Page 67 of Wrecked

“To take a leak.”

Rip left it at that. If the boys went back to Dave’s and stayed there, then he wouldn’t need to relay that they’d been there.

If not?

Then he just might shackle Boston.

The next morning…

Rebel moved slightly on a hard surface, his head ached and his body felt sore.

The hardness beneath him turned out to be the floor. Slowly, he turned his head and found a blanket had been placed under him and a comforter on top of him.

Why was he on the fucking floor? Even through the comforter, the cold seeped into his bones and sent a chill through him.

Struggling to sit up, he clutched the blanket tightly.

Sunlight streamed from a nearby window, casting the room in a bright glow.

He lifted the blanket and peered beneath. They had stripped him of every piece of clothing.

The fuckers!

Something hard clanked around his ankle and he flipped the corner of the comforter aside to find a metal cuff around his leg attached to a thick chain anchored into the floor.

Great. Just fucking great.

Nothing was within reach of him except the blankets and the wall of windows that looked down over some type of courtyard.

The sun hadn’t moved all that much, so not much time had passed. Unless it was the next day, but he doubted it.

Rolling to his feet, Rebel wrapped the comforter around his shoulders and pulled it snug before he stepped over to gaze out at the world.

A world that was far out of his reach.

Crow. Fuck, he missed him. He glanced up toward the blue sky. If there really was a heaven, then Crow must surely be there, right?

If, and that was a big if, there was a God, then the guy better take care of Crow.

Tears welled up, and Rebel struggled to hold them back.

He hardened his heart. There was no use crying over a dead man. He had lost too many people through the years—young boys, just like him, who’d been taken by Tanis. Most of them died.

Rebel was feeling a loss he would feel forever.

He yanked at the chain. Jimmy thought he had attempted to kill himself, but Rebel would never do that.

He was a survivor by nature.

“But at what cost,” he mumbled.

He had lived his life alone until Crow. And while their encounter had been brief, it had been special.

To him, Crow’s friendship had been priceless.

Now, he was a man drifting without a soul in a vast universe of darkness.

And hell help anyone who came near him.

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