Page 72 of Entangled in Them

People pushed past me in both directions, bumping shoulders or stepping out of the way. I barely noticed them. What did they see when they looked at me? A normal young woman, a little skinny, perhaps, but otherwise someone who most likely had a normal home and family life, who went to college and now had a job. I kept my neck bent and let my hair fall over my face to hide my tears from these strangers. If one of them were to stop me and ask if I was all right, what would I be able to say? That I was in love with three men at the same time, and that I’d witnessed something I shouldn’t have?

I hadn’t been paying much attention to my surroundings. I’d been so caught up in the loss of Dillon, Kodee, and Ryan to care about anything else. I didn’t even care what happened to me now, only that I did what I set out to do, and that was extract myself from their lives without causing any more damage. But out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a large black Mercedes crawling along beside me. The driver seemed to have noticed me spotting him, as the car took off, suddenly increasing its speed and pulling away from the curb to join the rest of the traffic, of which there was plenty.

Unease churned in my stomach. Was I being paranoid? Only a moment earlier, I’d have sworn I didn’t care about what happened to me, but the sudden burst of adrenaline pumping through my veins told me otherwise.

Had the guys noticed I was missing yet? Were they relieved I’d taken the choice out of their hands?

I needed to stay out of sight. I was too noticeable here, walking down the street in the middle of the day. It was better that I take one of the side streets and keep my head down and hope not to draw any more attention to myself.

Chapter Thirty-two

Dillon

––––––––

THE BIKE ROARED BENEATH me as I maneuvered it out of the parking garage and up onto the street. I should have been paying attention to the cars as I wove between them, using the bike to take advantage of any clear spots that would get me ahead instead of sitting impatiently in line, but instead my focus was fixed on the sidewalk. Any slender, dark-haired girl sent my heart racing, and I gripped the bike’s handlebars so hard my knuckles turned white. But each time it wasn’t her, and my heart dropped again.

Fuck. Come on, Rue. Where are you?

How long had she been gone from the apartment before we’d noticed? Had it been long enough for her to reach the Capello brothers already? She’d be on foot, I was sure. She didn’t know how to drive and didn’t have any money of her own to catch a cab. Perhaps she’d taken some from one of our wallets before she’d run, but somehow, I didn’t think that was in her nature. She wouldn’t steal from us, even if she was desperate. Even if she deserved the money.

Kodee was on foot, and Ryan was driving, but I’d been hoping to get ahead and catch her on the bike. I’d still need to convince her to come home to us, but I wasn’t someone who took no for an answer. She left because she was afraid of Ryan, but she didn’t need to be. We could work things out, set up precautions so the same thing wouldn’t happen again. Ryan had been going through some tough times lately because of his leg, and his PTSD had flared up, but he was getting help, going to counseling, and I was sure over time he’d get better. He needed our support, and he wasn’t going to get that if he was living somewhere else, and I didn’t think it would help him either if he blamed himself for us losing Rue.

I kept watching the street, hoping to spot her. I hated every single person who wasn’t her, and with that realization came another. This was the reality of our future. Rue was never meant to be ours long term. Even if we found her now, we would still have to say goodbye to her sometime in the very near future. Were we really going to be able to do that? I was no longer so sure that Ryan, Kodee and I would be able to work without her. It would feel like this huge void in the middle of us if she wasn’t there. When we looked at each other, would we still only see the other person, or would we also see the empty space beside them where Rue used to be?

Maybe we were wrong, and she hadn’t gone back to the Capello brothers. But where else would she go?

I caught sight of a flash of dark hair disappearing down one of the side streets ahead. A black car turned down after her. That had been Rue, I was sure of it. The car crawled along after her, as though whoever was driving didn’t want her to notice.

I had my gun wedged down the back of my jeans, my leather jacket hiding it. Guns weren’t something we needed to worry about carrying most of the time, but we’d all made sure we were armed before we left the apartment. We hadn’t even needed to discuss it. If she made it back to the Capello brothers, and we turned up and demanded to have her back, things could get ugly, and we needed to be prepared. I wanted to say we’d respect Rue’s wishes if she no longer wanted to live with us, and would prefer to go back to the Capellos, but I knew she’d be making a mistake. She cared about us. We felt right together. We’d make her see that we could fix things and she was safer with us than with them. I didn’t think any of us had really given thought to how it would be when the Capellos demanded her return, but I knew now that I would fight for her.

I increased my speed, weaving between the cars to turn down the side road I’d seen her vanish down. I turned in just in time to see the car had pulled up next to her. The back door was open, and a man in a suit had climbed out and now had hold of her arm. She pulled back on him, but he lifted his other hand and slapped her hard across the face, her head rocking back.

I pulled over the bike, trying not to be seen.

Rage poured though my veins like lava, and it took every ounce of effort to stop myself pulling the gun and firing at the son of a bitch from here. But I was too far away to get a clean shot in with him holding her so close to his body. Plus, the blacked-out windows of the vehicle hid whether there were other people inside. If there were, I had no doubt they’d also be armed. Even if I managed to shoot the guy who’d just hit Rue and who was now shoving her into the car, the moment I fired, I’d alert anyone else in the vehicle to my presence and they’d take me down in seconds.

---