“Little bird.” His arms come up to wrap around me before he pulls me in, damned near crushing me as I finally break out in a watery laugh. “Emery will be safe,” he breathes.
No more creed. No more compound.
Senator Denver steps forward, her mouth moving, but I can barely hear her through my light-headedness. I sink back down into the uncomfortable wooden seat, dropping my face into my hands as I gulp in breaths.
Her words finally sink in, and I snap my head up. “What did you say?”
Luc, Max and Nik instantly go on the alert.
She grins widely at me. “I said, there’ll be an investigation into your father as part of the next steps. He was supposed to be here today, but he must have left.”
Her smile falters as she picks up on our tension. “What’s the matter? Ava?”
Fear tastes like ashes on my tongue. “Luc,” I rasp. “Have you heard from Bastien?”
Luc pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Nothing.”
I stagger upright. “We need to go. Right now.”
Luc turns to Denver. “Can you have our car brought around? Right now, please.”
“I- of course.” She walks over to a guard, muttering instructions.
I press at my chest, wishing more than anything that I had Bastien’s bitemark and he had mine. Luc stabs at the phone, holding it up to his ear and cursing. “It’s ringing out.”
Nikolai and Max close in, their faces tight as I swallow down my panic.
“He could be with Emery and Leo,” I offer weakly. Luc nods, but he doesn’t look convinced.
There’s no way Bastien wouldn’t be tracking every second of this. There’s no way he wouldn’t pick up the phone.
Unless he can’t.
“The twins,” I breathe. “Nash.”
Bastien. Leah.
Nikolai’s face pales. I start moving towards the door in a daze as Luc clears a path. People crowd in, offering congratulations, but I can’t focus on them. My heart is thrumming, my pulse beating heavily.
The joy I felt just a few moments ago has vanished, smothered by a wave of sheer panic.
We emerge into pandemonium. The crowd has swelled into a baying mass, hysterical shouting hitting my ears painfully as we push through the throng with the help of a few guards. Luc slides into the driver’s seat as I dive into the back, Max and Nik following me as he hits the gas and pulls off.
My vision goes black as I struggle to pull in a breath. Max places his hand on my back. “Breathe, love,” he begs. “We’ll be there soon. They’re probably fine.”
But I know my father.
Stone wouldn’t miss out on a chance to get at me.
Not unless he could get tothem.
ChapterSeventy-Two
Ava
The gates at the edge of our land are wide open. Nikolai lets loose a furious growl.
Nash. Leo. Emery. Bastien. Leah.
