The airin my uncle’s car was suffocating. The windows felt like the walls inside a prison. No one spoke. Not a single word. Journey stayed behind, and although she had put up a fight, I could see the relief settle when Tobias pulled her aside and spoke quietly into her ear, getting her to agree in the end.
I wasn’t sure what would be waiting at the Covens when we showed up. Jacobi and his team were already there, setting up invisible parameters along with ATF. They’d been working together to take down my father and his crew for quite a while now, which made me wonder if they’d been following me, too, at some point. Although I wasn’t the one who carried out the sales, I’d still been involved and had been to the Covens multiple times in the near and distant past. None of that really mattered, though. The only thing on my mind was Gemma. Once I got her out of there and safe, then we could worry about Richard and my father, along with their gun-running business scheme.
That was, if I made it out alive.
If something went sideways and my father slipped out undetected—because he was notorious for being invisible—he would come after me. He would do nothing but hunt me down and kill me. After all, his other persona went by The Huntsman.
“So, you know my sister.”
I kept my face straight, looking out the windshield. My uncle drove, Cade sat up front for obvious reasons, Brantley sat to my right, and Tobias to my left. We were crammed, and it did nothing but heighten my already rising blood pressure.
“Yeah.”
“What is she like now?”
The car turned in jerky movements as my uncle followed the GPS. Jacobi gave him a different location to head to so we were inconspicuous when we arrived, and if we didn’t show up at the Covens in the next few minutes, I would open the door and walk there myself. This wasn’t the route we usually took.
“At first, she was kind of snappy with me.” My lips wanted to curve upward despite the hole in my chest.
Tobias’ head whizzed over to me. “She was?”
I nodded solemnly. “Yeah. She seemed annoyed with me, and she was determined to stay on track without anyone poking into her business. She was guarded.” My fist clenched over my lacrosse shorts. I still hadn’t changed from earlier when we were about to get on the bus for the away game. “For good reason. She was independent. Determined. Strong.”
My uncle caught my eye in the rearview mirror, but I looked away.
“But she eventually trusted you? And told you things?”
I tasted blood in my mouth and truly felt sorry for Tobias. He seemed broken, and the curiosity that had piqued in his voice seemed to turn to guilt at the last second—a hopeful guilt, but still guilt.
I nodded. “Yes, she did.”
“Does that mean she found out Richard’s plans? That he was going to make her his wife? Force her to play make-believe in that fucked-up house he was so proud of. He told me he was going to—”
“Why aren’t we there yet?” I interrupted Tobias because everything he was saying was making my anger spike. I was becoming antsier as the road became narrower. I could sense my uncle’s anxiety, too, like he was thinking the same thing I was.
Tobias glanced out the window, and Brantley did the same.
“Tate.” I didn’t call him Uncle, and his mouth formed a straight line.
“I don’t know, Isaiah.” The car suddenly came to a stop, and he pulled his phone closer and started to zoom in on the map.
“He doesn’t want me there,” I interjected, realizing that we were going in the wrong fucking direction. “Jacobi is controlling and…” I pushed back on the small amount of despair I felt. “Protective. He was always so protective, which was why it was so hard to believe that he’d actually left me. He doesn’t want me there. Turn the fucking car around.”
My uncle muttered a string of curse words under his breath as he whipped the car around and flew down the same road that we were already on. The center console was opened next as his left hand stayed glue to the wheel. I caught the glint of a small black pistol and nodded in approval.