And then she starts sobbing into her hands.
When I try to touch her shoulder, try to calm her down, she pushes me away.
“I hate you!” she cries, and it breaks my goddamn heart. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Fuck.
She’s spiraling. And I’m the reason.
Kylie
I need to get out of this car.
I have no idea where Rook and his brothers are taking me, but I know they always teach women to never let them get you to a second location.
My eyes dart to the window again, the one I can no longer roll down because Kane put on the fucking child locks, and my brain struggles to form a coherent, logical thought that could get me out of this situation.
But there’s no exit. There’s no escape. And the only thing my body wants to do is scream.
So that’s exactly what I do—loud and at the top of my lungs, and I don’t stop.
I just scream. And scream. And fucking scream.
My ears can barely register Rook trying to calm me down, telling me to breathe and relax and whatever the hell else he’s saying. I’m pretty sure Kane and Calloway are doing the same, but I just keep screaming.
“Let me go! Let me out of here!” I shout. “Let me fucking out of here!”
“Kylie, calm down.” Rook’s hand covers my mouth, and I twist and thrash against it, tears starting to fall of their own accord.
Please, God. I can’t die like this. It can’t end this way.
I fight as he pulls me into his lap. I fight as he pulls me toward him. I fight through one breath and the next and then another until, out of left fucking field and in the shock of a lifetime, his lips crash into mine.
He kisses me.
And suddenly, Ican’tfight anymore.
A shaky, broken sound slides out of my lungs like I’ve been holding my breath for hours. And my hands clutch at his jacket, fingers curling into the fabric like they need something solid to hold on to.
All the while, the panic drains out of my body in a rush that leaves my body melting into his.
Eyes closed and filled with tears, I marvel as an out-of-body experience consumes me and transports me through fire and light and stars and more. I feel like the world is spinning around me while I form my own, new axis.
I’m whole and warm, and all the fight inside me is extinguished completely.
I don’t just feel compliant—I feel found. Whole. Like every single moment in my life has been a flash of orchestration, meant only to lead me here.
As Rook pulls away, his startled eyes and shaking hands giving way to a very real, raw fear, I start to tremble.
Reality is a figment—a lie.Everythingis.
I don’t even know my ass from my elbow, much less the meaning of my life or anyone else’s.
I want to be the woman who’s resisting—but she’s gone.
I just wish to hell and fucking heaven and back again, I knewwhy.
Rook
