So I can either leave him right here, right now and accept whatever fate the Supernatural Forces has in store for me, or I can trust that he’s making the right calls even though that means I’ll be an accessory to another crime.
I bite my lip. “What happens when the human police catch up with me?”
The storm clouds in his eyes are about to unleash a torrent. “I won’t let them touch you.”
“You can’t guarantee that. Before—when you abducted me—I could have used that as an excuse to explain why I was with you, but now…” My stomach twists into knots when I remember running into Mel last night. She’d seen me with Collin. I hadn’t been trying to get away from him, and I’d let him enter my apartment. She may be forced to tell the cops that I’d been with him—that I hadn’t been his prisoner.
And then it hits me. I’m truly no longer his prisoner. I could walk away right now, confess to everything I’ve been involved in and take what’s coming to me from the law—human and supernatural.
Because if I leave Collin now, I may still be able to salvage some kind of reasonable future for myself even if it involves jail time and a nasty encounter with the SF.
My breath stops, and my heart clenches.
Just the thought of parting with Collin now has my heart ripping. It feels as if someone’s plunged a dull blade in the muscle and twisted. I actually purse my lips together to keep from crying out.
Collin reaches for my hand, entwining his fingers through mine. “We’ll figure this out together. Isn’t that what you said? I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
He watches me intently as the blare of distant cars and trucks on the interstate filter through my senses. And it isn’t until he has our bags packed in the new car that I realize I’ve already made my decision. I made up my mind hours ago on that gravel road back in Utah.
I just hadn’t known it then.
“Brianna?” His brow furrows. “We need to go.”
His hand brushes against my forearm, but he doesn’t grab me. I can tell that he’s waiting for me to make a decision. He’s not forcing me to do anything.
And that’s when I realize something else—I’m utterly helpless to resist this attraction to him. We’re like magnets, and as fucked up and crazy as that is, I can’t stop these feelings.
“Okay.” I make a move to walk to the passenger’s door of the new car, but he reaches out and stops me with a gentle touch.
“I need you to drive the old car into the city. I’ll follow with this one. We need it well away from this area.”
My lips part as comprehension dawns. “Because you don’t want the authorities to put two-and-two together? They’ll link this stolen hatchback to Declan’s car and subsequently, his murder?”
He nods curtly. “Correct.”
His shoulders bunch as he waits for my response, and he’s right to be nervous. Not only have I chosen to go with him, but now I’m helping him break the law.
Can I really do this?
But the stormy sea in his eyes calls to me, pulling at me as the moon controls the tides. I can’t leave him.
“Fine. I’ll follow you, but that’s it. Don’t ask me to help you break the law again, because I won’t.”
He lets out a breath, and the tense lines around his mouth vanish. “Got it. I won’t.”
On stiff legs, I slip into Declan’s sedan and follow Collin from the parking lot.
∞ ∞ ∞
We ditch Declan’s car in a seedy Phoenix neighborhood and leave the keys in it. Collin says it will probably be stolen soon by some bored teenager, but that doesn’t stop him from efficiently wiping our fingerprints from the interior and dousing the seats and carpet in some solution he retrieves from the backpack. He says he picked up the solution on the magical black market. Apparently, it breaks down any remaining clothing fibers and hair so no trace of our DNA will be found.
I watch all of it wide-eyed and come to realize that Collin truly is a seasoned criminal.
Yet, I still get into the newly stolen car as squealing tires and shouts from this derelict part of town float up around us.
And as Collin and I peel out of the deserted back alley with its putrid scents while Declan’s car sits waiting for its next thief, I don’t look back.