And I know better than to soften just because someone gave me a sliver of kindness. A flicker of accountability. It doesn’t change the fact that he and his friends dug up my bones and shredded what little peace I had left. But still…
It’s something.
Enough to calm me down. Just a little.
“I know the three of you are bad guys, Cassian,” I say finally. “You don’t need to tell me that.”
Trusting them would be the worst mistake I could make.
The very worst.
And I thought I’d made that clear from the start.
But he just turns to look at me, his eyes suddenly heartbreakingly sad, sadder than I’ve ever seen them. His brows knit together, and in that moment, he looks like someone else entirely. A stranger.
“Is that so?” he says. “Because you had me convinced otherwise.”
And I can’t tell if he regrets saying it… or if he’s quietly asking me not to stop.
The moment we turn onto the Candy Maker's street, it’s immediately obvious that we’re in way over our heads.
The entire block is swarming with police.
And this isn’t some routine patrol or a couple of cruisers idling on the curb. No. This is an active crime scene. Yellow tape slices across the lawn like a barricade, and uniformed officers move in sharp, efficient lines, snapping photographs, bagging evidence, talking into radios. A few stand in clusters, their faces drawn, their notepads filling fast. A black SUV sits at the curb, its engine humming low, the emblem of the Major Crimes Unit stamped on the side.
I exhale, part groan, part bitter laugh. “Of course it can’t be easy.”
Cassian pulls over three houses down, tucking us behind an overgrown hedge. He cuts the engine and grips the steering wheel, jaw tense as his eyes track the movement up ahead.
“It never is,” he mutters under his breath. “But this… this is worse than I expected.”
“My God,” I whisper, stomach twisting. “There’s no way we can get inside now. They’ll spot us the moment I step onto the porch.” I tap my finger against my knee, mind racing. “How the hell did they get here so fast? Did you guys leave something behind? A trail? Did they track us?”
“No,” he answers without hesitation. “We were thorough. The house was cleaned, the body’s gone, the weapon’s destroyed. They’re not here because of us. That much I’m sure of.”
I blink at him, struggling to piece it together. “Then why—?”
He gestures toward Laura Collins’ house, his voice tight. “They must’ve opened up her case. Someone tipped them off about her crimes. They got a warrant, went inside, and found her stash in the basement. Once that happened, protocol kicked in. Full sweep. They’ll collect every shred of evidence. This kind of operation can take days. And with what she had hidden down there, I guarantee forensics is already crawling all over it. They’re probably combing through every inch right now.”
My stomach twists into a cold, heavy knot.
If forensics is tearing that house apart piece by piece, how long before they find something, anything, that ties back to us? Even the smallest mistake, a hair, a fiber, a single drop of blood, one partial DNA sample, and it’s over.
And that’s not even the worst part.
My mind flashes to the crash site just a few blocks from here—the broken glass, the blood, the witnesses who saw three men fight for their lives in the middle of the night. The security cameras on nearby porches. The traffic cams at the intersections. If the police start connecting those pieces, Laura’s house, the crash, the strange abandoned car, they’ll have a trail leading straight to us. And once they have a trail, they won’t stop pulling.
The panic builds in my chest, sharp and hot.
Cassian’s eyes flick over to me, reading my thoughts.
“We were careful,” he says. “Nathaniel knows what he’s doing when it comes to cleaning up traces.”
“But the car,” I say, my voice tight. “What about the car?”
“Most likely, it’s already been moved,” he replies. “The medics would’ve logged it as abandoned since there were no patients on scene. No victims to transport. Without anyone there, it doesn’t raise flags.”
I shake my head, the words barely helping. “Even with the blood inside?”
