Page 39 of Dark Surrender

“I’ve got you,” his dad whispers as he and the big guy grip the corners of the blanket, lift it off the floor, and slowly carry Dark from the room.

The moment they’re gone, Dee rushes inside. When she sees me shaking in the corner, unharmed, she collapses onto the floor in relief. My legs, no longer able to hold my weight, give out with hers. I stare at my sister, at where Dark was, and back at her half a dozen times as the shock of what just happened settles into my bones.

Shaking my head, I rub both hands up and down my face. “What the fuck?”

“They came to the cabin.”

“Did they hurt you?” I ask.

Dee shakes her head.

Thank heavens for small miracles.

“I’m gonna need more than that.” I need details. How they found her. What happened when they came in. What they said. All of it.

My sister stretches her legs out in front of her and stares at the ceiling. “Cell told them.”

“And she gave them our location.”

“Yep.”

“We can’t stay here, Dee. Not after that. It’s not safe anymore.”

Her shoulders sag. “I know.”

“Ugh!” I punch the air, all keyed up and just… I don’t know. “What the actual fuck?”

“At least they didn’t try to kill us,” Dee replies with a half-cocked smirk that says she would have loved to fight them.

“You don’t know they won’t, after they get him to safety. They could send a whole fuckin’ crew to take us out.”

Dee’s nose wrinkles as she considers what I said. Once she decides I’m overreacting, she shakes her head. Her braid flies to the side before it settles over her shoulder. I recognize her skepticism. She thinks I’m full of it, which I’m not. Dee has little to no experience with the outside world. She doesn’t interact with anyone but me unless they’re at the end of her blade. When she orders something in town, like food, she does it with her phone to avoid as much human contact as possible. She doesn’t know how to read people. Her entire existence revolves around slaking this need inside her. I know people. I understand motives. We hurt that man’s son. It doesn’t matter if he’s a Sacred Sinner who knows Cell. She has no control over what happens to us after she ratted us out, even though she was the one who originally gave us the information.

What a shit show.

And what’s worse?

I don’t know if Dark will be okay. I don’t know what’ll come of his scars. I don’t know anything. Dammit! It shouldn’t matter that he left. I get that. But… for some silly reason, it matters to me. Which is stupid. It makes zero sense, but that ache in my chest that radiates to my gut speaks without words, and I’m listening. The sensation might be foreign, but it’s real all the same.

Rubbing my sternum, I ignore whatever’s going on inside and focus on the one thing I can do—protect my sister. “We need to pack up and leave today.”

“This is home,” she argues.

“Not anymore, it isn’t.” Not that it ever really was to me. But it is to her. I get that.

She slaps the concrete floor and glares at me. “Iris. It’s home.”

“Your home is where the opossums are. We’ll take them with us.”

“No.”

“Dee. Be reasonable.”

“I am,” she snaps.

Done with this conversation, I get up, stomp past Dee to the woods, and pass our cabin on the way to my car, where I find big tire tracks left by them.

Great.