Another voice. Deeper. Authoritative. Not Malcolm, not Alex. Someone I recognize but can't place through the haze. It reminds me of penguins at the zoo. The same voice I heard there once.
They're outside the door, voices muffled but still loud enough for me to catch their words.
"I have a place up north. Off the grid."
"Is it safe?"
"Safer than here. The registry can't track you there. Ragon won't find you."
Silence. Then Malcolm: "She can't travel like this."
"She can if she's knotted along the way. It'll keep her stable enough to make the drive."
My brain tries to process. Moving. Leaving. Going somewhere.
Away from here.
Away from Ragon. Drake. Eli.
The thought should terrify me. It doesn't. I'm too far gone for terror. All I feel is the exhausted relief of someone else making the decision for me.
I'll be angry about that later, probably.
Right now, I just want to stop hurting.
***
I surface on Malcolm's lap in a moving vehicle.
He's still inside me, softening, his arms wrapped around me—one hand across my lower back, the other cradling my head against his shoulder. He doesn't care about the state of his jeans that I’m currently soaking. I'm barely aware enough to care about anything.
The world outside the windows is dark. Headlights cut through the black, illuminating nothing but road and trees and the occasional flash of a sign. I don't know where we are. I don't know how long we've been driving.
Finn at the wheel. His shape in the dashboard light.
Alex in the passenger seat. The back of his head.
Juniper and coffee together. My body knows before my mind does. Arousal stirs low, reaching for him even now.
I make a sound.
Alex goes very still. Doesn't turn.
Malcolm's arms tighten around me. "Almost there," he murmurs against my hair. "Just a little longer. Don’t worry."
I think of Ragon in that house. Sitting in the dark, not knowing I’m being taken away.
The words won't come for anything else. The heat pulls me back under and I go, Malcolm's heartbeat under my ear. His warmth everywhere. His scent is the last thing I hold onto.
I don't know where I'm going.
I only know that I'm leaving.
And right now, I think that's okay.
Chapter 4
Drake
