Page 11 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune
“There was—”
“If it comes down to you or them, I’m pickin’ you every fuckin’ time, Ryder.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered, but he didn’t reply. He didn’t say another word as he started around the side of the motel building. Making sure the car was locked, I followed.
The back wall of our room was gone. Thank fuck that this was a pay-as-you-go kind of place—a cash-only and no-names one. Granted, the faster we got out of here before anyone noticed, the better.
My chest tightened at the sight of two bodies wrapped up in leafy vines.This had to happen.I just kept telling myself that.
Me or them.
That was what it came down to, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, that wasn’t a pill I was sure I could swallow. They were human. They probably had families and no clue what they’d taken on by picking up the bounty on me.
Gray’s hands flared with green light as he neared the bodies. Roots separated from the ground and hooked around the bodies. They trailed after him as he stormed right into the woods unexpectedly.
Granted, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.Killing people for the government was one thing. Murder—even in self-defense—wasn’t supposed to be the life Gray had.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
“Well, I ain’t buryin’ them outside the motel,” Gray said. “I ain’t that stupid, baby.”
No, he wasn’t.And I wasn’t about to let him do it alone either.
With two bodies in tow and no one following us, we trekked a good half a mile into the woods. I tracked our progress to make sure we could get back with ease.
Gray picked a spot with close-knit trees and waved his hand over the ground. As the roots dragged the bodies forward, the dirt split open.
And just like that, they were gone.
The earth folded up around the two as if they never existed. Lush grass flourished with Gray’s power until the place was nothing more than a tiny cluster of trees to sit under.
“We’re headin’ to Arizona,” Gray informed me.
“Why Arizona?”
“I don’t know. First state alphabetically.”
“That’s Alabama,” I corrected and cringed at the flare in his temper.
“We’re goin’ to Phoenix. We need to go to a big city.”
“People get kidnapped in big cities.”
“It’s harder to kidnap someone in a fuckin’ crowd without makin’ a scene than in a fuckin’ cornfield,” he snapped. “I ain’t askin’, baby, and I will drag your ass to the car if you fight me.”
From the look on his face, he’d do it too.I hated this.
“Okay. We go to Phoenix,” I agreed softly.But I didn’t like it.Running right into a big city full of people felt like the wrong move to make.
CHAPTER 07
We made it to Phoenix in record time with just enough stops for gas and food along the way. Gray didn’t even buy Twizzlers, which was something.Why did that little fact bother me so much?Usually, I was on his case about eating something other than Twizzlers, but right now, I would’ve given anything for him to eat a whole pack in one sitting.
Instead of staying on the outskirts like I wanted, Gray found us a cheap enough hotel in the middle of the city.Crowds. He wanted to keep us surrounded by crowds. It was awful. I understood why that was his plan of attack, but the sheer number of people bled through my defenses. Everything had me painfully on edge as I paced our room while he grabbed food from the corner mart.
I was also so fucking tired. Tired of running. Tired of looking over my shoulder. Tired of making Gray live like this. Not that I said any of that out loud. I knew how that conversation would go—the same way it did any other time I brought it up.
When my phone vibrated on the nightstand, I practically launched myself across the room to grab it. Tessa’s name flashed across my screen, and I frowned. We hadn’t told her anything about running from Ohio.
