Liam was already in the driver’s seat of his Jeep, and I started to get in the back, but his mom stopped me.
“No, no, sit up front with Liam. Mathias and I are going to follow in our car.” She pointed outside to a slick-looking sports car.
“Oh, okay.” My hand fell slowly from the back door and moved back around the front of the car to the passenger seat. “Your mom said they’re following in their car,” I hissed the words quietly under my breath like it was some kind of secret.
Liam chuckled and reached over to turn the volume up on the radio. “She thinks she’s so clever.” He ruffled his fingers through his hair, and a muscle in his jaw ticked.
“Are you mad?” I asked softly.
He glanced up at me, surprise in his eyes. I didn’t know what he was so surprised about. It was merely a question. Then again, maybe it was the way I asked it so hesitantly. I had a fire in me. One that was shining brighter and brighter every day. But after years of having to keep quiet and only doing what I was told, it was hard to not let that fear creep back in every now and then. With Blaise, I was supposed always speak quietly, never meet his eyes, and never speak back. Any time Liam acted even the smallest bit like Blaise—jaw clenched, harsh words, anger in his eyes—I was shoved back into my old ways.
Stay quiet.
Keep your head down.
Do what you’re told.
I’d been nothing but a submissive slave. I feared stepping even a millimeter out of line—I’d seen and heard enough to know a mistake like that meant death.
That’s another thing—when people force you to act like a shadow, you become one. They forget you’re there, and when they forget, they do horrible things right in front of you.
Remembering that I was with Liam, not back in that hell, I raised my eyes to his.
You’re stronger than this, Ari, I told myself. Otherwise you wouldn’t have made it this far.
“I’m not mad. I’m never mad.” He cracked a smile at that, and I felt my own lips raise.
“Did you just crack a joke?” I joked as he put the Jeep in reverse.
He glanced at me, and his lips twitched with carefully-contained laughter. “Maybe.”
“Mhm,” I hummed in response, fighting a grin.
; He cleared his throat as he turned the Jeep out of the driveway. “Where’d you go a minute ago? It was like you were lost or something.”
“One truth a day, remember, Liam?” My voice had an edge to it.
His head swiveled quickly to me and back to the road, but I didn’t miss his surprised look.
He stared at the road, his eyes narrowed in thought.
He was thinking, pondering, wondering what exactly was going on with me.
Liam wasn’t stupid, I knew that, and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out that the secrets I held were bigger than something trivial.
My secrets were life and death.
My memories were covered in the blood of others and the loss of my own innocence.
But he’d never know that.
He couldn’t, because the truth would get him killed just like it would me.
Blaise was looking for me. I knew it just as surely as I knew my name. And when he found me, he’d take not only my life but the ones around me.
I’d only hoped I’d be long gone from this place before he caught up to me.