Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
“What?”
“Get your purse,” he orders. His voice is a quiet menace, and I don’t dare disobey. I go back into the bedroom and return wearing shoes and a coat, purse in hand.
He opens the briefcase and motions me forward. “Take your money.”
Without a word, I stuff as many stacks of bills as I can into my purse while Kaiser paces behind me.
“Now go.”
I head to the foyer, where he’s set a pair of crutches. He follows me all the way there, barely waiting for me to balance on the crutches before herding me out the door.
I stall in the hallway, a sob hitching in my throat. Does it end like this? Me leaving without a goodbye? Without a note?
It’s what I’d planned to do all along… before I realized I was in love with Jaeger. Before I realized how much I needed a man like him. Someone who would fight for me. Someone who wouldn’t leave and wouldn’t let me leave.
But maybe it’s for the best. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to be with him, and he deserves someone who can enter his dark world with her head high.
Kaiser stands guard at his brother’s door. He points toward the back elevator and folds his arms over his chest, making it clear he won’t let me back in. He’s going to watch me leave, and if I don’t go, I’m sure I won’t like what he does next.
I scramble away on my crutches, my bag banging around my legs. It’s not until I’m outside, the sharp wind blowing in my face, that it hits me that I’m alone. All the fears and worries I had before meeting Jaeger bombard me like they’ve just been waiting for this moment. The moment I have no one. No more Jaeger to fix things with his fists or his money. He did more than let me lean on him. He carried me.
I’ll never have that again. I’ll never see him again. The thought crushes me.
I brush away frozen tears and try to think. I’m a survivor, right? I can figure this out.
But without Jaeger, there’s not going to be much more to my life than surviving.
First things first. I need a ride that can’t be traced to a hiding place that’s far from here.
I go as far as I can on crutches until the nice buildings and shops give way to warehouses and shady-looking businesses. Then I duck into an alley, out of the wind.
I pull my phone from my coat pocket and scroll through my contacts. Honey, Daria, Angel—my friends from Inferno. I can’t call them. They work for a business owned by Fraternitas, and I can’t put them at risk.
When word gets out that I know what I know and that I’ve run, the brotherhood will hunt me down. It won’t matter that Kaiser made me leave; they can’t have someone out in the world who knows their secrets. They’ll drag me to their murder-chapel and get rid of me. Jaeger won’t be able to protect me.
He’s not even here.
My thumb halts my scrolling on the name Tommy. He’s one of my Narcotics Anonymous contacts, who texted me a few days ago, asking if I was going to a meeting anytime soon. Maybe he’ll give me a ride.
He answers on the third ring. “Elodie?”
“Hey,” I say, and my voice cracks. It’s hitting me, what I’m doing. How I’m leaving Jaeger. I won’t ever see him again.
Or he’ll catch me, and I’ll be dead.
I force myself to ask Tommy for a favor, a ride. “I know it’s weird, but can you come pick me up?”
He seems surprised but says he can come. I thank him and give him the cross streets, hang up, and press myself against the brick wall to wait.
This is the start of my new life. No more Jaeger. No more late-night fucks or cuddles or confessions in the dark. No one to growl at me in their deep voice and call me “Bunny.”
No more rom-coms on the couch.
Just me, on the run, forever. Praying that my family will stay safe, and that I can stay one step ahead of the hunters.
It’s enough to make me want to crumple into a ball on the concrete.
The wind shifts, whistling between the buildings with enough force to steal my breath. It’s freezing, but I lean into it. If I’m lucky, it’ll numb me so I don’t feel the pain cracking open my chest anymore.
Eventually, Tommy comes. But he’s not alone.
15
Elodie
Tommy’s tiny white beater pulls up to the alleyway. The cold has made my limbs stiff, but I shift to standing and greet him. He gets out, shading his face from the wind. “Elodie?”
Before I can swing on my crutches over to him, another car, one I don’t recognize, pulls up. It’s long, low, black, and expensive.