18. Dane

Chapter eighteen

Dane

I tap my foot continuously on the hardwood floor while leaning back onto the couch. I shove my fingers through my hair for the umpteenth time to relieve the headache that’s slowly formed over the last thirty minutes of being awake while Aiden still sleeps. Kellan is punching a bag in the workout room while he waits, but it won’t be long before he breaks.

Raegan was going to leave last night.

We’d all been on alert after the way she’d been hiding from us the last couple of days. So, when she slipped out her window in the dead of night, none of us had been asleep.

And then Aiden came back hours later. Alone. Said something about giving her a night alone to cool down, and then she would come back in the morning. He swore that she wasn’t going to disappear.

But now it’s morning.

And she’s still not here.

It’s bothering me more than I’d like to admit, but there are things I need to say to her still. Questions I have to ask her.

The other night showed me another side to Vera. A side I never thought I would see.

The look she gave me when I told her we could go home together. As if our family meant nothing to her anymore.

How I felt like nothing to her when she kicked my notebook aside.

What have they done to you, Vera?

We used to be so close that I could tell what she was thinking with only a look. We didn’t need words between us, because we always knew what the other was thinking or feeling.

The person who I saw on the rooftop was a stranger to me.

“Did you know that she and Gordon were fucking?” I didn’t believe Raegan when she said that. I’d assumed she was being petty and just trying to paint Vera in a negative light. She couldn’t have known that. My sister wouldn’t have slept with the people holding us captive. She was too young and too smart for that.

“She was going to kill Dane.”

“You were fine , Dane. Worst case, the machines would have brought you back.”

I’ve made a horrible mistake.

Raegan saved me.

And I tried to kill her.

Fuck.

I have to see her. I need to talk to her and…I don’t even know what to say. Does sorry even cover how horrible I’ve been to her?

Will she even give me a chance to make it right, or have I fucked everything up too much? Is it too late?

Boots thunder across the floorboards, and I pull my hand from my hair to stuff in my pocket as Kellan stomps by. He doesn’t bother looking my way as he exits the training room and storms down the hallway to what I’m sure is Aiden’s door. He pounds on it repeatedly and then snarls, “Where is she?!”

Aiden must say something to him, because then his anger escalates. “Safe?! What does that mean?”

I’m tempted to get up and walk over there so I can hear what Aiden’s saying, but decide to make myself and Aiden a cup of coffee in the kitchen instead. It brings me close enough to hear them both without officially joining the conversation.

“It means she hasn’t gone anywhere. Calm down and let me put some goddamn clothes on. I’ll meet you in the dining room to tell you what happened.”

I hear Kellan’s fist connect with the wall. “If you’ve done anything to her…”

“I didn’t harm a single hair on her head, Kell. Now, get out.” The door slams shut.

Kellan shows up at the table, roughly yanking out a chair, and then, glaring at it, knocks it to the side and opts for pacing instead. I’m watching him over the edge of my coffee cup when his eyes snap over to me, and he realizes I’ve moved from the couch. Instead of taunting me over it, he growls to himself and keeps pacing the floor.

I move to the table and set Aiden’s coffee down before sitting in my seat. I rarely make the others coffee, but I feel the smallest smidge of guilt that Aiden’s taking the heat from Kellan because of my issues with Raegan. I’m assuming that’s why Aiden’s been keeping his distance from her and is treating her in a way he never had on the island.

Another way I’m fucking up his life.

I take another sip of coffee, even though it scalds my tongue and burns the taste buds off.

Aiden strolls out in thick sweatpants and a plain shirt. He’s barefoot as well, which means he really wasn’t ready to wake up yet. If he even fell asleep. His face is drawn with exhaustion like he’d been up all night thinking instead of sleeping.

The second Aiden pulls out his chair to sit, Kell is spinning around and jumping down his throat. “What happened?”

“Give him a fucking second!” I snap. Nothing is going to change with her situation, whatever it is, by ripping the answers out in thirty seconds instead of giving Aiden a second to breathe first.

My heel pops off the ground again to bounce up and down. I keep it from touching the floor so no one else can hear it, but it helps me release the anxious energy coiled tightly in my chest.

Aiden sighs and lifts his cup of coffee. “Thank you,” he offers me tiredly before bringing it to his lips.

Kellan’s hands smack down on either side of the table as he leans over it from the opposite side of the table from Aiden. His body is quivering and tight. I think if he knew exactly where she was right now, he’d be running there.

“She wouldn’t tell me anything,” Aiden begins.

“I knew I should have been the one to stop her.” Kellan grips the table in his hands. “She would have talked to me. ”

Aiden scoffs. “She would have given you a distraction and then slipped away while your back was turned. I made sure she didn’t leave. That was more important.”

“How?” Kellan demands.

“By locking her up in the bunker.”

My foot flattens on the ground as I stare at him in shock.

“You WHAT?!” Kellan roars.

“Sorry, but how did you ask her what was going on? And go from that to locking her up?” I ask with feigned nonchalance. As if none of what he just said bothers me at all, even though my chest is tight and my fingers flex and then grip my coffee mug.

“I demanded she tell me, or she’d be staying there.”

Kellan groans. “How can you suck at talking to Raegan so much? You don’t have a problem talking with the Guild members, even when you’re scolding them.” He stands up and moves away from the table. “I’m getting her out and bringing her back here.”

Aiden sets his coffee mug down abruptly. “No.” Kell’s chest puffs up, but Aiden’s eyes snap to mine. “Dane’s going to get her out.”

My eyes narrow at him. “Why?” My voice comes out caustic, which sets off a growl in Kellan, but I keep my focus trained on Aiden.

“Because whatever her problem is, it has to do with you. Or Vera. This all started after your last adventure that almost got you both killed. So, you go let her free and figure this out.”

My mouth tightens. I have an idea of what she might be upset about. No, not an idea. A slew of them. I just don’t know which of them are the ones that made her think it was better for her to leave than stick around.

I have some things to say to her anyway, so I just nod that I’ll do it without further complaint.

“I’m coming with you.” Kellan crosses his arms over his chest, prepared to fight with me on it, but I haven’t gone anywhere alone in a very long time.

“No shit,” I snark at him. “You’re driving.”

“Pick up groceries on your way back. I won’t be able to get them today, and we’re almost out,” Aiden slides in like it’s nothing. “Oh, and you’ll need this.” His hand pushes something across the table to me and then returns to his coffee mug.

I pick up the key that’s far too small for a door. “For what?”

“She’s wearing the cuff she’d told us about that has your gift in it. So, she couldn’t just break out and leave.”

If looks could kill, Aiden would be dead. I rush Kellan out the door before that can happen.

“Give me the key. I’ll get her out.”

I roll my eyes and keep walking. “Aiden said it has to be me.” My fist tightens on the small key I haven’t let go of since I picked it up off the table. We’re walking down the ‘nice’ prisoner corridor, which was originally meant for quarantine if needed, rather than as jail cells. It’s why they have nice beds, a closet, a private bathroom, and a table and chairs. They each have a television, books, and other random things to entertain the guests staying in them.

It’s sad that these rooms are bigger and nicer than the rooms we’re currently staying in at Old Red.

Which reminds me, I need to get back to renovating the place. Once the main areas were done, I’d had to focus on training. But there’s still the other half of the dorm rooms that need to be fixed up or torn down and used to expand our rooms. Then the truck bay and locker room after that, for whatever we plan on converting those into.

“He can say whatever he wants. But you are not manipulating her into talking to you. If she doesn’t want to talk, then she doesn’t fucking have to.” Kellan stops in front of me and holds out his hand.

I jerk to a halt and then glare at his hand and the expectation that I’ll just hand it over. I bring my gaze up to his face. “I’m not manipulating anyone.”

Kellan grins arrogantly at me. “Good. Then you’ll give me the key.”

“Me unlocking her cuffs isn’t manipulating her,” I argue hotly, keeping my fist at my side resolutely.

“No? Then why do you care about doing it? Since when do you care about setting her free?”

“I don’t—”

“Right. You don’t,” he interrupts before I can finish. Not that I have any clue what the fuck I was about to say anyway, so it’s actually for the best. “So. Give. Me. The. Key.”

My jaw clenches. He fucking has me.

Why am I clinging to the key so hard? Being the one with the key to release her gift makes them her hero in that moment. Is that what I’m suddenly trying to be? Or am I going to give that to Kellan, who’s been at her side almost since she showed up here? He deserves it much more than I do.

But it’s my fault she tried to run away in the first place. If I hadn’t brought her out with me to Vera again…

I thrust the key into his hand and then move around him to keep walking.

Prick.

Movement in one of the rooms draws my attention, and I see Reid and Tinsley sitting in the same room together. Tinsley’s watching something on the TV while Reid reads a book in the other chair, though it’s pressed up right against hers, so their arms are almost touching. I pause to watch them through the glass and wonder if having them here was the best idea.

If Reid can teleport, he could leave that room at any time. He could scout out the Guild and report back to GE, and we would never know. They were both blindfolded and given headphones with loud music to block them from being able to track how we got here or from seeing anything outside of this room, but again, that doesn’t defend well against a transporter.

“Piece of shit…” Kellan mutters a handful of rooms down while jabbing his finger at the screen of his phone.

I sigh and pull out my phone to open the app Aiden and I worked on together for this place. I key in the number on the door to pull up the options, then press the button to unlock the door and remove the steel wall over the window .

Raegan’s still fast asleep in the bed. She’s lying on her side on top of the blankets, her shirt hiked up to expose her side and lower back while her arms are tucked in and her hands out. It isn’t until I’m inside the room that I see the cuffs on her wrists and the bar between them, forcing her hands apart from each other.

Her body rises and falls slowly in her sleep, and I’m mesmerized watching her. Like the sound of her breathing is hypnotic, or maybe just the peacefulness of her expression compared to when she’s awake. Her hair is a sheet of blonde above and behind her, with some of it falling over her face.

She was always the prettiest girl I’d ever seen on the island. Cute and sweet, with a little she-devil in her that Kellan usually brought out, but I’d been enamored with her from the moment we met. She’d been sixteen the last time I had seen her. Her body was almost fully grown, but seeing her now shows how much more she’s come into her own since then.

Strong. Beautiful. Fearless.

“Move,” Kellan commands, and I realize I’m standing near the bed as if I’d been drawn to her from the moment I walked into the room.

I step back out of the way to give him plenty of room. “Are you going to wake her up? She looks tired.”

“Well, I’m not going to stand here and stare at her like a creep until she wakes up on her own,” he drawls at me in an obvious taunt for what I’d just been doing. “She can go back to sleep at Old Red in her own bed if she wants.”

I move away even further so she’d have to look around the room to see me. I doubt she’d be happy to wake up to me. Kellan, on the other hand, I’m sure she’s fine with. They are fucking, after all.

The reminder is like a javelin to my heart, piercing it through the center and leaving a gaping hole behind. The raw and intense reaction I have sets my teeth on edge. I fold my arms over my chest and try not to watch Kellan and Raegan out of the corner of my eye as he wakes her.

“Kell…?”

“Wake up, beautiful.” His soft voice is a stark contrast to all the raging he’d been doing earlier. My fingers dig into my arms as I’m forced to listen to them, even if I’m doing my best not to watch.

“Are you breaking me out?”

“Yep. Let me get you out of those cuffs.”

She inhales sharply. “How did you get the key?”

“Aiden handed it over. What he did last night was a dick move, but he was never going to keep you here long. He was just scared you were really going to take off.”

Raegan huffs. “I seriously doubt that. I think he was getting off on locking me away.”

Kellan cackles as I hear the click of a latch and a cuff popping open. “I bet you’re fucking right. Maybe we’ll lock him up next time. See how he likes it.”

“Yeeees,” she practically groans, and I can hear the smile coming into her voice. “Without his phone. And put a camera in Old Red that he can watch on the TV so he can see us having a fun party without him. Then he watches us sleep in until dinnertime the next day. ”

“I like the way you think, beautiful. We can Go Pro a joyride in his car too,” Kellan adds with a loud snicker.

She laughs and then it grows quiet. I know I shouldn’t look, but I do. Her hands are wrapped around the back of his neck and in his hair as she has him tugged down in a kiss. His hands are on the bed, his back hunched over in order to reach her because he’s so freaking tall.

An incessant ache devours my chest as much as I try to ignore it. This shouldn’t bother me. The feelings I’d buried beneath years of anger and grief shouldn’t be rising steadily, day after day of being near her again. Would letting them back in make me a shit brother?

I’m such a fucking hypocrite.

Pain in my hand startles me away from them to find red crescents embedded in my palm. I stretch out my hand and almost make a noise to interrupt when they finally take a breath. About fucking time.

“We both know you don’t give a shit about him watching you in his car. You just want an excuse to drive it again. Race with it, probably,” Raegan teases Kellan.

Kell chuckles. “You’ve got me there.”

She smiles, and then something catches her eye because she looks up over his shoulder and notices me for the first time. Her eyes widen slightly, and she freezes.

I hate that Kellan was right, that he should be the one to help her and wake her. One look at me, and she looks ready to bolt again. Everything in my chest feels tight, constricting the air I breathe and locking my body to stone beneath her stare. I don’t like her looking at me like that. It bothers me, and then I’m pissed that it would bother me in the first place.

I frown back at her. “What?” I snap on reflex.

He cups the side of her face to bring her attention back to him. His hand is practically the size of her face, and I notice the way she leans into his touch. My frown deepens. “Don’t worry about Rapunzel over there. We’re all going on a field trip for some groceries and then heading home.”

Her bright blue eyes flick over to me again, looking uncertain—and nervous? —before she casts them over to the door. Like she’s thinking of running.

“Nuh-uh.” Kellan helps her to stand and then wraps his arm around her neck and shoulders to draw her into a side hold. “No rabbiting on us again, bunny. Whatever Dane did, just forget about it. He’s a drama king and blows everything out of proportion. None of us want you to leave, even him, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’m standing right here, asshole,” I bitch at him, and he waves his other hand that’s holding the cuffs at me.

“See? Drama king. We can ignore him if you want.”

Raegan sighs and shakes her head. “That’s not what I want.”

Kellan nods, ever the one to go with the flow. “Okay then. We can talk to him if you want to.”

She sneaks another look at me out of the corner of her eye. I cross my arms and watch them with undisguised annoyance. I don’t care for the way Kellan’s so easily draped around her and she lets it happen. It was the same way they’d been before, with him finding any excuse to touch her, usually with different styles of hugs like this one. Sneaky bastard.

I also hate that they’re talking about me when I’m standing right fucking here.

But I’m able to recognize what he’s doing in trying to get her to talk, so I keep my mouth shut and tongue pinched between my teeth. Kellan shoots me a smirk over her head.

Asshole.

“Uh…maybe later. You said something about a field trip?” She changes topics, running away in a different sense, but I’d prefer not to have that conversation in front of Kellan, anyway.

The things I need to say are only for her.