I didn’t know what to do. He said to wait, but for how long. I couldn’t sit around for too long. What if he never came back?

I sucked in my breath as pain sliced through me. He said he’d protect me, but if he never came back, did that mean I was on my own? Either way, I’d been away from Mallory for too long. She needed to know that we would need to make our own decisions. We’d have to leave. That was all there was. It was the last resort, but we were out of choices. Carter had been a long shot. I could see that now.

When I stepped out of the penthouse, there was no guard. That only reaffirmed my decision. Carter had changed his mind. We were on our own.

When I got into the elevator, I remembered that we hadn’t come from the lounge so I wasn’t sure which button to push. There was a B and a 1, so I pushed the B to take me to the bottom floor. We had come in from the nightclub, a back entrance. I didn’t think I could find my way back that way, but when the doors slid open, I saw that I was still lost. B didn’t stand for bottom floor. It was the basement. I stepped out but then thought better of it—too late. The elevator closed behind me, and when I pushed the button again, it didn’t open back up again. After waiting another five minutes, I realized the doors weren’t going to open so I turned to peruse the basement.

Standard basement. Grey cement, big posts, and lots of shiny expensive-looking cars. I walked down an aisle and caught sight of a red sign in the far corner. Exit. With a sigh of relief, I headed that way. When I got to the door, it was massive and heavy, but I pushed through. I found another small set of stairs in front of me and felt a bit like Dorothy with the yellow-bricked road. However, as I went up two flights of stairs, I heard sounds from the street coming from behind an un-marked door. I shoved it open, slipped through, and found myself in a back alley. Heading to the closest road, I was where I had been two nights ago. There was a line to get into Octave. I recognized a few of the same people in that line, even the two girls who had hoped to get picked up by celebrities. They had the same eager look of desperation on their faces. One of them eyed me up and down, but as a sneer came to her face, I turned and walked the other way. I didn’t need to return to Octave. I had already gotten my answer.

I took a cab, and when it pulled in front of Ben’s, I heaved a deep breath. I didn’t want to go in there. I didn’t want to look in her eyes and see the agony that Jeremy had put in them. I didn’t want to tell her that we would need to leave, but I had to. There was no other choice.

Since the door was locked, I knocked.

Ben swept open the door, a fierce scowl on his face. “Where the f**k have you been?”

I cringed.

He had a butcher knife in his hand with a death grip.

“Have you had problems?”

“Oh, you mean Mallory’s nightmares and blood-curdling screams? No. No problems at all, except wait. You! Her roommate and best friend took off, didn’t tell us where you was going, and she thought you had deserted her.” After I stepped inside, he slammed the door shut. His scowl deepened. “Nice f**king friend you are, Emma.”

“Emma?”

A timid whimper came from the living room. Mallory stood there, wrapped in a blanket. Her hair was messed, some of it stood up and the other side was frizzy. There were bags underneath her eyes and her lip, still bruised from him, started to tremble.

“Mallory.” I wrapped my arms around her. I wanted to reassure her that we’d be alright. No matter how far we had to go, we’d be alive.

Her whole body started to shake as I hugged her. More sobs came out, and I could only hold her tighter. My hand smoothed her hair as I rocked her back and forth.

She grabbed onto me. Her hands formed into fists around my shirt. As tight as I was holding her, she clung to me even tighter. “Please don’t leave again.”

I shook my head. “I won’t. I promise.”

Ben stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching us. His scowl softened and showed his fear. Then his eyes darkened into something that looked like panic before he turned away. The sink was turned on later and sounds of doing the dishes came next.

“She hasn’t been sleeping much.” I saw Amanda in the bedroom doorway. She gave me a sad smile, but I saw the same exhaustion that Ben had. She was in a blue tee shirt and a different pair of jeans. When she noticed that I was looking at her clothes, she lifted a shoulder up before she crossed her arms over her chest. “I went to work yesterday and grabbed some clothes for everyone.” She glanced towards the kitchen. “Ben didn’t go in. He was too scared to leave her. Every time she tries to sleep, she only gets an hour. Always wakes up screaming from what…,” she hesitated, “he did to her.”

Ben cleared his voice behind us. A towel was clenched in both of his hands now. “Can you get her to sleep a little?”

Amanda looked back at me. She shifted on her feet, uncomfortably. “She needs you or me to be with her. I’ve been…” She glanced over her shoulder at Ben. “Ben’s tried, but she won’t let him touch her. So I’ve been…”

I got it. My stomach twisted, but I nodded and led Mallory towards the bedroom. After an hour of lying in bed with her, holding her, she fell asleep. I waited another hour to make sure she stayed asleep. Her breaths were even and deep so I snuck out. When I went to the kitchen, Ben looked exhausted in a chair. His shoulders drooped down, and he had bags under his own eyes. A cup of coffee sat in front of him, but when I touched it, it was cold.

His coffee pot was empty. “You want another pot started?”

He jerked his head up, as if seeing me for the first time. “Oh. Uh. Yeah. Thanks.” He ran a hand over his face, waking himself up. “She’s asleep?”

I dumped the little bit of coffee left down the sink and refilled it with water. “Yeah. It took an hour.”

He nodded.

“Is Amanda still here?”

“No.” The exhaustion had turned into a glaze over his eyes. “She went home for a break. She’ll be back tomorrow. I think she said something about getting new clothes or something.”

After pouring the water in his coffee pot, I rummaged through his cupboards, looking for his coffee grounds. “And maybe food.” His cupboards were sparse except the huge bin of ground coffee beans. I put two healthy scoops in the machine and hit the button. It wasn’t long before it started to gurgle to life.