Page 102 of Resurgent

My head turns to look at his still unconscious frame, but he’s gone…

Oh my gods.

“Look again, Little Faren,” Tyr says, though the connection is still faint.

There’s another burst of light, and I’m caught between shock, horror and laughter.

My dad’s legs are bound by his own pants—knots tied around his ankles with the legs, and the crotch of his pants slung over Korr’s hunched shoulder as he drags him unceremoniously to the still open pickup bed.

“Reyes, Stevens, don’t just watch me take out the trash. Get your asses over here and help me pick him up!”

Both rush over without argument, and after Matt “accidentally” trips several times—his boots connecting hard with my dad’s ribs each time—they get him loaded into the pickup.

"Now what?" Theo asks the second the tailgate snaps shut.

"Now, you shut the fuck up. You're lucky we're not throwing you in there with him after letting him take her."

"Sir-"

Hunter's glare is enough to shut him up, his apologetic eyes shooting to meet mine as Hunter and Matt take a few steps away, talking too low for Theo, or me, to overhear.

After a minute of bickering, they must come to an agreement, because Hunter claps Matt on the shoulder before walking over to me, his face already relaxing.

"Matt is going to take you home while I take care of your...the sheriff."

"Take care of...how?"

His laugh is light, a jarring contrast to his rage just minutes ago.

"I'm not going to kill him if that's what you're worried about."

Letting out a deep breath, I choose not to acknowledge the muddled emotions his answer stirs inside me.

"Matt and Tyr will keep you safe until I get home. It shouldn't be too long," he tells me quietly before turning to walk away. "Oh, and Annalise....?"

"Yeah?"

The edge of his lips lift, the briefest hint of his dimples appearing. "Unless you want me to make Stevens suffer for whatever bullshit excuse he's about to feed you, you can hang up now."

Chapter twenty-nine

Annalise

The ride back to Scion is filled with an awkward tension that I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy.

After Emily and Sasha told Matt that they would get their own rides home, Matt, Theo and I climbed into the pickup with a million words left unsaid between us…and if that weren’t uncomfortable enough, Theo chose to sit in the middle seat in the back, his large, lounging frame impossible to ignore.

No one speaks for the first ten minutes, which, based on the way Matt’s white-knuckled grip is practically strangling the steering wheel, I can’t say is a bad thing.

Staring out the window, I try not to think about my dad’s hands on me. Try not to wonder why he hadn’t thought tonight through more carefully. Sure—he brought the tincture with him, but he could’ve commanded me to leave with him without putting up a fight, and then Korr wouldn’t have made it in time.

“But he did,” Tyr assures me.

“Yeah…and so did you. Though that would have been a much easier rescue if I were fireproof.”

“I can fight without fire, you know?”

Then Theo sighs dramatically, interrupting what was sure to be a brilliant attempt at distraction. “This feels like the opening scene of a murder documentary. Are you about to pull onto a dark and gloomy side road?”