Page 29 of Crossover

“You okay?” he asked gently.

No. I wasn’t okay. My heart raced, and my thoughts kept drifting to Grayson. Where was Daniel leading him? What if something horrible had happened to him?

And then it crashed into Daniel’s accusations.

Grayson’s the one that killed your father.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice steady.

“My mom…” I managed to whisper.

“Is safe,” Hunter reassured me.

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision. “She is?”

He nodded, his gaze darting to the burn on my arm. His lips thinned for a few seconds, a flicker of anger crossing his features before he brought his hand up and examined the handcuffs.

“And you guys?” My voice was a higher octave than normal. “Jace? Bryson? Luna?”

“All fine,” Hunter assured, his brows furrowed in concentration as he yanked on the metal teeth of my cuffs. When they didn’t budge, he examined the pipe my arms were looped around. Rising to his feet, he gave it a few solid yanks, but while the metal rattled, the pipe held firm. “Any idea who has the key?” Hunter asked.

I shook my head, my mind still reeling with worry for Grayson while Hunter searched both bodies for the key—the man who’d held the blowtorch and the man who’d been hiding in the corner.

After a disappointing sigh, Hunter pulled out his phone.

“Red,” he said. “Come down to the basement.”

A minute later, a man who I could only presume was from Hunter’s security team came down the staircase and examined my handcuffs. With fiery red hair and a muscular build, the guy wore a black suit, of all things, and what appeared to be a black earpiece.

“We need to make a shim,” Red said, his voice gruff.

He glanced around the room, his focus halting on the man in the corner. Grabbing the dead man’s belt, Red snapped the thin part of the metal off and came back in front of me.

“Please, go find Grayson,” I pleaded, my voice cracking. Daniel’s accusations haunted my soul, leaving me uncertain about what was true and what was a lie. The only thing I knew for sure was that Daniel posed a danger to everyone around him. And now, Grayson had gone after him. Alone. “He might be in trouble.”

Hunter softened his face, probably in an effort to look like he wasn’t worried about his brother, but I wasn’t buying it.

“We need to get you out of here first. It’s not safe.”

“But—”

“Tell me if this hurts,” Red said to me. “Okay?”

I nodded.

Red pressed the thin piece of metal into the key’s hole and moved it around.

After a few seconds, a soft click preceded the bar around my wrist loosening. He repeated this on the other side until both my hands were freed from the cuffs.

“Come on,” Hunter said. “We need to get out of here in case another team is about to arrive.”

“Leave?” I balked. “We can’t leave Grayson!”

“Grayson ran after Daniel. I’ll leave some guards nearby in case he returns,” Hunter assured, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “They can drive him to meet us.”

“I can’t leave him here.” Panic rose in my chest like a tsunami.

“Ivy, Grayson would never forgive me if I left you here and something happened to you. We’ll find him, I promise. But we have to get you and your mother out of here. Now.”

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