Slowly—ever so fucking slowly—she warms against our bodies.
Only when I feel a prickle on my stomach, and realize it’s sweat, do I relax. And then, only a little.
“Feel like she’s getting warm yet?” Kai mutters in a tight voice.
“She’ll be okay,” I say instead, because that’s what he wants to hear.
“Physically, maybe.”
He’s silent long enough for me to know he doesn’t want to speak about what happened. But that’s not up to him—I can’t help them if I don’t know what the fuck’s going on.
“Tell me,” I grunt.
Haven is asleep, but I don’t want her waking up and hearing us discuss whatever shattered her like this.
Kai still says nothing. The lamp on the nightstand behind him casts his face in shadow, so I can’t figure out what he’s thinking or tell if he’s afraid.
But I sense he is.
Not afraid—terrified.
I find his hand where he’s clinging to Haven’s hip. He’s reluctant to let her go, but I twine our fingers together so forcefully, he’d have to tug hard to escape. And, like me, he doesn’t want to wake her.
“Tell me,” I repeat, gently this time.
He tenses, then grips me back.
“I didn’t know Ezra had moved back home when he got out of the hospital. I assumed it would just be my mother.”
“Just the four of you?” That would bring the possible death toll to two.
Kai sighs. “My dad was there too.”
“Christ.”
Kai nods. “Ezra was…he was going to kill himself in front of us.”
…see you in hell, Bastian…
I try to ignore the ten-ton weight crushing my chest.
I knew something was wrong. Knew he was planning something. And I did nothing.
“They came to you, that’s all that matters,”Bad Wolf says.
“People got hurt,”Good Wolf whines.“That matters more.”
I tighten my grip on Kai’s hand. “But he didn’t kill himself, did he?”
“No.” Kai huffs out a bitter laugh. “He decided to kill Haven instead.”
Kai’s breathing is uneven, like he’s fighting the urge to yell or sob, his grip on my hand aching-tight.
“He tried to shoot her. I got in the way first, then our mom—” He cuts off with a strangled chuckle. “Mom decides she’s suddenly all brave and shit, tries to stop Ezra, gets a bullet for her effort. Then Richard tried to run.” His voice cracks. “Ezra shot him in the back.”
“So why was our girl covered in blood?”
Kai doesn’t answer immediately. His hand tightens on mine until the bones grind together.
