He fell backwards, shrieking as blood pumped from his eye and coated his fingers as he held them tight to his face. He lunged blindly for me, but I had re-straddled the wall and was rolling over it, falling away from him.
I landed with a thud on the other side. The drop was high and the fall jolted the wind from my lungs. I re-stashed the blade, ducked and rolled, grabbing my rucksack and stumbling into a small line of trees that hid me as I pressed against the wall that bled into another, larger street of houses. Jack’s screams of agony hung heavy in the air behind me, and I seized the surge of adrenalin they gave me.
I sprinted along an endless row of boxy homes, hopped into a nearby garden and weaved my way behind a squat wooden house with a dilapidated porch. At the back of it I lost myself in an expanse of shrubbery and threw my rucksack over wall after wall, chasing the sun as it sank away from me, until I was too tired to do anything but wedge myself behind a garden shed somewhere along the endless row of houses. I tucked my limbs inside my body, shrank into a ball and waited for the darkness to hide me from Jack and his Marino assassins.
I took out my phone and called Millie.
‘Soph?’ She cleared her throat, waking her voice up. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Yeah,’ I said quietly, conscious of the fact that I was trespassing on someone else’s property. ‘I just wanted to tell you I’m leaving town for a little bit.’
‘What? Why? What’s happened?’
‘Calm down,’ I said quickly, cutting off the freak-out. ‘I’m just living, Mil. I’m living like you told me to.’
Panic vibrated in her voice. ‘Soph, you’re freaking me out. What are you talking about? I didn’t mean “leave town” when I said that, I meant “get up and go for lunch with me” or something. This is definitely not what I meant.’
‘I know.’ I smiled against my phone. ‘I’m not going off on some big soul-searching adventure.’
‘Oh,’ she said, relief colouring her tone. ‘I thought you were about to ditch me for the pyramids or the Grand Canyon or something.’
‘Jack’s back in Cedar Hill.’
She sucked in a sharp inhale. ‘Shit.’
‘Yeah,’ I concurred. ‘I’m going somewhere he can’t get to me … until I want him to.’
‘What exactly does that mean?’
I tempered my response. There were some things she would understand, and some things she definitely wouldn’t, and the truth of what I was planning was in the latter category. ‘It means I’m going to lie low, just until the danger dies down.’
‘Then lie low here, Soph. You know you’re always welcome at mine …’
I had to smile, because we both knew it wouldn’t work, and still she had offered because that was the kind of person she was. Unafraid. Loyal. ‘You really are an amazing friend, Mil.’
‘So are you,’ she shot back.
‘I think you’re definitely winning in the friendship stakes right now.’
Her laugh tinkled down the line. ‘You’ve had your moments too, Gracewell.’
Gracewell. I bristled. That word. That lie.
It stood for nothing.
‘We’ll deal with this together,’ she said, filling up the silence and pulling me from the impending spiral of rage and disappointment I was becoming all too used to.
I ignored her unfailing optimism, a part of me wishing I could believe it. ‘I think the whole point of being a good friend is not putting your friend or her family in danger when you don’t have to.’
‘I’ll be fine.’ She didn’t sound sure, but I didn’t need her to be, because I was sure about two things now: Jack was incredibly angry, and he was also incredibly dangerous. That made him unpredictable. And if Millie sheltered me, she’d be in his firing line too, and I would never let that happen.
‘I’m not taking that chance,’ I said firmly. ‘And you know that.’
‘Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? Where are you now? Did Jack—?’
‘Mil,’ I interrupted. ‘I have a plan, don’t worry. I promise I’ll fill you in as soon as I can, OK?’
‘OK,’ she relented after a short silence, her voice turning sceptical. ‘But whatever happens, just don’t leave me behind.’
Even the thought of it made my chest seize up. ‘Never.’
‘Because I cannot do senior year without you. It’ll break my spirit, Soph. It’ll suck the soul out of me.’
‘I know,’ I said, soothing her through a bubbling laugh. Her drama was the only kind I would freely welcome into my life. ‘Don’t worry,’ I teased. ‘I’ll go into the darkness with you.’
‘Good,’ she said, matching my tone. ‘Because you’re my light.’
‘You’re so sappy.’
‘You love it.’
‘I know.’
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
THE BEGINNING
I waited on the doorstep at Evelina, counting the heartbeats it took for the door to open. Nineteen.
‘Sophie.’ Luca stepped out of the darkness.
‘I was hoping it would be you.’