Page 87 of Splitting Secrets
“Where is your car?” Griff asks me.
“Still on campus. I ran here.”
My mom looks at me, her mouth set in a thin line. “They don’t know where he’ll go. They still have no clue who therebellion is made up of. Otherwise, they’d have ripped my door down when the girl went missing.”
“You seriously don’t think they’ll assume he went to his mom?” Theo questions.
I answer before she can. “No, but they will use her as payback for what I’ve done. You need to leave. Now.”
“We’ll get you both to Infinity Heights and onto the first bus out. You can detour from there,” Griff offers.
“I’m staying in the safe house,” I inform him, leaving no room in my tone for debate.
My mother reacts immediately, her face crumbling into a cross between a frown and a scowl. “Raze, no. We agreed that if you were to be compromised, you would get the hell out of here. The safe house is too close. They’ll discover you within hours.”
“It’s nonnegotiable. If I leave Nocturne Valley, they’ll only get to her easier.”
“That’s bullshit. We’re all here, providing her protection,” Griff argues.
“If you stay, you’re likely putting her more at risk than if you leave,” Theo tells me, his brows upturned in concern.
They want me to go. To follow through with the original plan. But that plan was made before we could have ever imagined we would get something as valuable as a Landry legacy. One that needs shielding from the enemies outside and the ones who want to use her from within. I won’t leave my little nightmare alone without my protection, regardless of how much it puts my life at risk.
Working my jaw, I look between the three of them. They’ve been mapping out our plan of attack for years, plotting out every detail to the last minute. I’ve always followed their directions without hesitation, never making a fuss.
I can’t compromise on this, though. I owe it to Sonny to protect her. I owe it to her parents. I owe it to Finley and Lewis. Hell, I even owe it to Divina and Bane.
All of their sacrifice has to count for something.
“We’ll have the Ellerys extend the ward around me, too. Move up our timeline a little bit. They’ll go after her the instant they catch wind that I’ve left. Mom already has to be gone when that happens.”
“Don’t do this, Raze. Don’t leave me alone in this world. This girl is not worth your life,” my mother pleads, tears welling in her dark eyes.
She’s wrong. That womanismy life. I’ve never met someone capable of making me seebeyond all of this. I resisted forming ties to anything or anyone, too petrified of having it all taken away. Terrified of this exact scenario.
I won’t cower. I won’t hide the way I did before. There are no more excuses for me. The enemy is here, at our doorstep. The plan has been set into action.
And I won’t abandon her.
“We aren’t going to change your mind,” Griff surmises, his gaze rolling over the stubborn set of my jaw and furrowed brows.
“No.”
“Fuck,” Theo mutters, holding his head.
Griff nods once, his expression hardening as the wheels start working in his mind. “We’ll adjust as best as we can, but I can’t guarantee anything. We’re already juggling so much...”
“Then, I guess it makes even more sense for me to stay and help.”
We share a look, and he tucks his head down in a nod. “You should get going if you don’t want to be stopped. I’m probably your least conspicuous option.”
“We’ll head out behind you.” Theo immediately jumps into action, bolting across the kitchen for the basement to grab a go-bag for my mom. Griff heads toward the garage to pull his car into it so I can get in without being seen.
“Raze,pleaselisten to me,” my mother begs me, stepping into my path. “We’ve already gone against them before, and I lost them both. I can’t do it again.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me, Mom,” I promise, cradling her head in my palms. “We’ve got an entire movement on our side this time.”
This is why we joined. It’s what my father dreamed of when he brought me on to take over for him in both capacities.
