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We didn’t linger in the bedroom, yet it was the only place I wanted to be. I followed behind Vadik. He held my hand, and I chose not to look in any direction for fear of what any stares would make me feel.
I had to wonder if I had sex written all over my body.
Another woman to have fallen for one of the foursome’s charms.
We arrived at the back yard and the music filled the air. Couples still mingled. The party was in full swing.
Glancing across the dance floor, I saw the man who had staked his claim on me and just the sight of him alone made me feel sick. He hadn’t caught sight of me, but like a coward, I hid behind Vadik.
“Please, take me home.”
“You want to go home?”
“Yes, please.”
He glanced through the house. “We’ll be detected if I go outside the front. Come on.” He started walking, and I kept my gaze down at my feet, following him. The shoes I wore were death traps. The heels were way too big for me, but I kept up with him. We were passing one of the bridges when movement at the tree line caught our attention.
River, Caleb, and Gael were there, but from the looks of it, they didn’t want to be known.
Vadik stopped. His hand went tight around mine.
Whatever he’d seen, he didn’t like it.
“What is it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but before I knew it, we were making our way toward that direction.
The houses and beautiful lights fell behind us, and in their place was nothing but the dark woods. For some reason, the lights didn’t cast a glow this far inside.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Caleb said. His words were nothing more than a whisper. Clearly, I wasn’t supposed to hear him. His gaze landed on me, then on Vadik.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“You need to take her away,” Gael said.
I didn’t like this. Any of this. A shiver ran down my spine. There was something they weren’t telling me, and I hated them keeping me in the dark. I held on to Vadik’s hand a little tighter, not wanting to let him go.
He didn’t give anything away, and for that, I was grateful.
A sudden scream filled the air, and I noticed the music had gotten louder. At the party people, were having to get closer to be able to hear themselves talk.
What was going on?
“She has to go,” he said.
I didn’t pull away, and Vadik held my hand.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “If I’m supposed to be one of you, then where I go, you go.”
Caleb looked like he wanted to dispute that, but he didn’t. He kept his gaze on me, but he wasn’t happy.
He nodded his head and then turned on his heel.
I’d fucked up. I knew that.
Vadik didn’t let me go as we walked toward the edge of the tree line, and it was there that I saw some of the trees had been taken down to create a rough kind of circle. There wasn’t a lot of light but the men who were there held a torch.
Fear slid down my spine as I recognized the man kneeling on the ground.
He was my brother. Peter.
Blood covered his face. He’d taken a bad beating and the men who surrounded him were all the guys’ fathers. I spotted them, and it was Caleb’s dad who grabbed his hair tightly and lifted my brother up to his feet.
I’d always felt my brother was tall but looking at him now, he looked like a child.
Tears filled my eyes as Daniel Falls brought the gun to Peter’s temple.
They were talking, but I couldn’t hear anything. It had all faded away and there was nothing there. Just empty silence.
I couldn’t think or feel. It was all a blur, and when the gun went off, Vadik’s hand went over my mouth. I didn’t realize I’d started to scream.
All four of the guys surrounded me and carried me back to where we came from. At some point, they must have decided I was moving too slow because Vadik threw me over his shoulder and carried me all the way to a car.
I must have stopped crying because I was suddenly pushed into the back seat. Gael moved up behind me, his hand resting on my thigh.
Silence filled the car as they pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive.
The town seemed to blur as we passed everything.
We had to stop driving.
We couldn’t keep running.
Peter was dead.
I had just seen my brother get killed. His life had just been taken, and it had all ended so quickly, so finally.
I couldn’t believe it.
We hadn’t been getting along for so long now. He’d been my father’s little protégé and because of that, I’d frozen him out. He so easily followed my father’s orders and now, with Peter dead, I knew it was only a matter of time before I followed as well.
