“You know, don’t you?” She’s baiting me, but I won’t fall for it. “You know the moment those lines were cut, you belonged to me. Without me, you were unable to embrace your true potential. But unlike your father, you’re not the innocent you believe yourself to be now, are you?”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. Clover reaches behind her back and rests her palm in mine.
“My potential isn’t tied to you,” I say.
“Isn’t it?” She glares at Clover. “And what about you? Still writing letters to a boy who abandoned you? Did I teach younothing?” she roars. “Stupid, stupid girl. Men always leave you. I taught you that, but did you listen? No. You’re still hoping for a love story that was never yours to begin with. I gave you everything, Clover. Purpose. Meaning. A place in something greater than yourself. And you threw it all away. For what? For him?”
“For myself,” Clover says with steel in her tone. “I chose myself. That’s what you could never understand. I was never yours. I was always mine.”
Terras face twists. “You ungrateful little?—”
“Enough,” Chief calls out, moving closer and holding up a badge that carries no fucking purpose.
“Stand down, Chief,” Sterling hisses.
“Terra Stone.” Chief ignores all our protocols. “You’re being detained on suspicion of murder, stalking, and attempted kidnapping. You have the right to?—”
“What the fuck is he doing?” Grant shouts.
“I have the right to nothing.” Terra’s hand moves to her pocket and every gun in the clearing aims for her chest.
“Stop,” Roman barks.
“Or what?” Terra removes her hand, holding up her phone. She doesn’t care if she dies here today. Maybe she’s hoping for it. “You want to know what mommy dearest was up to, don’t you?Don’t you know I’m the only person alive willing to give you that information?” She glares at me, then to the tree at my left.
“Fuck her,” Grant growls in my ear. “I’m close to getting that information on my own. Do not, I repeat, do not negotiate.”
“You think you’ve won?” She’s still smiling, and far too calm as she slowly inches away from us. “You think this is over?”
She presses a button on her phone and brings hellfire down around us as our tree detonates, raining limbs and branches to the ground below.
The fucking bitch put explosives in my tree.
The blast is loud enough to make my ears ring. Hot enough to send a wave of searing heat as a fire ignites.
Clover screams as I grab her with both hands, running with her in my arms, when a second explosion has me dropping to the ground and covering her small body with my own as more debris flies through the night sky.
Shouts sound in my earpiece, but I can’t decipher words over the ringing in my ears.
Then I see Roman’s face—watch the angry twist of his lips as he directs our men through a thick cloud of smoke settling over the forest—and I know.
Terra’s gone.
Disappeared into the woods like the smoke she’s left behind.
“Daniels, pursuit. Jones and Henson, perimeter. Do not let her off this property.”
I rip the earpiece from my ear. It’s only causing more confusion as I help Clover sit up. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Fine,” she says, but she’s shaking so hard her words are almost unrecognizable. “She—she blew up our tree.”
“I know.” Pulling her closer, I check for injuries, then lift her into my arms. We have to get the fuck out of here.
“Not the whole tree,” she says, almost laughing. “Just the branches.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I see she’s right. The explosion must have been thirty feet high. No wonder we didn’t find them.
“She got away,” she says. She’s in shock. I think I might be too.
