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Right at Aydin’s feet.
My lungs emptied, my gaze rising to meet his face.
Oh, shit.
He stood between the stairs and the dining room. Taylor entered behind him as Rory and Micah stood at the railing at the top of the stairs.
I steeled my spine as everyone took in our newest addition, but my gut knotted all the same. He might let me have one, but not both. I couldn’t protect them both.
Alex remained frozen for a moment, staring at his shoes, but then slowly, she lifted her head and looked up at him.
He looked down at her, freshly dressed in a black suit, white shirt, and no tie. I didn’t realize I wasn’t breathing until my lungs started tightening.
His jaw flexed, and his eyes grew hard. “Micah?” he called. “Rory?”
“Yeah,” Micah answered from above.
Aydin continued to gaze down at Alex as he said, “I want the house and grounds searched. Now.”
The two stood there for a moment, and then they splintered off, searching the second floor first.
It was easy to dismiss Emmy’s arrival as a lone fluke—or a stroke of luck for some of them—but Alex here, too, meant it wasn’t an accident. We were being infiltrated, and Aydin still liked to behave as if we were here of our free will and this house was his domain.
Bending down, he gently lifted Alex up, staring into her eyes and wiping away the blood under her nose with his thumb.
She hesitated for a moment, but then…she jerked away, stepping back.
He held up his hand, staring at the blood dripping off his thumb.
Then he looked at her again and slid it over his tongue, licking it off his finger.
“Alex,” he said, swallowing. “Palmer.”
“You know each other?” I asked.
How the hell did they know each other? I darted my eyes to Alex, but she just stood there, her shoulders squared and her mouth shut.
“How many more are here?” he asked her. “And where are they?”
I watched them, hating how calm he seemed, because he always looked like he was expecting anything that came along and already had an agenda in place.
It was the one thing I’d learned from him. The appearance of control was just as powerful. Make a decision and act like that was the plan all along.
When she didn’t answer him, he lowered his chin and shot her a small smirk. “You didn’t do this on your own,” he said. “How did you find this place?”
Without waiting for an answer, he drifted past her toward Emmy, who remained by the front door.
He tilted her face up to look at the bruise forming on her cheek. “Looks like you found your noise in the walls,” he said.
She didn’t respond, but she let him turn her face side to side to inspect the damage.
I wanted to remove his head.
“How do you know I wasn’t brought here against my will like Emory?” Alex asked.
But Aydin ignored her, asking Emmy, “Why are you fighting?” He shot me a glance. “Over him?”
Again, Em kept her mouth shut, neither confirming nor denying.
