of his body in my arms when I’d lifted his lifeless form off the bed. I could still remember the feeling of ineptitude when I dropped him on the stairs. I could still remember looking behind me as we ran for our lives, making sure my little brother was still with me.
“I’m fine.” He took a second to breathe into the phone, as if my question put him off.
“Then what is it?”
“She escaped.”
My eyes narrowed on the wall in front of me.
Gilbert silently excused himself and stepped into the hallway but left the door open, so he’d be prepared to take orders.
I didn’t need to know who she was. “When?”
“A few hours ago.”
The anger in my veins was instantaneous. “Then why the fuck did you wait a few hours to tell me?” With flared nostrils and bulging veins, I was a bull that had found its waving red target.
Melanie threw some clothes on then approached me.
I held up my hand without looking at her and marched into the hallway. “Why, Magnus? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me the second this happened?”
“Because she knocked me out with a goddamn pipe, and I was unconscious,” he snapped. “I have a fucking concussion and a migraine that can’t be fixed with pills. The men found me and went after her. The second I realized what happened, I called.”
I marched into my bedroom and grabbed my clothes. “Where is she?”
“They don’t have her yet.”
“I’m on my way. And when I get there, she’ll hang. You can’t save her this time, Magnus.”
His silence lingered like he wouldn’t say anything. Just hang up and get back to work. “I know.”
I hung up then pulled on my clothes as quickly as possible before I kneeled and got my boots on, the veins in my neck bulging, my gums aching because my teeth were so tightly clenched together.
This bitch had humiliated me—again.
I stood up and grabbed the phone. When I turned to the door, Melanie stood in the doorway, in a wrinkled nightgown with one strap down her shoulder, hair and makeup in the same mess I’d left her in just a moment ago.
But that beauty meant nothing to me now.
The stress on her face had turned her ugly, because she already knew exactly what had happened based on my conversation with Magnus. “What’s…what’s going on?”
I grabbed my bomber jacket and forced my arms through the sleeves as I threw it on my body. I stared her down as I walked to the door, silently commanding her to get out of my way.
She didn’t call my bluff and moved aside.
“She ran.” I moved down the hallway and to the top of the stairs.
Gilbert was down below, shouting to the valet. “Get the car around. Now!”
Melanie was quick behind me. “You mean Raven?”
I stopped on the second landing and looked at her over my shoulder.
Her face turned white like the snow at the camp.
I kept going, taking the stairs two at a time to get to the bottom floor as quickly as possible.
“Fender! Wait!” Melanie came after me, tripping at the bottom, but Gilbert caught her. “Please!”
I was at the front door.
“Please!” Her sobs were so loud they echoed in the foyer, like a storm on the roof that shook the entire house.
Time was of the essence, and I didn’t have it to waste. I didn’t want to console her. But instead of stepping over the threshold and into the pouring rain, I turned to face her again.
She got to her feet with Gilbert’s assistance then came to me, barefoot, teardrops on the floor like muddy tracks from the rain. “Don’t kill her. Please…please don’t. I’m begging you.” Her pupils were bloodshot red, her eyes puffy, her cheeks wet and black from the rivers of makeup that traversed down to her chin. “You were going to remove her from the camp anyway, so just—”
“No.”
Her chest started to rise and fall harder, her breathing becoming labored with terror. “I would never forgive you—”
“I don’t need you to.” I’d give this woman anything she wanted, but not this. “She humiliated me—again.”
“She’s just trying to survive—”
“My answer won’t change. Not this time.”
Her hands covered her mouth to muffle her sobs, and her entire body shook with uncontrollable tremors. She slowly moved to her knees in front of me, her face in her hands, her cries like wails.
“I will find her. And she’ll face the Red Snow.” I left her there on the floor and stepped into the rain where my car