Page 32 of Out to Find Freedom

Sighing, I shifted around and slid down to sit on the bed. I cringed. My hands went to my stomach to rest against it. A new bruise would appear later, or at least by the next day.

Still, it was worth it. Keeping Ryan safe would always be worth it.

I crossed my fingers and prayed Gloria didn’t come back in, knowing somehow I had lied.

If she did, I wasn’t sure she’d keep me around for me to inherit the money. Then again, I wasn’t sure Ryan would sit by and let me stay in here with them… but he had to. I had to make him see sense, that saving lives over mine was more important to me than anything.

Could I tell him everything?

Would he understand?

Harriet’s and her family’s lives were at stake, so he had to understand.

He had to.

Not only for Harriet, but for his life, his friends’. If Gloria found out anything, they would all be hunted. Unless Ryan got to her first….

Groaning, I hit my head against the wall behind me.

There I went again, giving myself hope that I could escape this hellhole sooner than I would be able to when I tried on my own.

It was because I believed Ryan, how he’d said he couldn’t leave me where I was. He seemed like a man who would do anything for someone in need, or was I just playing him up in my mind? Matching him to the stars I already had in my eyes for him?

My body jolted when a door above slammed. I waited for the dooming footsteps to come my way. When they didn’t, I sighed in relief. Whatever Ryan had said or whoever turned up at his place had somehow shown Gloria I wasn’t at fault.

How long would that last though?

Chapter Eleven

Warden

My phone stayed silent. Even when I pressed the button to light up the screen over and over, nothing new appeared. My gut felt shredded from the worry. I’d thought I’d heard someone yell not a few moments before, and I wanted to run over there, barge through the door, and demand to know what in the ever-loving fuck was going on.

But I didn’t.

I hated that I didn’t. I hated that Emmie begged for me not to call her name and to stop messaging, but I did it. For her. A woman I didn’t know. All because I was concerned for her.

I pressed in Violet’s number. “Talk,” she answered.

“You nearly here?”

“Yes.”

“Travis with you?”

“When a partner calls, says to get to his place and you’re not sure why, you think he’ll come with?”

He would. For his woman.

“You’ll have to pull over a block away. Tell Travis to make his way to the backyard on foot.”

She sucked in a breath. “What the fuck, Warden?”

“Look, somethin’s happenin’ next door. Need you to show on your own. Your name’s Emily. Mine’s Jackson, and you’re my girl, but we’ve had a fight.”

She gave me nothing but silence.

“Vi, whatever is goin’ on next door is bad. I got a read off the guy Lenny, and I didn’t fuckin’ like it at all. What I do know is that there’s a woman locked in a basement. At least, I think she is. I told her I could help, but she doesn’t want it.”

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