Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
My mind whirled a mile a minute.
She was gone. Or she was leaving. She said she’d stay if the team wanted her to stay, but I’d come to know Rain. A part of her was gone. Daniel had done that to her. I didn’t understand it. But I knew it had happened, and it happened on my watch. It happened when she was right next to me.
There was only one way I could think of to keep her.
“I need my phone.”
Bruge held up my bag. “I’m assuming it’s in here?” He looked at my pants. “Or is it in there? Not sure I want to be that buddy-buddy with you…”
I glowered at him as Hunter began laughing.
I touched the front of my sweatshirt with the back of my arm and felt the familiar bulge of the phone. “It’s here.” I held up my arm. “Can you grab it for me?”
He growled low in his throat.
Hunter held up some keys. “You guys stay here. I’ll run and get the car. Just stay. Don’t leave.” He darted off across the parking lot. We’d just stepped outside the rink.
“I’m doing this under protest, but hold still, you complete psychopath.” Bruge stepped close as Hunter took off. He pulled the front pocket of my sweatshirt away from my body and angled his head to see inside. Spotting my phone, he slid a hand inside to grab it and held it out for me. It kept buzzing, but he just looked at my hands. “I don’t think you can do much on it right now.”
I shook my head. “I need you to open it for me and pull up my texts from Kashvi.”
His eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything.
I held up my finger. He touched it to the screen and unlocked the phone.
“Fuck, Griffin. I get like ten texts a day, and three of those are from my agent. You have forty new texts just this morning.”
“Ignore them. Pull up Kashvi’s and show me the screen.”
He did. The last text was the one I’d already read.
Kashvi: Rain isn’t responding to anything. Are you with her? Can you talk to her about this?
“Text her back for me. Tell her to release it.”
His head jerked up. “Release what?”
“Just type it.”
“No.” He began to put the phone away.
“Goddammit, Bruge! Just fucking type it. We’re losing her. It’s the only way to keep her.”
He didn’t respond for a moment, but his eyes narrowed. “You’re talking about Rain?”
“Yes,” I clipped out. “What she said in there is just a hint of the fucked-up shit her family did to her growing up. I don’t understand it, but I know it was psychological torment. She’s gone unless we do something drastic. I have something I can do, but you need to type that for me. Please.”
His eyebrows smoothed out. “You love her.”
“Of course I fucking love her. I went all Hulk just now in the locker room because you assholes are going to let her walk. As long as she’s here, we’re not going to lose her. I can’t tell you anything else because I don’t understand it. But this is what my gut says we need to do. What I need to do. Send the fucking text, Bruge.”
His lips pressed into a flat line, but he typed it out before showing me the screen.
Tyler: Release it.
I gave him a nod.
He hit send.
We waited. I could feel my tension ramping up with every second it took for her to respond.
Just as Hunter pulled up in his car, my phone buzzed with Kashvi’s response.
Kashvi: Done. Get ready. I’m assuming you and Rain both agreed?
Hunter got out and came around to open the passenger doors for us. He stepped aside. Bruge ignored him, staring at me in silent condemnation.
I breezed past Hunter to get into the front seat. “Don’t give me that look,” I told Bruge. “It was the only way.”
Bruge got into the back. “Did you have to take the front seat? Such a fucking diva.”
57
RAIN
Ididn’t stick around after my goodbye to the team. It wasn’t technically a goodbye, but for me it was.
They’d release me from my contract.
This was strike two, and there’d be more coming. I had no doubt Daniel’s team wanted me to disappear completely. That’s how I’d felt growing up. If I’d simply left when I was a kid, no one would’ve looked for me. Others in my position might’ve run away, but I’d had a house and food. I was physically safe. Why risk facing the dangers out there until I absolutely needed to?
I think a part of me stayed because that’d been the house where my mother lived. She’d hugged me. Cuddled me. She’d loved me.
And I didn’t want to leave until I was forced out.
I tried telling myself Daniel couldn’t hurt me anymore, but it wasn’t true. If it was, I would’ve had the courage to turn my phone on.