I only had to walk through the gates to be free. Even if Z noticed now, it would already be too late.
I waited only long enough for the gates to part enough for me to slip through, but as soon as I did, the hairs on my skin raised. I stood in place as I looked around. Nothing immediately seemed out of the ordinary, but I couldn’t ignore the warning trickling down my spine.
The clouds chose this moment to part. The moonlight shined over Joey’s car, revealing an empty driver’s seat. Slowly, I took a step back. The gates were nearly shut, but the gap between them would be enough for me to turn back if I hurried.
“Where are you going, princess?” Z stepped from the shadows just as I was ready to bolt. He didn’t appear angry or threatening, but his calm proved just as intimidating as I sunk further into fear.
“I’m leaving.”
“Why?” he asked as if I were visiting for summer vacation instead of being his brother’s captive. When I didn’t answer him, he turned his head back to the shadows. “Bring them out.”
Shuffling that sounded suspiciously like to a struggle followed. The next moment, I heard a soft cry followed by a masculine grunt and then watched in horror as my friends were forced from the shadows. All I could do was face the danger I’d put them in. Anna stood in front of the two guards while Z pushed Joey to his knees and promptly placed a gun to his head.
“Zachariah, don’t do this.”
He ignored my plea and pressed the gun harder against Joey’s head. “What makes you think leaving will keep you safe? He’ll find you.”
“Maybe he won’t, maybe he will, but I have to try. The only thing I know right now is that I’m a sitting duck. Angel can’t protect me.”
Z shook his head. “I wasn’t talking about the senator, princess.”
“Angel won’t come looking for me,” I said in denial. “He promised me I wasn’t a prisoner.”
“But he never said you could leave, either.”
The knowledge that I had been right about Angel made me sick to my stomach. I held tight to Caylen to keep him secure as I trembled. He remained fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the danger.
“Don’t hurt them.”
“I won’t hurt them, princess. Or you.” Shrugging, he lowered his gun by his thigh, but his finger never moved far from the trigger.
“Then let us go.”
I didn’t expect his features to soften. He looked more like the Z I knew and thought I could trust. “If I let you go and something happens to you, he’ll kill me.”
I shook my head. “You’re his brother. That means something to him.”
“But you mean more.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
We stared at each other for a moment that lasted too long before he finally spoke. I knew I’d won when his shoulders relaxed and he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Go.” I didn’t hesitate. I rushed to help my friends but stopped dead when Z’s gun was back at Joey’s skull. “But they stay.”
“I won’t leave them.”
“You’ll leave them because that is the deal, princess.”
Silently, I pleaded for mercy, but when his gaze hardened, it was my turn to accept defeat. I could never run and leave my friends behind.
“Princess…” I brushed away the soft caress of his voice and glared. “Angel won’t stop looking for you,” he continued unfazed. “He’ll come after them anyway, but if I offer him two bread crumbs, there will be less bloodshed.”
That may be true, but he was asking me to offer up my friends like sheep for the wolves. Neither of us moved. Neither of us broke focus. He’d made his compromise. I just couldn’t make mine.
“Go.” Anna’s whisper faded into the dark, but I heard it as if she had screamed the command. I was taken aback by the fearless gleam in her bright, round eyes as she said, “We’ll be okay, but you won’t. Go.”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you. It’s not worth it.”
“That’s for us to decide,” Joey argued through gritted teeth. “Just go.”
I shook my head again and backed away until the iron gate forced my feet to stop. No matter how much fear pleaded with me to run, loyalty wouldn’t allow me to leave them.
“This is your last chance, princess.”
I didn’t recognize my voice in the cry I released when he pressed the muzzle of his gun harder against Joey’s head.
“Run…or he dies.”Chapter SixANGEL
Three Years AgoI DIDN’T WANT to say I had butterflies, but that’s what the light feeling in my stomach felt like—a million butterflies.
Little Mian Ross gave me fucking butterflies.
Smiling around the blunt I had lit as I stepped outside, I dropped down on the stoop of the brownstone I now lived in alone.
Tonight wouldn’t be special because it was my birthday or because I was finally taking my place as the Knight. No, tonight would be special because I would finally have the only two things I ever wanted: power and Mian.