“Okay.”
I nod, giving in. I hate the idea of putting the Sinners at risk, but I know it’s smarter to accept help than to go alone. If Max is in danger, having more of us out there trying to bring her back can only be a good thing.
Jesus. I told Gray he needed to prove he’s on my side, but I never imagined this would be the way he’d prove it.
For the next couple of minutes, the Sinners and I gather in a tight huddle, talking in low, urgent voices. As we come up with a rough plan, and I try not to think about what the kidnapper could be doing to Max right now.
Please, Max. Live through this.
None of us say a word as we make the drive up into the foothills.
What is there to say? My best friend has just been fucking kidnapped, and I don’t know if she’s still alive. I trust the Sinners to keep me safe, but I don’t trust whoever has Max to keep her safe. I can tell by the way the guys keep looking at me that they’re worried. The tension in their bodies makes it clear they don’t like this one bit, but I’m not afraid for myself.
I’m afraid for Max.
What if we’re too late? What if whoever kidnapped her doesn’t wait? Doesn’t hold up their end of the deal?
I’ve been trying not to think about that. Fear clouds my head, and I need all the strength and focus I can get right now. I’ve spent the past twenty minutes numbing myself, steeling my emotions for whatever is to come, but the knots in my stomach twist even tighter at the sight of the trees towering above us and the looming darkness ahead.
I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to her.
It won’t. I won’t let it happen.
All too soon, we come to a rumbling stop by the side of a two-lane road. As Gray cuts the engine, the car is plunged into the kind of silence that only the deep woods can bring—far away from the city, the lights, the noise. I can hear my own heart rushing in my ears as I push the door open, stepping out onto hard, cold ground.
It’s chillier up in the foothills than it is in the valley where Hawthorne’s campus is located. I fight the urge to pull my loose jacket tighter around my shoulders. The tips of my fingers are already growing numb, but it’s not really from the cold, I know that.
Before I can step away from the car toward the dark woods, Gray pulls me against him and presses a hard kiss to my lips.
When we break apart, he cradles my face in his hands. “Don’t be a hero,” he murmurs, his voice strangled. “Don’t do anything risky. I’ve almost lost you way too many fucking times, and I can’t bear to lose you again.”
He kisses me one more time, like he’s trying to seal a promise, and the second he releases me, Declan spins me around, his lips finding mine. His hands run up my arms, cradling my neck, his fingers brushing up against the soft skin behind my ears.
When he pulls away, his eyes are dark in the faint moonlight. “We’ve always got your back, Soph, okay?”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. I don’t know why this feels like a goodbye, why I feel like I’m about to walk into the forest and never come back, and I try to convince myself that it’s a crazy premonition.
Just nerves making me jittery.
“I really don’t want to win that bet about you getting in a fight,” Elias says when it’s his turn, and although he tries to make his tone joking, his voice catches in a way that makes my heart constrict. “Okay, Blue? You got that?”
His arms sling around me in a tight hug, pulling me close. His kiss is soft, searching, intense—nothing like his usual flirty, hungry kisses. When our bodies mesh together, I can feel the soft brush of his breath against my ear.
And then there’s space between us again, the mountain air a cold chill after his hot skin against mine.
“We’ve got this,” he says quietly. “It’ll be okay.”
I nod, turning away from them before I can rush back into the car like a coward. I made this mistake, and I’ll fucking fix it. I should have never let Max go off with Aaron like that right after he learned that she shared Cliff’s secret with me. I should’ve known better than to trust any of the Saints.
My heart thuds in my chest with every step into the woods. The guys follow close behind, cloaked in shadows. So well hidden that if it wasn’t part of our plan for them to stick close by, I would never guess they were there.
I suck in a breath, flicking on the small flashlight I pulled from beneath my sink. Every dorm has one in case of power outages, and I never thought I’d have to use it.
But here I am, I think bitterly, using the flashlight, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, looking for my best friend who’s been kidnapped.
A few minutes pass. I can’t hear the telltale sounds and signs of movement behind me anymore, but I know the Sinners are there. They won’t let me face this alone, and as much as part of me hates that, part of me loves it too.
Abruptly, the faint path I’m following stops.