To bring her somewhere safe.
Somewhere, Beast couldn’t keep filling her head with lies.
I crawled through the ditch until I reached the culvert beneath the road.
Dark water trickled around my boots.
The smell made me gag.
But it hid me.
That was all that mattered.
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
No signal.
Of course.
Nothing was working.
Nothing was going right.
I slammed my fist against the concrete wall.
Pain shot through my knuckles.
I barely felt it.
I thought about Sadie inside that ranch house.
With Beast.
Probably wrapped up in his arms.
Probably believing he could protect her.
The thought made something burn behind my eyes.
She was supposed to be with me.
She was supposed to look at me like that.
She was supposed to need me.
Instead, she was hiding from me.
Because Beast had turned her against me.
Because he had made himself the hero.
My fingers closed around the gun tucked beneath my jacket.
Heavy.
Cold.
Real.
