Page 37 of Jericho

"Put yours on," I manage after I click the seatbelt in place.

He huffs a humorless laugh but a minute later, he's pulling the strap across his body.

The lights from the console illuminate his face, and I choose to focus on it rather than think about what could've just happened.

After a few miles of distance between us and the dead men at the cabin, he pulls his phone from his pocket and places a call.

Surprisingly, the call connects to the Bluetooth in the vehicle.

"Hey," the guy who answers the phone says when the call connects.

"What the fuck is going on?" Jericho, or Nolan as he told me back at the cabin, growls. "I've got four down at the cabin."

"Fuck," the guy mutters. "Are you okay? Aspen?"

He darts his eyes in my direction. "We're safe. Did you cut Samuel loose?"

"He's been with us the entire time. Hasn't had a chance to reach out to anyone."

Nolan pulls in a deep breath, his jaw flexing as he clenches the muscles there.

"Jericho, we cleared the car and her belongings, but we didn't scan her."

"Fuck," Nolan grunts again.

"You have everything you'll need there in the SUV."

"I'll let you know what I find," Nolan says before hitting a button on the steering wheel, ending the call.

"What is he talking about?" I ask with a waver in my voice.

"There's a good chance you're tagged," he says.

"Tagged?"

"Damien probably had a tracker put inside of you."

My skin grows immediately colder, my hands trembling as I lift them to my stomach.

"So he can always find me," I whisper as tears stream out of my still-burning eyes.

"He won't find you again," he says. As much as I want to believe him, he just had to kill four men to keep me safe, and I don't know that I'm worth the stain on his conscience for having to do that for me.

I've begged every being others pray to more times than I can count to be rescued from the clutches of Damien Gaines, but it's coming at too high of a cost.

Although I've never felt sorry for the men who died defending Damien, or even when they died defending my father, Samuel's daughter being taken kept him compliant with the rules of the organization. Discovering that information changed everything. Men may be doing their job and dying for it to protect their children. Good, bad, or indifferent, prior to their life with Damien, I don't know that every man who works for him is inherently evil. It changes my entire viewpoint.

Hames should've died a long time ago, but I don't know the other three men or what their stories were. What if Damien has their children? What happens to those kids now that their father is no longer a pawn to be used and moved around the organization at Damien's whim?

"Don't get lost in your fucking head, Peach. We'll get to the end of this shitstorm eventually."

I turn my gaze from the side of his face, my internal battle raging inside of me.

I feel sick to my stomach to think that there's some foreign object inside me that allows Damien to know exactly where I am and when. It's no different from cancer and it's just as deadly.

Chapter 21

Jericho

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