Bennett Mafia(79)

But Brooke’s breathing was already uneven behind me.

She’d let me take the lead, and I was using the age-old way to find our path: following the North Star. Once we’d cleared where I last saw guards standing before, we turned so it was on our left side.

Using the map Brooke had showed me, I’d memorized the myriad of roads near the house. There was one main paved one that went alongside the lake. It wound all around it, but Blade wouldn’t be waiting for us on that road. He would pick a gravel one, and not the second-or third-best gravel road. He’d pick the fourth one, one that looked like little more than a long driveway, and he’d park just on the other side of a hill. So he’d see the oncoming lights from a car, but they wouldn’t see him.

This was part of being a Hider that we rarely utilized, but we had training for it.

I enjoyed this part more than the others in my unit. I took to the outdoors better than they did, though even I didn’t know why. It rarely mattered. We usually drove from motel to motel. At some points, we’d have to meet someone. They would lead us through a hotel, or a restaurant, or a school to the back, where we’d get in another vehicle. That was how we’d travel once we got the person who needed saving. Going through was rarely a straight shot. They liked to have us use two or three different routes, in case someone tried to track us.

There were a lot of rich and powerful abusers out there. They had access to main road security footage, to dirty cops, to almost anyone who would take a few extra bucks for a peek at their camera systems. Which made relying on trusted allies and assets already certified through the Network so important.

My mind continued to turn as we ran.

If Brooke had notified Blade, and he was already here, that meant she had known about Kai’s travel plans days ago. It would’ve taken that long to get Blade here and for him to have a cover story in place to hide his whereabouts from the Network.

I was banking on the fact that he’d have a plan ready. We didn’t have the Network’s allies and assets, which meant we’d have to keep to back roads as much as possible—as off the grid as we could be, using the least visible roads, which meant it’d take us so much longer than Kai to get to Milwaukee.

I bent my head forward. One foot after one foot. Keep going. That’s what I had to do.

“Agh!” A twig snapped, and Brooke cried out.

I whirled, grabbing her arm before she crashed into a tree.

“Oh, shit shit shit! Oh no.” She moaned, grabbing for her ankle. “I think I broke my ankle.”

Our hour was slipping away. I could see it shortening before my eyes.

She knelt down, wrapping her hands around her leg, as if to prevent the pain from spreading. “Riley! It hurts so much.” Tears streamed down her face, and she gasped for breath.

By my calculations, we had a little over a mile, more likely a mile and a quarter yet to go. I looked around, but even if we’d had rope for me to build her a crutch, we wouldn’t make it. They would find us.

“Can you make it?”

She looked up, her face pale and getting whiter by the second. She shook her head. Her eyes were dazed, half panicked. “I think I broke my ankle! For real.” Her voice hitched on a sob, pain laced with a twinge of hysteria.

I’m sure this was scary for her. But broken ankles could be fixed. Being in the woods, I’m sure that didn’t help, but those guards wouldn’t hurt her.

I didn’t want to think of it. It felt wrong, but…

“You should go.” She said it for me.

I gazed at her, long and hard. You didn’t leave your co-agent behind, and Brooke had become that for me, but I wouldn’t get to Milwaukee if I stayed. That was just the truth.

“Go. Wait! Here.” She was still sobbing, and now wheezing. She pulled her backpack off and thrust it at me. “Take it. I mean it. Go, Riley. Go. I know your dad is down there. It was seriously shitty of Kai not to take you with him, and he knows that. For what it’s worth, I think my brother loves you. He might not know it yet, but he does, and I know he’ll feel bad about not taking you with him, but he won’t come back for you. He just won’t.”

“How’d you know he was going to Milwaukee today?”

She quieted, rocking back and forth from her ankle pain. She didn’t answer. Her lips pressed tight together.

“Brooke. Tell me.”

She clenched her eyes shut tight, shaking her head, then sighed. “Fine. Fuck it. I know because Eric told me. Do not tell! Kai will kill him, literally. He let it slip one night, said he only had three more days of this shit. He hates when I tease him, but he tends to slip up because I rattle him. He doesn’t even know I heard him. I just guessed on the Milwaukee part because that’s where Levi’s family is.” She was panting now. “Oh, God. This hurts so much.” Sweat rolled down her face. “Not that I don’t love you and love having gotten to know you again, but can you go? I’m about to die if I don’t get a painkiller in me stat.”

I still hesitated. It feels wrong to leave an injured person behind. It’s rooted deep in your core.

“Go! For real!” She waved at me frantically before holding her ankle again. “This is really starting to throb. I’ll hold off as long as I can before calling for help, but seriously. Get the fuck out of here, or I’m two seconds from calling and not giving a damn if they catch you. I’m in that much pain.”