Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 65 - THE FALLOUT

But I stood up anyway, with no shortage of groaning. I knew I didn't have much choice. It might not feel that way, but we were a lot more useful in Silver Lake than we were here. Even if it did break my heart a little to leave them all again. I was pretty sure that every fleeting trip to camp made my homesickness worse, not better.

"Liam?" Nia asked. The way she was looking at him made it very clear that she'd noticed that vacant look in his eyes. "You alright, pup? Did you hear what I said?"

He hadn't moved, of course. And it took him a while to blink at her and then look around himself, forehead furrowed. Those dark eyes were still distant. He was always slow to surface from whatever fun, fun places his brain took him to. It had been the shouting. I was pretty certain of that.

"We're going, Liam," I told him softly.

"Right. Yeah. Sorry."

He went to join Nia. But as I was going, I leaned over Hannah's chair and put my head close to hers. "In the interest of giving you a way out of here ... do you want to come with us now?"

I didn't ask that lightly. Rhodri wasn't going to like it if she ran off with us. But he was allowed to get away from her if he wanted, while she was stuck wherever we put her. She deserved to have the option, whether she took it or not.

Hannah went quiet for a while. She kept throwing glances at Rhodri, who was now easing himself down into a chair, wincing all the while from the half-healed stab wound in his abdomen. He hadn't been bitching about it, in all fairness, but I had a feeling she felt guilty about it anyway.

"No, I'll ... um, I think I'll stay," she said eventually and somewhat uncertainly. "I should probably ... you know ... face up to this and not run away like a coward."

I gave her a wry smile, and then I caught her arm and began writing a long series of numbers on it. She didn't resist. I couldn't help noticing that she wasn't trembling anymore, which probably meant that her sugar instalments had finally done their job.

"Just in case you change your mind," I told her. "That's our number, and the one underneath is Nia's. Mam will let you call if you ask nicely."

And with that, I squeezed her shoulder and then followed Nia and Liam towards the cars. Rhodri didn't even glance up as we left. He wasn't having a great day, to say the least. But someone at the next fire was looking. Someone who'd stayed up just as late as we had - by pure coincidence, I was sure. He hadn't tried to talk to me once. Hadn't even ventured close to me. But I could feel his eyes on me every so often. If he thought that sitting forlornly at a distance was going to score him points with me, then he was very wrong.

"You want to hear some gossip?" Nia asked us as we walked.

I snorted at her. It was a welcome distraction. "What do you think?"

She grinned from ear to ear and then cast a cautious look around us before explaining. "Jace Lloyd's been getting very ballsy. Today, he told your mam that if she didn't release Hayden and Hannah, he'd tell the new Silver Lake Alpha about his mate's lineage."

Uh oh. That was me. And I'd probably care more if Liam had been some rogue-hating Vaughan boy I'd happened to be mated to and not my partner in crime and best friend since childhood. The trouble was, though, that if Jace didn't get the murderous reaction he wanted from Liam, he might start telling other people, too. People who were not sleepers.

"He what?" Liam asked quietly. He was certainly paying attention now, but there was an edge of exhaustion tempering his voice and even the incredulous look on his face. He was too worn out to give a shit.