"Jesus," Caleb muttered, looking at Derek's ruined face. "What'd he do?"
"Put his hands on Amelia," I said.
That was all the explanation they needed.
Ethan stepped forward, holding out the duffel. "This work?"
I shoved Derek toward him. "Perfectly."
They moved with practiced efficiency.
Jacob zip-tied Derek's hands behind his back. Gideon gagged him with a towel from the bathroom. Caleb and Lucas folded his legs and stuffed him into the duffel, zipping it shut around him like he was luggage.
Ethan hefted the bag over his shoulder like it weighed nothing.
"Stairs?" he asked.
"Stairs," I confirmed.
We moved as a unit, six Montana Danes and one very uncomfortable passenger, taking the back stairwell down three flights and out through the side exit.
Nobody saw us.
Nobody stopped us.
By the time we reached the SUV waiting in the alley, Derek had gone quiet in the bag. Either unconscious or too terrified to make noise.
I didn't care which.
Ethan tossed the duffel into the back. Jacob climbed into the driver's seat. The rest of us piled in.
"Where to?" Jacob asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
"Dominion Hall," I said. "We need to talk to Dad about this mystery woman."
28
AMELIA
Ifloated down the hallway like my legs had disconnected from my brain.
Do what you need to do, I’d told him.
The elevator doors slid open. I stepped inside, stabbed the button for the lobby, and only when the doors closed did the adrenaline loosen enough for another feeling to rush in.
Heat.
It spread through me in a slow, stunned wave, starting in my chest and rolling outward until my fingertips tingled.
He’d walked up that hallway like a loaded weapon someone had finally taken the safety off. Calm. Controlled. Absolutely lethal.
For me.
I braced one hand on the elevator wall, suddenly aware of my own reflection in the brushed metal—wide eyes, blown pupils, mouth parted like I’d just run a sprint.
The scene replayed itself in my head on a loop: Derek’s fingers biting into my arm, the wrongness of it. The way myribs had locked, every self-defense course I’d ever taken cycling through options?—
And then Levi’s voice behind him, low and deadly:
