Page 9 of Unmask
Get her back.It was just like my father to issue an order and expect it to be obeyed. Especially by his sons, but I was no longer playing by his rules.IfI decided to get her back, it would be on my terms and for my reasons, not so he could continue using her to further his corrupt agenda.
I used to love being part of a crew, but lately…the things we did…didn’t sit right with me. I had to make a choice.
3
KAYLOR
The road stretched before us, nothing but thick trees and darkness pressing in from both sides. The only sound in the cab was the low hum of the truck’s engine and the occasional thump of loose gravel kicking up beneath the tires. Rusty’s large hands dwarfed the wheel, his expression somber as he kept his eyes on the winding road.
I stared out the window, my breath fogging the glass as my mind reeled over everything that had led to this moment. Leaving. Running. Kreed’s face when I stepped back. The way his hand had lingered in the air between us before he’d clenched it into a fist and let it drop.
It was for the best.
So why did it feel as if I’d ripped something open inside myself?
Rusty cleared his throat, pulling me away from my turbulent thoughts. “You’ll be safe at the cabin. No one knows about it but your dad and me. Not even Jesse.” Jesse was Rusty’s son, who was a few years older than I was. Rusty and Jesse’s mom never had a relationship, and he hadn’t found out he had a son untilJess was seven. “There’s no Internet or TV, but we do get spotty cell service, depending on the weather.”
If he was trying to sell me on this cabin, it wasn’t working. No Internet or TV sounded like a prison sentence, not a retreat. Swiping at my eyes, I stared straight ahead, refusing to shed another tear over a traitor. “Where is it?”
He glanced over his shoulder before changing lanes, the snake tattoo coiling around his entire arm drawing my eyes. “Outside city limits, deep in the woods. It used to belong to an old friend of mine before he moved out of state. He left the place to me,” he said. “Figured it might come in handy one day. Or at the very least, a place to escape and relax. Your dad and I used to come out here to get away when things got hot.”
I studied him in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. Rusty had always been solid. Dependable. He hadn’t given up on me after my parents died and had fought to get me out of the Corvos’ control, to make sure I knew the truth. And yet, the way he and the Vipers had gone about getting me back unsettled me. Maybe it was just my paranoia. Maybe it was the exhaustion gnawing at the outskirts of my mind. Maybe it was having my heart yanked out of my chest a second time, but I had so many more questions.
I started with something simple. We’d get to the nitty-gritty details eventually. “Why are you doing this?”
His jaw tensed slightly, causing his beard to twitch. “I had to get you away from them. You don’t belong with the Corvos, and it’s what your father would want. They might be gone, but you still have family. The crew will take care of you.”
I swallowed hard. “You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in with everything you’ve learned about your father. But the Corvos only see you as something to use, but you’re not a damn tool. You’re not theirs. You belong with us. I’m sorry that we couldn’t protect you sooner. I had noidea what Donovan had planned. If I had…well, things would have gone differently.”
My stomach twisted at his words. Perhaps because a part of me knew he wasn’t wrong. Or maybe because I didn’t know who I belonged to anymore. Or that I wanted to belong to myself. Why did I have to choose? I wanted nothing to do with either side or the hatred they’d built between them. I had my own anger to work through. Adding to it would only make it difficult. It would harden me, make me bitter and jaded, and I’d already changed so much.
“If you wanted to protect me, what was the purpose of the masks?” I asked. They had the opposite effect of safety. I had thought they were the killers or associated with them. My mind couldn’t reason why the Vipers would wear them if not to frighten me, which they had.
The truck hit a bump, jostling us in our seats. “To throw the Corvos off. We were trying to avoid them knowing it was us, not just for your safety, but for the crew and their families. We hadn’t meant to scare you, but it had to look real for the Ravens to believe it.”
“Oh, it looked and felt very real,” I mumbled, toying with the ends of my sleeve that was starting to tatter from my constant stress.
“Yeah, well, it didn’t go exactly according to plan.”
“No shit.” But that was the story of my life.
“I know it was a mistake, kiddo. But Donovan watches everything, and we couldn’t risk him linking it back to the Vipers too soon.”
I turned back toward the window, watching as the trees grew denser, the night even darker. “How much longer?” Turned out I was too fucking tired to grill Rusty.
The unmistakable scent of grease and oil filled the cabin of the truck, mostly from Rusty’s clothes but some from the seats. “Almost there.”
A few minutes later, the truck slowed as we turned onto an overgrown driveway, branches scraping the sides of the vehicle. Up ahead, the outline of a small house emerged through the trees. The tires crunched over unplowed snow as Rusty pulled the truck to a stop in front of a small, weathered cabin, nestled deep in the woods. The place was dark, silent, and unnervingly isolated except for the single porch light flickering and barely cutting through the night.
Cabin was a generous word for what sat in the middle of the clearing. The structure was small, almost forgotten, with a slanted roof and a front porch that sagged. The paint on the exterior was peeling, and the wooden shutters hung loose.
Rusty cut the engine, leaving just the howling winds blowing through the trees as he glanced at me. “It’s not much, but it’s remote and safe. No one will come looking for you here. Not unless you want to be found.”
Safe.
I wasn’t sure I even knew what that word meant anymore.
