Page 78 of Rebellious Reign

Her eyelids flutter for a brief second, then remain closed. It happened so fast that I wonder if I imagined it.

“They are on their way. They were already en route,” Geo says, holding the phone away from his ear.

“Already en route?” I ask.

He nods his head as he listens to whatever they are saying on the other end.

“They said someone else called, a woman, but she didn’t have much information.”

Wryn.

“Stay with her,” I say and then dart up the steps.

I run through each room, calling Wryn’s name, but it’s quiet. Too quiet. She’s not here. There is still food laid out on the table, as if they were disrupted during breakfast.

“Where are you?” I yell into the house, knowing I won’t get an answer. “Where the fuck are you?!”

If only we had gotten here a bit sooner. If only we hadn’t tried to lie low for a bit and keep any prying eyes from knowing we were here. I should have known that it wouldn’t go the way we needed it too.

I’ve lost her again. And I might have lost Miss Lulah too.

“Fuck!” I yell.

“Hey, come on. Medical is here,” Geo says, standing in the doorway, witnessing my meltdown. Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything.

I’m coming apart at the seams, and she’s not here to put me back together. I might never see her again.

I’m downstairs in a split second, talking to the EMTs as they try to get any information, but we don’t have any to give. They get her stabilized on a stretcher and start to load her into the back of the ambulance.

“I’ll go with her,” Geo says. “Take the car and go get Wryn.”

I nod, knowing that I’ve got to go into the belly of the beast at this point. There’s only one person who would have come after her again. And he’d left me for dead. He won’t be happy to see my face again. Not that I’ll be especially thrilled to see his.

“Here,” Geo says, handing me his gun and the keys to the rental.

“I can’t leave you unarmed,” I say, and he shakes his head.

“You need it more.”

He climbs up into the back of the ambulance, and I watch him take Miss Lulah’s hand before the back doors are closed, leaving me standing alone outside her brownstone.

I twirl the keys in one hand as I make sure the safety on the gun is on. It is. Then, I open the car and set it on the console next to me. I check the gun I have in the holster on my chest and the knife I slipped in my pocket, and then I grip the steering wheel.

I don’t exactly know what to do. I don’t think they were keeping Wryn at Viktor’s house if she was easily able to escape. So, they have her in a safe house somewhere. But will they take her back to that? Or will they take her to Viktor?

My best bet is to try to arrange a trade with Viktor in some way, but I know going directly to him will most likely end up in me dying at the end of a gun barrel as soon as I step foot on his property.

What the hell am I going to do?

From reading my father’s records on Viktor, which there weren’t many, I know several places where he could be hiding her. Three safe houses. I pull up their locations on my phone and then opt to head toward the closest one.

I pull out onto the street, and I’m on autopilot as I follow the robotic directions my phone sends me in. Before I know it, I’m outside of the house, cruising by. It’s dark, small, and there’re no vehicles parked outside. I don’t think anyone is there, and I don’t have time to waste by searching it. I grab the gun from the console and turn the safety off, then pull into the driveway, watching intently for any movement.

If anyone is there, they will be checking on who pulled up. There’s nothing. After sitting still for three minutes, I decide to move on. A quick search shows me Viktor’s next closest property, and I head that way. A fishy smell starts to filter through the air-conditioning of the car as I get closer to my destination, and I realize I’m by the waterfront. I turn into the parking lot overlooking boats. They range in size from huge down to tiny fishing boats, but I spot the one I need.

Lucky Enterprisesis printed across the side of the boat, and I recognize it as one of Viktor’s many company imprints. It’s huge, and it would take forever to look through. I survey the cars sitting in the parking lot, and there’re only a few, but none of them look like anything Viktor would have for himself or any of the men working for him.

Or maybe that’s what he wants me to think.

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