Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Forty-Two

Naomi

I followed Brooklyn from the window as she pushed Deacon's bed to the side. She tapped the ground with her foot and a section of floorboard raised up. She pried it open just enough for us to shimmy through.

"You first." She said quietly. "Just think of wearing a corset and you'll get through."

"I got shot in the shoulder not long ago." I told her. "That hurt way worse than a damned corset. I can suck up the pain."

"You got shot?" She asked as she pushed me through the floorboard. I shimmied and heard her follow me, her feet kicking me as she'd climbed the opposite way so she could shut the trap door. Once the hatch sealed she pushed a button and I heard a groaning sound from above and froze. "It's just the bed moving back to it's place."

"Yes I got shot." I say as I crawled. "Anthony sent some goons to try and kill me."

"He wants you alive though."

I huffed. "Apparently some of his people didn't get that memo. The stupid bullets were poisoned too. Sebastian had an antidote in one of the safe houses and I came around not long after. It still hurts like a son of a bitch though."

"Glad you're alive. I'd hate to find a new friend." She groaned from behind me. "Shouldn't be much longer until you-"

I screamed as I fell off the edge of the little passageway onto hard concrete. Brooklyn jumped down and was at my side, helping me stand. "Sorry, should've told you about that."

I was about to wave off her apology when I noticed she grimaced and sucked in her left cheek. "Why do you keep doing that?" I whispered as she led us down a hall. There were no harsh footsteps behind us, we hadn't been followed. "Are you okay?"

Brooklyn was silent for a long minute before she spoke so quietly I almost didn't hear her. "Anthony wanted answers. He captured Natalie and me and when she didn't have the answers he wanted, he tortured me to try and get her to speak."

Anthony had managed to capture Natalie? He'd tortured Brooklyn for information about me? He wanted Natalie to talk? Did she sell me out?

I had stopped walking. Brooklyn read my face. "Natalie didn't rat you out. Amara had been overheard when talking to Sebastian on the radio. That's how he knew where to find you. Natalie tried keeping him in the dark."

"She didn't betray me?" I had to clarify just to settle my thoughts inside my head. "She tried to help me?"

"It's what she swore to do."

I stepped closer to Brooklyn, brushing against her arm. I looked her in the eye. "So did Curtis. And many others. It's hard for me to know who to trust right now."

Guilt flashed in her eyes at my words. It seemed she'd nearly forgotten that those people had hunted me down and probably were still trying to hunt me down at this very moment. "Sorry." She murmured. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all."

That made two of us.

"Where are we going?" I asked after I followed Brooklyn down a hall. There were no sounds around us, only complete silence. It sent shivers down my spine and made my shoulder ache, I rubbed at it to try and soothe the pain.