"Riley." I repeated, the shock that exploded from my chest making the words come out in a gurgle.

"Savannah." He echoed, stepping in after casting a glance down either sides of the corridor.

"How could you?" I whispered, easing myself as far away from the man as I possible could. "They trusted you - you're a brother to them."

"It's more complicated than you think." He narrowed his eyes at me and pursed his lips, the wrinkles in his forehead defining even more with the expression.

"How?" I pressed, wishing I could curl up and disappear from the hole I was in. "How could it be any more complicated. You betrayed them. Betrayed me.

"Actually I went undercover to try and assist getting Stella out of here. I only revealed information that was relatively harmless."

"Relatively." I arched a brow at him, my anger causing the lump in my throat to grow.

"You would have never been in here. That was never my intention. You made that choice."

"You can't tell him. Jace I mean."

A pregnant pause, his form growing more rigid.

"I have to, Savannah. He's still like a brother to me, even if he has no clue what I've been doing for the past couple of months."

"This is one my chance of getting out!" I exploded, the words echoing down the hallway. "You're not taking that away from me."

"He loves you." Riley insisted, taking a step forward. "You leaving is going to destroy him. Just like Stella's disappearance."

"That's bullshit." I spat out. "He got what he wanted. I was never more than a pawn and a warm body to him."

"You know that's not true." He shook his head insistingly. "You were so much more."

"And look where that got us. The amount of hurt it's caused." My teeth sank into my bottom lip, my hands subconsciously rubbing at the chains still wrapped around my wrists. "None of it was worth it."

"But you love him." He whispered, though the sentence was spoken carefully, almost hesitantly.

"Yes." I softly replied, not wanting to show him the anguish on my face. "But sometimes that's not enough."

"I hate seeing you in here." His eyes moved around the room, taking in the dirty walls and uncomfortable surfaces. "I actually do consider you to be a friend."

"Then what are you doing here?" I pried, desperately wanting to understand why someone I had trusted had betrayed me.

"Because, I needed this. I wanted to protect them. We all love Stella."

"I still don't believe you're not a traitor." I muttered, casting another dark glance his way.

"Why would I betray someone who treats me so good?" He questioned after a long pause. "Jace has never done anything wrong to me and he pays us well. He takes care of us."

His answer left me confused and I only sunk closer to the wall I huddled against.

"What's going to happen now?" There was no strength left in me for even the fear to show in my voice.

"I can't let him hurt you." He hesitated, "But, I don't know how to stop him without blowing the cover. I would never be able to get both of us out of here."

"I don't think you understand." I sat up straighter, my eyes narrowing into his dark gaze. "I don't want to go back to that. I don't want to have to - to have to resent all of you for taking a part of my life away. I want to live and feel free. Even if that freedom is just an illusion. Take what I did as a gift and leave it at that."

"I can't be sure you're going to be safe, for sure." He looked so torn, his lips pressing into a thin line. "There is no way of telling."

"And I'm willing to take that risk, Riley." I murmured back, standing up. "Look at me. I'm not me anymore. Did you know I like to paint and that I could spend my whole lifetime reading? I haven't had time to be myself in months."

I wish he could've understood the pain that this was causing me. "I need to find myself again. I love him. I love all of you, but I can't it anymore. Can't you see I'd risk it all for freedom? Cause I c can't do it anymore, I'll break."

Riley sucked in a harsh breath. His gaze was hard. "I would never forgive myself if you die."

Though, as I opened my mouth to reply, the harsh sound of a door slamming open sent bolts of adrenaline sending through us both.

"Go!" I rushed forward, knowing he needed to get out of here, before he brought suspicion to himself. I shoved him out, shutting the door as I silently as I could manage.

"I'm sorry." He reached out to tough his fingers to my hand, released a shuddering breath, and then took off in the opposite direction that the noise had been sent from.

"Oh, Savannah!" A chilling voice cried. "Boss requested you."

Nerves instantly shot up my spine, causing my frame to become even more rigid. The clomping of his footsteps, each one becoming louder as they neared my cell, reminded me of the ticks before a bomb went off.

"What does he need?" My hands twisted into fists.

"Time to finish the last part of the deal. And then your freedom." The man finally came into my vision, greasy hair and eyes that sent terror into my gut. He gripped the chains on my wrists and yanked me forward.

I clamped down on my tongue, refusing to cry out, even thought the bruises on my wrist were so tender that I could have cried.

We only walked down another hallway before he was pulling me to a stop and pulling out a syringe. "We need to inject you with this before you go in." He began to ready for the process, setting the needle on a windowsill and positioning my so it was just right.

"What is this?" I didn't try to fight. I knew I had no chance. My life was in their hands.

"Sedation." He answered shortly. "You'll pass out in about five'. Enough time to let Jace see what he has to see."

He stabbed the syringe into my arms and my lip bled with how hard I bit down on it. The metallic taste flooded my mouth, reminding me that more blood would be undoubtedly shed to make Jace believe that ruse that Ricardo had killed me.

Stuffing the empty container back into his pocket, he nudged me forward to a steel door. "In you go."

It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the lighting in the room. The room was sparse of much furniture, only a wooded chair with leather straps placed in the middle of the room and a large projector, which was currently displaying Jace's carefully controlled face onto the wall.

I resisted the urge to lunge back, shock playing it's role in numbing my legs at the sight of him. He looked tired, but other than that he looked normal. There was only a few other people standing off to the side. Ricardo was facing the screen, his legs drawn in a powerful stance, his lips drawn in a seemingly permanent smirk.

"And here is the guest of honor." The man turned to me, that hideous smirk made my stomach lurch. "Go ahead and sit her down."

I was prodded towards the chair, pushing in it before someone finally released the chains holding my wrist. The area was red and angry, and several cuts had appeared over the hours. The chains were quickly replaced with the straps.

I was quickly becoming lightheaded. It occurred to me that the sedation he had given me, was beginning to work and I mentally fought against it's effects.

"What do you want?" Jace's voice was emotionless, though I could tell from his shoulders that he was tense, rigid.

"Nothing. This. I want your pain. Mike, go ahead."

Before I had time to even react, a fist came whizzing towards my face with such force that I couldn't hold in my cry. Pain exploded over my right cheek as my head slammed against the back of the seat. I could feel something wet began to drip down my neck instantly.

The world had instantly become more woozy and I slumped further, as far as my restraints could let me.

"Fuck!" Jace had stood up. "What do you want? The blueprints? They're fucking yours."

"Too late," Another joyous laugh from Ricardo as the man yanked my head back, tracing my neck with a knife. "I don't care for those anymore. This is all I need."

I honed in on Jace's face, focusing on the beauty of it instead of the weapon against my throat. His usually carefully-controlled and emotionless face was beginning to show stress, the lines in his forehead deepening. His eyes had taken on a redness I didn't recognize. The bags underneath his eyes were deepened with mottled purple. "Don't"

But it was too late, because the knife slipped across my throat and blackness infused.

The last thing I saw was Jace's tortured expression before my eyes slammed shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Don't." A rough voice woke me, dragging something cold over my face. "Gentle."

I moaned lowly, unable to comprehend what was happening. My mind was so foggy, producing a meager thought felt like rocket science. Pain flared all over my body as I slowly became more aware of my surroundings.

I was on... a bed?

My eyes flickered, the dim lights on even enough to blind me and through my blurry eyes I could see Greg, ringing out a cloth.

"You're done. You did it." He whispered, dragging the rag over my forehead. "Tomorrow were getting out of here. Private jet and you'll never have to look back. As soon as you woke up, he said."

"How bad is it?" I managed to choke out. The world was still spinning and I ached, ached more than I imagined I would be. "Bruised wrist, lashes, fifteen stitches, and a couple of bruises." He seemed reluctant to explain the extent of my injuries. "And then the cut on your neck. Ricardo didn't even know it was going to be that deep and he damn near killed you. I swear I didn't know he would-"

"It's okay." I murmured, exhaustion weighting heavily on my mind. I wanted to forget.

"How long have I been out?" I questioned. I coughed lightly, the dryness in throat more evident as I became more aware of my surroundings. My neck twinged painfully and I winced. The tightness of it quickly made me more aware of the injury I had sustained. "Water?"

He heard my croak and quickly reached out to the table next to me, grabbing a glass of water that was there. He pressed the straw to my lips, muttering a low. "Careful."

"Three weeks. "

I think my eyes popped out of my skull, though he quickly urged me to slowly keep drinking. "It was really bad, Savannah. We almost lost you. You just need to recover now."

I was still astounded, though I couldn't deny the water felt amazing.

"I'm not letting Riley near you. Not anymore. Ricardo let most of his men believe you died, except for his ranked. So , Riley..." He trailed off, though I instantly understood what he didn't want to say.

My thoughts took a painful turn at the mention of Riley. He brought back memories of-

No.

He was in the past.

"You don't deserve this lifestyle."

I dropped the straw and bit my lip, before looking down at the bed covers.

"So it worked? Jace and everyone believed"

"They got it." That was all he allowed me to have and for that I was somewhat thankful. "Do you need anything more for the pain? I can call the doc in." Greg changed the subject quickly, setting the glass back down before wetting the rag again. "He'll probably want to check everything over soon."

His eyes were guarded, as if he didn't was hiding something I didn't know. I watched him warily.

"I'm fine." I didn't want Ricardo to have the satisfaction of knowing that I was hurting. So bad that it almost was painful to breath.

He watched me with knowing eyes, as if he was fully aware that I was just refusing them because of my pride.

"You had a pretty bad fever, but it broke. You will be taking medicine, at least." I could tell by his voice that it wasn't an option. I nodded, managing to roll my eyes.

"Savannah."

The way his voice hesitated on my name had my neck snapping up. His words were different, soft, regretful, and undeniably sad.

"You need to know something."

"What?" My fingers clenched around the sheets, gripping the fabric tightly as dread made its way up my throat. My wrist throbbed threateningly but I ignored it, instead focusing on the man in front of me. "Tell me."

"I didn't want to tell you like this. I didn't want you to have to face this too. But, I can't keep this to myself."

The conflict was painted across his face; the hesitancy. He reached out, gripping my hand tightly in between his big ones.

"You're pregnant."