The Professor Wants Me and So Does My Bestfriend のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 281 - チャプター 287

Kaiden When morning came, I was more than ready to get this over with. I sat stiffly in the passenger seat of Bryan’s car, watching the trees roll by in a blur. My stomach churned from certainty. I knew what I saw. The crates, the men with guns, the chemicals in the air. It wasn’t a hallucination. I wasn’t losing my mind. “You sure this is the way?” Bryan asked, hands tight on the wheel. “Positive,” I muttered, barely blinking. “It’s past the ridge and down near the marsh. You’ll see it soon.” He didn’t respond. Typical cop quiet. But I felt his skepticism radiating off him like heat. And I didn’t blame him. What I was accusing his colleague of, no less was heavy and a little unbelievable. But I was done caring how it sounded. When we arrived, my heart dropped. The building stood exactly where I remembered it. Same walls. Same path. But everything else? Gone. The vans. The men. The crates. The smell of drugs and danger. All of it—gone. Clean. So clean, it was like it had

River I was spiraling since I was left alone with Sage. He hadn’t spoken in hours. His face was too pale. His breathing shallow, lips parted as if halfway between a dream and the edge of death. I knelt beside him, pressing my palm gently against his cheek. “Sage,” I whispered. Nothing. “Come on, dammit. Wake up.” I shook his shoulder softly, then harder. “You hear me? You don’t get to give up now.” Still, he didn’t move. The drug had done its job too well. I exhaled through clenched teeth, sinking back against the stone wall of the cell. I hated this place, hated the damp smell, the metallic taste of rust, the faint buzzing of fluorescent lights overhead that made it hard to tell if it was day or night. But I waited. I had to. We couldn’t run now. Not in daylight, not through the open woods. That would be suicide. We’d wait for night. Wait for the dark to cloak us like an ally. And then we’d run. I watched the window. Already knowing it's pointless. I’d already scanned the

River The engine roared beneath my hands like a beast unchained, and I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles went white. The tires screeched against the asphalt as I swerved onto the main road, heart pounding like a war drum inside my chest. Kaiden was in that car, bleeding, unconscious, slipping away by the second. And Raines was taking him to God knows what. My foot slammed harder against the gas. “You’re not getting away with this,” I muttered, eyes burning as the road twisted ahead. “Not this time.” The trees blurred past, and I leaned forward like I could will the car to go faster. I wasn’t thinking clearly, wasn’t thinking at all, honestly. I just saw Kaiden’s face when he crumpled to the ground. The way his body went limp in my arms. The blood in my hands and the instant fear that he won't make it. And now that bastard was running. Running with him. I gritted my teeth. Raines had already stolen too much from us, too much time, too much peace. He thought

River There are moments in life that feel like breathing again after being held underwater for too long. Moments that don’t announce themselves with fireworks or drama but with quiet, unwavering peace. This was one of them. The hospital room was bathed in warm afternoon light, the sound of faint birdsong slipping in through a cracked window. It was a rare kind of day—still, unrushed, and real. And I was alive to see it. Kaiden was sitting on the bed beside me, one leg propped up, a tray of half-eaten hospital pancakes in front of him. His hair was a mess, his stitches were healing, and his eyes still carried that untamed fire but it was softened now. Like the worst of the storm had passed, and he could finally breathe again. Sage sat curled up in the visitor chair, a blanket wrapped around him like a cocoon. He had color in his cheeks again. The bruises had faded. The shadows beneath his eyes weren’t as heavy. He was alive. He was safe. And somehow, despite everything, we were