Page 18 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

There was fucking no one.

Where the hell had Sergio taken me?

After an eternity, I unlocked the kitchen door and slipped outside, my bare feet soundless against the brick patio.

Moments later, I’d escaped across the perfectly manicured lawn and stood in a suburban neighborhood.

I stumbled out onto the street, covered in the blood from my wrists, wearing a nightgown with a button down flannel over it, barefoot and looking like I’d escaped from an asylum.

One car passed, and then another, before a sports car slowed down. The woman inside took one look at me and opened her door.

“Sofia?” she cried.

Ana Costa.Fuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkk.

“Ana, you can’t be here.” I exhaled in a sharp rush, slumping against her car.

“Sofia, what are you doing here? Shit! Get in!”

Her eyes skittered over the gun in my hands, down at my bare legs, then looked up at me.

“Quickly!” she snarled, looking around impatiently.

I climbed in the car, wincing with every movement, grateful to my best friend, worried sick she would live to regret this.

“Where to?”

Shit. “Where are we? What day is it?”

A suburb of Yorkfield. I’d been gone for a week.

Where could I ask her to take me that wouldn’t doomher, that wouldn’t immediately make her a target of her own family for betraying them, or mine for her last name?

“Could you drive me into the city, please?”

Ana put the car in gear as I buckled myself in. “Where?”

There was only one place I could go.

Would I be safe there? No.

Would I be as safe as I could be? Abso-fucking-lutely.

“Lorenzo’s,” I whispered softly as I relaxed into the cushions of her front seat and allowed hope to beat in my chest.

“Fuck, Sofia, I’m so glad I drove home from my uncle’s tonight. Anyone could have picked you up!”

I looked over at her, worried at the slight slur in her words, the fresh bruises on her face. She’d pissed off her father again, and he’d taken the price in flesh. Again. “You can’t let them know?—”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Ana admonished, her attention fully on the road. “Not all of us have been locked in gilded cages since we were infants. Slouch down in your seat and don’t look out the window. I’ll be fine.”

My thoughts spun in circles, still exhausted and hazy from the drugs. Why the fuck was Sergio all the way out in the suburbs? Were we wrong about Gio Costa?

Forty-five minutes later, she pulled in front of a bland apartment building.

“Thank you,” I said. “I owe you more than you could possibly imagine.”

Ana looked me up and down again and pressed her lips into a grim line. “You owe me nothing. I’m sorry I didn’t find out a week ago, and I hope you fuck up my father well and good.”

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