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I pressed my nose into her hair. “I was terrified I was going to lose you.”

“You can’t get rid of me that easy, Heathen.” I could tell she was trying to lighten the mood. Cut through the fear that still rampaged.

I heaved the roughest sound I’d probably ever made.

“It’s you who’s not getting rid of me, Little Apple.”

We broke out of the forest, and I wound around the side of the building. “I’m going to take you home. Please don’t argue with me.”

She gave me a tight nod.

Brody was leaning against a pillar on the porch, concern strewn across his face. Penny, Regan, and Phoenix were nowhere to be found.

“Gonna take her home,” I told him. “Close and lock up the store.”

“On it.”

I carried Elena to her truck and settled her into the passenger’s seat. I reached out and twisted the end of her braid around my fingers, trying to pull my shit together.

She must have just then noticed my face was busted to hell. A gash on my lip and one on my cheek, and I imagined there’d be bruises blooming everywhere else.

She reached out trembling fingers and barely brushed across them.

“I assume by what Silas said out there that he knows?” she asked.

My nod was flinty. “Everything.”

She exhaled a shaky sound, and I brushed my fingertips along her jaw. “It’s gonna be okay, baby. It’s all going to be okay.”

“It is. It finally is.”

I gathered up her hand and pressed a bunch of kisses to her knuckles, then I shut the door and rounded to my side.

Comfort surged over me when Elena weaved our fingers together. Holding on tight. A promise that it was over. That we were together.

We took the short drive to the apartment in silence, and I was out and around to her side of the truck before she could unbuckle.

Sliding my arms under her and pulling her to my chest.

I carried her up the steps, refused to let her go as I unlocked the door, stepped inside, then locked it behind us.

I carried her straight into the bedroom and settled her on the side of the bed.

Then I dropped to my knees in front of her.

“Are you okay?” I searched her eyes. Still terrified that it wasn’t true.

Elena caressed those tender fingers over my jaw. “She didn’t hurt me.”

“I can’t believe we didn’t see it—that it was her this whole time.” My mind spiraled through every interaction that I’d had with Penny. She’d seemed skittish but harmless.

Elena’s brow pinched. “Why would we? We had no reason or indication to believe Penny could be responsible for any of it.”

“Yet you demanded that she live.”

Sympathy filled her gorgeous face. “We all make mistakes, Trevan. We all have rooted, unshakable regrets. We all falter when faced with loss. When we’re empty and it feels like the only thing that can fill it is hate. But she’s not evil or wicked. She was lost.”

Grief bottled my throat as I thought back to that night. The truth of the secret I’d carried for Elena so she wouldn’t have to. The pain I hadn’t allowed myself to consider that Penny had shouldered.