Dangerous

Chapter Thirty: Anna is back

I pull into the motel and curse. The pain in my ankle has increased tremendously. Justin must have seen the bullet-holes in my car from the window or something because he comes running out, looking mortified. "Ariana!" He shouts. He opens the car door for me.

"What happened?" He pants, looking me over to make sure I'm okay.

"I jumped out a window." I wince, rolling up my leggings to see my ankle is blue and swollen.

Justin swallows. "Come on. Let's get you inside." He takes my hand. I step out -being stupid- on my injured foot and fall to the ground, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out.

Justin looks worried. He bends down next to me, puts one arm under my legs, the other across my back, and carries me inside.

He sets me on one of the beds. Cole łstands up. "What happened?" He demands.

Justin hushes him and grabs the first aid kit from the wall. He checks my ankle over.

He presses on it and I hiss in pain, forcing away the instinct to kick him.

"I think you sprain it. You're lucky it's not broken."

"I can't afford to have a sprain ankle!" I groan. "We need to get out of here! The Q Team could be here any minute- and it won't be a friendly visit either!"

Justin pulls out his phone as he gets a text. "It's Anna," he says. "She says she's quit the A Team and wants to join us for protection."

I bite my lip. "Does she have a place to stay?"

"She's at a motel in Spring," Justin answers, still staring at his phone.

"That's perfect," I sigh. "Tell her to send the address. We're going."

"Are you sure?" Cole asks. "It could be a trap. How do we know he's not in on it?" He gestures to Justin.

I look at Justin in the eye and realize I don't fully trust him. Shaking my head, I say, "we don't."

Looking hurt, Justin turns away from me and begins to gather his stuff.

While I wrap my ankle with a wrap from the first aid kit, the boys get packing.

When they're done, Cole insists on carrying me to the car. He sets me down in the front seat and Justin gets in the driver's seat.

"Hurry," I say, buckling my seatbelt. "I'm surprised they're not here yet."

Justin hits the gas and we're off.

"How long until my ankle is healed?" I ask Justin as we're driving on the highway.

"I have some salve in the first aid kit to help it. With the salve, I'd say a couple days."

I groan. How am I supposed to get to Quinn with an injured ankle?

We arrive at the motel. It's hidden further in the forest and Anna is outside waiting outside for us. She waves as we pull up. Sighing, I get up, denying Cole's offer to help me.

I refuse to look weak in front Anna.

She opens the door of us, helping Justin with one of the bags.

I limp inside and sit on one of the two beds.

Justin sets the stuff down and comes over to me. "Let me put that medicine on your ankle."

I nod and he grabs the first aid kit. He kneels next to me, rolls up my leggings, takes off my shoe and examines the injury before squeezing white gooey stuff onto his hand and massages it over my ankle and foot.

The stuff has an icy, relaxing feel to it and I sigh with pleasure. He chuckles. "Go ahead and lay back."

I do as he says and lay down as he continues to gently rub my foot and ankle.

"You don't trust me, huh?" He asks, glancing up at me.

I push myself onto my elbows to look at him, but he's avoiding my gaze. "It's not personal. I don't trust anyone."

"But you trust Cole." He tries to hide the bitterness in his voice, but I detect it easily.

My eyes wander over to Cole, who is warily watching Anna from a chair in the corner of the room.

"Yes," I say softly. "I trust Cole."

"What's he done to make you trust him?"

Anna suddenly sits next to me, her usual flowery aroma that she has had for forever overflows my senses, and I open my eyes.

"Hey," she says softly. "I just wanted to apologize about...you know. I'm not on the A Team anymore and don't really have anything against you.....anymore."

"Apology accepted."

"Really?" She raises her eyebrows.

"Yeah. Don't worry, people trying to kill me is normal."

She pursed her lips. "Well....alright, then." She gets up and turns on the TV.

I sit up. "Thank you," I tell Justin, smiling slightly.

He smiles at me, takes my other shoe off for me, and kisses my cheek. "No problem."

I scrunch my nose at him. "I'm gonna be stuck inside for a couple days, which sucks."

"Well, maybe next time you shouldn't jump out of a window," Justin chuckles.

"Yeah," Cole butts in. "What exactly happened?"

I sigh. "Well..." I tell them everything that happened and Justin grabs my hand through it, making sure Cole can't see.

I finish and even Anna looks impressed.

"Well. At least you made it out," Cole says, furrowing his brows worriedly.

I sigh. I don't know how I'll ever know which one of them I love most.