“Oh, sure, don’t mind me. I’ll be right here minding my own business.” Holly holds up her hands.
I stage whisper, “Please don’t tell Dad.”
I’m already halfway out the door, close enough to feel the heat rolling off Grayson and smell the particular scent unique to him. The one I’ve started to crave when we’re not together.
Holly grabs the pillows and replaces them in the pile near my headboard, pretending she’s not eavesdropping when she absolutely is. “You owe me.”
I usher Grayson into the hallway and check in both directions. My senses scream at me, warning of the danger of being together, urging me to make sure my parents aren’t around.
“How did you get in the house?” I ask.
“I’m good at finding my way into places where I don’t belong,” he murmurs back. “This place is nuts, though. It’s like one of those Stepford communities. I’m lucky they let me out of the cage at all this morning. And luckier to have given my guards the slip.”
I clutch his arm, catching myself only when he looks down at the spot where our skin joins. Hastily I retreat, but not before noticing how he burns. That explains the sweat.
His wild eyes dart around the hallway before finding stillness in mine, but the unsettled feeling left in the wake of that look stays much longer.
“I can’t say anything about what we’re doing in front of Holly. I trust her to a point, but only if she doesn’t know anything. That way she won’t be able to answer any questions if she’s asked.”
“She’ll tell your father I was here.” Grayson adjusts his posture, shifting from foot to foot.
“She might, but we can get far enough away before he finds out. It won’t matter.”
The tilt of his head, the tightness of his skin…what is he listening to?
Because it doesn’t seem like mine is the only voice he’s hearing right now.
“Hey. Hey!” The sound draws him back to me. “I just hope she’ll keep her promise to me. She always does. Now howdidyou get in?”
“The same way we’re going to get out. Your pack might watch their gates but they aren’t watching the houses. Let’s go, Mandi. Let’s go right now and find the witches. We’re no safer here than we were at the cabin.”
He’s right, but saying it out loud costs me too much. It’s an admission that my family, my father and his rules, don’t always have everyone’s best interests at heart.
And I don’t feel like one of them anymore.
“Did you change last night?” My teeth crash together, jaw clenched and grinding as he pulls me away from my room.
“No, I didn’t, and it didn’t matter. They treated me about as well as you’d expect them to treat a wild animal caught on their property.”
I know how to read between the lines and this only solidifies the sensation in my rolling gut. We go, now, before the troopscome running. Before Jrue realizes his charge is not in the same place and the guards Grayson lost pick up his scent.
“Are you okay? It’s another long walk into town. You look sick.”
I lift the back of my hand to his forehead, heat blistering me before I make contact with him again. Grayson catches my wrist but is gentle when lowering it away from him.
“I’m fine. I’m well enough to run.”
He’s not fine. None of us are. Which makes it even more imperative for us to escape.
I nod, cataloging the way his fingers lock around my wrist without release. “Then we go.”
“Do you want to change out of those bunny pajamas?”
He uses his nose to indicate my attire. And even though it’s smart to equip myself, I shake my head.
“Let me get a pair of sneakers and then we’ll go. It will only look more suspicious to Holly if I change.”
Resolved, I break away from Grayson.