“We run?” I ask. He nods sharply and I release a slow, relieved breath. I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear that. “We run.”
Hunter smiles slowly. “And we kill the fuckers who dared take our family from us.”
Our family.
The rightness of the word settles my soul.
He’s right. Our family isn’t here within this compound. It’s a living, beating thing, and it’s currently somewhere out there, waiting for us to piece it back together.
And I’ll be fucked if anyone takes it away from me.
Chapter 29
“What do you mean,you can’t use it?” Ella cries, pointing a chipped fingernail at my shattered phone. Oliver cringes, adjusting his glasses, and I admit, I feel slightly bad for the guy.
But then, he opens his mouth and usesthatfucking nickname, and I go right back to hating him.
“I’m sorry, princess. We’ve been over this. I can’t access the app if the phone is destroyed.” He shifts my phone, holding it up to the light. “Not only has it been severely damaged on the outside, but the inside’s been corrupted from liquids. What was it you said it came into contact with?”
Ella winces and drops into the chair next to him. “Blood.”
He shoots her a wide-eyed look, and I brush my hand across her shoulder, squeezing it.
“My blood,” I drawl, pulling his attention away frommygirl. Mine. Not his. Mine. I may share her with four other men, but he doesn’t need to know that. “I got shot, remember?”
Oliver pales slightly, but I’m too frustrated to rein in my irritation.
We weren’t able to find Ella’s phone. She’s pretty sure she dropped it in the parking lot at some point. But after tracking down Evelyn and some guy named Bobby, we figured out the team who conducted the clean up never found it.
My phone is apparently destroyed, meaning we can't use it to trace the guys’ trackers. Oliver pulled the bugs from Ella’s jewelry yesterday and has a few of them hooked up to some sort of reverse engineering software, but so far, he hasn’t been able to break Stone’s coding. Every time he gets close, he gets kicked out of the system.
And now, he just keeps staring at my girl with widepick meeyes, while he calls her princess and does smart, adorable shit.
It’s pissing me the fuck off.
I reach a hand up and rub my throbbing shoulder, wincing at the stab of icy-hot pain that lances through me.
Okay, maybe I’m more angry than usual right now, but it’s been hours since my last dose of pain meds, and I barely slept last night. I’m pretty sure I’m entitled to a bitch-fit or two.
“Shot. Right,” he murmurs, his brows furrowing as he flicks his gaze back to my phone. “You jumped in front of a bullet. It makes sense now.”
“What makes sense?” I snap, ignoring his flinch.
Grow some balls,princess.
“The damage to your phone,” he says slowly, as if it’s the most obvious fun-fact in the world, and I’m dense for not knowing it. “The bullet hit the edge of your phone, likely slowing its trajectory and saving your life. I was wondering what would cause such extensive spider webbing on the screen, and also contemplating how you’re still alive, when by all accounts, you should have died.” He nods sharply, pushing his glasses back up when they slip down his nose. “It makes sense now.”
Ella sucks in a harsh breath.
“Asshole,” I hiss. “I just barely got her to calm down enough to eat. Don’t bring that kind of shit up again.”
With a glare, I kick Oliver’s knee, only taking in a small amount of joy when his wheely chair slides across the slick floor. He catches himself on a desk and plants his feet with a scowl, but it quickly disappears when Ella whimpers.
Poor baby. I’m pretty sure she’s barely holding on to the frayed edges of her control right now.
“Don’t fight!” She shoots me a glare. “And don’t kick Oliver. He’s doing his best. Aren’t you, Oli?”
“Oli?” he murmurs at the same time I snap, “Don’t give him nicknames!”
