Page 14 of The Rise

“How the hell could I not? If anyone else were here, they’d hear it too.”

“She started it,” I tell him. He laughs.

“And you finished it. No need to explain to me, man. I’ve seen the girl crawling on all fours for your ass the last week.” I flip him off, walk over to the table, and flip open my laptop. When I open my email, I don’t like what I see. Multiple emails from Rylan, and not good ones either. I pull it up and look at the files he’s sent me as anger settles in my chest. Hoax walks over behind me and reads over my shoulder.

“Oh shit,” he mumbles.

“Oh, shit is right.”

“You think she’s here for them?”

“It looks that way. But for what? Spying?”

“He said they’ve been looking for us,” Hoax adds. He’s right. I shove out of my chair just as Lana enters the main room. I grab my knife from my back pocket and flip that fucker open as I walk toward her.

“Hunter!” Hoax calls out to me, but I ignore him. I move straight toward her, and I can see it in her eyes. She knows something. She knows more than what we think. She turns and starts to run when I grab her hair and jerk her back.

“Let me go!” She screams as I spin her around to face me now.

“Let you go? So you can run back to your brother?” Now, all the color drains from her face. Yeah, we caught you. “Nothing to say now?” I ask her. She doesn’t answer.

“Hoax! Come hold her!” I call out. Hoax strolls over and grabs her in his arms, holding her tightly so she can’t move. Then I reach for her arm and run my fingers along it. When I don’t feel anything, I move to the other. That’s when my fingers hit the small bump. If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t know it was there.

I grin at her as I hold her arm out with one hand and show her the knife with the other.

“Don’t! Please!” She begs as I shake my head and bring the knife down to her flesh. I press the tip in and drag it down her arm as she cries out in pain. Then I reach in and dig around until she passes out in Hoax’s arms. When I find it, I pull the tracker out and hold it up to look at it.

“He’s tracking her.”

“Yeah. Right back here.”

“So now what? They have our location,” he growls.

“We get rid of the fucking tracker. Make them think we moved areas.”

“That’s not going to work.”

“It will for a while. Obviously, they know she’s been here for a fucking week.”

“What are we going to do with her?” he asks as he holds her limp body.

“Cage,” I growl.

Chapter 8

Lana

I lift my head from my chest and glance around before holding my arm up in front of my face. They stitched it back up after pulling the tracker out. I don’t know how I feel about that. I’m now left at their mercy without anyone knowing where I am.

I hear the door slam, and I jolt a little. When I look up, I see Hunter stalking toward me with a plate in his hand. He opens the cage door and enters, setting it in front of me.

“Eat.”

“No.”

“Then fucking starve!” He roars at me. He’s mad. He has every right to be mad. Hunter turns and walks out of the cage, slamming the door behind him.

“I’m sorry, Hunter.” He stops walking, his head tipping back as if he’s trying to contain his emotions or keep his anger in check. When he finally turns to face me, I can see the hurt and rage in his eyes.

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