Page 139 of Juniper Unraveling

Chapter 40

Tripp prods a finger in my face, and I have to swallow the urge to bite it right off his hand. “She was the last one in that room! Ratchet said he let her in, and as soon as she left, Lea went missing.”

“I did not set him free.”

“But that’s exactly what you asked me to do.” Rhys’s accusing stare followed me all the way back to the mine and hasn’t relented since.

“I didn’t do it! I’m telling you! He was chained up when I left him! How did he manage to escape with Lea?”

“There’s a vertical shaft at the south end of the mine. Lea went out for a smoke. You do the math.” Tripp’s words carry the stiff clip of anger, as he paces back and forth.

I wrack my brain for any slip, any possibility that I could’ve put Damian in the proximity of anything that could’ve set him free, but there’s none. “And Hawkeye? He didn’t see him drag her off?”

“Says he was taking a piss.” Rigs shakes his head and sighs. “Of all the fuckin’ times.”

“Well, how convenient is that?” I cross my arms, lips pressed to a hard line.

Rolling his head against his shoulders, Rhys stands with a fist propped at his hip and runs his hand down his face. “We have to find the two of them before Legion does. He took his gun and his walkie-talkie. Stole Tripp’s fucking bike. Soldiers may already be headed this way.”

“I’m going with you.”

“You’re staying. And you’re lucky I don’t tie you up for this shit.”

“I didn’t let him go, Rhys!”

“I don’t have time to argue, Wren.” Rhys jerks his head toward Rigs and Tinker, one of the bikers known for his bomb building expertise. “We loaded?”

“Ready to go.”

“Ratchet, you’ll move everyone out. Ceniza is about thirty minutes north. Do not use the two-ways. I don’t need messages getting intercepted. We’ll rendezvous at Ceniza at dawn and head north.” Rhys’s gaze flicks to me and back. “If we’re not there, go on without us.”

“And me?” I try not to let the tears touch my voice. Not in front of all these people. “Do I just go on without you?”

“You have before.” The resolute tone is a slice to my heart, and I clear my throat to choke back the evidence of my sadness. He strides off toward the entrance of the cave without so much as a glance back.

My head tells me to let him go, but my heart, the stubborn masochist, can’t. I follow him toward the tunnel and reach out for his arm, swinging him around to me. The armor settles over his skin once again, hardening his face, and his eyes are no longer translucent, but instead have turned cold and unwavering. I don’t even know what to say to him. My brain tells me he has to go—they have Lea, and Legion will undoubtedly send an army to fight whoever remains here—but everything about this feels wrong. “I didn’t set him free, Rhys. I’d never betray you like that. Tell me you believe me.”

He lowers his head, and nods. “I do. But either way, I’m going. Can’t just let them waltz in here and destroy everything. I won’t let that happen.”

The relief washing through me is quickly snuffed out by the ache of knowing these might be my last words to him. “You have to go, I know. I won’t stop you. But I’m afraid of what I’ll do, if you don’t come back.” My thumb instinctively rubs the scar at my wrist, while my mind drifts to those nights I thought I’d lost him years ago. “So, please … come back. Or take me with you.”

“I’m not taking you with me.” He steps back from me, hands balled into tight fists. “I already told you. You mean too damn much to me. I vowed to keep you safe, Wren, and that’s what I’m going to do. No matter how much blood I have to shed.”

“And if you die?” My voice cracks, like the first fissure of my heart.

“If I die, I die for you. No better reason than that. But whether I have to limp, stumble, or crawl across this desert, I’ll come back for you.” He reaches out to cup my face and leans forward, pressing his lips to mine. “I promise. So, you go with them. And you stay alive. Hear me? You stay alive, too.” At my nod, he strides off toward the mouth of the cave, and though every part of my being yearns to stop him, I don’t.

Just like that, I hear the threads snap inside my head. The ties to my heart flit out of my grasp, and the distant echo of pain’s cruel and mocking laughter tells me it won’t be long now.

It assures me he won’t be coming back.

Bodies scurry all around me, gathering up supplies, but I can’t move. I can barely breathe. I feel as if I just got him back, and I keep losing him over and over.

My gaze skates to the right, toward the dark tunnel, and I hurry down toward the room where Damian was kept captive. Scanning the space shows the fallen binds, and I examine them, noticing they’ve been sliced.

His uniform is missing, along with his walkie-talkie and gun, as Tripp mentioned earlier.

But Ivan’s remains piled in a heap.