to take off. When I can’t hear the car anymore, I quickly glance around me, not seeing Arlo or Katy anywhere in sight. Pulling the paper out, I unfold it to find a note.
Riona Dark,
At midnight this night, walk outside to the cliff if you want to escape this island alive.
Your friend and watcher.
I read the note a few times before slipping it back in my pocket, making a mental note to flush it down the toilet later on tonight. The last time I snuck out of this place, I was nearly killed by vamps, and I don’t have a good feeling about doing it again.
But this offer might not come twice, and I need to get off this island, or I’m going to be stuck here for the rest of my life.
And on The Onyx, I think that life will be short.
Especially when Maddox finds out about the deal I made with his brother.
“You’re back,” Arlo calls out, and I jolt, looking up at the door. Arlo jogs over, leaving the door open and pulls me into a hug. “You look in one piece. I’m guessing being in the vamp castle wasn’t too bad.”
Something like that. Definitely something like that.
“I need a favour.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“For the record, I don’t believe this is a good idea,” Arlo whispers to me, wrapping his hand around my upper arm as I walk away. “But...look, just be careful.”
I turn around and wrap my arms around him, hugging him tightly. “I will do. We both need to get off this island.”
“I’m glad you still feel that way,” he whispers to me, rubbing the top of my back. “Austin and Sophie are out there waiting for us. Your mum and dad must be going out of their minds. We need to get back.”
“Why would you think I’d want to stay?” I ask, even as a single name pops into my head, followed by so many feelings I am ignoring that threaten to swallow me whole. Pulling away from Arlo, I clear my throat and force myself not to think about Maddox. I can’t tonight. I have to do this for me and Arlo, for the future. And being real with myself, I doubt Maddox wants a future with me anyway. He kicked me out of his bed, and for him, that was just sex. He had been drinking and murdering, and that seems to make him happy. I was just another notch on his bedpost. Nothing more. But something in my chest doesn’t believe it, the betrayer. “I want to get back to uni and my life. I need to.”
“Good,” he softly says and crosses his arms. “I best go and distract the psychotic vamp babysitter while you escape through the garage.”
I chuckle and wave him to the door. He straightens his back and walks to the stairs, looking back at me once with a strange expression before he jogs down the steps. Knowing there is a second staircase at the back of the house, I jog down the corridor, past Reign’s room and Katy’s, even though they are both not in there. Reign hasn’t come back from the children, and I bet he is still with them now. Part of me suspects it’s because he has a kind heart and he doesn’t want to leave them alone, even though I don’t think he would admit to that.
I find the door in the corridor Arlo told me about and open it to see a small winding staircase, most likely used in case of a fire. I rush down the steps and come out into the garage. Seeing as Katy hasn’t jumped out from anywhere, Arlo must be doing a pretty good job of distracting her. Being as silent as I can, I run across the garage and slip out of the door into the night, breathing in the cold air and scent of the forest.
The sound of the waves crashing against rocks fills my ears as I walk through some trees and out onto a clearing on a cliff a few seconds away from the house. The waves are harsh tonight, blowing sea water into the air every few seconds, and I wipe a few drops from my cheek as I stare out. The moon hangs high in the sky, a full moon, fitting for this night.
I hear the bike first, the engine noise just about exceeding the sound of the waves, and I turn to see a man riding an all-terrain vehicle through the forest.