Savage Vandal (82 Street Vandals #1) - Heather Long Page 0,99

anyone out there, and I really didn’t want to go past the room where they were holding Eric. I gave him all of point-three seconds of thought before I moved toward the silks.

Honestly, if they found Eric floating somewhere after this, I’d never point a finger at them.

Never.

The climb to the top didn’t take long. My body only protested when I had to roll, but even then, it was more the phantom feeling of Vaughn’s fingers on my body. The way he kissed me. I was almost to the top when doubt struck.

They hadn’t been cruel to me.

Not at all.

If anything, they’d been kind and thoughtful.

What the hell, Emersyn? They still kidnapped you.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to get away from all of it. The theatre company. The Vandals. My parents.

All of it.

I reached the first strut and gripped it, then pulled myself up before letting the silks uncoil and fall back to hang like they had before.

Head tipped back, I studied the ceiling and then had to bite back a real grin. The walls didn’t reach all the way up. So I worked my way over the wall and stuck to the struts. There were rats moving below.

Someone was hauling a body out of the room where Eric had been. I froze and stuffed a hand against my mouth. I didn’t recognize anyone down there, and thankfully, I couldn’t see the body. Hopefully it was Eric and not Freddie.

And if that meant I was going to hell, well then so fucking be it.

Still shivering, I forced myself to move, and I made it to the corner where a ladder ascended to a small portal to the roof.

In the shadows, I hung there, waiting. Sooner or later, they would… One of them started up a car, and the roar filled the space. I shoved the hatch open and trusted the vehicle to mask the sound. Twenty seconds later, I was outside and sucking in fresh air as the sun rose in the distance.

Chapter 26

Emersyn

I crouched in the sunshine for several long moments as I tried to get my bearings. While the warehouse might be in the more industrial part of town, we weren’t that far from the busier streets. I had to trust that knowledge earned from Rome taking me for a walk the other day. As it was, I moved to the edge to get my bearings.

Speak of the devil—and his brother—Rome and Liam were below talking to some of the rats, so I crept away from that edge. That wasn’t the way we’d gone out before, anyway. A twinge of guilt panged against my insides. Rome had gotten hurt to help me, and now I was sneaking away.

No sooner did that thought register than I shook it off. In the last few weeks, I’d started to care about my kidnappers way more than I should. Too much of what they’d done and said didn’t add up to what I thought kidnappers would be. What they’d done to Eric? Sure. But I was glad for that, and I’d never feel a moment’s regret for being happy he was gone from my life.

Enough.

I shook off the wimbling sensation. They weren’t my friends. They were a gang. Kestrel said it himself in the very beginning. I shouldn’t be here. I don’t know what their plan had been or why it changed beyond Eric coming after me that night. It wasn’t like it was even the first time Eric and I had gone round for round. Still…

It was time for me to go.

I really hadn’t escaped one trap to land in this one. As it was, there was some kind of search going on for me. If it had just been a matter of ransom, I could have paid it for myself. Too much longer, and those assets were going to disappear. Even Doc offering to help—I couldn’t afford to wait for him to get the time.

As it was, I’d already kissed Jasper or he’d kissed me, then I’d spent the night in Vaughn’s bed. A shiver went through me. The part of me that craved that contact didn’t want to leave, and that made it all the more important I get out of here before I was in so deep, I forgot I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.

The next edge was close to a building on the other side of a slender alley. I recognized the alley though, or at least I thought