Page 51 of Silent Betrayal

We watch as she jumps up, as if startled, and runs from the room.

“What scared her?” Max asks.

“It could have been the lightning, but I didn’t know she was afraid of storms,” Ben says as we see her appear on the hallway footage. But she stops moving in the middle of the hall.

“Did you pause it?” I ask Atlas.

He shakes his head. “No, she’s just… standing there.”

She looks around her and even through the grainy footage, I can see she’s scared. She looks over her shoulder then glances back at her room, before turning and running back in.

When she appears on the other screen again, we watch as she crawls under the bed. “I didn’t check there!” I hiss as I turn to run.

“She might have moved after that,” Gideon yells as I run down the hall.

“You guys keep watching, I’m gonna to go look!” I yell right before I reach the stairs, taking two at a time. I hear several heavy sets of feet following me, so I know I’m not alone in my hope of finding her.

As soon as I reach her room, I throw myself on the floor and relief fills me when I see her. “She’s here!”

“I’ll text Dom,” Tucker says, as I start crawling towards her.

“Hey, Angel, it’s just me, I’m gonna get you out of here, okay?” She doesn’t respond and I start to worry. When I place my hand on her leg, I can feel her whole body shaking. Deciding that pulling her out by her legs would be a bad idea, I move myself around her, spooning her from behind as I wrap my upper arm around her waist.

“It’s alright, sweetie, I’m just going to get you somewhere more comfortable, okay?” She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t even jump from my touch. It’s too dark to see her face, making me more anxious to get her out from under this bed as quickly as I can.

I do a weird sort of side shuffle, moving our bodies together until my feet are near the edge.

“Max?”

“Yeah?” he asks, dropping down to peer at us.

“I’ve got her, can you pull me out by my feet? Otherwise, it’s going to take me forever.”

“You got it, hold on to her,” he says as I feel a set of hands grip each of my ankles. I’m slowly dragged out from under the bed with Mina in my arms. I see Max and Tucker first, as they drop my feet, just before the rest of the guys barge into the room, staring at us with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong with her?” Atlas asks.

I shuffle her in my arms so I can scoop her up, and that’s when I see her face. Her eyes are open but they look blank, which terrifies me. Her whole body is shaking as she clutches her stuffed cow to her chest.

Another crack of thunder booms through the house and she whimpers, turning into me for protection and breaking my heart all over again.

“I think the storm is giving her a panic attack, let’s get her down to the basement, we couldn’t hear it from the gym,” I tell them as I stand, holding her tight to me. Max and Tucker lead the way with their lights and I start to hum a melody as we walk.

I think I hear some of the others mention something about getting something, but I am too distracted by the state of my girl. We all saw that footage. She was terrified. I think she was trying to run to one ofus, but then it was like she thought she couldn’t or remembering what happened, so she froze.

I hate that she thinks she can’t come to us for help. We’ll always be here for her, no matter what she thinks. I’m just glad when she ran from us, and ran from the storm, that she didn’t try to leave the house. She has many enemies out there, including one we may not even know. She isn’t safe without us. And she’s ours to protect.

When we get to the workout room, I move to the mats we use for stretching and sit down, holding her to me. My humming turns into singing as I rock her back and forth, stroking the back of my finger down her cheek softly.

A bright light has me looking up as Dom, Gideon and Ben place some battery powered lanterns around the space to give us some light.

Atlas sits in front of me and lays his black fuzzy blanket over her, trying to tuck her in as I hold her and continue singing.

The sounds of the storm don’t penetrate the walls here, so my voice is the only sound that can be heard. That is until I hear the sweetest voice whisper my name. “Jasper?”

Chapter twenty-one

Iblink up at Jasper, wondering how I got here. “Jasper?” I ask in confusion.

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