Between us, something vibrated. Cabe closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before standing and setting me on my wobbly feet.
“Yes?” he snapped into the phone. “I’m with her. I’m not going to tell you that.” His eyes were still closed and he was now pinching the bridge of his nose, a tight expression taking over his features. “What the hell do you think it was, Noah? I don’t have time for this right now. No, you’re right, I shouldn’t have had time for that either. Are you serious? Of course I didn’t break the rules—you do know where we are right now, don’t you? Fine. No, you can’t talk to her. Not right now. Give her a minute to calm down.” He hung up the call, but then swore roughly and dialed a number, flashing the phone back to his ear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hang up on you. I’m a little on edge right now. Oh… okay… one second.” He pulled the phone away and faced me, covering the receiver.
“What is it?” Unease curled into me, chasing away the bone-melting warmth that had taken up residence inside my limbs.
“Noah said that Miro wants to talk to you.”
I reached out a shaking hand, afraid because Cabe hadn’t allowed Noah to speak to me, but he didn’t seem to want to refuse Miro.
“H-hello?” I stuttered.
“Walk outside,” Quillan demanded, his voice grave.
The line went dead before I could reply. I handed the phone back to Cabe, hanging my head.
“Don’t,” he said gently, catching my chin. “Don’t feel guilty. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but you’ve settled into the bond and there’s no going back now. You can’t hide your reaction to us anymore, and we can’t hide our reaction to you. There’s no moving backwards, Seph, only forwards.”
I nodded, but his words didn’t inspire any confidence in me. Not with the threat of Quillan’s disapproval. In that moment, I hated his compelling personality, because I was helpless to fight my own fear of his censure. I pulled back the curtain and stumbled out of the room. The guard at the end of the hallway held his hand out to me, and I turned to Cabe, who passed over a stack of money that was clearly more than what he should have paid, if the guard’s expression was anything to go by. Clarin was standing nearby, possessively hovering over Poison, who had her eyes fixed on us. I passed by them with my head down and they turned to follow, leaving the club with me as though we had simply been borrowing the facilities instead of begging for jobs.
They seemed to understand that something had transpired, because they stayed silent as we spilled outside. Quillan was before me in an instant, a heavy coat wrapping around my shoulders before the cold air could even graze my skin. He buttoned it all the way, ignoring my fumbling protests, and then he was steering me away from the others.
“Dude,” Noah grumbled, “what the hell?”
I tensed further at Noah’s voice, but couldn’t bring myself to look up.
“You two have already proven that you can’t keep your damn hands off her,” Quillan snapped, all control fleeing his tone. “So she’s coming with me. Silas felt that… what happened… so he’s coming for her. You can be sure of that. We don’t need the club anymore.”
He opened the passenger door of his car and I awkwardly climbed into the seat, casting a single glance toward the others. Cabe seemed troubled and Noah’s jaw was clenched in anger, his bright eyes narrowed. Poison and Clarin were confused. Quillan closed the door, cutting off my view, and I curled my legs to my chest, nudging off the heels.
When he got behind the wheel, he only gripped it, seemingly unable to start the car. “Just so you know,” he gritted out the words between clenched teeth, “I’m not angry at you. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
“You look angry.”
“I’m… I… I can still feel it.” He had masked his tone from me again, so I couldn’t tell if he was disgusted with me or not.
I curled myself up tighter.
“Seph… sweetheart…” He released a heavy breath. “I’m not angry at you. You haven’t done anything wrong, I just can’t… explain myself right now. I have to get you somewhere safe. Danny might follow Silas to us. Or Silas might decide to rip Cabe’s throat out.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
“The Komnata. Silas will track us there.”
“Should I tell the others?”
“They’re following.”