“Get on!” I shout.
She does, wrapping her arms around me tight before I gun it out of the open bay, speeding down the narrow road between buildings, leaning hard into the turn. We only just clear the access road when the night erupts.
We both glance back, Briar’s hair flying in the wind since we didn’t have time for gear.
It’s like a war zone at our backs; plumes of dark smoke black out the stars overhead. The warehouse is gone, twisted metal is all that remains.
Briar clings tighter to me as I throttle the bike, accelerating us faster into darkness.
71
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED?
BRIAR
The wind stingsmy cheeks as we ride through darkness, but it’s nothing compared to the sting of silence between us. Koen keeps us speeding along winding back roads at a terrifyingly high speed. We haven’t spoken since he carried me out of the warehouse, saving my life.
Again.
He’s only pulled over once, to make a quick call to his brother before speeding off again. It’s still dark, but the sky has begun to lighten; dawn is approaching.
Without warning, Koen turns off the main road, slowing as he takes us down a narrow dirt road I never would have noticed, leading us deeper into the dark expanse of woods.
I haven’t seen a single light for nearly sixty minutes.We are completely and totallyalone.The dirt road we’re on is lit up only by the bike’s headlights.
Once we’re well out of sight from the main road, he brings the bike to a stop, killing the engine. And then there’s only silence. Nothing but trees on either side of us.
“Get off,” he says, his voice flat.
Trembling from fear, and shivering from the cold, I slowly let go of him, climbing stiffly off the bike; my limbs are borderline frozen from the ride.
I walk a few feet. The frozen leaves crunching underneath my sneakers make a sound far too loud in the oppressive silence of the woods around us. I look back to see Koen still on his bike, reading something on his phone before slipping it back in his pocket, and for a moment, he just stares down at his hands, and even though it’s dark, I can’t help but see the look of absolute devastation written across his face.
My heart constricts, but before I can say anything, he’s up, and instinctively, I back up a few steps. When he looks at me, his eyes, now burning with rage, show his fury, which has replaced any trace of devastation that was there before.
“Come here.”
I swallow, but take a few cautious steps forward.
His hand comes out from behind him—he’s holding a gun.
I freeze, inhaling sharply.
“Get on your knees.”
“Koen…” I shake my head in denial, wrapping my arms tightly around myself.
“On your knees, little Rose,” he says again, quieter this time, controlled, his eyes dark.
I look away from him, first to the ground, and then out into the shadowed forest surrounding us. I think about running, but there’s nowhere to run to. My eyes slide back to his, and I don’t look away while lowering myself to my knees.
“You saved me...” I say, when I hit the dirt.He pulled me out of the warehouse… he could have left me there to burn.
Koen steps forward, and my eyes flicker between his face and the gun in his hands.
“Because your death belongs to me.”
I’m shaking, trembling at his feet from the cold… from the look in his eye… But there’sconflictthere. I can see it, past the steel wall he’s built to hide it. He wants to kill me,and he doesn’t….
