There’s no time to swallow back the wave of nausea, and I throw up all over Mace’s boots. He curses, but he doesn’t berate me, and that only makes me feel worse. Quinn’s situation is dire and he knows it.
“Let’s wrap things up and get out of here,” Hunter says.
Ash practically holds me up by my collar as we thread our way through the trees. I’m supposed to be leaving here with Quinn in my arms, but instead we’re leaving with worse than nothing. There are no more breadcrumbs to follow. Nothing except the one possible clue we’re choosing to leave taped to a wall.
What if Quinn was watching? What if she’s waiting at the end of the line if only someone had the courage to pick the damn phone up?
I straighten my spine. “I’m OK,” I tell Ash. “I just need to catch my breath.”
When he lets me go, I slow my pace. Hunter and Mace are behind us, and I shake my head when they go to join me. I let them pass, then get overtaken by a few more stragglers. I nod to Levi.
“We’ll find her,” he says.
I try to smile. “Knowing Quinn, they’ll be begging us to take her back by the end of the week,” I say because Levi’s one of the few here who’s seen Quinn at her most brilliant worst.
My comment is enough to convince Levi I’m doing OK, and he continues forward. Once everyone’s ahead of me, it won’t be long before someone questions why. I know my brothers are going to chase after me, but I was blessed with the longest legs, and I’ve got a head start. I spin on my heels and break into a sprint.
My heart pounds, my arms move like pistons, but it’s my legs that eat up the ground. There’s a clamor of voices behind me, telling me to stop, but it’s only when those shouts turn into curses and insults that I know it’s my brothers in pursuit.
My boots scrape to a stop on the concrete corridor between the stalls lining each side of the stable block. The cell phone could be in any one of them, and my search slows me down. As I glance from left to right, I hear the thunder of approaching boots.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Mace yells from behind me.
“Reid, no!” Hunter adds.
Ignoring them, my gaze swivels left and right as I check each stall in turn. I’m three quarters of the way down, and I’m already tensing for when Hunter grabs me by my collar, or Mace kicks my feet from under me. It’s not like they haven’t done it a hundred times before, but this isn’t play-fighting. If either of them comes at me, I’m going to fight hard. I’ll even play dirty.
“Keep back!” I call out. “It’s not safe.”
“Which is why you’re not going to touch that fucking phone,” growls Ash as he appears at the opposite end of the corridor, directly in front of me.
He doesn’t come for me. He doesn’t need to. His word is law.
Normally.
I hold my hands up, hoping to stop Mace or Hunter from tackling me from behind. The soles of their boots scrape across the concrete, and the sound of their labored breaths grows nearer.
“We’ll find another way,” Ash promises. He tips his head up at the ceiling, reminding us all that we’re being monitored.
I meet my brother’s eye. “I’m sorry,” I say, and I genuinely mean it. Not for what I’ve done, but for what I’m about to do.
With my brothers relaxed, I turn ninety degrees and dive into the stall on my left. I’d seen the cell phone just as Ash appeared.
All three of my brothers crash into the stall seconds later, but it’s too late. I’ve already pulled the phone off the wall. There are no wires attached. Other than the duct tape across the front, it looks like a regular cell phone. I take hold of one end of the tape.
Mace’s eyes widen. “Don’t–”
Too late. The tape hangs loosely in one hand, the cell phone in my other. I go to make a snarky comment to Mace about it just being a phone when the damn thing starts ringing.
I don’t think I’m the only one who jumps, and I almost drop the phone. There’s no explosion, and no other sound to suggest I’ve triggered a trap. It just keeps ringing out.
I look to Ash. I’d ignored all his previous commands, but now I’m back to waiting for him to tell me what the fuck I’m supposed to do. He cocks an eyebrow. “Answer it.”
My heart stalls as I connect the call and put it onspeakerphone for my brothers. Whatever this conversation is, I don’t want to be on my own.
“Who knew the youngest Griffin would be the bravest?” says Ilya. “I was starting to think you didn’t care about your darling Quinn.”
I grip the phone tighter. “If you’ve touched her–”
