go now, and I need you to respect me enough to let me do that. Please,” I add, my voice just a single word away from breaking. It’s never been so hard to keep my mask on as it has been tonight with Jericho and Addie.
Another tear slips down her face, and she hugs her arms against her middle, looking like I just crushed her spirits.
Steeling my resolve, I walk past her, heading for the gate, and see Stinger already standing there. “You sure about this?” he asks.
No. Not one fucking bit.
“Yes.”
After taking in the look on my face, he nods slowly and then gives a signal for whoever is up at the gate controls. A second later, I hear a buzz, and the gate opens.
Addie rushes up in a last-ditch effort to get me to stay. “But Jetta, you don’t even—”
“Stinger!” the second enforcer hollers from the gate controls.
“Yeah?”
“Collins called. Freddie snuck away again. He’s asking for us to keep an eye out for the little rascal.”
Shit.
“Alright,” he hollers back before shaking his head. “That kid is like Houdini, always disappearing.”
My blood pounds in my ears as I quickly rush through the gate. The need to get there, to get to Freddie, pushes at me, demanding that I hurry.
“Jetta!” Addie calls again.
I don’t turn around. There’s no time. I need to get to Freddie before Kaazu hurts him. I need to get to him and get him back safe before anyone finds out and comes to rescue him, because they’ll only get themselves and Freddie killed.
I walk straight through the open gate without looking back. “Go home to your mates, Addie.”
Please, I silently beg.
Boots crunching against the sand, I hear the gate buzz again as it slides shut behind me, and then I’m sprinting, following the incessant, icy tug of my collar, and leaving behind Pack Aberrant for good.
I don’t expect to live to see the morning.
23
Jericho
I watch her walk away.
Sitting in my truck that’s parked along the shadowed part of the fence, my eyes track my female’s body as she walks out of my pack’s gate and then races away like the hounds of hell are nipping at her heels.
My lips press together in torment, feeling like I just watched my goddamn heart get ripped out of my chest.
Harsh knuckles rapping on my window make me jerk around, and I see Addie standing at the passenger side door, her eyes rimmed with red.
I click the button on the door to unlock it, and she slips inside. “Something’s not right.”
“No shit it’s not right,” I bark harshly. “She just fucking left. Like we don’t matter. I thought she might change her mind at the last second, that she’d see she’s wrong, but she left,” I bite out.
I’ve never felt anything like this misery before. I’ve never gotten close enough with someone to experience something like this. Jetta attacked my senses the moment I saw her. It was a violent, visceral attraction right from the start, and she hooked into me with sharp claws until I was addicted to her type of pain. And now she left, leaving me feeling completely lost and in fucking agony.
“She walked right out. She might as well have slapped me in the face. In fact, I prefer her kicking my ass over this,” I mutter.
Addie sighs. “Could you stop fucking brooding for a second and listen to me?”
Her pissed off tone makes me turn to look at her in surprise. “What?”
“Something isn’t right, Jericho,” she repeats. “What was Jetta missing?”
“Um, a fucking heart?”
Addie punches me right in the arm. It doesn’t hurt except for the pang I get at the memory of Jetta doing that very same thing. “No, idiot,” she says with an impatient sigh. “Jetta just left, right? Running away?”
My brows draw together. “Yeah…”
“Then why didn’t she bring anything with her?”
I blink at Addie’s words as they sink in. My eyes widen. “She didn’t have her bag.”
“Nope,” Addie says, popping the p sound. “If she were leaving, she would’ve been smart. Grabbed food and water and extra clothes at least. But she had nothing.”
I run a hand down my mouth in thought, my eyes moving back to the place where Jetta disappeared. “She’s not running away.”
It’s not a question, but Addie shakes her head anyway. “No. I don’t think so.”
I curse and slam a hand against the steering wheel. “Fuck! She’s not running. She’s going to Kaazu,” I say, grabbing my phone and opening the messages.
Addie’s lips thin. “The question is, why.”
“Heathcliff,”