Should I call them?
The brothers.
Ryker, who had the tactical mind of a soldier and the instincts of a predator. Marcus, who didn’t flinch in a crisis—whose hands could cradle or destroy depending on what the moment required. Elias, with his soft eyes and hard resolve. Noah, who could read a situation ten moves ahead. Charlie, the quiet strategist with a temper no one ever saw until it exploded. Atlas, with that steady stare, always calculating.
They would want to know. They wouldneedto know.
And they’d come. I didn’t doubt it for a second. Not one of them would leave Silas alone in the lion’s mouth, no matter how badly he wanted to handle it himself.
I should call.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and opened my contacts. My hands trembled as I tapped Ryker’s name. It rang once. Then twice. A sharp crackle came through the speaker. Then silence.
“Portia?” His voice was faint, distorted, like it was traveling from the bottom of a well.
“Yes—it’s me,” I whispered, pressing the phone harder to my ear, heart hammering.
“Where are—what—Silas?—?”
Static. Then a snap like a wire breaking.
“I’m at—Blackthorn—Caroline’s plan. It’s—Ryker, I think it’s bad—” I got out in a rush, before the signal splintered again.
Another voice in the background, too muffled to place. Then Ryker: “Stay—don’t move—Portia, listen to me?—”
The line went dead.
“No—no, no, no?—”
I stared at the screen as the call dropped completely. One bar. Then none.
I tried again, redialed, heart in my throat.
Call failed.
Of course.
I tossed the phone into the seat next to me with a frustrated breath, my fingers digging into the leather-wrapped steering wheel like I could squeeze the panic out through pressure alone.
At least he knew. At least one of them knew.
But it didn’t feel like enough. Not with Silas inside a house that looked like a mausoleum for the damned. Not when my gut twisted tighter with every passing second.
I leaned forward, straining my eyes against the dark, willing myself to hear something—anything.
All I heard was the sound of my own breath, and the rising drumbeat of my pulse.
Stay in the car, the man had said.
Stay safe.
Stay still.
Seconds passed. Then a minute. Then three.
The silence buzzed in my ears.
And then?—
