Cruz is waiting in the back, grinning at me like a psycho, and Asher is in the passenger seat.
“Where did you get this from, or don’t I want to know?” I ask as Jagger closes us in the back together. Then hops in the passenger seat.
“You don’t want to know, little darlin’. But rest assured, we have your genius plan perfectly in place. As of…” He checks his watch. “Twelve-oh-five am. You are now a dead girl. Do you feel any different?” His chuckle vibrates through the van, light and playful. Games are his thing, and I guess this is all just a big game to him.
My heart does a little flip, not an excited one, more of a “fuck, I hope I made the right choice” one. This is what Jagger was talking about—the finality of faking my own death. I know it’s going to crush my ma, but she was willing to stand by and let my papa and brother ship me off to another awful man for the rest of my life. I can’t make decisions to spare her anymore. She should be the one protecting me. And this will be the fresh start I need.
“Complications due to your head injury will be what Ricky tells the authorities. We have a faked autopsy report already signed by a friend who owes us a favor down at the city morgue,” Jagger informs me as he starts up the van and takes off down the road.
Asher turns and gives me that lopsided cheeky grin of his. “Road trip with my favorite people.” He winks at me.
I smile back softly. “Do you really think I’ll get away with this?”
Cruz’s eyes light up. He loves all this sneaking around. “Don’t see why not. We all lie low for a few months. Your brother will go back to Italy, and then you’ll be free to live your life in Ravens Hollow as whoever you chose to be. If that’s what you want?”
“But I can’t get into the dance collage.” I mutter sadly, still not able to fully process that disappointment. I let myself dreamfor the first time in so long, and I shouldn’t have. I should have known better.
“You can try again next intake. Or the place we’re taking you to has its own dance studio, so maybe you can still practice and make the one you have in two weeks.” Cruz wiggles his brows like he’s trying to entice me to fall for the idea.
“Come on, Cruz, we both know that’s not going to happen. For a start, the girl who applied is now dead.” I sigh heavily. “Besides, I’m still so dizzy, and I’m not even supposed to be out of bed this week. Ricky’s instructions were pretty strict—lots of rest. There’s no way I can dance.”
Cruz takes my hand in his and kisses the back of it softly. “I’m sorry we scared you by taking your stuff. We just wanted to stop you from running. We knew your brother was going to be desperate to get you back and trying anything he could.” He cups the side of my face. “This wouldn’t have happened if we’d just fucking told you the truth from the start.” He looks toward the front, and I know it’s still a sore point between the brothers.
“Why didn’t you?” I almost whisper. I don’t want to start anything, not now, but I need to know as well.
“We needed to be sure,” Jagger grumbles, and I know it was him who made the call.
Asher looks back at us. “We know how much you love your brother, princess, and you had only just met us, so why would you believe us over him? We needed hard evidence. All we knew is the shady fucker called us out of the blue and said he wanted us to hand you over to him. It was too close to that phone conversation you heard. We knew something was suspicious.”
I close my eyes; the pain is still too much to stand. “You’re right, there is no way I would have believed you. Never in a million years did I think my brother would betray me like this. But as soon as you said it was Leone Russo they picked for me, I knew.”
Cruz brings my hand up to his lips and kisses it softly, his eyes lingering on mine. “You’re safe with us. We will never do anything to hurt you.”
I nod. I think this time when he says it, I believe him. I don’t really understand why, but the brothers want to protect me. “Where are you taking me?” I ask to shift the topic of conversation. I can’t see a thing from the position I’m lying in. But I can feel the bump of the road, and I know it’s not asphalt anymore.
“Someplace safe,” Jagger snips, giving me about as much information as I expected.
“The three of you don’t really plan on staying wherever this place is with me for as long as this all takes, do you? You have your own lives to live. I can hide out on my own.”
“I’ll come back to the city when I have jobs that need taking care of. I can’t fight at the moment anyway, and Jagger has a manager who practically runs the bar for him; he doesn’t really need to be there.” Cruz explains.
“But Ash does.” I glance at him in the front.
He looks over his shoulder. “I’ll do what I can from afar and go into the club when needed. I hear Sloane’s put us on a special project of hers and Romeo’s anyway.”
“That will keep you both busy,” Cruz agrees.
I can’t help but smile at him. “Yeah, work that’s not dancing with my clothes off—you must be thrilled this all worked out so well for you. Got me locked up with you all day and night as well.” I can’t help but roll my eyes. At least one of our dream boards came true.
“Anything that takes the sparkle out of your eyes, darlin’, doesn’t make me happy. I want you back dancing as soon as you can be, just as safely as possible.”
His words melt my icy heart just a little more. He can’t say sweet things to me; it’s disarming. Tears well in my eyes, butI bite the inside of my mouth to stop them. “Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you all for helping me.”
He leans in closer, his lips brushing my ear. “Doesn’t mean I won’t take advantage of having you locked up with me. We have so much lost time to make up for.”
His words send a delicious thrill running through me. Oh, dear God, I’m not going to survive the next few weeks. “Cruz,” I warn him.
And like he knows how screwed I am, he licks up the side of my neck. A trail of goosebumps erupts over my skin as he pulls back just a little. Enough that when he locks eyes with me, they’re filled with trouble. He knows the effect he has on me, nothing’s changed. His hand laces with mine, and he runs his thumb back and forth. “Close your eyes and get some rest, baby, I’ve got you.”
