My heart lurches. “But… how? Anderson was half-dead, last I saw him.”
“Paris must have helped,” Bea says, her voice quiet.
I turn to her and Lilia. “So… you know?”
Lilia nods solemnly. “Liam filled us all in. On everything.”
I nod slowly, pressing a hand to my forehead. “Is Kai still gone? He really isn’t in the right state to be driving right now.”
Liam nods again. “That’s why we tried to stop him. That’s how this happened.”
He gestures to the gash on his cheek.
Kaihithim?
“Christian followed him,” Liam adds. “So hopefully he’ll keep us updated.”
I look at him then, really look at him. The swelling around his cheekbone is worse up close, and the look on his face… it’s so defeated. I part my lips. “Liam, are you—”
He cuts me off with a shake of his head. “It’s fine,” he says. “I don’t think he’s exactly… Kai right now.”
I glance down, my fingers twisting in the fabric of the blanket someone must’ve draped over me. “I don’t think he has been for a while,” I say honestly.
No one says anything to that.
When I finally look around, I see Gabriel across the room, pacing near the bay windows, one hand to his ear, the other pressed against the side of his neck. His expression is all tension and panic, his voice a strained whisper into the phone.
“Who’s he talking to?” I ask quietly.
Bea doesn’t look up. “The police. They’re looking for Kai.”
My chest tightens, and the couch spins beneath me.
I blink, willing the panic down, swallowing around the lump clawing up my throat.
What are you trying to do, Kai?
And then Liam’s phone starts to ring.
The shrill sound slices through the tension like a blade, and all of us flinch. He snatches it up, presses it to his ear, and mutters a quick, “Yeah?”
I sit forward, eyes locked on him, every inch of me straining toward the sound of his voice.
Liam’s brows pull together. “Wait, slow down. Where did you say he is now?” Liam stands slowly, one hand gripping the back of the armchair beside him. “He’s stopped?” he repeats, his voice low, wary.
“Yes, but—” he starts, but then stops suddenly. A pause. A sigh. And then he hangs up.
He turns back to us.
Every pair of eyes in the room is on him now.
Waiting.
Liam runs a hand through his hair, dragging his fingers roughly across the back of his neck. “Kai found them,” he says, voice flat. “Christian sent me their location.”
***
The car is silent.
