I remembered the way Mila had said it then, tight with fear. And hearing it now, with Avery limp in Jax’s arms earlier, it landed different. “Yeah. I remember.”
Mila’s voice dropped lower. “She shifted targets. It was always about tearing us apart. Luke, she doesn’t need it to make sense. She just needs us to crumble.”
The truth of it sliced deep. Elise wasn’t reckless. She was surgical. Avery had been the easiest way to land the blow.
“Then we don’t give her what she wants,” I said, though it felt more vow than a plan. “But Jax, her parents and Chase will be here. You need to go before it turns into another scene.”
Jax finally turned from Avery, eyes bloodshot, voice hoarse. “I’m not leaving her.”
“You can’t be here when her parents arrive,” Theo said quietly, the first words he’d spoken since the car. “You know what they’ll think.”
Jax bristled, muscles coiling. “I don’t care.”
“You should,” Avery rasped, her eyes slitting open again. Her voice was weak but steady enough to cut through. “Jax. If you stay, they’ll see doubt before they see me. Don’t let Elise win twice.”
The fight in him broke on that. He looked wrecked, but he leaned down, pressing her hand to his chest. “I’ll be outside. Don’t forget that.”
Her smile read tired but real. “Wouldn’t dare.”
Jax stood, every movement reluctant, his hand slipping from Avery’s only when he had to. Mila caught his arm, steadying him before the fight could flare again. “We’ve got it,” she told him quietly, then her gaze lifted to me. “Luke will handle the rest.”
The look she pinned me with left no room for argument. It wasn’t a suggestion—it was an order. And she was right. My name was the one on the wing. The one the hospital staff would answer to. The one the Dunns would think twice before crossing.
“Fine.” The word came sharper than I intended, but I held it steady. “I’ll deal with them.”
Theo nodded once, grim, already moving toward the door to make sure Jax didn’t circle back.
The room quieted, monitors ticking steady, Avery’s breathing evening out. But the relief was paper-thin, already tearing.
The clock was running. Once Chase walked through those doors, careful wouldn’t matter—truth would.
I looked at Mila, her face pale under the fluorescent light, but her chin lifted, fierce.
“We need to tell him everything,” I said. “Before Elise does.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LUKE
Avery had been cleared from the hospital overnight—no lasting damage, just orders to rest. Her parents took her home for the weekend, a reset none of them were ready for. By Monday morning, she’d had enough forced rest and family time and escaped to Mila’s before school. That left me with the other fracture to face—Chase hadn’t been seen since the hospital.
Gulls cut across a gray sky. The boards beneath me still carried last night’s cold, the pier groaning with each shift of weight. Salt stung the air, the tide gnawing at the pylons in a steady grind.
Drew popped into my head, his advice sage in a moment like this:“Keep your head down. Don’t let emotion screw the play.”
I got to the pier first, hands shoved into my hoodie, breath fogging in the morning chill. The planks creaked behind me—footsteps steady, unhurried. I didn’t turn until he stopped a few feet away.
Chase looked wrecked—knuckles split, jaw ticking as if he could grind last night into dust. His eyes stayed on the water, anywhere but me.
“You want to hit me too?” My tone stayed even, not a dare—just an opening.
He kept his eyes on the water. “I already swung.”
“Yeah. At the one guy who let you. Jax took it so you wouldn’t have to carry it afterward. He could’ve put you on the ground, and you know it. But he didn’t.”
His mouth pressed thin. “He should’ve come to me.”
“Yeah.” No point softening it. “He was going to, but Elise’s minions changed the timeline.” The old bolts in the pier groaned under my weight. “You know him. You’ve trusted him for years. He let you land those hits because he respects you. Because he respects Avery. That counts.”
