Jace takes my gun, gentle despite the blood on his fingers. He passes it to Silas.
“Come here,” he murmurs, taking my hand and tugging me out of the bathroom.
I don’t fall into him or collapse on trembling legs, but also don’t let go of his hand. I like the way it engulfs mine, like I’m some petite damsel.
We share a few glances with each other, and Kieran opens his mouth to speak.
“Later.” Silas holds his hand up. “Let’s get out of here first, and then we can talk.”
I just nod, slip my feet into a pair of wool-lined house shoes, and follow them out of the wreckage of my apartment, into the sleeping hallway of my complex. Soundless. Controlled.Obsessed.And utterly pissed off about not being able to kill Daniel yet again.
There was a plan in place. I was so ready to execute it too.
But it doesn’t really matter… because now I’ve seen their faces. And I know the names behind the voices.
I no longer care about lines or lies or how any of this started.
I care only about one thing…
They are mine.
And the ferociouswantI feel for them scares me far more than Daniel ever could.
We spent the last two hours pacing in circles around the truth, until finally, we said,“Fuck it.”
Eris only lives a few blocks away, but still the three of us load into Kieran’s car to ride over to her apartment complex… And park in the visitor’s spot, likenormalvisitorsshoulddo. It’s a little less creepy than coming out of the shadows in the middle of the night.
We use the short drive to rehearse what we’re going to say, who will speak first, how the hell we’re supposed to tell her everything in one sitting…
No more usernames.
No more switching voices.
No more hiding behind an algorithm.
She deserves all of us in the light.
The thought of spilling all the things we’ve been keeping from her has me nervous as fuck. But seeing her again, no matter how unhappy she is with the intrusion or lies, gives me this jelly feeling in my bones.
Silas glances at his phone, and I barely glimpse the security app before he’s cussing colorfully, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“What is it?” I ask, leaning between the front seats to see what he’s doing.
“Daniel just broke in through her balcony door.” Silas can hardly get the words out, his teeth clenched so tight I hear them grinding.
Kieran’s phone pings, and he sighs in frustration. “Just got the alert for his car. Ohio tags. Same dent in the bumper.”
“Drive faster,” I snap, sliding out of the middle, trying not to rip the handle off the door and run the rest of the way to Eris.
This motherfucker is on the wrong street at the wrong time.
Silas snatches Kieran’s phone, already rerouting camera footage, sending it through to the file he’s been collecting.
“Two minutes,” Kieran calls to us.
Silas turns to me. “You going in first? Or should I?”
“I got it. Just stay out of my way until I’m done,” I answer, trading him the contents of my pockets for the key fob to get into the complex. “I’ll leave it outside the door.”
