What I see steals a bit of my confidence away that we’ll be able to escape. Because we’re no longer in the Royal City. No, all I can see is miles and miles of trees that lead to who the hell knows where.
“I think we’re on my father’s island,” Finn explains, moving up beside me.
I glance at him. “You don’t know for sure?”
He shakes his head as he stares out the window, the lightning blazing across the sky reflecting in his pretty eyes. “No. After you went into the examination room, my father had Eli inject a drug in me that knocked me out.” The corners of his lips curl into a ghost of a smile. “I managed to slam my fist into his face, though, before I did.”
I fold my arms around my chest as rain begins to shower from the clouds. “Good. Hopefully, you broke his jaw.”
He grins. “It sounded like I did.”
I return his smile, but then the book of thunder yanks me back to reality. “How are we going to get out of here?”
His grin fades. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure out a way. I owe you that.”
“You owe me nothing,” I assure him. “So stop saying that kind of shit.”
He doesn’t respond and turns away from the window. “Come on. Let’s go look around this room, and if we can at least get a grasp on what’s going on. And make sure there aren’t any cameras hidden anywhere.”
A shiver rolls down my body at the idea that we’re being watched again.
CHAPTER 14
RIVER
Noahand I make it to the airport hangar in record time, but when we arrive at the garage number that Grey texted me to go to, no one is waiting for us there. This has me slightly worried.
Noah eyeballs the shut garage door from the passenger seat of my car. “Why is no one here?”
I thrum my fingers on top of the steering wheel. “I don’t know. Grey didn’t specify a time to be here. He just said get here as quickly as I can, so maybe he hasn’t gotten Maddy and Finn yet.”
If that’s what he’s even doing. He was so vague about it.
“I don’t like this,” Noah mumbles as he peers around at the runway and at a few people wandering around in the area. “It doesn’t make any sense why he’d ask us to come here. Unless he’s planning on flying us somewhere.”
I slump back in the seat. “I hope not. I don't want Lily to be alone.”
Noah glances at his watch. “I should call my mom and ask her to go to the hospital and wait for her, just in case she does wake up. Unless you don’t want me to, then I won’t.” He waits for me to respond.
I watch a small airplane land on the runway in the distance. “You should call her. It’s not like I can call my dad since he….” I swallow down the blinding rage that sears at my throat, but not well enough, and it explodes out of me. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I scream, slamming my hand against the steering wheel.
Noah watches me without reacting and waits for me to calm down. “Are you good now?” he asks.
I shake my head and shrug. “No, but I won’t punch anything for now.”
He nods, then retrieves his phone from his pocket to call his mom, and she agrees to rush to the hospital, the worry in her tone making it clear she has no clue what’s been going on, which is good. I do need to give Lily a heads-up somehow so she’ll stay away from my father…
Thinking of him causes anger to prickle at the surface, and I open and flex my fingers, trying to push it back down.
“My mom’s headed to the hospital now,” Noah informs me after he hangs up the phone.
“I know. I could hear her.” I rub my lips together, considering my next words carefully. “I really wish you’d tell me whatever it is you’ve been keeping from Finn and me. I feel like with everything going on, we need to trust each other, but I can’t do that unless I know all of the details.”
He doesn’t immediately argue, instead gazing out the window with a frown on his face. “Your dad’s been blackmailing me. It’s why I was selling steroids to make money. He found out some stuff about my father and his business that threatened to tell it to the tabloids if I didn’t start giving him money.”
My brows furrow. “Why would my dad want money from you?”
“Power and control.” He lifts a shoulder. “That’s what I’m assuming, anyway. Plus, he hates my dad, so this is a win-winfor him because he either gets to make my life miserable or my father’s.”
