Prisoner (Criminals & Captives #1)(77)

I take off running, face wet, knees shaking. I desperately want to see Grayson. Even if he hates me, I have to see that he’s okay. But I don’t know where he is, and Stone is still behind me, waiting to shoot.

As soon as I get onto the street, a spotlight gloms onto me. Somebody says to put my hands up. I slow, hands raised. I’m led up the driveway. I end up sitting on the back of an ambulance.

They’re saying I’m traumatized. I guess it’s true. I give somebody my name. Everyone wants to know where Grayson is. I say I don’t know. It’s the truth.





Chapter Thirty-Eight




Grayson


Stone bursts through the bush line, panting. “Let’s go.”

No one shows up behind him. “Where the f*ck is Abby?”

“She ran to the cops. She turned herself in. I’m sorry, man.”

Denial slams in my gut. “What? No.”

“Did you not hear me? She ran to the cops.”

I stomp over and grab his collar. “What the f*ck did you do?”

He shoves me off. Pain like lightning sails through my shoulder. “She’s gone. She left.”

“Fuck you! She wouldn’t do that.” I start down the hill, but Calder’s got me from behind, arms around my chest.

“She wouldn’t just leave!”

Stone grabs me by the hair. “She said she won’t give anything up,” Stone says. “That you both have secrets, and she’s staying quiet about our secret like you’ll stay quiet about her 9-1-1 call. That mean anything to you? A 9-1-1 call?”

I try to rip out of Calder’s grip. “It’s not right. You’re lying!” Even as I say it, some little voice wonders how he’d know about the 9-1-1 call if she didn’t tell him. As a message to me. Like maybe this is real and she wanted to be done with me. “Don’t come after me!”

I break free, and I run down there blind. Something hits me from behind. Stone, tackling me to the ground. We roll. My shoulder screams in pain.

“Let me go.”

Stone’s on top of me. “She made her choice!” he growls. “After what she saw in that bedroom? She watched you beating the bloody hell out of a man. You destroyed his face after she begged you to stop. Think what she saw, Grayson!”

My strength drains from me as his words seep in. What I did in front of her. The crunch of his face on my knee still lives in my muscle memory. Like a f*cking animal. “I need to get to her. I need to explain.” I’m ripping the hell out of my shoulder, trying to get away.

“She saw her one chance to be free, and she took it,” Stone bites out. “She can still sell that she’s a hostage who got away. It’s not too late for her, like it was for us.”

“Fuck you,” I say.

“She was hysterical, Grayson.” Nate’s there, kneeling next to me, hand on my arm. “If you care about that girl at all, you’ll let her go. Give her this one kindness.”

I’m panting, struggling. This can’t be how it ends.

“You know what she said?” Stone says. “She said, I know what’s inside of him now. That’s what she said, Grayson. I know what’s inside of him now.”

It’s then that all the fight goes out of me. It has the ring of truth. The ring of her words. She knows what’s inside of me. Vengeance. Death. Ugliness.

I collapse and stare up at the dawn sky, lighter on one side than the other.

Barely human. Fucking caveman. How many times did she call me that?

“She was never yours,” Stone says.

Because she knows what’s inside of me now. It even sounds like something she’d say. I could convince her that I didn’t kill him and it still wouldn’t matter, because she saw enough of what was inside me. The thought of capturing her again moves through my mind, but Nate’s right—I need to do her this kindness.

And there’s the bit about the 9-1-1 call. That’s a secret only she and I know. She told him so I would know her message was genuine. To be free from me.

“She knows where you live,” Nate says. “If she wants to see you, all she has to do is to show up.”

“We can’t stay at the Bradford,” Stone says. “Just in case.”

“She won’t talk,” I snap.

“We’ve got the feed from the camera at the entrance,” Nate says. “We’ll see if she comes.”

“Get up.” It’s Calder. He’s got binoculars. “You need to see this.”

Stone helps me up. Nate and Knox are helping Cruz into the vehicle. Calder directs me to look at the driveway. All I can find is lights and confusion. He directs my gaze, and suddenly I see it—an ambulance, and she’s sitting in the back. She’s alone, but her chin is held high, shoulders back. She seems calm almost. Calm in a way I’ve never seen her.

“Let’s go,” Nate says.

A cop comes over, carrying a bottle of water. Her face lights up when she takes it, so grateful for one small favor. He wraps a blanket around her, and I grit my teeth as I watch him touch her shoulders. She’s just been f*cking traumatized, and this guy thinks he’s Romeo. A tear glistens as it rolls down her face, reflecting the red-blue light from the sirens.