Deception. Betrayal. Mistrust.
It seems the closer Rayne gets to the truth, the more she finds herself wanting to run away from it. It's complex and terrifying-more than she ever fathomed.
New family members, good and bad, pop out at her like a br...
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𝗜t was one thing to be drenched in the blood of an enemy.
It was an entirely separate ordeal to be coated by the ones she loved.
Caycee stood in the center of the sterile shower, staring at the knob she knew she should turn. Maybe then the blood of the people who'd shown her what family was supposed to be wouldn't be the only thing from keeping her naked. Her emotions felt void. Her face felt like it was melting from the edges of her bones, and the longer she gazed without blinking, the more the world perpetually hurt her.
The paramedics hadn't allowed her or Rueben to ride in the ambulances. By the time they arrived at the hospital, Mason and Kai were somewhere unknown and Caycee had been inconsolable. The only thing keeping her afloat was the fact that no one had come to announce their deaths.
They were alive, so she had to be, too.
But it didn't change the fact that the old blood was stained to her hands. It didn't change the fact that there was no soap. It didn't change the fact that their insides were as laced into her as the whirling fingerprints on her digits.
It took nearly twelve hours in this place, sitting in soiled clothing, for Rueben to snap. She'd never seen him so angry at civilians. So angry in general. And it had been her fault. She'd stupidly asked a nurse if there was a shower she could borrow. When she was told no, he went off.
Rueben had pulled his gun faster than she'd been able to yank it down.
He'd commanded the room with a single sentence.
Someone fucking give her access because you won't like the person I become if I have to force it.
The nurses had screamed and urged security to come to defend them, but Caycee began to see him in a different light. They'd never had the chance to get close, and here he was, demanding her access to the bathrooms because she couldn't handle sitting in their friend's blood for a second longer.
And although he hadn't said a word since he'd dragged Maverick up the muddy hill and tossed him into the third ambulance, she knew that he saw her as more than just a girlfriend of the group. She knew he saw her as the young girl who'd already lost a brother this year.
Caycee felt the overwhelming soberness of her agony as she turned on the shower and walked into the stream. The warmth of it neutralized the unavailing humanness that sat heavily on her chest but did not evoke the feeling of helplessness she'd felt watching her friends pass out.
Her toes squished against the hard tiles.
Her eyes watched the red spin down the drain.
She clutched her shoulders in opposite hands, shielding herself in a hug that did nothing but welcome the iciness of the situation despite the steam encircling her skin. She shook as she closed her eyes and allowed the depravity of her vision to hit the back of her eyelids.
