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She huffs. “Oh, don’t be such a pout. Diana is free to leave whenever she wants…just as she’s also free to stay for as long as she wants.”

I meet her gaze. “I want to stay.”

Her face instantly softens. “Good.”

I’m not sure exactly why, but a sinking feeling tells me this is where I belong. This town has stolen a piece of me, stripped it away so completely that I can never reclaim it. And this house…this house is where I need to be.

A shadow shifts beside us, and Bax re-enters the circle with a stick. He walks to the fire, jabs the stick into the flames, and once the wood catches, he stares, utterly enamored with it.

Finally, Remy breaks the uneasy silence. “Didi doesn’t need to be a part of this. She’s already suffered enough.”

“Of course she’s a part of this,” she cuts him off. “Your little girlfriend didn’t stay dead, did she? Because you never killed her. Then both of you lied to me about it.” She fires a look at Remy. “Don’t deny it, Remington. We all know Tommy’s too stupid to have thought of this on his own. You’ve spent your entire lives protecting each other. So, the question now is, what do we do with her now that she’s back?”

The intense silence lingers between the four of us in the most messed-up love square in existence.

Remy squeezes me and makes eye contact with Tommy. “We keep her hidden here. No one has to know.”

Talia watches her brother with a menacing glare. The energy shifts inside her as if she’s fighting an internal battle, raging with her own emotions. Then, like a flip of a switch, she looks at me ever so sweetly. “Looks like you’re staying with us, Diana. Remy, why don’t you go show her to her new room. She can borrow whatever she wants from my wardrobe since we’re the same size.” She grips Tommy’s knee as he shifts beside her. “Don’t move, pretty boy. You’re staying with me.”

TOMMY

I’m numb as I watch the girl I love walk away from me with my best friend, while the girl I’ve been obsessed with my whole life is on my lap.

Talia is tense, coiled like a cobra, as Remy and Didi enter the house, leaving us alone for a moment. Bax is still here, but he’s staring at that fire stick, lost in his own dimension, and isn’t paying attention to us.

Remy gave me a grin that made me want to punch him because he knows how screwed I am right now, all while he has a clear line of sight. I also don’t like how comfortable Didi is with him.

Talia’s body is rigid, so I try to nudge her around to face me, but she doesn’t budge. She’s upset; her shoulders are slumped.

I gently grab her slender shoulders and move her dark hair from her neck, exposing her smooth skin. Talia doesn’t need to compete for my attention—she already has it. Hell, I’ve been crushing on her since I hit puberty, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.

But Didi poses a threat to her.

I don’t know how to handle both in my life at the same time. Everything is out of orbit.

“Tommy, don’t.” She twists away from me. “You lied to me. You and Remy made it seem like you killed Didi.”

My lips graze her neck. “Do I have to explain to you why I’m not capable of killing her?”

She turns to face me, giving me all her deadly attention, and my stomach sinks when I see her eyes are red. She’s crying. “I don’t like being lied to by the two people who are supposed to love me the most.”

“Hey,” I say, brushing away a tear. “Don’t cry.” I’m not sure if this is genuine emotion, but Remy says, despite her hard exterior, she experiences emotion deeply. Feelings she struggles to deal with.

She sniffles. “Do you still love her?”

How the hell do I answer that?

I swallow, struggling to find the right words. Which could be my last if she decides to off me the way she did Daniel. Talia is unpredictable, which is part of what I love about her. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it. I thought she was dead. You saw what I saw.” That part wasn’t a lie. Didi went to great lengths to fake her death. Her mama and she are the same size, and it was dark.

“Do. You. Still. Love. Her?”

Gulp.

The thought of her dominance is sexy as hell, but the sharp glint in her eyes, the tightening of her jaw…this isn’t playful. This is a woman scorned, and we all know how delightful they are. I might as well plan my own funeral, because I’m truly a dead man.

Act normal… Act normal. For Didi’s sake, I need to act normal.

A bead of sweat trickles down my temple. “I like her, Talia.”