Page 56 of Bound By Blood and Lies

“She might be,” Fiona says softly. “Okay, sweetheart. We’ll look.”

I let out a shaky breath as we move hand in hand through the doorway. The reality of leaving still hasn’t fully landed and the rush of it all is quickly swallowed by the desperate need to find Robyn.

Every other thought gets pushed down as we move through the house quickly. Our footsteps echo through the halls and Fiona pulls door after door open. My heart pounds harder with each room that reveals nothing but empty space. Every door thatswings open onto silence makes my chest tighten further and the hope I’d been clutchingonto slipsa little more each time.

By the time we reach the front door my shoulders begin to sag. The horrible realisation that we’re going to have to start all over again creeps in. Another warehouse. Another building. Another place I’ll have to tear apart piece by piece just to find her. We are almost outside when Fiona suddenly gasps. Her grip tightens and she yanks me to a stop so sharply my arm nearly jerks out of its socket.

“The wine cellar,” she says suddenly.

We turn on our feet and hurry downstairs. The sudden possibility of finding her pushes my legs faster than they probably should be moving. The staircase spirals down beneath us and the air shifts immediately, growing colder with every step we descend. At the bottom of the stairs another corridor stretches out in front of us, darker than the rest of the house, and my eyes catch on the door at the far end.

It’s locked and chained.

“Fiona—”

She’s already moving. The bolt cutters snap through the chain with a harsh crack that echoes off the cellar walls as the metal drops to the floor with a heavy clang. We pause as my heart pounds before Fiona pushes it open.

I choke on a sob as I look in the room. Robyn is on a thin mattress pushed against the wall. Her body is folded tight in a ball like she’s trying to disappear into the floor. The room is colder than the one upstairs, darker too, and the bare stone walls make the space feel more like a cage for an animal than a place for a human. Whilst I was upstairs in clean sheets and enjoying warm meals…

Robyn was down here.

None of us move for what feels like an eternity before Robyn finally shuffles and looks up.

“Fae?” she gasps.

The sound of her voice breaks my chest wide open, and I rush forward as she scrambles to her feet. Both of us crash into each other and tears spill down her face.

“Oh my God?—”

“I thought you were dead?—”

Fiona pulls us both into her arms, gathering us against her like she can hold the pieces of us together. The contact breaks whatever thin thread of control I had left and suddenly we’re all crying at once; the sound is raw and messy in the cold cellar air. Robyn clings to me with shaking hands as Fiona presses us both into her chest, one hand cradling the back of my head and the other wrapped tightly around Robyn’s shoulders. Her hand moves through my hair in slow, steady strokes, offering a quiet comfort only a mother knows how to give.

“Come on girls, we need to go,” Fiona says finally, wiping her own eyes.

I take a step toward the door, ready to follow Fiona out, but Robyn doesn’t move. She freezes. Her eyes widen suddenly and dart between Fiona and me. I feel her body begin to tremble beside me as the reality of what’s happening has finally caught up with her. I step back immediately and wrap my arms around her, pulling her tightly against my chest.

“She’s safe, babe,” I murmur softly in her ear. “I promise you, okay? We’re getting out of here.” The words leave my mouth automatically but as soon as they do I realise I actually believe it.

She is safe.

Fiona cut me free. She helped me find Robyn. She broke her out without hesitation, without asking questions, without stopping to think about what it might cost her. She could have chosen loyalty to her husband. She could have walked away and left us here. But she didn’t. And as I look at her now, standingthere waiting for us with the bolt cutters still in her hand and fury burning in her eyes, I realise something else…

She isn’t just Roman’s mum.

She’s a fucking warrior.

Robyn takes a slow, shaky breath before finally nodding, her fingerstightenagainst mine like she needs to feel something solid beneath her. Fiona doesn’t waste another second. She ushers us quickly up the stairs and through the house. Her hand hovers protectively at our backs as she pushes us toward the front door. The moment we step outside, the cold night air rushes over my skin. Every nerve in my body snaps to attention. My head turns sharply from side to side as my eyes scan the darkness around the house. My heart hammers in my chest as I wait for the other shoe to drop, for someone to step out of the dark and drag us back inside.

But nothing happens.

Fiona moves fast, guiding us straight to the car and pulling open the back door before practically bundling us inside. The door slams shut behind us and my body starts shaking uncontrollably as the adrenaline drains out of my system all at once. Robyn is trembling beside me just as badly as our shoulders press together. Robyn has been gone for months. I’ve lost count of how long I’ve been missing too. Time blurred somewhere along the way between warehouses and cages and survival. And now… this is it.

The thought feels obscene.

“Where are we going?” I ask breathlessly.

Fiona glances at me in the rear-view mirror as she starts her car and the engine rumbles quietly beneath us before she pulls away from the house. She gives me a small, reassuring smile before reaching forward to turn the heating up.