Concern gushed from her. “What’s going on? Why are there all these men here?”
“Come inside and I’ll tell you everything.”
Grabbing her hand, I hauled her up the porch steps and through the door. I slammed it shut, did up the locks, then started to punch in the code again when I felt a shift in the air.
A choked cry from Hadley behind me. “You can’t set that alarm, Daisy.”
Confusion blustered through my mind as I slowly turned to face her.
Dread dragged me to the bottom of the ocean floor when I saw the scene.
In a moment, I felt as if I were drowning.
Water clogging my lungs and death edging in at the corners of my eyes.
Because my sister’s hand trembled as she held a gun. One she pointed at the members of my new family who all gasped in shock as they scrambled to their feet.
“Everyone needs to get face down on the floor.”
A stir of panic assailed the room. Everyone looking at me in sheer disconcertion.
While my knees swayed as I was hit with a landslide of horror.
“Right now!” she screamed.
Fear tumbled through the girls, but Raven lifted her chin, and they all got face down on the ground.
“Hadley. What are you doing?” It rasped from my mouth.
She turned to me. “I had to, Daisy. I had to bring him to you. He was going to kill me. It’s the only way for you and me to be together again. For me to live again. Ethan only wants Cash. He gets what he wants, and we’ll be free. You’ll see, everything’s going to be all right. Cash isn’t who you think he is.”
Tumult clouded, as foggy as the tears that bleared my eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“Cash killed Ethan’s brother, and Ethan only wants him. Then we can walk. Live our lives. It’s going to be okay.”
Hadley backed toward the back sliding door, swinging the gun between me and the rest of my family who were on the floor.
Turmoil and threads of simmering aggression radiated from them.
My hands went to my mouth. “What are you doing, Hadley? Oh God, what are you doing? You can’t do this. After everything? After you abandoned me? Left me for all these years? Now you’re going to betray me?”
Shame bit at her features, but still she fumbled through the locks at the back door while she kept swinging the gun between me and the girls.
“I’m not betraying you, Daisy. I’m saving you. Savingus.” She shoved it open. A shadowy wraith appeared, Ethan pure spite and malice as he stepped inside.
“Hadley, no,” I cried on a whimper. “I don’t understand. What are you doing?”
“What I have to.”
“Aren’t you excited to see me?” Ethan cocked his head. Arrogance sloughed off him as he slid the door shut behind him and relocked the doors. A gun casually dangled from his other hand.
“I don’t understand…” I didn’t mean to beg it, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Cash should have known he would never get away with it. He was always a prideful prick. He wasn’t even willing to throw one measly game to save his brother. To save his family.” Ethan tsked. Then hatred flamed across his face. “But when he killed mine, that’s where it ended for him. I always knew you’d be my ticket to him. I just never knew it would take so fucking long.”
“What?” It was a horrified exhalation.
