I let out a squeak as someone grabbed my arms, holding me in a firm grip. The hood was yanked up over my head. I blinked against the sudden glare of daylight.
"Am I interrupting anything?" A sly smile crept onto her face.
"Lila." Relief and embarrassment flooded through me. Of course it would be my half-sister I bumped into, and two of her boyfriends with her.
Hunter and Parker Brantley both gave me a bemused look.
I added, "Nothing good anyway."
Her smile faded quickly, expression becoming angry.
"Someone took you?" If there was anything my sister hated, it was a kidnapper. We had that in common, strangely enough.
"Looks like party time," Hunter said gleefully. He and Parker exchanged fist bumps before taking off after Tony. I turned in time to see the car squeal away, the door still open, waving with the momentum.
"Just another day in Dusk Bay," Lila remarked.
I snorted. "You could say that. I don't suppose you have a pair of scissors?" I twisted around so she could see the zip tie still around my wrists.
"As a matter of fact." She reached into her bag and pulled out a flick knife, which she opened and sliced the zip tie away.
I shook out my wrists and rubbed them, relieved they weren't bound anymore.
"Thanks. I've been meaning to speak to you anyway. I have an invitation for our Christmas party for you and your guys. I think attendance is mandatory according to Reuben."
"Of course it is," Parker said as he approached, barely puffing from the brief run. "We'll keep an eye out for whoever that asshole was."
"I don't suppose he said who hired them?” Lila asked, clearly knowing there was no chance in hell he would have.
"No," I said with a sigh. "I think this is about my guys. They were trying to trap them or something."
"You didn't have anything to do with this?" Before she could get angry, I quickly added, "Because you want to be the one to put on the Christmas party?" I gave her a lopsided smile to show I was joking.
She barked a laugh. "Hell no. I'll come because you're my sister. But I don't want anything to do with organising one." She draped an arm over my shoulder. "We'll figure this out, okay?"
I nodded. "I know we will."
"Here." She pulled out her phone and handed it to me, unlocking it so I could make a call.
Ice answered on the first ring.
"You're on your way to where?" I frowned. "I'm on my way there too."
I nodded to Lila and the twins. Something was definitely up and we might need all the help we could get.
EIGHT
ARES
"You know that feeling you get right before everything goes to hell?" I looked around me, peering through the trees in the direction of the park.
"I know it well," Ice agreed. "As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that's what the tingling in the back of my neck right now is. We should have told Kennedy to meet us at home."
"She was closer to here than she is to there," Mannix said, looking as unimpressed with the situation as we were. "She should be here in a minute or two."
"She better be," I growled.
I knew she'd save herself. She'd always been a badass. Sometimes I wondered what the hell she saw in us. Not that I wasn't going to let her go anyway, no matter what happened. Till death do us part and all that stuff. I didn't need a ring or a piece of paper to make that commitment to her. I just needed her.
