“Yes. I promise. Please go get Josh.”
“Fine,” he concedes at last. “Behave.”
With that, he slams the door shut, and I huff out an annoyed breath.
I’m not a child, but you wouldn’t know it by the way both he and Quill treat me.
Quill.
With everything that I’ve been learning, I’ve managed not to think of the boy who’s been my obsession since fifth grade, for nearly an hour. Probably a world record.
Sinking onto the couch, my heart feels painfully swollen. Iwonder what he’s doing right now.
Is he searching frantically for me? Is he furious? Maybe he feels I betrayed him by running away. Maybe he’s just stopped caring.
At that thought, my skin feels clammy and achy. I guess it’s weird, with how convinced I’ve been that I hated his guts, to realize that there is just no Piper without Quill.
I know how pathetic that makes me sound, but I just can’t help it. Anyway, it’s too late to do a thing about it.
Because there definitelyisa Quill without Piper.
Josh is the one in that cell. Not Quill.
I bet Quill never even went looking for me. I bet his anger got the best of him. I bet leaving him was one betrayal too many. He’s probably given up on trying to hold onto me, and honestly, I don’t blame me.
The little burst of joy and hope that bonding with Logan made me feel suddenly bursts and drops like a deflated balloon in my chest. I draw my legs up and sink my head into my knees, then topple over onto my side, curling myself into that sad little fetal position that Quill once found me in. The position that made him go soft for a minute, before he tied me up with duct tape.
I would do anything to have him here with me. I’d even let him tie me up with duct tape. The thought makes my core tingle, even as my heart twists in pain.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door.
I jump up, startled. Could it be Quill? But no, that’s ridiculous. You can’t summon someone just by thinking of them. Can you?
It must be Logan then, but why the hell would he knock? He certainly didn’t this morning, when he brought up the breakfast tray. This is his apartment, and I guess he sees me as his daughter. No reason to stand on ceremony.
So… Quill? Some part of me knows that’s not true. If Logan didn’t knock, Quill certainly wouldn’t either. I’m very aware, asI cross the living room, my heart racing, that it’s more wishful thinking than anything else that convinces me he’s the one I’ll find on the other side of the door.
I’m well aware, anyway, that it doesn’t matter what I do. The door isn’t locked, so whoever is waiting on the other side of it can just come in if I don’t open it.
So I do, and then I freeze.
There are three men, and I’ve never seen any of them before, but I recognize the light glinting in their eyes, cleaving through the darkness of their expressions.
It’s the look of the predator who’s finally caught his prey, and I know it, because I’ve seen that look in Quill’s eye before.
Only Quill the predator didn’t scare me half as much as these strangers, who inch into the room, forcing me to back away.
These three men have guns, and I have the very uncomfortable feeling they’d have no qualms to use them against me.
Any doubt I had about the fact that I’m in deep shit disappears when one of them says, “Hello, Aurora.”
Fuck.
Chapter 19
Quill
“Revenge.” I repeat the word, eyeing Tragen with suspicion.