The Drift (Preacher Brothers 3)

I heard everyone seeming to talk all at once, felt Kimber checking on me, looking at my wound, but my gaze was locked on Zoey and hers on me.

And the entire time everyone fucking fussed over me, every time someone threw out that it was a damn miracle I was alive, that I probably owed some otherworldly entity a fucking favor for still being here breathing, that entire time, I watched Zoey. I stared at her, memorized every curve and hollow that made her up, knowing that no matter where she was, where she ran to, I’d find her.

She’d leave eventually—no doubt about that—but I knew I would follow her. I already deemed her mine.

Chapter Thirteen

Zoey

I didn’t know how much time passed since Wilder had woken up, since we had this weird interaction, this almost comforting and perfect silent exchange, but Kimber and Amelia pulled me out of the room so the guys could have alone time.

This was the first time I’d been out of my prison, although if I were being honest, I was starting to see it as anything but, because Wilder was in there with me.

I could have left since leaving the bedroom and the guys with Wilder. Amelia and Kimber weren’t even paying me any attention as they made dinner. Yeah, I could have left a handful of times already since being out here… yet here I was, standing by the back window, staring out at the lawn that was as far as the eye could see before disappearing into the thickness of the woods.

This place was isolated, and although I don’t think we’d driven terribly far to get here when Frankie had taken me, I’d been in shock. I couldn’t have told anyone my name at that point, let alone know how long we’d actually driven. We definitely weren’t in the city anymore.

Why didn’t I leave? Fuck if I knew. I could have blamed it on fear, but that would have been a lie.

I could’ve said they would’ve caught me before I tried to scale the gate, but that wouldn’t have been true.

I could have even reasoned they’d find me, and I didn’t want to know what they’d do to me when they did. But that hadn’t even crossed my mind until right now, and even then, I didn’t even bristle at the thought.

The absolute truth was I really didn’t know why I was still in this house except for that wounded man in the bedroom. He wedged himself into my heart, that organ I thought had been locked down pretty tightly so it would never get hurt. He’d done that with no effort, not even realizing or trying to.

But there is was. I was a fucking idiot.

“I’d like to have a family meal tonight,” Kimber said to Amelia, and I looked over my shoulder at the women. It was pretty damn clear they were glowing over the fact that Wilder was actually awake.

I couldn’t blame them. Everything was more upbeat in the house. I even felt a heavy weight lift off me.

I overheard them speaking softly about how it was a damn miracle he made it, heard Amelia tell Kimber it was all her doing, for saving his life. Kimber shook her head and in a serious tone said, “That was all Wilder and whoever was looking down on him.”

I focused back out the window and blocked them out. The very thought of leaving Wilder had my chest feeling funny. An outsider looking in would say there was something wrong with me, having the opportunity to leave yet here I still was. I could take Amelia and Kimber if they tried to stop me. I was probably faster than the guys if I tried to outrun them. But I didn’t want to go. I wanted to see Wilder again, talk to him, sing to him. I wanted to have him tell me all the things he’d never told anyone before.

I closed my eyes and exhaled. Five days I’d been here. That’s how long he’d been out.

I don’t know how long I stood there starring out the window, but the scents of dinner being made finally waft to me, and I faced the women. They already set the table, and I felt like I should have offered to help. How fucked up was that? Being held here against my will yet feeling bad I didn’t help cook my captors’ dinner?

That just annoyed me.

“Zoey?” Kimber prompted, and I glanced at her. She gave me a small smile. “Could you get the glasses? It’s in the cabinet over there.” She pointed to which one she was talking about.

For a second, I just stood there. She wanted me to help… to be part of whatever it was they considered themselves. A family? A group? Just a houseful of thieves? I didn’t know really anything about Amelia and Kimber aside from Kimber was a nurse and with Cullen, and Amelia used to work at a jewelry store—a store the Preacher brothers robbed, and subsequently, Dom had taken Amelia, because he was just so obsessed with her. It all seemed so incredibly strange, stranger than fiction, if I were being honest.