“Don’t play dumb, Carpenter. You might be a slut, but you’re not stupid. You are the one who’s been meeting with him, privately, for weeks. You’re the one who hepersonallyrequested to stay in Ember Hollow to stay close to him. Now, he’s suddenly escaped from the county jail where you met with him every week?”
The blood drained from my face. “You think I had something to do with it?” Dizziness crashed over me.
“I don’t believe in coincidences. You have always had a soft spot for criminals. Even the worst of them.” He looked disgusted as he stared at me, his labored, hot breaths washing over my face. “What the hell did you do?”
He started shaking me, losing complete control of himself. I cried out as my head snapped backward and forward, sending a sharp pain down my spine. I tried to pull away from him, but he only tightened his hold and shook me harder.
“Get your fucking hands off her.”
The voice was loud, but steady and familiar. It was laced with a threat.
Preston froze.
I blinked as my head spun, trying to orient myself. My legs shook.
As my vision cleared, I focused back on the man with his hands still on me. Whatever color had remained in his face drained completely as he glanced behind me.
“Did you not understand me?”
The voice was closer now, right next to my ear. I looked over my shoulder, chest swelling with relief when Graham’s blue eyes met mine.
He wasn’t the only one, either. All five Ramsey brothers stood on the porch behind me, glaring down at Preston like he was a rat that needed to be exterminated.
All of them. Looking like they were ready to pounce. For me.
Preston let me go so fast I almost fell, but Graham’s arm wrapped around my waist, steadying me.
Preston backed away a few paces, but his glare returned to me. “I don’t know what you did, but I won’t be taking the fall for you.”
My throat tightened. I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything, Preston.” But it didn’t seem like my words were getting to him. “I had no idea this would happen.”
Preston shook his head as he backed away, staring at the group of brothers behind me. “I don’t believe you. This has to be your fault.”
“It’s not! I—”
“Stop,” Graham whispered in my ear, pressing me close to him. “Don’t give him your energy. He’s not going to hear you.”
Preston was at the end of the walkway when he yelled, “I never want to see your face again.”
And then he finally turned and walked away, leaving me reeling and confused.
I stood there shaking, Preston’s words burning in the cold air long after he’d disappeared into the darkness. My arms throbbed where he’d grabbed me, the skin already tender beneath my sleeves. I wanted to breathe, to think, to understand any part of what had just happened—but all I could feel was the echo of his fingers and the hollow panic clawing up my throat.
Graham’s hand slid gently up my spine.
“Quinn,” he murmured, voice low and steady, nothing like Preston’s venom. “Come inside.”
I looked up at him. His jaw was clenched tight with fury. The other Ramsey brothers still stood behind him like a wall of iron,all their eyes still fixed where Preston had disappeared as if they were anticipating his return.
My chest cracked.
Graham tightened his hold on me, and I let him guide me back toward the house.
Everything I’d built might’ve been burning down around me, but right here—in the cold, dark night—I wasn’t alone.
Even if I deserved to be.
28
