Page 46 of Ashes


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“Oakley, listen to me.Stay in your house.Do not leave.Do not open your door to anyone.Do not walk outside.And please, I am begging you, DO NOT get in your car.”

I was gripping the phone so tightly that I realized my hand was sweating.What was going on here?

The last voice message.

“Please.Call me back.For Sarah, listen to me.DON’T leave your house.CALL ME.”

Pulling the phone from my ear, I opened the text messages, all from the unknown number Wilder had been calling from.

Oakley, you are killing me here.I need to know you’re okay.

Answer me, dammit!

Stay in your house, Oakley.Do it for Sarah.

I need to know you’re alive.Just give me something here.

Oakley, please!Answer your goddamn phone!

I was shaking.I checked the time these had been sent, and it was an hour and a half ago.I’d been in the shower with my favorite playlist blaring.

I started to dial the number back.Sarah had to be okay.Why was he worried about me?What was going on?So many questions were running through my head.I didn’t know what to ask him first.

The moment the phone rang, I heard a loud noise in the front of my house.It sounded like someone had kicked in my door.I looked frantically around the room for something to use as a weapon.The only things that looked remotely dangerous were my hand weights.I ran over and grabbed them.They were only fifteen pounds each, but if I hit someone in the head with one hard enough, it might buy me some time.

When I turned around, Wilder was filling my doorway, and the sight of him made me want to weep with relief.Until I remembered that he had just broken into my house after calling and texting me several times.

“What is going on?!”I shouted, panicked.“You could have knocked or—I don’t know—used the doorbell.”

“We have to leave.Let’s go.NOW!”he barked at me.

I didn’t move.“I don’t have to do anything.You can either tell me—” I stopped talking as he stalked over toward me.“Wilder, what are you doing?!”

“We are leaving,” he said simply before taking the weights out of my hands, tossing them onto the floor, then picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

“WILDER!What in the hell?!PUT ME DOWN!I don’t even have on clothes!This is a towel wrap!”I beat on his back as he carried me through my house.

He didn’t respond, so I kept pounding on him and started kicking.This was insanity, and he needed to talk to me now.

“You are crazy!Put me down!”

“Don’t make me gag you and tie you up, Oakley,” he warned as we walked out of my house.

The damaged door was standing wide open.He hadn’t even tried to close it.

“I need clothes, my phone, to lock up my house!Wilder!”

“You need to shut up!”he snarled.

I couldn’t see where we were going, but I tried to lift my head enough to see my surroundings.We passed by my car and kept going.My house wasn’t locked up and couldn’t be thanks to the damage to my door.That stressed me out.

“Wilder, my house can’t be left open like that.I have my things in there.Anyone could break in.”

“It’ll be taken care of,” he replied, then opened a car door I couldn’t see and shifted me into his arms before shoving me into the backseat.

Black leather, tinted windows, the faint smell of cigar, and a man I did not know was in the driver’s seat.

Wilder climbed in after me and slammed the door.“Buckle up,” he ordered me.

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