Page 177 of Unorthodox

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The message reads:Wait.

My hands start to shake, and I toss the phone in the passenger seat of the clean car, wrapping my arms around myself and craning my neck, trying to see anything. Anyone.

I only have a view of the side of the hangar closest me, and out the driver’s side window is the runway, the clear, blue sky overhead.

Freedom.

The sky looks like freedom.

Despite what I did, despite Max infecting my brain like a parasite that won’t leave, I feel a rush of warmth flood my chest.

I’ve never been free.

Never.

But this time…this time me and Danik will get it right. Away from a father that used us as pawns, usedmeas a toy. Away from an uncle that used us as something worse. Away from bad men and a broken home. From a life that’s only brought me more misery with each passing year.

Maybe we’ll never stop running.

Maybe my father will never stop hunting us.

Maybe Max will come for me, too, but for now…for now I came for myself.

I turn to look at the hangar, debate getting out of the car. But I see no other cars here, and the idea of separating from my getaway vehicle isn’t too appealing yet.

Not until I see my brother.

My brother.

Nearly five weeks with Max, a lifetime of my father, and I’ll be with the only person who ever once made me happy.

But he left you, too.

The thought echoes in my head, and I push back on it. He’ll come this time.

He’ll come for me.

I glance at the phone on the passenger seat, will it to light up with a message assuring me he’s on the way.

Instead, though, something else catches my eye.

Something white against the beige floor mat of the passenger seat.

Leaning across the console, I reach for it, pick up something smooth and thin between my fingers.

A playing card.

An ace of hearts.

I lean back in the seat, see there’s something dark crusted across the back of the card, and my stomach churns as I take in the crimson stain.

I drop the card, and it slips between the seat and the console, just as I remember that morning in the woods.

“Pick one,”Max had said.

Dante had.

He’d picked that one.

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