Page 41 of Shattered Home

I didn’t know if Warner nodded in agreement, my eyes were already closed, but a strong arm wrapped around my middle. Half carrying me, Warner dragged me across the ground, muttering under his breath.

Minutes or hours later, his warm hands were lowering me to a sleeping bag, my body curling in on itself. Rough fingers raked through my hair, the touch comforting.

“Sleep,” a deep voice said, but I was gone, the pain finally taking hold as I succumbed to it.

As sleep overtook me, I finally realized why they had stitched me up. They couldn’t let me die, not until they got the answers they wanted. But screw them, because this was the last night they would ever get ahold of me and I hadn’t broken.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ididn’t know how long I slept, my body trying to recover, but when I woke the sun was peeking through the flaps of the tent. Part of me expected to wake up to Warner’s body next to mine, but I was alone in the tent. Voices swirled from right outside and I managed to crawl out, spotting Aiden, Warner, Stephanie, and Lucas.

Aiden was in the middle of speaking when he spotted me, his voice faltering. Rushing to the opening of the tent, he pulled me into his arms. “Fuck. It should have been me.”

Shaking my head, I met his gaze, pleading silently with him to not make a big deal out of this. It happened and now it was over. We didn’t need to frighten the twins.

My body was on fire as I moved, but I tried to hide my grimace, a tense smile on my closed lips. “What are we talking about?”

I attempted to stand with Warner and Aiden, but Aiden gently pushed me down to sit on the ground, both men following. Stephanie and Lucas slowly inched closer to me, both of their eyes scanning the bandages on my arms that were soaked in blood.

Lucas’ eyes were wide, fear in the brown depths that matched his father’s. Stephanie touched the bandage lightly, looking to me for an answer to her silent question.

“I’m okay,” I whispered, running a hand over her hair.

And I was okay. I could handle the physical pain, grit my teeth, and make it through. I wouldn’t have been able to handle the emotional pain if three of the people around me had been hurt because of something I said.

“Are you going to be able to start a fire?” Warner asked, his dark eyes trailing over my arms and legs.

By his tone, I knew he thought I couldn’t. And honestly, it was a fair assumption. On a normal day, I struggled to find the strength to get a spark going, and today I was in worse shape than I had ever been. But I was also more determined than ever to get away from here and that had to count for something.

“I can do it. What time is it?” As I asked, I glanced toward the building of horrors, catching sight of the large clock.

Ten minutes after three. We had less than two hours before we made our escape.

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” I asked the two men.

Aiden cringed at my question, and Warner was the one to answer. “We tried. Thought you may have been dead for a second there.”

I glared at him, looking pointedly to the twins. Way to not scare them. However, neither Lucas nor Stephanie flinched. They were tougher than I gave them credit for.

Warner simply shrugged, obviously not caring about what he said in front of them. However, I remembered the anger in his voice from last night. He may act like he didn’t care about us, that his only focus was escaping, but the intensity in his words begged to differ.

“We’ve been talking about a change of plans. I’m going to go with you to start the fire. In case you can’t run on your own,” Aiden added, and I was already shaking my head in denial.

I had volunteered to light the fire on my own solely so I could guarantee Aiden made it out with the twins. I had even given him a rough idea of where to go once he was in the woods. But leaving them with Warner? He would leave them the second he made it past the guards.

I opened my mouth to argue, but continuing to surprise me, Warner was the one to speak up. “And I told you that was a bad idea. If she passes out from the exertion like she did last night, you won’t be able to carry her.”

That was true. Although Aiden was strong, he was only an inch or so taller than me and most likely wouldn’t be able to hold my entire dead weight.

Warner met my eyes, a silent message passing between us that I couldn’t decipher. “I’ll stay back with her.”

Aiden looked like he wanted to disagree, but I grabbed his arm until he was looking at me. “You need to get the twins out and to safety. That needs to be your only goal.”

I hadn’t had the opportunity to tell him about Emmanuel, but I hoped he heard the pleading in my voice. If the twins stayed here, it was only a matter of time before Vex or someone else figured out who they were. And I didn’t want to even think about what could happen to them if that came to be.

Aiden and I stared at each other until he finally broke, just as he had done a million times when we were kids. “Fine.”

“Come on then. Everyone try to act normal for the next couple hours. Alessia, I’ll meet you by the fence in an hour.”

---