by Lily White
“Are you sure?”
She better be sure. If she’s not, I’ll kick both their asses. How I’ll accomplish that, I have no idea. Those two are the poster children for Scary As Fuck, but I’ll figure out something.
She gives me a half-hearted grin.
“I might put up with a lot from people, but I wouldn’t allow that. I told you, it’s complicated, and I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
“Promise to tell me when you’re ready?”
Emily nods.
My shoulders relax at that.
“Fine.
Bracing her forearms on the handrail, she leans forward and laughs. “You’re stalling.”
Skin bristling to hear the accusation, I smile. The sweet one that is lined with bullshit to hide what I’m thinking. She sees right past it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Uh huh.”
Her hair catches the porch light that flickers on above our heads, her turquoise eyes assessing me.
“What I find interesting is that you’re not afraid of Gabriel. So why the hell are you stalling to keep from calling him?”
Because I know he’s up to something. And I have no idea what.
Pushing away from the handrail, I walk into the house with Emily following behind me.
“Maybe I just don’t want to hear his annoying voice.”
“Sure. We can go with that.”
“Fuck off.”
She laughs when I grab my phone from my purse and blow out a steadying breath.
“No time like the present,” I mumble as I scroll to his number, hit the button and bring the phone to my ear.
Gabriel answers after two rings. “Thank you for calling Jaguar. This is Gabriel speaking. How can I assist you today?”
Judging by that smooth tone of voice, Fraud is on the line.
Behind him I can hear the soft murmur of office noises, a phone ringing in the distance, a receptionist answering the call and then the quick fingers of somebody typing.
“Jaguar?”
He laughs. “I figured I might as well sell you my car for as long as you’ve had it. I’ll have to do a credit check first, of course. I suspect you have no money or a job.”
A door shuts on his end of the line, the low din of his office silenced.
“Oh, that car. No thanks. I ditched it a while back before catching a flight to Europe. It didn’t have all the features I wanted and the suspension was shit.”
“Did you? I guess I’ll have to buy a new one.”
Clenching my hand over the phone, I pace the living room floor.
“I saw we broke up. Sorry to wreck your heart. I know you had hopes and dreams, but sometimes these things just don’t work out. It’s a pity.”
I can almost see his charming smile.
“Yes, well, I’m burying myself in work to get over the trauma. I’m sure I’ll eventually find it within myself to move on. It’ll be difficult to find another woman that enjoys destroying property and is a lying, thieving bitch, but if I wish for it hard enough on a falling star, I’m sure it will come true someday.”
I can hear humor in his voice, which only confirms he’s up to something.
“Cut the crap. Why did you do it?”
He pauses for a second, dead silence on the line before he sighs and explains, “You’ve made it abundantly clear you have no intention to pay the price for Tanner’s favor. There’s no point in controlling you anymore.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I think you know.”
His tone of voice changes on those last words, and it’s not Fraud speaking anymore. It’s the monster beneath the mask.
Fear crawls down my spine with scratchy fingers, my blood running ice cold. I know there’s only one thing the Inferno does when somebody refuses to pay, and it’s the last thing I’ll let them do to me.
“You wouldn’t.”
A nervous chuckle escapes my throat because this is insane. We’re all in our late twenties. I’m almost certain that these guys have grown up enough that they don’t still -
“I’m sorry to tell you this, beautiful, but we would. Not often anymore. However, we’re always willing to make an exception.”
Apparently, they haven’t grown up that much.
I’ve made a lot of dumb decisions in my life. And one incredibly stupid decision that I thought at the time wasn’t as stupid as I’m now learning it is.
It was never supposed to come to this, and I’m regretting everything I did.
“Good luck finding me in Europe, Gabe. It’ll be difficult for you to run me down if you have no idea where I am.”
Behind me, I hear Emily’s phone ring. Gabriel and I are both quiet when she answers. Only a minute passes before she calls my name, her voice anxious and urgent.
“Get off the phone, Ivy. I need to talk to you.”
Gabe laughs softly. “I see Ava got the word out. The thing about spies is you shouldn’t let us know you have them. They become unreliable reporters.”
I laugh in return, one hard bark of sound that does nothing to hide the panic I’m feeling. “Says the guy paying Dylan.”
He doesn’t react except to say, “We’ll see you soon, love. Try not to wreck my car in your attempt to escape. You’ve wrecked enough of my stuff and already have so much to repay.”
Gabriel hangs up, and I spin on my heel to face Emily, her expression is tight with fear.
“They found us,” she says. “Ava just called and warned that Mason and the guys are leaving town.”
Fuck...
My heart races as my thoughts scramble to figure this out. The worst thing I can do is panic. Taking a few deeps breaths, I try and fail to get my pulse to slow down as I fight to think clearly.
“Okay. This is fine. We have two hours at least. Gabriel was still at his office when I called him, so they haven’t left yet.”
Emily’s eyes meet mine. “Where should we go?”
I have no idea, but we’re not entirely helpless. Emily has money even when I don’t. We can still get out of state and go far enough that they can’t find us.
“I hear Europe is lovely this time of year.”
Her brows tug together.
“Even if that was a viable option, neither of us have our passports.”
Okay. So we stay in the country. But where the hell can we hide that he wouldn’t figure out eventually?
“We’ll figure out where to go on the way. For now, let’s pack our stuff and leave here as quickly as possible. Two hours is a long time to put distance between us and them.”
Emily and I run upstairs to hastily throw our clothes and toiletries into our bags, our feet a thunder of sound as we race back downstairs to haul ass out the front door.
Darkness has fallen quickly outside the windows, the nocturnal chorus even louder as we make our way through the house, turning off lights en route to the foyer.
Practically running, we skid to a stop as Emily throws the lock and opens the front door, allowing me to run out in front of her onto the porch.
I freeze in place the second my feet hit the wood.
The front of the house is illuminated by two porch lights on the outside walls and another two spotlights that are a yellow glow over the small parking area. Beyond that is pure black, the rustle of leaves a soft whisper of sound within the darkness.
My jaw drags the ground as Emily comes to a stop beside me, her voice filling the disturbing silence with the same question that’s screaming in my head.
“Where’s the car?”
Within the circle of soft yellow light should be a custom Jaguar I know cost over a hundred thousand dollars. It should have sleek lines and black paint with chrome embellishments that only add to the luxurious exterior.
Instead, all I see is a dirt lot with nothing parked in the spot where I know for a fact I’d left Gabriel’s car.
Emily nudges me with her elbow.
“Ivy, where’s the car?”
“I have no idea,” I mumble, my eyes scanning the perimeter of the woods that lie beyond.
It’s not like I can see anything past the circle of light, only a solid swatch of black as thick as a puddle of ink spilled over the landscape.
To our right, a spark catches my attention, the small flash of light igniting into a flame that grows over the head of a torch.
My heart jumps into my throat the instant that flame moves and a large man steps into the light, his chest bare and face covered by a mask I recognize from high school.
“Oh, my God,” Emily breathes out, her hand moving to grab mine. “I thought we had two hours.”
Barely able to register what she’s saying as I stare at the man, I quickly scan his features to see a large tattoo sleeve covering his arm.
Shane, I think as another spark to the right of him ignites another torch. My eyes snap that direction to watch another man step into the light.
Like Shane, his chest is bare, his face bearing the same mask, his shoulder a tattoo design that I recognize as either Ezra or Damon.
“Apparently not,” I answer. “We’re fucked.”
One after the other, torches light up as the Inferno makes their presence known.
By the time they complete the semi-circle around us, there are only eight of them, and while I can identify some by the tattoos on their skin, I can’t distinguish between a few who have none.
“Who’s missing?” I ask Emily. “Which one of them isn’t here?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I see Ezra and Damon, but-“
Her voice trails off as we stare out at a nightmare.
Maybe Gabriel stayed behind to make me think they were all still back home. I clearly heard his office on his end of the line. Why would he do that, though, when the person with the biggest issue against me is him?
Or maybe it’s Mason and that’s why Ava didn’t know they’d already left. It would make sense. Gabriel said something about her being an unreliable reporter.
Squeezing Emily’s hand, I attempt to rationalize the situation.
“Okay. Listen. This has to be a joke. We’re women. They’d never actually chase us like they did the guys.”
She’s quiet for a second, then, “Do you remember Sarah Strickland? Or how about Ashley Trigs?”
My eyes widen, another bolt of terror cutting through me.
Sarah and Ashley were two girls in high school who didn’t pay the price. They ran the gauntlet, and while they weren’t carried out like the guys were, they stumbled out on their own with shocked expressions just before leaving school and never looking back.
“So they will chase us.”
She nods her head and scoots closer to where I’m standing.
I should never have dragged Emily into this. And being that I’m a good friend, I need to find a way to get her out of it.
“You should go inside. I’ll run.”
Her eyes snap to me, red hair flying over her shoulders as her head turns my direction.
“Are you nuts? We should both go inside.”
No. I’m almost positive they’ve already considered that course of action and have a way to terrorize us even if we manage to hide in the house. Emily doesn’t deserve it.
This is a result of my dumb decisions and fuckups. And she shouldn’t have to pay the price.
“Do me a favor,” I say, my voice shaky and quiet. “Go inside the house and lock the door.”
“What? Did you not just hear me? We should both go inside.”
Releasing her hand, I shake my head and run a slow look over all eight of the guys.
“I can’t do that,” I answer, my muscles loosening as I decide on my final course of action.
“Ivy, seriously, turn around and come with me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
Because it’s best I just get this over with.
My head turns with one last look at the scene around me, terror clogging my throat that I struggle to speak around.
“Because I’m running.”
With that, I haul ass to my left and jump off the porch, my legs pumping as fast as they can toward the tree line.
The horn they always blow fills the silence of the night, my feet moving quicker to hear it.
Gabriel
It’s amusing that Ivy thought she could run. It only took a few hours for me to pinpoint exactly where she and Emily had gone after she wrecked my house and shredded our tires, but rather than chasing after her immediately, I decided to let her rest.
Not because she deserved another mini vacation, but more because I wanted to take my time planning out my next move while also allowing her to feel comfortable that she’d evaded me.
Everything was timed perfectly.
For two days, I let her sit pretty with the belief she was out of reach. Meanwhile, I was formulating the web that would ensnare her as soon as all the threads were tied together.
It didn’t surprise me she called almost immediately after the article came out that we’d broken up. I knew as soon as it was out that social media would run with it, one or both of the women seeing it when they scrolled through.
She called and was led to believe I was still a distance away. What she didn’t know is that we were already on top of them.
I hear Sawyer blow the horn and know Ivy is running again, except this time, she’s running right to me and doesn’t know it.
There’s only one trail we could find near the cabin where she and Emily are staying, and while the rest of the guys set up to cage them in near the house, I went into the woods to wait.
I know Ivy well enough to know she’ll take off. The woman can’t help herself when it comes to escaping and evading.
In truth, I’m just screwing with her, a love slap back for what she did to my house before stealing my car. This run will do nothing to pay the price she owes. It’s simply payment for fucking with me when she escaped my house.
And it’s only me out here. None of the other guys will run her down because when it comes to Ivy, she’s nobody else’s but mine.
Leaning against a tree along the path, I listen carefully for her quick footsteps.
Where I stand, the trail branches off in three directions. Straight, left and right, and I wonder which she’ll choose.
I’m the devil at the crossroads again, but I don’t wear a mask, and I’m not willing to bargain.
A minute or two pass before I finally hear her approaching, her steps pounding the dirt as her legs brush low lying branches. Pushing away from the tree, I step out into the path, my arms crossed over my chest and my feet planted shoulder width apart.
Ivy turns a bend and glances behind her to see who’s in pursuit, still not realizing the danger she should worry about is right in front of her.
When she turns her head to look forward, my smile stretches ear to ear, her feet skidding to a stop as a low cloud of dust erupts around her.
“Miss me?” I call out, enjoying this moment a little too much.
Her expression falls as her chest beats with breath. Eyes wide, she stares at me silently for a few seconds. Most likely, her thoughts are trying to catch up that I’ve been waiting for her all along.
“Oh, fuck,” she mumbles before choosing to turn left in a direction that will only lead her deeper into the forest.
I take off after her and have to admit, Ivy should join a track team for how fast she can run. She’s agile, too, easily dodging and jumping over obstacles in her race to escape me.
Knowing she’ll stick to the path, I cut a right to outrun her and come around from the side, my legs moving quickly as I break out from a thick stand of trees to sneak up and grab her before she sees me.
Our bodies collide as my arms wrap around her, my weight easily shoving her back u
ntil I have her pinned to a tree.
Wide blue eyes tip up to mine, fear dancing behind them, but also raw and naked want. The spark that always jumps between us is there again. My body tightens in response to it.
Only Ivy has the ability to do this to me.
She can barely talk with how hard she’s breathing, her chin tilting with adorable defiance as she struggles to speak.
“Took you long enough. I was wondering how long I’d have to camp out here before you found me.”
Bracing a forearm against the tree near her head, I smile down at her, soft laughter shaking my shoulders because it’s just like Ivy to refuse to admit defeat.
“You were waiting for me?” I ask, my mouth lowering to her ear. “Careful with that, I might start thinking you like having me around.”
Her expression shifts, something I can’t read there and then gone. Heat erupts behind her eyes as our chests brush together.
“I can’t stand you. But if you feel the need to lie to yourself so you can sleep better at night, feel free.”
My gaze drops to her mouth.
“Why do I get the feeling I’m not the one who’s lying?”
Our eyes lock, and I can’t help taking what I want. Gripping the back of her head, I drag her face to mine, our breath colliding as I brush my lips against hers before sliding my tongue into her mouth and tasting the sweet lies she tells me.
Ivy’s hands cup my face, her teeth bumping mine as she drags me closer, her tits pressed to my chest as she fights me with her tongue.
She’s tempting enough for me to drop the gauntlet and just take her right here and now, but the fun would be lost too quickly, the thrill I get in chasing her gone.
We always catch the people we’re after, but then let them go again with the belief they can get away.
Forcing myself to break the kiss, I press my forehead to hers.
“You might want to start running again.”
Blue eyes lock with mine. “Why?”
“Because I’m not done teaching you a lesson for destroying my stuff, and we’re about to get insanely fucking dirty.”
“What?”
Her question echoes through the forest as I grip the bottom of her shirt to tug it up her body. Her arms fly up with the force of it, her mouth dropping open when I step back and drop the shirt to the ground.