Chapter 28

Skylar

Renee had fallen asleep on my lap half an hour ago. Her hair was splayed out all over my legs, and her breathing was so deep she was almost snoring. We had stayed up the entire night before, doing our best to remain calm. Even Nikki, who had woken up hours after she first fell asleep, was doing a decent job of keeping her head on straight. She had not succumbed to another panic attack, even though I had been sure she would.

I had been up all night long. Sleep had been impossible to come by. Not that I had tried very hard. My thoughts were scrambled, and I was trying to cope with the fear that continued to nag at me all through the night.

I was locked in the basement of a mobster’s house. My sister and her best friend were with me. We were, most likely, collateral damage in some sort of battle between criminals. I had somehow managed to walk myself right into the middle of the fray.

Now, I had to find a way to deal with this situation.

My sister’s life was at risk because of me. Because of him.

I swallowed a pit of grief. Leaving Greyson behind had been one of the hardest things I had ever done. I felt like I was somehow part of him, and he was a part of me, even though we had only known each other for such a short time. Now I knew he wasn’t who I thought he was. He was something else entirely. He was someone I should have run from as soon as he walked into my life and gave me that beautiful smile of his.

I had given him my virginity. I had given everything to him. The thought that horrified me the most was the one glaring, simple, obvious fact that I had been trying to ignore since arriving in this room: I had loved the man who did this to me.

I knew I loved him when the cab had pulled away from the hotel. The thought of never seeing him again had done all kinds of terrible things to my heart. To discover how misplaced that love was destroyed me. I couldn’t trust myself anymore. My own judgement was so clearly flawed.

Nikki cleared her throat, and I looked up at her. She was sitting across from me on the other sofa with her legs crossed under her. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you,” she said suddenly after sitting in silence since Renee fell asleep. “I just needed someone to blame. I have a tendency to do that.”

She wouldn’t meet my eye. She was busying herself with playing with the ends of her long blonde hair.

“It’s okay,” I said. “We all do that. I’m scared, too, and I’m the one who should be saying sorry. I’m the one who got you into this mess. You didn’t ask for this.”

“Neither did you,” she pointed out.

“True, but I should have been smarter about the whole thing. I should have known better. No one is as perfect as I thought he was. No one has a life like his without crossing a few lines.”

Nikki uncrossed her legs and nestled herself into the corner of the sofa. “You still don’t know what his part was in all of this. Maybe he’s as innocent as we are. Jumping to conclusions probably won’t do anyone any favors.”

I resisted the urge to shake my head in surprise. Was Nikki offering me sound, down to earth, sensible advice?

“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe you’re right. There were no red flags. Nothing about him suggested I should worry.”

Nikki shrugged. “As someone who has spent her fair share of time with scummy guys, let me tell you, there are always red flags. They can’t hide it for long. Girls like me just overlook it. We justify it. Girls like you know better and run from it. If there weren’t any warning signs, maybe that’s because there wasn’t anything to be warned of, you know?”

“Maybe,” I said, looking down at my sister. “Regardless, I put us all in danger. What if we don’t get out of here? What if we don’t make it home?”

“You can’t think like that.”

“I can’t help it,” I said, trying to keep my voice low so I didn’t wake Renee. “If they hurt you or Renee, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

“They’ve already said they don’t want to hurt us.”

“Words are just words,” I said. “It’s easier for them to keep us calm than tell us the truth. Who knows what they could be capable of?”

“Sky,” Nikki said assertively. “Don’t spiral. Remember what you told me? Slow, deep breaths. You have to stay calm. It’s all going to be okay.”

I looked at the ceiling and did what she said. I filled my lungs with three great gulps of air and blew them out nice and slowly until the nervousness in my gut ebbed away. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Anytime.”

“You know, I like this version of you better,” I said. Then I clapped my hand over my mouth. “I’m sorry. That was so rude.”

Nikki smiled. “It’s okay. I get it. I can be a lot to deal with sometimes. I know I’m all over the place. Renee has told me before. She’s good for me, but I think I bring her down.”

“What? No, Renee needs you. Trust me. She adores you. She’s been trying to get me to see what she’s seen in you for ages. And now I do. You’re a good person, Nikki. You don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not. This suits you much better.”

“You think?” she asked. “The bitchy blonde doesn’t do it for you?”

I laughed. “No, not at all.”

“Good to know,” Nikki said. “When we get home, can the three of us go for dinner sometime? I don’t have any girlfriends besides Renee, and it would be really nice to have someone else like her around.”

“I would like that. I need to step out of my shell more. Maybe not as much as I have here, because, well, look how it turned out.” I gestured at the room we were being held in. Nikki chuckled and nodded. “But I would like that. You can help me take baby steps. And Renee would be thrilled.”

It felt really good to talk to Nikki like a normal person for once. All of her self-indulgent qualities were gone. She seemed to be an entirely different person sitting in front of me. This was probably the person Renee had always known.

I heard footsteps out in the hallway and froze. Nikki heard them too. We both looked at each other and listened as they drew closer.

A torrent of thoughts rushed through my head. Were they coming down to feed us? The dinner they had brought us the night before had been decent. We had all been surprised when the man who drove us to the mansion had arrived with a tray full of cheese and crackers and grapes. He had looked over at the water once more and frowned when he saw we still hadn’t had anything to drink. Then he went over to them, opened the caps on three, and pushed them into our hands.

It was an odd moment, but we ended up drinking the water and eating the food. None of us died of poisoning, so we assumed we were safe for the time being.

But the footsteps in the hall brought all those fears racing to the foreground again. If they weren’t coming to bring us more food, maybe they were coming to let us go. Maybe Greyson had paid them the money.

Or, perhaps, he had refused to pay the money, and they were coming down to murder us and wrap our bodies in plastic tarps to throw over the Hoover Dam.

I assured myself that my imagination was getting the best of me. I took three more calming breaths as the steps in the hall drew closer, and I looked down at my sister.

I shook Renee’s shoulder. “Renee, wake up. Someone’s coming.”

Renee moaned in her sleep. I felt bad waking her up. In her dreams, she was far away from this hell, but I didn’t want her to be jolted awake by the door bursting open and some goons coming in to take us who knew where.

So I shook her again, harder this time, and called her name.

When she came to, she sat up. “What?” she asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Someone is coming,” I said.

Renee sucked in a sharp breath. I took her hands in mine. “It will be okay. We just have to get through it together, okay?”

All three of us got to our feet and huddled together between the two sofas. A key slid into the lock. It twisted and jingled. Someone swore on the other side. The three of us backed away from the door.

My heart was hammering in my chest. I knew the other girls were just as afraid as I was. I didn’t know how much time had passed since we had been locked in here, but I knew eventually, our time here would come to an end, one way or another. I just hoped we would be able to walk out alive and in one piece.

Another key slid into the lock. This one was apparently the right one because the handle turned and the door opened slowly inward.

Out in the hallway stood the silhouette of a male figure. He was slightly stooped forward, with one arm holding his side. He was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, which appeared to be torn at the neck, revealing a broad, muscular chest. Blood trickled down his neck and down to the exposed skin at the torn neckline.

His hair hung in front of his eyes, but as he stepped forward into the light of our room, I recognized the line of his shoulders and the cut of his jaw.

“Greyson?” I called.

He looked up, and his bright blue eyes met my gaze.

“Thank God,” he breathed, slumping backward to lean on the doorframe.

I saw the blood on his lips and cheek. His skin was split open beneath his eye, and it was turning purple. His hair was disheveled, and the way he was holding himself told me he was in pain.

Forgetting that I was upset with him, I rushed forward and threw myself into his arms.

He engulfed me with his embrace and buried his face in my shoulder.