I give him a curt nod. Even though I know what’s coming, I still jerk when I feel his hand at the small of my back. Not because he’s touching me, but because ithurts.
“It’s okay,” he says, his tone emotionless, like a robot spewing pre-programmed comfort.
He presses his whole palm to my skin, making me twitch away, my skin crawling. He doesn’t retreat, holding still like he’s getting me used to his touch. And it works... I relax a little once he slowly works his way up, pressing various spots and tracing lines all around before moving to my ribs.
Everythinghurts, though not as much as yesterday. I guess exhaustion and lack of energy really does make things worse.
“Nothing’s broken,” he says, covering my back and purposefully striding away. “I’d suggest bandaging in case there’s a hairline fracture somewhere, but I have a feeling you’ll sayno.”
Of course I’ll say no.
Wrapping my ribs would require flashing my breasts and no way that’s happening after what Darius did to me in the shower.
“I’m fine,” I say, leaning back against the pillows.
He makes a disgruntled noise at the back of his throat, clearly unappeased. I can’t figure him out. He looks genuinely concerned about my wellbeing, even though he doesn’t have to be personally involved. He doesn’t care that his men torturewomen down the hall, leaving them broken in more ways than one, but he does care that Darius shovedmeunder the rug.
“You should take a bath, eat, and rest, Hailey,” he adds, his tone firmer. “A tired mind is a useless mind.”
He doesn’t add that unless I’m useful, there’s no reason to play nice. There’s no need for clarification. It’s obvious.
Up to now, I’ve been far from useful. The tiny flashback I had about Alex mentioning Aalyiah is my only new memory since Lakeside.
“I’ll stop by before I leave,” he says and, with a curt nod, he leaves me alone, closing the door behind him.
The room falls into a suffocating silence, interrupted only by the muffled groans of the mansion. Thankfully, I can’t hear any girls crying, screaming, or howling, just men wandering the corridors.
A strange mix of relief and fear settles in my gut. Relief that Blaze, with his unsettling calmness, is gone. He may make this place more bearable, but it’s still his place. Fear, because every moment I spend in this gilded cage without giving him the evidence is a moment closer to pain.
He won’t be this patient forever...
13
CARTER
Our car led Rhett’s little convoy all the way from Columbus to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where Noretto’s mansion hides in dense woodland.
After weeks at Lakeside, the scent of wet leaves, pine needles, and wind whooshing high in the trees feels familiar. Calming... thoughcalmis not the correct word to describe me while I hide behind the tree line with Broadway, Apollo, and two of Rhett’s goons. He sent more, butcuriously, three miles after we all stopped for gas, their car’s onboard electronics threw every error imaginable.
What acoincidence.
Ryder did a great job of planting a small device which he then remotely activated, tampering with the car’s electronic systems. He went on for half an hour, explaining how the small, modified device works, but he lost me at OBD-II port.
I love my cars, but my mechanical knowledge doesn’t extend to motherboards and remotely activated wire fryers.
Whatever his techy tech did, it left five other goons grounded a few miles back, so we only need to worry about these three and their escape driver. He’s about a mile away, ready to bust through the iron gate and lift us out the moment we find Hailey.
That’s the official plan. We go in, extract my girl, kill those standing in the way, then head to Rhett’s safe house. He made it crystal fucking clear during his briefing earlier that Apollo’s responsible for Hailey. He calls the shots and keeps his eyes on her at all times until we arrive in Cleveland, which means she’s joining his team for our escape.
Over my dead body will I let that happen.
If Rhett gets Hailey, he’ll force the information from the depths of her mind by any means necessary. The ground’s slipping from under his feet with every passing hour. News spreads among the likes of us fast. Rhett’s a hot topic these days, so more and more rivals are getting word about Alex.
“We’re heading your way,” Koby’s voice rings loud and clear through my earpiece.
Last night, after hours spent hacking into Noretto’s surveillance system, Ryder and Jackson concluded the feed must be wired to an offline server, making remote hacking impossible.
After much digging, they found the company dealing with Blaze’s security and located the server room a few miles from the mansion. Then, in Jackson’s words, “fucking child’s play.”
