My breathing starts to come apart, fast and shallow, panic clawing up my throat.
“They’ll think you flipped,” he continues. “That you got scared. Or greedy. Or tired of playing biker girlfriend.” His gaze locks onto mine. “They’ll think you helped set this up.”
“No,” I whisper. “Blade wouldn’t believe that.”
He tilts his head. “Blade isn’t around to argue.”
That one breaks something in me.
A sound tears out of my chest that doesn’t even feel human, and my vision blurs completely as tears spill over. I shake my head over and over, like I can physically undo what he’s saying if I refuse to hear it.
“They’ll come after you,” he goes on, relentless now. “Not gently. Not with questions. Because to them, you won’t be a victim. You’ll be a liability.”
My whole body starts to tremble.
“You won’t be able to go back,” he says softly. “Not to your life. Not to your home. Not to your sisters.”
My heart lurches painfully. “Don’t bring them into this.”
“And you definitely won’t be going back to your dead fucking boyfriend,” he adds, his voice sharp with finality.
That’s it.
I crumble.
A sob rips through me, raw and uncontrollable, and I turn my face into the pillow, crying so hard my ribs ache. I can’t stop it. I can’t slow it down. Everything I’ve been holding inside since the crash finally collapses in on itself.
“I didn’t mean to,” I sob. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t mean for any of this.”
“I know,” he says quietly.
And that scares me more than anything else.
“Which is why you’re going to listen to me now,” he continues. “Because whether you meant to or not doesn’t change how this ends for you.”
I lift my head, tears streaking my face, my eyes burning. “What do you want?”
He smiles then. Small. Satisfied.
“I want you alive,” he says. “And breathing. And smart enough to understand that the only way you survive this is if you stay exactly where I put you.”
My chest heaves. “They’ll kill me.”
“Yes,” he agrees calmly. “If they find you.”
He stands, straightening his jacket like we’re done here. “So you don’t let them.”
The door clicks softly as he moves away, leaving me alone with the sound of my own crying and the crushing weight of his words.
And as I lie there, cuffed to a bed in a cheap hotel room, my body aching and my heart in pieces, the fear finally settles deep in my bones.
I didn’t just lose Blade.
I lost my entire life.
And whoever I am now…
she doesn’t get to go home.
