I grip the statue tighter, heart pounding in my palms.
One of the intruders stalks toward the bedroom. Another circles behind the couch. Eric moves toward the windows, scanning for movement outside.
This is my moment.
I step out of the shadows behind the man nearest me and bring the statue down with every ounce of strength I have. The crack is sickening. He drops instantly, his gun skittering across the floor.
Eric whirls. “Roxy?”
His voice is a mix of disbelief and anger. He levels the gun at me.
“You should have helped me,” he says. “If you’d just listened—if you’d given me what I needed—we wouldn’t be here.” The fury on his face twists into something uglier. “Your boyfriend isn’t here to save you this time.”
I raise the statue again. “Makari is going to hunt you down,” I say, voice shaking but firm. “He’s going to huntallof you down.”
Eric twitches, jaw grinding. “We’re already leaving,” he snaps to his men. “We grab her if we can. If not—just go. Just go!”
They retreat toward the hall in a scramble, dragging the wounded man and stepping over the guard they killed. Eric backs toward the door last, gun still pointed at me.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he says. “You have no idea what’s coming, Roxy.”
Then he runs.
I rush to the window in time to see them piling into one of the estate utility vehicles. The engine howls, tires tearing through gravel as the vehicle screeches toward the back service road.
They’re gone within seconds.
Silence falls again, choking and heavy.
I drop the statue. My arms tremble violently. The guard on the floor groans, barely conscious. The other body outside the door doesn’t move at all.
I’m breathing hard, every muscle shaking, every nerve raw. Mak is going to come back to this.
And when he does?—
A shiver goes through me. He will burn the world to the ground for what happened tonight. For what almost happened tome. For what Eric dared to bring into his home.
But beneath the fear, beneath the adrenaline, something else rises too. Resolve.
I’m done being afraid. I’m done running from the truth of what I feel for him.
I wipe my tears with shaking hands, stand over the guard still alive, and press my palm against his shoulder so he knows he isn’t alone.
“I’m here,” I whisper.
His eyes are open and bright—too bright? His mouth drops open, a wet sound coming from it.
Then, a hand grips the back of my sweatshirt andyanks.I spill over backwards, heels kicking the groaning guard on the ground as I’m dragged away from him. “No!” I choke out, eyes on the pooling puddle of blood beneath his body. The guard’s face is going pale fast, and everything in me wants to fight to get back to him. I don’t want Mak to lose another man.
I don’t have a choice. Whoever has me is dead silent, their grip solid as they jerk me toward the staircase. I gasp and try to catch myself, but go tumbling.
When I hit the bottom, everythinghurts.My hip is bruised, and my vision swims for a moment, dizzy with pain. I can’t believe I’m still alive. People break their necks falling down stairs.
I look up, blinking, and find Eric tramping down the stairs at a fast clip.
“What the hell are you doing?” I grit out, a sharp pain going through my right side. Eric doesn’t answer, just tangles his hand in my hair andyanksagain until I stumble to stand, or rather hunch, at his side.
He doesn’t slow as he heads for the exit. “Eric, you can’t do this. He’ll?—”
