His thumb grazed my cheek. “There’s no other choice.”
Flashes of images scorched my mind, of Lucas trying and failing to fight them off…him fatally wounded…me trapped as a Hunter prisoner, Luke’s blood staining my hands.
Him dead and me wanting to be.
“Tie me back up,” I said. “I won’t let you do this.”
“You won’tletme?” He whisper-yelled, stepping away from me.
Fresh tears fell, and I reached for him. “You can’t die. I’ll be alone. What if I can’t get out?”
“You’ll never sneak out with them alive, not even with my help. They’re trained killers.” He gripped my arm too tightly. “You really think I’m going to let them live after this?”
“I’m fine, Lucas!” I choked around the tears. “But I won’t be fine if you die. It’s just a few cuts.”
His eyes widened. “Just a few cuts?”
“Yeah—”
He manhandled me until my back faced the vanity mirror on the far wall. “Have you even seen it, Sophia?”
He moved my hair, and I stared at the mutilation on my back. I thought they were random cuts meant to disfigure me.
Not random though.
The Brotherhood Cross.
Speechless, I gawked at the bleeding hate emblem that would forever scar my skin, thinking of the lynched bodies hanging from the ceiling during the siege on Safe House Red.
“Don’t even try to tell me what happened to you wasn’t that bad.”
Tears clogged my throat. “We—we could sneak out.”
He scoffed at me. “You’llsneak out. I’ll provide a distraction.”
“You’re only one man.” My voice broke. “Against four.”
Luke’s death would disintegrate everything inside me, and if I couldn’t escape, it would be in vain. I’d be theirs.
“I’ve had worse odds,” he said.
“I don’t want you to die for me. I’ll be trapped here.”
Lucas took hold of my upper arms. “I won’t let you be trapped here. You got on your knees and begged me to kill you today. You have handprint bruises around your throat. Argue all you want, but if I have to die to get you out, to save your life, I will.” He pressed the knife into my hand. “You know what to do. If you have to use this, you aim to kill. None of them have firearms. They’re prohibited here.” He handed me a key. “If something does happen to me, there’s a Jeep down the street.Use the kitchen door, Sophia, okay? I killed the guards there, but there are two at the front. Turn right at the sidewalk and run. In the glove box is a loaded gun. Use it only if you need it. Get back home as fast as you can.”
He removed his long-sleeved shirt and helped me pull it over the dress. His scent wrapped around me like a warm embrace. He left me, heading for the door, extracting something from beneath his thin undershirt.
“Wait!” I rushed across the room. “Lucas, wait.” I threw myself around him.
He wreathed his arms around me, gentle. “Sophia.” His lips dropped to my ear, his voice barely a whisper. “Do you know how much I love you? You disappeared, and I never even said the fucking words. I love you. Forever. Until I die.”
He could die. Tonight. My blood froze. “Say it again.”
“I love you. Let me fix this.” He kissed me once and pulled away. “This isn’t the end for you. There’s a clear path to freedom. Stay out of sight, or you’ll distract me.”
He peeked through a crack in the door and stepped into the hall.
Too fast! My mind couldn’t keep up, and I didn’t know what to do. Four Blood Colonels sat downstairs, and while he might take the first one or two unaware, they were all sadists with fighter’s instincts.
