The tears started again. “Drey. I’d do anything to keep you safe. To protect you. Even leave you. Which I did. But now. You’ve…I can’t carry the burden of you getting hurt because of me.”
“And I can’t carry the burden of life without you. Why’d you take the ring if you knew you’d leave at the first sign of trouble? The first sign, Sarah. You didn’t even talk to me about this.”
“No time. I—Nicco showed up.” She pushed off me. “Drey. God, I—” She jammed her fingers into her hair. “He showed up. Said he’d kill you if I didn’t go with him. And he would. Drey. I’ve seen him do worse. I’ve seen him fillet people until they were screaming for death. You hear me, Drey? Pleading for death. Hell,I’dpleaded to him for death!”
Her voice cracked, and she showed me her back. Then she bent over and gathered the bags of groceries and hustled to the tiny kitchenette. Jamming products into the small fridge and the single cabinet beside the fridge.
I watched her, debating what to do. She had a point with Nicco’s lethality. Hunter and Marshal made that abundantly clear.
We’d have to get her in protective custody. Not only did she steal from him, but she knew too much to let her live. No wonder Nicco risked coming into the states to get her.
Damn Walker and his connections. I stood, drawing in a deep breath. I was so tired my eyelids felt like two-ton weights.
I couldn’t process scenarios right now other than the one I’d set in motion for tomorrow at noon here in the lobby of the tiny hotel. That was the only thing that kept me going.
Silently, I helped unload the contents of her backpack onto the counter while she stored them away. Yellow boxes of candy caught my attention, and instantly a smile filled my face.Sugar Babies.
“Sarah,” I said as I zipped up her bag. “You’re not alone in this.”
“I need to be. Safer that way.”
“May feel that way. Hell, I thought that for a while. Keeping people at arm’s length so they weren’t in my shitty family stuff. Gang stuff. But I was wrong. Sucks, but…sometimes you have to ask for help.” I knew how that felt, but to have the opportunity to have someone close enough that you trusted to ask for help…that was something immeasurable.
“People who help me end up dead.” Her voice was small, and she peered out the small window above the tiny sink. “Theyalwaysdie.”
I came up behind her and kissed the nape of her neck. “Sarah. You’re mine. Unless you want to give that ring back to me, it’s going to stay that way. Forever. No more running. No more hiding things from me. No more. You hear me? If you can’t do that, you need to tell me now. Because know this. Iwillchase you anywhere you run. Even a screw-up like me knows love when he sees it, and I’d be an idiot to ever let it get away.”
Her body trembled. “I don’t know what I did to earn the right to have you in my life, Drey. I don’t deserve you, but I love you, and I want you. I don’t know how this can work.”
“It starts with a vow that you’ll never run from me again. That you’ll come to me with anything. No matter how shitty, scared, or bloody things are. You will come to me and we’ll figure it out. You hear me, Sarah? We’ll figure it out together.”
She cried.
“Say it, Sarah. But only if you mean it.” I held her left hand, pressing my thumb against the ring I gave her. “Because I will stare death in the face alongside you, girl. And I’ll kick its ass.”
“I can’t believe you still want me after all this…shit.”
“Even more than yesterday, girl.” I hugged her from behind. “I’ll always want you, and if you agree and still want me, we’ll do this right. Tomorrow. Me and you, Sarah. Just me and you.”
She turned around in my arms. “Do this right?”
I pressed a kiss to her neck. “I’m in, girl. All in. Question is, are you?”
Chapter Forty-Five
Sarah
“Alissa,no.It’stoodangerous,” I said to the only friend I’d found since coming to this hellhole two years ago.
“We have to try. Rachel, I can’t live like this. I…won’t. If you get out, if I help you, you can make it to the police. I know you can.”
“Shit!” I glanced around our shared room, the rare time I was ever given a roommate, and this seventeen-year-old was so sweet. I had to try. For her. And for me. “Okay. Nicco’s gone, I heard him leave. So, that means Ralph, Luther, and Tyrone are here.” Dumb pricks. I was half surprised they hadn’t come in yet to play with us like they usually did.
Alissa nodded, her hands shaking and her eyes teary. We’d been working away at a wall beneath the boarded up window in our room. Just yesterday we’d worked the second board free. I was smaller than Alissa, though; she’d not been here long enough to be starved to stay thin.
“If they come in, I’ll tell them you’re sick. I can…if they want…I’ll let them both have me if they make a fuss. That’ll buy you time.” Alissa’s face went paler than it already was. “Please, hurry. Please, Rachel.”
Tears burned my eyes as I gave her a hug. I could do this. For her. For me.