The Sinners of Saint Amos - Logan Fox Page 0,166

like this. Because he’s moving slower. Carrying something, maybe. Something heavy enough to slow him down. It’s driving me mad trying to figure it out, so I just fucking stop with the mental gymnastics. I concentrate on staying ahead, keeping the sound of his heavy footsteps within earshot.

I slip into a nearby alcove when the stairs exit on the top floor landing. I’m sure the shadows are hiding me, but I’m quivering with adrenaline when Gabriel finally shows.

What?

No.

I blink, hard. Then again.

Is that…?

I watch Gabriel walk past with Trinity in his arms. If I ever had any doubt they were father and daughter, seeing them together eradicates it.

Same dark hair. Same nose, even. His is slightly larger, of course, and there’s a fan of blood leaking from it that makes me think Trinity must have put up quite a fucking fight.

I follow as soon as he has a big enough lead on me. I expect him to go to his room seeing as it’s only one hallway to the left, but instead he takes the stairs.

My phone vibrates again, but I don’t bother checking. I know I should be calling my brothers and updating them on the situation, but there’s a question that plays on repeat in my mind, crowding out all other thought.

Why is she still here?

Why is she still here?

Why the fuck is Trinity Malone still here?

Chapter Seven

Rube

When I squeeze into our lair the first thing I see is Apollo on his armchair with a washcloth pressed to the back of his head, wincing as he stares at nothing. Cass comes out of the bedroom like he heard me struggling to get in but for once he isn’t wearing a look like he’s about to tell you the punch line of a joke. He looks grim and serious and it scares the living shit out of me.

“Tell me everything.”

But it doesn’t help when they do, because they don’t know all that much. Apollo got knocked out before Trinity said anything useful.

“And Zach?” I ask, still standing near the exit, barely moving.

Cass drops his gaze. “No answer.”

“What if he got him?” Apollo says, and from the frown that flashes over Cass’s face, he’s only stating what we’re all thinking. “He was supposed to keep tabs on Gabriel’s room. He could be—”

“Cass, go check.”

“Should we really be splitting up right now?” he asks.

I’m about to tell him to go check anyway, but he’s right. Even though we have a huge school to search, splitting up will leave us vulnerable and exposed.

The trick is working out where Gabriel will go. We have to get into his head and figure out his plan.

The fact that Trin had been lying there, waiting for Gabriel to come back…that makes me think she surprised him. Perhaps they fought over something. That room is so far out of the way—maybe that’s where they’d been meeting all this time.

The thought makes my heart calcify.

We’d trusted her.

But Apollo said she was injured. So things must have soured between her and her father. Now he’s taking her away, but where to? Where in Saint Amos could he—

“He’s leaving,” I say, already turning on my heel. “We have to get to the road, try and stop him.”

“How? We’ll never make it!” Cass calls after me, but I’m already sprinting down the library’s main aisle.

They’ll either follow me or go look for Zach. We shouldn’t split up, but I know deep down Gabriel’s leaving. We’d only be at risk if we tried to stop him. I can take him on my own, unless he has a gun. But if he had one, he’d have used it on Apollo.

Not every criminal runs around wearing a pistol on his belt. Not like in the movies. I’ve known plenty of bad people in my life, and not a single one of them would even know how to fire a weapon.

I do. We all do. But we don’t keep guns on us because we know there’s a chance one of them might go off. And who the fuck knows who’d be at the receiving end of that bullet?

Guns are too easy to use, and too difficult to keep hidden. Especially around a bunch of boys still struggling with the fact that they’re men.

The exertion of the sprint hits me when I’m halfway across the lawn. I circle around the side of the dormitory, heading straight for the road.

We don’t know how long Apollo was unconscious for, but the sun’s barely warming up the land yet.