“Get some rest, I will be back before you know it.” He reassures me.
“Please?” I whisper, hoping it's only him who hears me beg.
“I have to go, Bex.”
I nod, blinking back the tears.
I hear engines start around us and I know they are waiting for him. So I don't say anything else, I step out of his hold and walk into the clubhouse.
Conversations stop, eyes follow me and whispers start the second I pass. I keep my head down and walk straight for the stairs. My pulse is pounding by the time I reach our room.
I shut the door and lock it. Then drag the dresser across the floor until it completely blocks the door. The wood scrapes loudly against the floor, but this time I don’t care if anyone hears it.
I strip out of my scrubs and crawl into the bed. The exhaustion hits me immediately.
But sleep doesn’t come.
Every sound outside the door makes my eyes open again.
I roll onto my side and stare at the wall.
Tonight there’s a party.
A mandatory gathering.
Unity.
That’s what Angel called it.
But lying here in the quiet, something in my gut keeps whispering the same thing over and over.
This doesn’t feel like unity.
It feels like a setup.
And somehow… I’m standing right in the middle of it.
CHAPTER 11
BEX - BLIND
I woke up disoriented. For a second, I don’t know where I am. The room is dim, the curtains half drawn, and the dull throb behind my eyes tells me I slept longer than I meant to. Then the noise filters through the walls. Music and laughter. Boots on the stairs and voices getting louder downstairs.
The party.
My stomach drops, and I roll onto my back, staring at the ceiling for a moment before grabbing my phone from the nightstand. No messages. Not from Clutch. Not from anyone.
A tight ache settles in my chest.
He said he’d be back, maybe he still will be. Maybe he’s already here and I just slept through it. But he’d come up to see me if he was back… I would have heard him try to come in. I look at the door and the dresser is still in the same spot I left it.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and rub my face. The room still smells faintly like hospital antiseptic and dried blood from the scrubs I peeled off earlier.
I force myself up, because if I don’t go downstairs soon, someone will come looking. Angel made that clear.
Mandatory unity.
Right.Like you can force that.