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I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when Silence walked back into that house. It felt like a fever dream, considering all we’d been through. What was said at that table was tough, but it’s nothing we can’t get through.

“Fuck this. We’re going back.”

“Charlie will get her,” Envy says. “You going back helps no one. You’ll just get yourself killed.”

“And what if he doesn’t?” I snap.

Envy arches a brow. “The man broke out of police custody and has a BOLO on his head because he tried to get back to her. Don’t doubt his dedication.”

That isn’t what I’m doing. I know Charlie will do his absolute best.

But he won’t fight as hard as we will.

Tonight was exhausting. Even though I knew everything before I walked into that room, it hurt pretending to hate my brothers and to challenge Silence the way I did. She doesn’t know I didn’t mean a damn word. I just needed Ryker to think he was winning so we could get free of those cuffs.

I run my fingers through my hair, gripping it at the roots. “I can’t let her think I doubt her. I can’t.”

Envy’s brows pull together. “She doesn’t think that.”

“She does. The things I said …”

My friend steps close to me. “No one doubts how much you love her, least of all Silence. You need to trust Charlie.”

“Shit. X!” Yale calls out, just as Zayden’s eyes roll back. I rush to my brother’s side, trying to keep him on his feet, but he’s too heavy, even for the both of us. He falls to his knees, sweat pumping out of him, his wounds reopening and staining his shirt.

“I’ll get the doctor.” Envy runs inside, and I help Zayden onto his back.

He starts seizing, and my breath catches. Yale kneels on his other side, and when our eyes lock, there’s nothing but panic between us.

“What the fuck do we do?” I ask.

Yale shakes his head, eyes wide. “I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.”

Chapter 43

Silence

The noise has stopped. Bullets have stopped flying, and the explosions ceased a while ago. I’ve willingly stepped back into a house that I was so eager to escape, and I wander the hallways peppered with debris and dust. The bedroom I shared with Yale is littered with broken glass. The greenhouse is untouched, but the dining room is awash with casings and blood.

Ryker sits at the head of the table.

Standing in the doorway, I watch him sink whiskey after whiskey. The boy I loved, now a man who has torn me apart.

I step over bodies and puddles of blood, bullet casings rolling across the floor as I approach the table and take my seat. Ryker watches me, eyes glazed. He’s almost swaying, cheeks mottled red.

“Are you real?”

“Unfortunately.” I reach for his glass and refill it, taking a large mouthful before giving it back to him.

Ryker stares at me. “You stayed.”

My brain knows I should cry. Scream. Shout. All I can do is nod and replay the evening in my mind. The lies. The secrets. The hate. It all mingles together into a nightmare I can’t wake up from.

“Why did you do this to me?”

Ryker sniffs and wipes a tear. “They took my brother from me.”

“And what did I do?”