Chapter forty-four
Eden
“Heaven Doesn’t Want Us”
ThefirstthingInoticed was the cold, or rather,the absence of Halo’s warmth. I reached across the cot for him, but he wasn’t there. I blinked, disoriented, and then sat up slowly. The shop was too quiet, too still. Just the faint ache between my legs, the ghost of him on my skin, and the knowledge that whatever this had been… he was gone.
“Son of a bitch…” I muttered to myself, heart thudding.
“He’s gone.”
A woman’s voice caught me off guard. I bolted upright, clutching the sheets around myself as I saw a woman sitting in the corner. She looked like she’d been waiting. She was tiny. Even shorter than I was. Lean, draped in black like she’d just walked out of a heist. Her dark hair was mostly cropped short, longer strands falling over one sharp cheekbone. A scar bisected her left eyebrow, and her expression was irritated… probably perpetually.
Her eyes met mine, and I froze. She looked like him. Not exactly, but enough. Same sharp stare, same weight in her presence.
“You’re—” I stopped myself, scanning her again. “You’re his sister?”
A corner of her mouth curved. “That obvious, huh? When we were kids, we could’ve passed for twins. Except he was a big motherfucker, even though he was younger.”
“Where is he?” My voice cracked.
She shrugged, stepping further into the room like she belonged there, like she’d been here before. She probably had been, I told myself.
“Didn’t say. Just told me to come get you.”
“I don’t need protection.”
“You’re adorable.” Havoc cringed and rolled her eyes, motioning to a small stack of clean clothes that she must have brought me. “Get dressed. We’ve got a long ride.”
“Where are we going?”
“Outskirts of Sunning. It’s isolated, off-grid, no cell towers, no cameras, no eyes. You’ll be safe there.”
I didn’t move.
“Look,” she said, “I didn’t come here to play debate club with you. I came becauseheasked me to. I don’t do favors, I don’t babysit, and I don’t take requests. Not from anyone, but I owe him.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. She was already turning, slipping out the door like she owned the very air around us. I scrambled to my feet and got dressed. The clothes fit me perfectly, and I wondered how she’d known what to bring. Halo probably knew my size; he was observant and detail-oriented like that.
I started out the door and saw Halo’s burner phone still lying on the work bench. Why had he left it? My heart sank, and I knew it was because he didn’t need anyone to contact him. He really was going to go through with this. I grabbed the phone, shoving it into my back pocket as I headed out the door.
Havoc’s bike was a matte black streetbike, mean and loud and sleek. It wasn’t unlike Halo’s, and was no smaller. She tossed me a helmet and didn’t speak again until we were winding through old backroads and into dense, wooded territory that seemed untouched by time or law.
I paid attention to where we were going, remarking at howclosewe were to the sprawling city of Sunning and yet… it felt like we were thousands of miles from any civilization. By the time she cut the engine, my legs were numb, and my arms were stiff from clinging to her waist. This woman did not know how to drive under eighty.
I slid off the bike and stared at the house before us. A cabin. Small, built of dark timber and metal-framed windows. It was remote, quiet. This was the kind of place a person could disappear to.
“Is this place yours?” I asked.
“Yeah, most days.” She pulled off her helmet and slung it under her arm.
The door opened before we reached it and a man filled the frame like he was born specifically to block doorways: broad, shirtless, tattooed, with a knife in one hand and a fist of irritation in the other. Dirty blond hair that was thick and messy, eyes that were a steely grey.
“Havoc,” he growled. “What thefuckdid you drag home this time?”
She didn’t flinch. “Put the knife down, Ghost. She's not a stray. She's my brother’s.”
He blinked, then looked at me. Something shifted in his expression, and I realized he must have known Halo. He had never mentioned a ‘Ghost’. Had he ever mentioned anyone other than his sister?
