Runaway ✔

146 • Cherry

Her whole body was aching. For at least an hour she had cried uncontrollably, until the exhaustion had blinded her. As soon as she opened her eyes again, she longed back to the thick void she had just awakened from. 

She could still feel Maddox's presence. 

Armed with a kitchen knife she even went around the house, but the man was nowhere to be seen. His sweet scent however was still around, as if he had sprayed the walls with whatever cologne he was wearing. 

Lost, she stood in the center of the room. Maddox wasn't the only one who was gone. Kip was too. 

He hadn't come home. 

Was there a chance he was still at the club house? Had he slept there, was Maddox just messing with her head? She bit her finger nail. Slowly, a little bit of hope seeped into her heart. 

It could be, right?

Maybe he had just been drunk, that wouldn't be the first time. 

But Maddox must have known he wouldn't come home. And he doesn't live close by enough to keep on eye on the clubhouse all the time. 

As panic squeezed her throat again, she forced herself to take a few deep breaths. She had no idea how, but she needed to stay calm. She slumped down on the couch, concentrating on her breathing. Only when that was so regular it felt a bit therapeutic, she forced herself to come up with a plan. 

. . .

There was a heated blur in front of her eyes. With a bent head she sat on one of the couches in the club house. A few minutes ago she had told the men Kip hadn't come home last night and because he had left the clubhouse early, nobody believed he had ended up in bed with a Croweater. 

After what had happened on Christmas Eve, they all knew who was behind this. Some of them had squeezed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, but it didn't take long before they went to Chapel, leaving Cherry in silence. 

There was no one else. The prospects and backup from the other Charters sat all around the table. Exactly as Cherry had planned. Despite the fact that everything was going according to plan, it took a lot of effort to stand up and take the next step. This was her only plan. If she failed, she wouldn't know how to save Kip. And if she succeeded in doing what Maddox had told her, she was even so risking her life. 

The men would kill her. Kip would never want to see her again. But she had no choice; she couldn't abandon her boyfriend. He meant the world to her and she just hoped she could somehow save Kip and keep Dana away from Maddox at the same time. 

It was a million-to-one shot, maybe even worse than that. But it was all she had. Squaring her shoulders, she stood up. Her fingers were trembling as she walked to the hallway leading to the door behind which all the Sons had gathered. On a table in front of the door stood a basket in which all the men had left their phones before participating the meeting. She didn't know which one belonged to Kozik and she decided to just take all of them. 

She hid the basket underneath her zipped jacket and left the clubhouse in a hurry. As soon as she reached the parking lot, she started to run. To where, she didn't know. Her home would be the first place where they would start looking for her. 

Somewhere in an alley, a few blocks away from her house, she stood still. Feeling sick to the stomach, she took the phone that Maddox had given her. There was only one number in it. Her whole body was shaking as she pressed the green button and waited. 

"I... I have a plan," she mumbled. "But – but you have to take me away from here before they find me."

She walked a while back to see in what street she was hiding and gave him her location. Pacing up and down the narrow passage she waited. Her pants were covered with mud spatters as she dragged herself through the puddles as she waited, brooding. More than once she was about to run back to the clubhouse. Right when she could no longer bear the nerves, willing to give in, a black car stopped in front of her. 

Cherry swallowed and walked towards the vehicle. 

The back door opened on its own. Cherry forced herself to sat down on the backseat, her guts cramping as she realized Maddox himself had picked her up. 

"Where is she?" the man barked. He looked so wired that he seemed to be a different person than the man who had waited for her in the dark last night. A shiver crept down her spine. Suddenly she saw a man who couldn't control his anger and who could hurt someone for even the smallest thing. 

"I got their phones. In one of these I can find the number to contact her. I... I will go to her if you can get me to Mexico." She took a deep breath. "But I wanna see Kip first."

Only now, Maddox turned towards her. Suddenly the glacial mask was back, staring at her with a smug smile on his lips. "That can be arranged." Now he showed her a genuine smile, and the sight of it caused pangs in her stomach. "What part of him do you want to see? A finger? A toe?"