Chapter 29

Prison. That reality was looming on the horizon like a dark cloud.

She chuckled, plucking the joint from my fingers, touching me just for a second. My mind melted right out of me when her fingers grazed mine.

“Freedom…is an illusion, Alex.”

The words oscillated at the front of my mind. An illusion…because shewasn’tfree. And maybe I could let myself believe the lie that I was the one who helped her out of the cage. Maybe she was freenow.In this house. On this roof, high as a kite, and sitting beside a stranger who kidnappe—

Whostoleher.

“I’ll give you another answer if you take another hit.” Her dainty fingers held the joint right in front of me, and I weighed my options, trying to bypass the effects of the drugs and figure out if I should ask what I wanted.

The warm wind curled around us and I decided once again…fuck it. I leaned in and inhaled, asking the question as soon as the smoke left my lips. “Jade, why aren’t you afraid of me?”

Slowly, evidently not expecting that question, Jade turned to me again, her eyebrows rising slightly in surprise. Mild panic swirled inside me because at that moment I realized…I was afraid to fuck this up. Afraid to fuck things up withher.

“Are you going to do anything scary? Going to pull a gun on me again?” Jade chuckled, the memory of that first day with her still giving me chills.

“Are you going to taunt me again?”

She shrugged, smiling. “Maybe, but…to answer your question, you don’t seem very scary,” Jade said, her tone even and genuine. “You have all the traits—tattooed, armed, emotionally repressed. But real monsters are…” she trailed off, searching for words. “Real monsters are deceiving. And you don’t seem to be. They also don’t get high with their captives.”

“I’m not…emotionally repressed,” I denied, a little offended at that assessment.

“Mm-hmm, you are.” She plucked a bit of weed off her bottom lip and Iwatched. “Your shoulders are always tense, and your eyebrows are always furrowed, and you’re tryingveryhard to hate me.”

It was getting too much. This girl read me like a fucking book, and I couldn’t deal with it, but before I had time to retort anything, Jade scooted a little closer.

She puckered her cherry lips around the base of the joint, keeping her eyes on mine. I was enthralled, fully acknowledging that I was tumbling into a dangerous trap. She inhaled, her eyes shining in the dark night, and then, as if this was a dream, she tilted her head and jutted her chin out, her gaze falling to my lips.

Obediently, forgetting where we were and what I was doing, I leaned toward her, parting my lips just in time to receive her exhale. The smoke slithered into my mouth from hers, the proximity between us rendering me paralyzed.

The moment stretched into the abyss. She was so fucking close—just a mere inch between us—and she wasn’t just shotgunning this puff. She wasn’t just sharing the THC.

She was doing something far riskier than that.

“Look at that.” She pulled back slightly, her scent overpowering everything else. “Youdoknow how to have fun.”

Her words, the smoke, this night…It all hit me like nothing else in life had. My head was just an empty shell, but my heart beat inside me like Joey fucking Jordison on meth.

We sat there physically so close, but a thousand miles apart, and it was best we stayed that way. I just had to put some distance between us and I could do that, notwithstanding the fact that somehow…I kept driving by this house every day. Somehow, I kept checking the cameras. Somehow, I texted Maksim a thousand times a day asking for an update.

This had toend.

“Come on. Let’s go,” I prompted Jade, sliding down toward the ledge.

“Aww! Come on! I didn’t even smoke it all yet!”

“If you finish that joint all by yourself, you’ll die. Come on,” I beckoned her, refusing myself the indulgence of helping her up.

Reluctantly, she scooted closer and stood up, wobbling just slightly.

“How the fuck are we getting off this roof?” The question seemed to hit us at the same time as we stood on the very edge, looking down, precariously close to tumbling over.

“Hmm. I guess I didn’t really think this through. Maybe we can just jump?” Jade’s voice, full of naiveté and hope, sounded beside me.

“It’s like a twelve-foot drop,” I said, coming up with the brilliant idea of jumping down first. I could catch her after; it would be easy.

Without further words, I crouched down and swung my legs over the edge, jumping down to the ground.