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He nods, and all three of us walk to Clay and Ares’s house. They live with Brawley, Vero, and Kayla, though she only recently moved to the island when she was kidnapped and buried alive. After that happened, none of them would let her out of their sight, and she has been here ever since. I hope kidnapping is not a theme for how we get women to move to the island—that would look suspicious.

It’s a short walk from the shed to the residential area, but long enough for me to fill the silence with whatever is currently living in my head. Today is a detailed theory on whether Vesper will kill Vero one day, and I am only two minutes into my evidence when Cave makes a sound that I recognize as him reaching the absolute edge of his patience.

“But I’m almost done,” I tell him.

“You are never done,” Cipher adds.

“That’s probably true,” I admit solemnly.

Cipher walks a half step behind us, and I catch him glancing sideways at Cave like he’s trying to read the same thing I am and getting nowhere either. We’ve both learned the differences in Cave’s silences over the years—the bored one, the patient one, the one that means leave it be, and the one that means something is wrong.

Clay is on the porch when we arrive, and while I dislike the way he looks at Cave, I also don’t blame him.

“Inside,” he grumbles, and we all follow him in. Ares is seated at the kitchen table, waiting for us.

“Steedy’s men have been tracking Valli for the past week,” Clay says, jumping straight to the point. “They have been watching her house and tracking her car. We only picked it up because they’ve been careful, but not careful enough.”

“From what we can tell, they are targeting her over her brother and will strike soon,” Ares adds. “Steedy wants leverage on Rowan, and he thinks that’s her.”

“How soon is soon?” Cipher asks.

“Could be tonight, could be tomorrow morning.” Ares folds his arms on the table. “We don’t have an exact window, which is a problem. We just know it’s close.”

“And Rowan?” I ask. “Does he know any of this?”

“Rowan is the reason this is happening,” Clay says. “Whether he knows specifics doesn’t matter. Steedy doesn’t care about him anymore, not really. He cares about leverage, and Valli is easier to get to than her brother.”

Cave makes a sound which vibrates through his chest. He crosses the room before anyone can speak and grabs my face between both of his hands, then stares at me with an intensity that pins me to the spot. “Go,” he says.

Cipher is already heading toward the door when Ares tosses me a set of keys, which I catch out of pure reflex.

“Take my car,” Ares says. “The hearse is easily recognizable, but mine isn’t tied to anything, not even the island. Do not let her bring her own car—it’s being tracked.”

“Copy that,” I say as I head out the door.

Behind me, Clay says something low to Cave, and his answer is a single word that echoes throughout the room, which I hear clearly even from the doorway.

“Mine.”

We reach Valli’s house in record time, Cave’s knee bouncing chaotically until I pull onto the curb, then he jumps out. He doesn’t knock; instead, he brings his foot up and kicks the door open. The frame splinters with a crack loud enough that I flinch, then he storms inside before Cipher or I have even left the car. By the time we are through the front doorway, Cave has already lifted Valli into his arms, straight off the couch.

“What?” She blinks up at him in confusion. “Cave? What’s going on?”

“Valli!” I push past Cipher into the room. “This is going to sound dramatic—or maybe not, considering Cave’s entrance—but Steedy’s men have been watching you all week. They are coming for you, and we need to leave right now.”

“No, I’m not leaving my house,” she says, squirming in his arms as she starts to cough. She looks rough and must be sick.

I glance at Cave, who has her wrapped tightly in his arms. “Honestly, Valli, I don’t think the big guy is giving you a choice.”

“Cave.” She places a hand against his chest, her expression somewhere between annoyance and exhaustion. “I have a fever, have used every tissue in this house, and cannot fight off armed men right now. I can barely stand up without the room tilting.”

“You don’t have to fight anyone,” Cipher says gently, moving closer so he’s at her eye level, since Cave shows no sign of putting her down. “That is the entire point. We’ll fight, you rest.”

“That’s not how I operate. This is not your problem—it’s mine.”

“It is today,” I say, grabbing the throw blanket off the back of her couch and draping it over her since Cave clearly won’t set her down.

She lets out a breath in irritation. “Fine. But I need my phone.”