I jolt awake to the feel of Clarke's hand squeezing my thigh. My eyes open and I take in our surroundings. It's dark outside except for the lights of the city. I can't help from looking around, scanning the outside of the car that is parked in a driveway. I feel like someone is watching us and in all actuality someone probably is. They've probably been watching us this entire time. I can't believe I let myself doze off.
"Bell, we're fine. You don't have to worry. We're here." She says giving my leg another squeeze. Her smile tells me that she trusts me while her eyes show her true fear.
"We'll only be fine when we're out of here." I say giving her a serious look.
"Be that as it may, they won't kill us…" She leaves out the silent "yet" that we both hear in our heads.
I look out at the house in front of us, if that's even what you can call it. It's more like a castle. It's enormous. There are at least four floors and it would easily fit my entire town comfortably. The white walls covered by vibrant, green ivy that I know is only there because they want it to be. There is an ornate gate in front of us blocking me view just a bit. It's so tall and slick looking that no one would be dumb enough to try and climb it. There is something definitely ominous about this place that makes my stomach churn. It takes all of my strength to not grab the steering wheel and get us the heck away from this place.
"Ready?" I ask with my hand on the door handle.
"No." Clarke says giving me a small smile.
"Sounds about right to me." I laugh and open my door.
I walk around the front of her car to her door and open it up for her. I do it more out of knowing that we both need to be next to the other rather than out of some old fashioned sense of chivalry. She takes my outstretched hand with her slightly shaking one. She slides her hand up to wrap her arm around mine and leans close to my ear.
"This is Kane's place. He'll probably make us stay her for a few days until he believes that he can trust us. Then he should let us move to our own place." She whispers. I can tell from her tone of voice that she's warning me to behave or else.
"Don't worry, I won't snap his neck or shoot him. Yet." I whisper back and she smiles before giving me a scolding look.
"I'm sure he'd appreciate that." She whispers and the feel of her breath on my neck makes me almost forget that we're walking into a prison.
"Clarke!" The voice makes both of us jump. It's directly behind us. I turn around to face non-other than Cage, the man who tried to get Clarke to kill me. The man who is going to be my child's uncle.
"Cage, hey." She says in a kind voice and releases me to hug him. "It's been too long. How have you been?"
"A lot better than you miss prego." He says and winks.
My jaw drops open. Who the heck are these people and what happened to the mobster-I-want-to-kill-you siblings that I first met?
"Ah, look at that sister." Cage motions towards me as I am still trying to close my mouth. "I think we broke him. Wait. You told him already, right? I didn't just ruin a moment or something, right?"
"No, Cage, I already told him. He's fine. It's just probably hard for him to see us being so kind to each other that's all." She says as if reading my mind. It terrifies me how well she knows me. It hits me not for the first time just how easily she could hurt me.
"Well Bell." Cage chuckles as he slaps me on the shoulder. "Rhymes."
It hits me that he really might not be right in the head.
"Sorry, it's been a really long month." He says after I give him a confused look. "Anyway, let's go inside so you can meet the family."