Outlaw's Promise(61)

This was it. This was when I should tell him about Agent Trent, if I was going to. I could come clean, never having made the deal, and he’d trust me again.

But then the deal would be off the cards.

And Volos would wipe out the club.

I had to fix this myself...somehow.

I pushed past him. And felt something between us break. It hurt like a motherfucker but I didn’t see any other way.

Inside the medical center, I stood with water streaming from my rain-slick cut and pattering onto the tiles. More water was running out of my soaked hair and getting in my eyes and I had to keep brushing it away. But even when my vision was clear, I couldn’t see Annabelle anywhere amongst the army of black leather.

I grabbed Viking’s arm. “You see Annabelle?”

“She got a cab,” he said. “Said she was going to your place.”

I frowned. That wasn’t like Annabelle. She wouldn’t leave us all here, worrying about Ox, and sit home on her own. And she knew better than to take off on her own when Volos was still after her.

I found Mom and gave her another hug, telling her I had to go. “I need to find Annabelle,” I muttered.

She grabbed my arm as I moved to go. “You’re damn right you do,” she told me, fire in her tear-stained eyes. “Don’t let that one slip away, Carrick.”

Slip away? I didn’t understand women but Mom did and her words started a sick churning in my stomach. I nodded and ran for my bike.

The rain had slowed traffic to a crawl but I threaded my way through, going as fast as I dared on the slick streets. It was only early evening but the sky had turned so dark overhead that it felt like twilight. I had to flick my lights on as I roared up the street towards my house.

I hurled open the door. “Annabelle?”

Nothing. Why on earth would she come here and then leave again? Unless Viking had been wrong and she’d never come here at all. Or….

Shit.

With a sudden sense of dread, I stalked into the bedroom and threw open the closet doors. The bags we’d brought back from her step-dad’s house were gone. The clothes I’d bought her since were gone. She’d run.

I called her phone. My heart sank as I heard her ringtone coming from the living room. I walked through and found her phone sitting on the coffee table.

I raced out into the rain and stood there, chest heaving, looking wildly up and down the street for some clue: a cab’s lights disappearing at the end of the street, maybe. But there was nothing. She was well ahead of me and I had no idea where she was going.

You idiot! I’d been so busy blaming myself, I hadn’t considered that she’d be doing the same thing. It was her Volos was after so she was convinced she was responsible for what happened to Ox. She probably blamed herself for the fire, too, and anything that Volos did in the future. She was trying to protect the rest of us by getting out of town. Shit! Why didn’t I see this coming? Why didn’t she talk to me?#p#分页标题#e#

Because I was an asshole.

Because I’d spent so many years on my own, doing the club’s dirty work, I didn’t understand this stuff.

Because I’d refused to share my past...and if I wasn’t going to talk to her, of course she wouldn’t talk to me.

I’d lost her.

I stared down the street, the rain sliding down my face almost blinding me. Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe she’s better off without me. She was smart and resourceful and she had clothes and money, now. If she ran far enough, maybe Volos wouldn’t find her.

I shook my head, my hands tightening into fists and crushing the raindrops. Fuck that. Maybe wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t going to leave her out there on her own. I’d made a promise that I’d be there when she needed me. She needed me now, whether she knew it or not.

And it wasn’t just the danger she was in. I wanted her back. I needed her back.

I ran to my bike. Where would she go? How would she get out of town fast?

The bus station.

This time I rode even faster, fantails of water kicking up behind my wheels as I roared through the streets. But when I pulled up outside the bus station and checked the schedule, I cursed.

Two buses had left in the last half hour. One went south, towards Sacramento, San Francisco and LA. The other went north, towards Portland. Opposite directions. And the minutes were ticking away: soon, the buses would make their first stop. She might get off at some small town and check into a motel and then I’d have lost her forever.

I stared at the two routes and tried to think like Annabelle. Which would she have picked?

South, right? The bright lights of LA, or at least San Francisco. Sunshine. Everybody loves sunshine. Nobody wants to go to Portland.