Page 139 of Reaper and Ruin
I would have laughed if the sadness hadn’t been breaking my damn heart.
I put my arm around her shoulders and drew her close, feeling her shudder as she hugged me back. I didn’t care how badshe smelled. Only that she was alive. “We’ve been searching for you,” I swore to her. “Me, Whip, X, and Levi. And Dax.”
She lifted her head, her tears shining in her eyes. “Dax? I figured he would have just assumed I ghosted him.”
I shook my head and laughed, just a little. “I think he might be in love with you.”
She breathed out a long, slow breath. “I hope he isn’t.”
“Why would you say that? I know you love him too. I’m pretty sure you told me you were in love with him the very first day you met him.”
“And look at the hurt and danger I’ve already brought into his life in just a few weeks. I should have listened to my father when he told me I could run but never hide from him for long.”
She wasn’t being fair to herself.
“None of this has anything to do with your family,” I assured her.
“Maybe not. But if it hadn’t been Francine hunting me down and locking me away, it would have been one of my father’s enemies. And if it hadn’t been them, then it would have been my father himself. I was free on borrowed time only, and I knew it. I had no business starting something up with a man like Dax.” She sighed heavily. “He’s so good and sweet and kind. He has a regular, run-of-the-mill job and comes from a normal family. His life and mine are worlds apart, and I was kidding myself, hoping I could live in his, even for a little while.”
I hated the sadness in her tone. “I don’t think you get to choose who you fall in love with.”
She shrugged. “I guess. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? It ends with a broken heart, either way.”
The helplessness and despair radiated from her, and I couldn’t blame her. How many days had she been down here? How many weeks? I couldn’t remember, everything since she’d gone missing had become a blur.
But I needed her to rally. Needed her to have hope. We weren’t dying in this goddamn hole. We were getting out.
My eyes adjusted enough to make out the shapes in the gloom—our knees drawn up, the jagged seams of floorboards above us, and the cleaning caddy that had been in my hand when I’d walked inside. It had come down into the hole with me. The handle was cracked, one side bent out of shape. Supplies spilled across the compacted dirt floor, rags and spray bottles and scrubbers.
“Bleach,” I breathed, nodding toward the white bottle tipped on its side.
Nyah’s face turned toward me, teeth flashing faintly. “You want to do some cleaning while you’re down here? I think that red warning label would advise not to use in enclosed spaces.” She poked the bottle with her foot. “I know the piss bucket smells grim, but pretty sure this does not count as a well-ventilated area.”
“If we could get her close enough, we could spray her in the face with it though. You said she brings you food and changes the bucket. So she has to get close at least once a day, right?”
Nyah peered up at the floorboards, a good distance above our heads. “She lowers everything down on a rope.”
But I wasn’t going to be deterred that easily. The pit was deep beneath the house, there was no doubt about that. It had clearly been dug with the intention of keeping grown adults in. The walls seemed to have been reinforced with whatever they’d been able to find—bits of wood and steel, all things easily found on any construction site.
“Did I ever tell you I did cheerleading in high school?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t strike me as a pom-pom, fake-smile sorta girl.”
I half smiled at that. “Toby made me do it. But point is, I could boost you up.” I studied the mechanical bits and piecessomeone had rigged up beneath the floor. “We’d just have to time it right so you go up right as she opens it.”
Nyah looked doubtful. “And if she’s not bending down?”
I could admit that was a fault in the plan. “Then I guess she’ll get bleach spots on her socks.”
Nyah snort-laughed at that. “That’ll teach her!”
I dissolved into giggles as well. Despite the situation, I was so damn glad to have her back. “I’ve missed you.”
She bit her bottom lip, and her eyes filled with tears again. “I missed you too. So much.”
I wasn’t willing to die down here and lose the first female friend I’d ever truly made. I’d loved Toby with every beat of my heart. He’d been my person. But he’d also been my crutch. I’d clung to him in a way that wasn’t healthy because I’d had nobody else.
This friendship with Nyah felt different. It felt like something I wanted to hang on to and cherish. Something that would last, if only given a chance. She might have fallen in love with Dax at first sight, but I think a part of me had recognized her as a soul mate at first sight as well. I didn’t love her the way I loved Whip and X and Levi, but there was a connection there that felt important.
