Page 35 of Obey

When we talked about the plan, Sioux had told me that it would be a long run to get to the bikes and that I’d have to trust her that there were bikes out here in the wilderness. She’d said to keep running in the direction of the one light I could see—a streetlight, I assumed—until I found the bikes she’d stashed out here for our escape.

She’d said to trust her about the bikes being there.

But after what felt like fifteen years of running, I was starting to really doubt whether I could. I’d known right from the start that I was taking a risk letting her call the shots, but out here in the night, without anything to use as a weapon if someone came after me and running toward heaven only knew what, I was starting to feel really, really stupid. I was tired and undernourished, and about to die of thirst. The desert around me was pitch black and very, very cold, and I was wearing a tank top that wouldn’t even stay up, thanks to what Devil had done.

Devil.

I perked my ears up and listened hard to the house behind me, praying no one had found him—and that he wasn’t on his way out here to follow me. I didn’t hear anything but the bumping music of the party, and I took a moment to thank the men that they hadn’t listened to him about clearing out immediately. If they had, that music wouldn’t still be playing.

And if it wasn’t, they would have heard him screaming. They’d have run in to find him and a bunch of them would probably already be on their way out here to catch me.

As it was, I didn’t think I could hear anyone behind me. I was alone, thank goodness.

And I still hadn’t reached the fucking bikes Sioux had promised me. I glared into the darkness, barely lit by moonlight, trying to see anything and wishing I had a flashlight. Where were they? And what had she done, parked them in the middle of the fucking desert? There was nothing out here but the hard-baked earth of Arizona wilderness, and that wasn’t going to make for a quick getaway.

Then I hit the trees. They weren’t big and they weren’t numerous, but it was a small, thin sort of woodland, with more give to the soil underneath my feet. And if Sioux had needed a place to stash bikes, this seemed like it must be it. I wondered where the hell the woman in question was. She’d said that she’d meet me out here and that we were going to escape together, and though I’d never complained about being alone, the thought of having her with me, of finding the only ally I’d managed to meet here, had my heart coming to life. It had me thinking everything might be okay.

I wanted to get away from Devil. But it felt like it would be a whole lot more successful if I had a partner in crime during our escape. I wanted to get away from Devil with Sioux, the woman who was going to make it happen, at my side. I didn’t think I could call her friend, not yet. But ally? Yes.

I wanted to find her so we could get this show on the road.

I’d barely gone ten steps when I heard him, and once I did, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard him before.

Devil was crashing through the trees behind me, sounding like he was actually running right through them in his haste. He was screaming and cursing, calling me every name in the book and doing absolutely nothing to try to hide his presence from me.

Probably because he knew that hearing him back there would make me even more frightened. And that there wouldn’t be anything I could do to defend myself once he found me. I could make all the noise in the world—more than he was making right now—and no one would come to save me. Because I was all alone out here, without friend or ally, and he had his entire club at his back.

I increased my speed, my breath frozen in my lungs and my heart pounding against my ribs. I couldn’t let him catch me. I couldn’t. I’d escaped from him twice now, but there wouldn’t be a third time. I knew it down deep in my bones. If he caught me now, after I’d stabbed him repeatedly and left him for dead, he’d kill me.

And he wouldn’t make it quick.

My legs pumped, carrying me quickly through the forest. I juked and swerved, avoiding the trees as they came up, and wondered if I should turn and go a different way to try to throw him off. Did he expect me to go straight? If I turned, would he know to follow or would he keep running the way he thought I’d gone? I could hope for the latter, but in my heart, I knew that turning would be a suicide mission. He might hear me turn and follow me, and if I turned, I’d be hopelessly lost. Right now, I at least thought I was heading in the right direction to find the bikes. At some point, I’d come to my goal.

If I turned, there was no way I’d ever find them. I’d be lost in this forest all night, with Devil hunting me.

I forced my legs to move faster, the cold air burning in my lungs, and strained my eyes in the semi-darkness, trying to see the glint of a motorcycle ahead of me. Where the hell were those bikes, and where was Sioux? I thought she’d said she’d be out here to guide me! Had she been lying about that? Had she sold me out to Devil after all?

Devil screamed again behind me, shouting out exactly what he was going to do to me when he caught me, and I stifled a sob. I wanted to be strong and fearless, the way Knight was, but the truth of it was that I was terrified.

I didn’t want to be caught. I was scared of what would happen to me if I was.

At least he sounded like he was by himself. He must not have bothered with any of the other men. That would help me if it came down to it, because I’d only have to elude him. And he was wounded. He had to be losing a lot of blood at this point. It had to be slowing him down.

At least, I hoped it was.

I dodged around another tree, ducking down to go under its branches, and was shocked when someone dashed out from behind it, slapped their hand over my mouth, and pulled me into a gully.

I struggled, newly terrified of this new presence in the forest, but stopped when I realized that the hand over my mouth belonged to a woman. It was far too small to be a man’s.

“Shh,” Sioux hissed in my ear. “Stop struggling or he’s going to find us.”

She let go of me and moved to my side, pulling a machete from somewhere and holding it up in front of her.

“What the hell are you going to do with that?” I whispered, working to keep my voice as quiet as possible.

“Revenge,” she replied. She glanced in my direction, her eyes big. “I’m not going to leave here with him alive.”

I stared at her, so shocked I could barely breathe. What the fuck was she talking about? The plan had been to get away with our lives, not make sure Devil was dead before we left. I mean, sure, I’d hoped to kill him back in his room, but I wasn’t exactly planning to stick around and make sure the job was done if it didn’t work out that way. I just wanted the hell out of here.