“Is this yours?”
I glance at him. It’s not a car I’ve ever seen him drive, but that doesn’t really mean much. I know all three of the men who invaded my life are loaded, so it’s not hard to imagine he has several cars.
“No. It’s a friend’s. I called a favor in.”
My eyebrows shoot up. Something in his tone suggests that this person isn’t actually much of a friend, and that the favor owed is more like a debt owed. I don’t bother pushing for more details though. Doctor Adelman’s pronouncement that I’ve just got a concussion was reassuring, but my head still pounds, and now that some of the adrenaline is wearing off, I feel shaky and exhausted.
The keys are stashed on top of the front tire, and I glance around as Ryland retrieves them and unlocks the doors. I don’t see anyone around, which means the owner of the car must’ve left, either on foot or in a cab or something.
Fuck. That’s some favor.
Theo slides into the back with me again, and Ryland starts the engine and pulls away from the curb. The blood on my clothes, skin, and hair is mostly dry by now, so I’m not fucking up the seat as badly as I probably wrecked Dominic’s.
We stop to pick up my prescription, and as we’re driving away from the drug store, a new thought hits me like a ton of bricks.
“My apartment…”
I haven’t thought about it since yesterday. So much has happened since then that it feels like the fire must’ve been years ago instead of barely twenty-four hours. Carson enlisted Natalie’s help to lure me out of Marcus’s house by torching my apartment building, and even before my abduction, I could see my apartment wasn’t going to be salvageable.
Everything I own, except for the duffel bag I packed for the weekend, was in that apartment.
I don’t have a place to live.
That thought should probably cause more panic than it does. Despite all the shit I went through during my time as a foster kid, I managed to avoid ever being truly homeless. No matter what else happened, I always had a roof over my head, and now I’ve lost that.
But it doesn’t seem to matter all that much right now. Not when I compare it to everything else that’s happened.
It was just a place. It was just stuff.
“I’m sorry, Rose,” Theo murmurs, turning his soft blue-green eyes on me.
Ryland doesn’t say anything, but as he takes a left turn, I realize where we’re headed. Where we’ve always been headed. He never even started driving toward my neighborhood, taking us instead to the part of Halston where the three men each have houses close to each other.
Something warm spreads through my chest, an antidote to the bitter pain that’s taken up residence there. I glance from Ryland to Theo as a lump forms in my throat.
“Thank you.”
It’s barely a whisper, and it’s not enough. Not enough to convey everything I need it to.
But it’s all I have.
Theo smiles at me sadly, threading his fingers through mine again and squeezing my hand. “Of course.”
Ryland pulls up outside a large house a few minutes later. It’s similar in size and style to Marcus’s place, and that similarity makes my stomach clench. I didn’t realize until this moment how comfortable and familiar Marcus’s house had started to feel. I felt safe there, in a way that had very little to do with physical protection.
You were safe there, a little voice whispers in my head. That’s why Marcus told you to stay.
But he never told me why I should stay, never told me that I might be risking my life if I stepped outside the protection of his walls. He was trying to protect me, to keep me insulated from the world he and his friends live in, but I can’t help but feel mad at him for it.
If he hadn’t lied to me, I wouldn’t have left his house. I wouldn’t have become an unwilling pawn, and the three men wouldn’t have had to abandon their position in the game to come get me.
And Marcus wouldn’t have gotten shot.
Like a series of dominoes falling, one lie set off a chain reaction that culminated in three gunshots I can still hear echoing in my ears.
Why couldn’t he have just told me?
“Hey. You okay?” Theo catches my elbow, and I realize my steps have stalled halfway up the path to his front door.