Chapter 17

Please God,don"t let this be the end.

I stand stock still as I stare down the barrel of the shotgun pointed at my face.

"Sir, please."

"Shut your mouth. I"m tired of you hooligan types breaking into my place and stealing shit. This is the third time this year someone has tried to rob me," the man hisses in my direction.

Part of me wonders if he thinks I"m a hooligan because of the color of my skin. As it stands, I"m in nothing more than cut-off pants and a torn, bloody shirt. Nothing about me says I"m out to rip him off. I push the thoughts to the back of my mind and do my best to reason with him.

"Sir, I promise you we had no intention of taking anything from you besides maybe some water and a way to keep warm. We"re not here for any trouble."

The man doesn"t lower the weapon, but he cocks his head to the side as if he is trying to get a better look at me.

"Why should I believe you?" he questions.

"You shouldn"t. There"s a lot of unsavory people out here. I get it. But I beg you, even if you make me leave, just let the women stay. They won"t survive a night outside. Not the way they"re dressed." I gesture with my eyes in their direction, not wanting to flinch even an inch in case the man is trigger-happy.

His eyes follow mine and I watch as the shock registers on his face. He mustn"t have seen how we were dressed when we broke in.

"Where are you coming from? What the hell happened to you?" Finally, the man drops the gun from my face and takes another glance at my outfit. "How long were you out there?"

"We"ve only been out for a day, but before that, we"ve been through hell."

"You"re not going to give me any problems, are you?" The man hitches one of his eyebrows in my direction and I quickly shake my head no.

"You have my word I won"t." The man nods his head before stepping away from the door and letting us inside.

"Thank you so much," Gabrielle says while placing a hand on the older gentleman"s forearm. Both she and April hurry into the warmth of the small cabin, but I stay near the door just in case the old man isn"t what he seems. I want to be able to get out in a hurry if I have to.

"Well, you might as well come get yourself warm by the heater. I"ll get you some water from the back."

"I"m fine. Just let them get warm." My words don"t match my demeanor. I"m ready to drop at any given moment.

"Suit yourself." He turns and walks to the back, leaving myself and the girls in the front room.

"Do you think the guards know this place is here?" April asks the minute the man is out of earshot.

"I"m sure they do. The question is, are they willing to come in here and take us?" I shrug at my own question. They"ve been willing to kill helpless women; why should they be scared to take out a lonely old man?

"I can"t feel my toes," Gabrielle groans and shoves her feet closer to the small heater. It"s barely enough to heat the room.

"Rub your toes between your hands; you have to get the blood flowing again." I inch forward in her direction. I want to make sure she"s okay, but I also want to keep my position by the door.

"I don"t have much," the old man says as he comes out of the back room. In his hands are some blankets and clothes. He hands a pair of thick socks to Gabi and she quickly puts them on.

"Thank you again." She gives him a soft smile. It"s the first one I"ve seen in quite some time.

"Now you want to tell me what you all are running away from? I"m Frank, by the way."

"Frank, nice to meet you. You"ve got no idea how happy we are that you were here. You might have just saved our lives." I reach out and shake his hand. "I"m Bishop."

"Ah, a God-fearing man?"

"Yeah, I"m known to read the good book every now and again." I don"t want to get into the fact that I"ve never felt more abandoned than I do now. My faith has taken quite the hit.

"That"s good. Not a lot of people do nowadays."

As I stand there in front of Frank, my vision blurs and the old man begins to tilt. It takes me a second to realize that it"s not him tilting but me.

"Jesus, you lot are nearly dead on your feet. Stop being such a hard-ass and let me help you too." Frank threads his arms under mine and helps me further into the room.

The last thing I need to be doing right now is trusting anyone, but I don"t have much of a choice. The guards must have notified Liam and Shade by now. There"s no way they"re just going to let us go. Even if they had no further use for us, we know too much about their organization. I know that they are splintered from within the group. I know how easy it"ll be to take them down.

"We can"t stay. We have to keep on moving," I mutter as Frank drops me into one of the chairs.

"Be honest with me, son. You out here slinging that mess through the forest?"

"Wait, what? You mean like drugs?" Gabrielle pipes up.

"Yeah. I know quite a few drug runners who chose this route. I tend not to help those that get lost, but you all don"t look the sort."

"No, I swear to you we"re not running drugs." I didn"t want to give him too much information, mostly to protect him. If the guards did manage to get up here and ask him anything, he"d have plausible deniability. "There"s a group of people who have a problem with some of my family members. They thought taking us would be the best way to get their revenge. I"m sure they"re still out there looking for us now."

With every word that leaves my mouth, I watch Frank"s eyes grow wider and wider.

"Wait, you mean the three of you were kidnapped?"

"Five," April responds before I can advise her against it.

"Five? Where are the—" The answer must have been clear on my face because Frank sucks in a breath before letting out a string of expletives.

"They won"t bother you as long as they don"t know we"re here. They don"t want those kinds of problems." I pepper in just to make sure he"s at ease. At least as much as he can be.

"I"m not worried about me, son. I"m worried about y"all. You look like you"ve been through it. I don"t have much here." Frank looks around the sparse room as if more aid would magically appear.

"A phone? Do you have one of those?" I ask, hopeful.

"No. There"s never any use up here. They don"t work this far in the trees. I can take you to the general store though, just a mile or so down the road."

I don"t like it. We"d all be sitting ducks in the car, but I don"t have much of a choice.

"You can leave the women here?—"

"No, they go where I go," I snap before Frank can finish his statement.

"Alright, I get it. I wouldn"t let them out of my sight either. So how do you want to do this? Maybe we should go now and call the authorities," Frank asks.

"Water." I reach my hand over to Gabrielle and she quickly gives me some of the water she has. I take a few sips, just enough to get my mouth wet before I push myself back up to my feet.

"Yeah, I think we need to go make that call now." I reach my hand for both Gabrielle and April to come with me. They don"t even hesitate or question my command. These women really trust me with their lives.

"Okay, let me get my jacket." Frank rushes off to the back while I pull both April and Gabrielle closer to the door. Everything about this feels wrong, but I can"t tell if I"m just wary of the situation because I don"t trust anyone or if Frank really is going to try and hurt us. I doubt it. Even in my beaten-down state, I"d be able to break that man"s neck with my bare hands.

Frank comes back out from the back with his coat on and some more sweaters for the girls. He"s also carrying what looks like a big tarp in his hands. "I figure if you guys are on the run, you might not want anyone to see you. Y"all can lie down in the bed of my truck with this draped over you."

I nod my head. It"s a good idea, except it puts me at a disadvantage. If I"m covered up, I can"t see where exactly he"s taking us.

Both April and Gabrielle look at me, waiting for me to give them the go-ahead to get into the truck. If I make the wrong decision, it"ll hurt not just me but these two as well. The problem is, I don"t have the time to flip-flop about this. We need to get going.

"Yeah, okay. Let"s go." I turn toward the door, but Frank rushes to get there in front of me. He pokes his head out to make sure no one is in the immediate vicinity before turning back to me.

"Let me get the truck and pull it up front. You all can slide in the back under the tarp, hopefully without anyone seeing you."

"You have many neighbors out here?" I ask, my eyebrow hitching.

"Not neighbors, but there"s the odd hunter every now and again."

I don"t want any hunters to see us either. It"ll only take one person to tell Liam and Shade where we are. One mistake could mean the end for us.

"Okay, be careful." I stand away from the door as Frank bundles the tarp in his arms and leaves the three of us in the house, waiting for his return.

"It"s going to be alright now, right? I mean, he"s going to help us?" April asks, her eyes wide as they bounce back and forth between Gabrielle and me.

"Yeah, he"ll help us. One way or another," I add. When April gulps hard, I know she gets my meaning. If I have to kill the old man to get us out of here, I will. I hate that I"ve had to come to this, but this isn"t about my morality right now; it"s about survival.

I"ll do anything to make sure that we all get out of here. I can"t lose anyone else, not after what happened to Uma and Willa.

In the background, I hear an engine start up, and a second after that, wheels coming in our direction. It stops right in front of the door, and a second later, Frank opens the door and ushers the three of us under the tarp he has laid out in the back.

April is the first to get in, followed by Gabrielle. Instead of going in head first like the girls, I go in feet first so my head is lying near the edge of the truck bed. I want to be able to pull the tarp back and see where I am.

Frank makes a face when he realizes I don"t trust him enough to let him keep my head covered, but I couldn"t care less.

After that, everything seems to happen so fast. One minute we were in the safety and warmth of Frank"s cabin, then we were driving along a rocky road down a mountain in the forest. I don"t even have a clue where I am. But the drive gives me long enough to think about all the worst things that could happen. What if the guards are waiting at the general store when we get there? What if we run into some people from the Faceless who tell Liam and Shade where we"re off to? What if Frank is leading us to the edge of a cliff where he can jump out of the car and let us careen over the edge? The longer I stay in the back of the car, the more wild my what-ifs become.

It"s not until I feel Gabrielle and April wrap themselves around my legs that I start to feel even the least bit calm. If I"m with them, it"s going to be alright. No matter what happens, even if this is the end for us, we gave it our best shot to get out of there, and even though there were some casualties along the way, I don"t think I"d have changed my decision to break out when we did.

The rocking back and forth of the truck acted almost like a lullaby, and my tired, aching, feverish body basically demanded that I rest. My eyes are heavy and everything hurts.

I could just rest my eyes for one minute. That"s all I need, just a minute.

The second my eyes close, the truck comes to a screeching halt. I peel back the tarp and look around. I don"t see any trees, just open blue sky.

"Bishop! We"ve stopped. Do we get out? Is it safe?" Gabrielle whispers from where she is.

"Hold on." I whisper back. I could lift my head, but I"m scared. What if the first person I see is Liam? I don"t know how I"d be able to handle that. Gathering up the last remains of my energy and my bravery, I lift the tarp slightly and lift my head out of the truck bed so I can look around. We"re in a parking lot. Frank was being honest.

"I think it"s okay." I scramble out of the tarp and hop over the lip of the truck bed, landing hard on my feet. The impact jars my bones, and I have to put my hand to my mouth to keep from vomiting. I feel like I might keel over at any second. I know it"s cold outside, but my body feels like it"s being baked alive.

I don"t wait for Frank to walk me in. Instead, I stand as tall as I can and speed walk in the direction of the general store. Two people walk out, and when they see me, they scurry off to the side like I"m a wild animal. I am. I"m an animal ready and willing to attack at the slightest provocation.

I basically stumple into the small general store and everyone stops what thier doing to look at me. I beeline straight for the cashier and almost collapse onto the counter. "Please, I need a phone."

The man stares at me with saucers for eyes, his mouth hanging open slightly before he nods and reaches behind him for the cordless phone. He hands it to me and I craddle it in my fingers for a second like it"s the holy grail. Trembling, I dial the number to the clubhouse. I have to start over a few times because I pressed the wrong buttons. Finally I get it right and place the phone to my ear. I want to cry in relief the second I hear ringing.

Such relief. It"s almost over. Almost.

"Djinn. State your business." A voice I don"t know answers the phone. I don"t want to talk to him.

"Get Wyatt."

"Who"s this?"

"I said get fucking Wyatt!" I roar but my voice comes out weak and squeaky.

"Hold on."

The man leaves the phone for a second, but it feels like hours. I keep my ears peeled for screams or other cars pulling up. Liam and the rest of the Faceless could be here any second. Finally, I hear the phone pick up again and the one voice I"ve prayed to hear since I was brought to this god forsaken place speaks.

"Djinn."

"Wyatt?"

Silence echos.

"Wyatt, Brother, is that you?"

"Bishop? Oh my God."

I can feel the shock coming through the phone lines.

A tidal wave of emotion and exhaustion slam into me and the edges of my vision quickly fade to black. I"m going down, hard, but I"m able to get one last thing out.

"Wyatt, help me."