Chapter Thirty-Nine
Oakley
Ifeltawful.
For the way I acted while on a fucking mission, especially after claiming to my dad how capable I was and how much I deserved to be here.
For leaving Isidore there.
Fuck, she looked so old.
I hadn’t seen her in over two years. She was fifteen now, and so damn brave.
She’d put herself in harm’s way to help one of the prisoners. She’d helped them.
My brave, sweet sort-of little sister.
I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.
I knew we’d had people watching every single exit since we’d left. I knew she was still in the building.
But what if they’d hurt her more than they already had?
And what about her brother? Was he there? I hadn’t seen him.
What if he was injured… or worse?
No. Stop.
I couldn’t think like that.
We were here, and we were going to save them.
And I was going to take them back to Sedoba with me and keep them safe forever.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, a kiss pressed behind my ear. “Hey, babydoll.”
I grabbed onto Roman’s arms, holding tightly. If I didn’t have him, I would’ve fallen apart hours ago. “Hey.”
“It’s gonna be okay. We’ll save them, and we’ll free all of those people. It’s gonna be alright, love.”
I nodded, closed my eyes, and breathed. Then I turned around, wrapped my arms around Rome’s neck, and buried my face against his throat. He didn’t hesitate to tighten his hold on me as he kissed the side of my head and whispered more sweet nothings into my ear.
It calmed me.
Sort of.
It calmed me enough that I knew I’d be able to execute our plan when we left in a few minutes.
As if on cue, Ailin’s voice called out, “Is everyone ready to leave? We’re out in two.”
I took another deep breath, inhaling Rome’s scent and letting it calm me. After a long breath, I looked up. “I’m ready.”
He smiled at me and kissed my forehead. “I know you are.”
That made me take a sharp breath. His faith in me was… wonderful. And unexpected. And probably undeserved after yesterday morning.
Since this operation was going to be a lot bigger than expected, we’d had to wait over twenty-four hours to go in because we needed more people. It was going to take a lot of people to take down all those soldiers in the basement, and that wasn’t counting the grand master himself.
