“I don’t think you need to imagine. It’s all right here.”
“So not helping, Micah.” She groaned, leaning closer to me. “Do you think they keep the footage?”
She seemed so small in my arms. It was hard to not pick her up and run out of the house. “You don’t want to know the answer.”
She flipped her head back, glancing up at me. “Fynn could hack into these computers and check.”
“Probably,” I agreed. I planned on asking him to get me that footage and anything else on these computers, but Mads didn’t need to see it. What good would it do?
I made the dumb mistake of glancing one last time at the white teddy bear on Mads’s bed, and I knew I couldn’t leave this room without sending Sterling a message. Stepping in front of Mads, shielding her with my body, I cocked my fist back and slammed it into the screen projecting her room. It shattered on impact. The sound blasted through the house.
“What the fuck was that?” Kenna shrieked in my ear. I’d forgotten Kenna, Ainsley, and Josie were still connected through their phones.
Mads scowled at me as she replied, “Micah being a dumbass.” Her focus shifted to my hand, and her lips formed anO. “You’re bleeding.” She reached for me.
I hadn’t felt the pain or the skin over my knuckles splitting open. My hand was so large in hers as she inspected the cut. “It doesn’t matter. I will kill him.”
“We got company,” Kenna whispered through the earpiece. “You guys need to get out of there. Now.” Then the earbuds went dead, the call between the girls disconnecting.
Mads grabbed my arm, tugging me toward the door. “Micah,” she pleaded.
I reached into my back pocket and took out my phone, punching Grayson’s name on the screen. A single ring sounded before he picked up on the other end. “Where are you?” he answered, short and to the point.
“Leaving. We’ve got trouble on the way. Get the girls out. I’ve got Mads,” I informed him, glancing down at her. She chewed on her lower lip, unease swimming in her expression at the blood trickling down my fingers. “We don’t have time for you to play nurse. Let’s go.” I didn’t mean to snap at her, but no matter how much control I possessed, some emotions were harder to shove aside than others.
She looked at me with big gray eyes. They swirled like a storm, full of confusion, fear, and specks of anger. It wasn’t surprising that her anger had been lit. She had a fire inside her that sometimes scared me. Mads’s fighting spirit could get her in trouble.
Taking her hand with my nonbloody one, I rushed her out of the room, leaving the door open and unlocked purposely. I wanted Sterling to know someone had broken in, and it wouldn’t take him long to realize it was me. He must have already concluded why I wasn’t with Brock tonight and figured I was up to something.
I dragged her down the hallway, blood dripping onto the carpet. It was fucking inconvenient leaving behind DNA, but really, other than breaking a TV, we hadn’t done anything wrong, and I highly doubted anyone in the fraternity would report the smashed screen considering what the room contained. So the little traces of blood I left behind weren’t going to be a problem, not without the fraternity bringing heat onto themselves.
Mads’s breathing came out rapidly behind me as she struggled to keep up with my long strides. We got to the bottom of the stairs, and I heard voices. Coming to a dead stop, I listened, pinpointing where in the house the voices were.
Mads bumped into my back. “Micah, your—”
My hand flew over her mouth as I indicated with a narrowed gaze for her to be quiet. She huffed, lips turning down beneath my palm, but remained silent.
They were in the kitchen, and if they stepped out at the right time, whoever had entered the house would spot Mads and me slipping out the front door.
Changing course, I guided her into the room adjacent to the stairs, spotting a window. It would have to do. I weaved around the deep brown leather furniture and wedged the window fully open. A gust of mild wind blew inside, sending the burgundy curtains dancing behind me. Mads shoved them out of her face, and I quickly helped her swing a leg out the window and climb out.
The voices were growing closer, and I knew we only had seconds to make our escape.
Her feet thumped to the ground. Following next, I jumped out, landing in a bush. I grabbed Mads and shoved her against the house on the other side of the stone chimney. Her heart hammered against my chest, and despite the situation we were in, I had to tell myself not to get swept up in the feeling of her pressed to my body. I loved so many aspects of her, but the way she was soft where I was hard, the places where I swelled and she dipped, she drove me crazy.
She pressed her cheek against mine, holding her breath. I secured my arms around her as the flutter of voices floated from the window on the other side of the stacked stones.
“Someone was here,” a deep, troubled voice said.
“Should we alert Sterling?” another asked, this one less sure than the other.
“He’ll want to know,” the first responded, his tone quieter. “Let’s check the rest of the house. They might still be inside.”
Josie and Grayson better have gotten their asses out.
Without a moment to lose, I waited just to make sure they had left the window, then whispered in Mads’s ear, “Run.”
She glanced at me for a split second, then took off into the night, darting under the trees as she headed for the street. I raced right behind her, risking one quick peek over my shoulder at the window. No one was there.