to hide his laugh but couldn’t.
Sam groaned. “It won’t be long before the humans know there’s a cure. My gut says that your picture could be plastered all over the news by sundown. I’ve got you new passports, but a new look would really give you guys a fighting chance.”
Shit. Was he serious? I loved my long hair. I wasn’t overly vain in that type of way, but it took me forever to grow it out from this horrendous bowl cut I had in middle school. Not to mention my jaw was wide and short cuts didn’t look good on me. But dammit, Sam had a point. I couldn’t go walking around like this much longer and expect not to be noticed.
I just nodded. “Fine. Just do it.”
My hair was in a low ponytail at the base of my neck. It hung down my back past where my bra clipped. Sam gave me a sympathetic look and took a firm grip on my pony tail. I closed my eyes, telling myself to grow the fuck up and put my big girl pants on.
“PUT THE SCISSORS DOWN!” Jayden’s voice boomed down the hallway and my eyes snapped open. My BAFF was looking at Sam in shock and clutching his chest.
“How dare you try to cut her hair so barbarically! Sam, for future reference, when a gay man is available, you always ask him to do these things.”
My face lit up with a smile. Jayden would make sure I didn’t have another “middle school bowl cut.” Sam handed him the scissors and Jayden wasted no time in pulling out a dining room chair and placing a plastic bag over my shoulders.
“Okay, honey, do you want the Jennifer Aniston from Friends bob or short chunky like Charlize Theron?”
“Ohhh, Charlize, definitely,” I said.
Jayden was in his element as he brushed out my hair and started to slice away. I nearly cried when I saw twelve inch strands falling to the floor, but ten minutes later I had a super cute short chunky hairstyle that actually looked good. Somehow he’d managed to accent my nicer facial features and hide those which were not so attractive. Like the fat chin … it was looking positively slender.
Jumping to my feet, Jayden dusted me off, and when I was finally clear of my departed hair, I pulled my BAFF in for a hug. “Thank you for everything,” I whispered. “I love you, and I’ll do my damn best to return to you and to bring all of our boys back.”
His grip was tight on me; his chest heaved a few times but he didn’t speak. Something told me he couldn’t. With a breathless “Love you,” he took off into the house, and I fought the urge to follow him. His pain was my pain. But right now there was no time for either of our agony. We had a job to do.
Squaring my shoulders, I grabbed my pack and Kyle and I left. As we crossed those front porch steps, part of me knew I would never see this place again. I threw my pack into the back of the buggy, and Kyle was just about to jump into the driver’s seat when I stopped him.
“My turn to drive,” I said.
He gave me a lopsided grin before leaving the door open and crossing to the passenger side. The enforcers tended to be a little old school, thinking the dude drove while the lady emulated Ms. Daisy. Time to remind them that Charlie Bennett was no lady. She was a BAMF, and she was getting her guy back.
As the engine roared to life, the front door to the house smashed open. I turned to find the entire crew descending on us. Markus, Sam, Jared, Oliver, Becca, and even number three, who I was yet to officially meet.
They all spread out across the porch and each of their faces was somber. I lifted myself up out of my seat and through the open roof. I took a moment to examine all of them. My family. My team. The best damn people I’d ever have the luck to know.
“I love you guys!” I shouted. “Except for you, number three. You, I don’t know.” There was laughter all around as I blew them kisses and all of them returned the favor. Even number three, who at least seemed to have a sense of humor.
“Be careful, wee lassie,” Marcus bellowed. “We’ll see you very soon. We’re heading off to Cellway as soon as Becca has the cure done. We’ll meet you three once we have the trucks locked and loaded.” His Scottish brogue was always stronger when his emotions were strong. Right now all of us were on emotional overload. But I liked that we were getting very close to the blood and cure being united as one.
With one final salute, I dropped back next to Kyle, and shifting the buggy into drive we took off. Snow shot out around us, and the air was freezing, but I barely felt anything. We were on our way to Ryder, and there wasn’t a damn other thing that mattered.
It took most of the day to travel to the private airfield. Losing the chopper was a huge blow, but at least this chartered plane would take us straight into Portland. No more screwing around. Kyle and I carried our bags on board, and I was surprised to find this was the fanciest plane we’d been on to date. Wide-cushioned leather, captain-style chairs, plush carpets, huge screen television that was showing an action flick. If only I could enjoy it. I was in panic, lockdown mode.
“Charlie, calm down,” Kyle said, his warm hand wrapping around mine to stop my fingers from drumming right through the arm of the chair. “We’re close now. We know it’s going to take Ryder and Sanctum time to get everything into place. I think we’ll make it before they hit. Everything will work out. The other guys will meet us as soon as Becca has the mass cure.”
I nodded a few times, my head bobbing rapid and jerky. “Yes, I know. But we’re cutting our timing so short. The cure needs to be in that blood within a week, and right now it doesn’t seem as if Sanctum is in position or anything yet.”
Kyle’s thumb rubbed across the back of my hand, over and over, the motion soothing. “Ryder would not jeopardize the plan. I know him, and there’s no way he hasn’t thought through every single facet of what he’s doing. Trust in him, Charlie. Trust that he does the right thing
no matter what. That’s the guy you fell in love with. The one who cares. Too much. He has one of the best strategic minds I’ve ever encountered. That’s why Sanctum wanted him originally. That’s why he’s such a good leader. He’s got this.”
My heartbeat calmed as Kyle’s reassurance invoked a clarity which had been missing from me for days. Panic had eaten away at my common sense. The fact that Ryder had been so cold and distant, so emotionally wrecked before he left me, had caused me to forget the fundamental personality traits of the man I fell in love with.
“I trust him,” I said. “He always does the right thing.” My head drooped at little. “I shouldn’t have lost faith in him.”
Kyle chuckled. “Yeah, and he shouldn’t have left without explaining that plan to us. He still needs an ass kicking, but you can keep your faith.”
I snorted at that. “Oh, he’s getting a butt kicking, don’t you worry about that. Fugly has nothing on me when I’m pissed.”
We settled back into the plush chairs then, the engines roaring around us as the plane began to taxi down the runway. Finally, we were on our way.
Portland was cold, but compared to Alaska I felt like I could walk around in a tank and shorts. The flight had been uneventful; our new identifications passed at the airport and car rental place without question. Kyle and I both wore sunglasses and contacts to hide our eyes. I even convinced Kyle to wear a little blush with me to look more human. The chill would be reddening the humans’ cheeks and I wanted to blend in as much as possible. We needed to make sure no reports of ash traveling to Portland reached the Hive. They had their little spies everywhere. As we walked out into the cloudy parking lot, I pulled my hoodie up. I knew with that and my short hair, I was pretty incognito.
“Did Sam send coordinates for us?” I asked. He was using some sort of satellite frequency to track Ryder and the Sanctum. He hoped anyway.