Page 39 of Ruin

I needed a way around him. And I didn’t want that to include anything dramatic like knocking him out with the butt of a gun and leaving him on the driveway.

“Listen,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Jimmy. I wasn’t supposed to talk to anyone on my way out, and if Knight knows I was here talking to you, I’m going to get in big trouble. Can you keep it a secret? Forget that you saw me? It’ll make my life a whole lot easier.”

He grinned conspiratorially. “Of course I can. I know how it is when Knight tells you to do something. You’ve just got to do it, no questions asked. No arguments.”

I nearly laughed at that very strange reading of Knight’s personality, but then again, I guessed I didn’t really know how he talked to prospects. Maybe Jimmy did just have to do whatever Knight said, no questions asked.

I didn’t have that sort of relationship with him. But Jimmy didn’t need to know that.

“Exactly,” I told him. “So how about you just not tell anyone you saw me? Go back in the house and have a cup of coffee. That way you won’t even be lying when you say you don’t know where I went.”

He tapped the side of his nose like an old-timey detective and nodded. “You got it, little lady. And good luck. Be careful out there.”

Then he was gone, sneaking back into the kitchen without another word and leaving me alone in the driveway.

I reached into the pocket of my jacket and fingered the keys that I’d stolen from Knight. They weren’t for his main bike—I wasn’t stupid enough to think he wouldn’t miss that—but his second bike. The one he’d brought over from some shop on our second day here. He’d brought it for me to practice on, he said, but was going to keep the keys with his set so they didn’t get lost.

I wasn’t sure that riding through the pre-dawn morning on my way to a rendezvous with Devil was quite what he’d meant by ‘practice.’ But I was awfully glad he’d brought a bike and put it at my mercy.

It was going to make getting out of here a whole lot easier.

I took out the keys, looked across the dark expanse of gravel, and then started walking for where we’d parked the bikes.

I didn’t look back. But I knew without a doubt that I was leaving a very large piece of my heart back there in the house with Knight.

I also knew that I might not get it back before I died.

CHAPTER 21

SARAYA

THE BIKE STARTED RIGHT up, the way I was hoping it would, and I thanked my forethought again for giving me the idea of walking it all the way to the road and down the block before I started it.

It was five in the morning, and everyone was asleep, but I didn’t doubt that the moment they heard an engine roar to life, they would have been wide awake. Knight would have immediately searched the bed for me, and then the bathroom, and found me missing. He would have run through the house, calling my name, and then gone out into the driveway...

And found the bike he’d given me gone, and me with it.

He would have come after me without bothering to get dressed first, and he was a much better rider than I was. He would have found me in no time, and that would have been the end of my grand plan.

And the end, I suspected, of whatever trust we’d been building between us.

Not that it would be any better for him to wake up hours from now to go through the same motions. I had no doubt that he’d be furious and worried and deeply upset, and that I would never be able to expect his trust again.

But I also didn’t expect to make it out of this alive, so I guessed it wouldn’t matter that much if he still trusted me or not.

I revved the engine of the bike, letting it warm up a bit before I started riding, and cast my eyes into the distance. The road stretched out in front of me, this stretch straight and flat so I could see all the way out of the suburbs and into town. Up there, I would find the bank and, with luck, Devil.

And I’d bring an end to him, no matter what it took.

THE BANK WAS ON THE other side of town from where I’d started, and I flew through the early morning, my eyes half on the road and half on what I was passing—and half behind me, as I was dead positive that Knight would wake up at any moment and come after me, tracking me down and stopping me before I got to my destination.

I was listening so hard for the sound of another bike that I almost missed the place where I’d left Gemini. But then I saw it, a curve in the road and a few trees, and I slowed at the spot, searching the ground for any sign of him. Anything he might have left behind.

There was nothing, of course, but that didn’t stop me from nearly crying as I passed. That night felt like years ago, now, but I’d never forget how it had turned Gem and me from enemies into allies, and how he’d virtually given up his own life to keep me safe.

The clubhouse was a short ride later, and I stared hard at it, trying to figure out whether anyone was hiding inside, as Knight suspected. I saw the note he’d taped to the front door, still standing out against the red paint, and wondered too if anyone had seen it—and if they’d known what it meant. If they had, they hadn’t come to Brock’s house in response. Maybe they were waiting for some sort of sign?

Or maybe they hadn’t understood it at all, or hadn’t come back to the clubhouse.