“Can you blame a queen?” Grant decrees, bounding down the wooden stairs beside me. “We’re still strangers to her. This must’ve been like a fucking firehose of intel coming at Alena, and it’ll take her months to swallow it all.”
“Months?” My stomach knots.
“However long it takes.” Nick squats before me. “Keep fighting for her. I know you know how.”
Nick was there. He’s the only one who knows I would’ve killed John Thurmond, Alena’s bully, on the beach that day if he hadn’t pulled me off him. Only Nick was strong enough to do it, dragging me out of there before the cops arrived. I didn’t go back for years, for fear I’d be recognized and arrested.
Rumor is, I blinded John in one eye.
My only regret? I didn’t crack his skull open along with it. It ain’t easy to do on sand.
The next time I went to Folly Beach was that day, years later, when I watched Alena rescue a boy.
Again. Fate and Irony. They really want us together.
So do I.
“Come on.” Axel’s the last to exit the condo. “Let’s go to dinner and give our queens some space.”
I glance up, shocked. “You just called Alena a queen when you’ve always called her our princess.”
“Because she isyourqueen,” Axel assures. “So you won’t marry her tomorrow, but you will one day. And not because we order you to do it.” He points to the flowers, clutched in my grasp. “Because we can’t fucking stop you.”
He pats my back, like he’s finally softening. We all know it’s because Axel’s found his true queen. The hot redhead in the purple dress who works for him. He snuck her into Vale’s initiation.
Nick stands, offering me his hand. “Come on, man. You need to eat.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Sire glances at the darkening summer sky. “A storm’s coming.”
“So.” I shrug.
“So, you’re going to sit all night in the pouring rain for her?” Grant grins, impressed.
“Did it last night and will tomorrow night. However long it takes.”
I don’t give a fuck about a storm. We get them all the time in the park. I’m used to it. What I never want to get used to is spending a night without Alena. Three have been enough.
“Then here, you stubborn fuck.” Jace reaches into hispocket, throwing me a crumbled protein bar. “And good luck.”
I catch it as they aim for Grant’s Tahoe parked out front.
“Hey.” Axel turns back, circling his finger, reminding me, “We got security crawling everywhere, but keep your eye out for that Turner fucker.”
I nod and settle into my post, tucking my letter into my back pocket.
Hating every bite of the peanut butter-flavored cardboard Jace calls food, I eat it.
Watching a vicious squall blow my way, it matches the one I feel inside, but I don’t flinch. Rain stings my face as night falls. But I don’t move until I get an eerie feeling.
It keeps tapping my right shoulder.
Though I turn and see nothing, I rise, pulling my Glock out of my back holster, holding my weapon low, searching through the drenching night storm. Lightning cracks the sky, thunder booming above, wind gusts as I turn right and follow my instincts.
On the side of the condo, feet from the one beside it, I spot a bent window screen lying in the mud, and a guard’s dead body with blood weeping from a slice across his neck.
Glancing up to the window. It’s gaping open.
