I feel nothing but distance. He’s a monster from my past, and I don’t care what happens to him now as long as I’m not part of it.
“Adelaide,” he rasps.
I don’t answer.
Two more of the chief’s men have come down the stairs during all of this, silent and solid. They step in, take Daniel off the chief’s hands, and drag him toward the stairs without a word.
At the bottom step, the chief pauses and glances back at North. “I don’t want to see your face again anytime soon.”
North chortles loudly, breaking the silence. “Feeling’s mutual.”
The chief nods once. “I owe you another one.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” North says. “You came when I called. That was the deal.”
The chief grunts like he doesn’t agree, but he lets it stand.
Then he glances at his sister, who is still on her knees. “Up. You’re coming with me.”
Malia rises slowly. She stops when she reaches me.
She still can’t quite hold my gaze for more than a second at a time. “I don’t expect you to forgive me,” she says quietly. “I know better than that. But I’ll say it again—I’m sorry. Truly.” Her mouth trembles.
Then she steps back toward her brother, and this time when he takes her by the shoulder, there’s nothing gentle in it at all.
They go, and it finally feels like I can breathe again in this basement. And the four of us are alone.
North’s arms lock tighter around me from behind, as if he’s only just letting himself believe I’m still here. Luca snuggles me from my side, and when he pulls back, Ace is there on my otherside, kissing my temple, my cheek, the corner of my mouth as though he can’t decide where to start and can’t bear to stop touching me.
I’m smiling through the shaking without meaning to, my whole body feeling wrecked and weirdly light all at once.
“Are you okay?” Ace asks, voice ragged.
Luca’s thumb brushes under my eye, and North just buries his face for one second against my hair and breathes.
I cover his forearm with my hand and lean back into him. “I’m okay now,” I say. And then, because apparently I’m still me, even after all this, I add, “But let’s never do this again.”
That gets a broken huff of laughter out of all three of them.
“Brilliant plan,” Luca mutters. “Huge fan.”
I take a deep inhale and glance between them at the cuts, bruises, blood. The panic of the last hour is still in them, but so is relief.
“All the pieces are kind of making sense now,” I say quietly. “Not in a fun way. But in a way that explains what’s been going on since I arrived in Oahu.”
North’s chin brushes my hair. “Yeah.”
“The chief,” I whisper. “Will he hurt Malia?”
“No,” North says. “She’s blood, and he doesn’t hurt blood. He’ll pull her out of the gang business probably.”
“And Daniel?”
North is silent for half a second before he answers. “Angel, we won’t know. The chief takes him off the island, and after that, it stops being ours. That’s how this works.” His arms tighten once around me. “Are you with me?”
I nod against his chest. “I don’t want to know.”
“Good.”
