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“Skyler and the kids are fine,” Hudson tells me. “And Asher has Francie in his sights.”

“Autumn’s with Eden,” Parker adds. “Any sign of that damn coffee?”

“I only have black. No milk, wasn’t expecting to be here,” I tell him, pouring him a mug as soon as the Keurig finishes.

He snatches it from me, letting out an almost orgasmic groan as he swallows it down, at the same time as Hudson’s phone rings.

“Asher,” he says, answering it. “You’re on speaker.”

“We’re about five minutes away. Be outside the building or I’m leaving without you.”

“We’ll be there. Any news on Vin?” I ask him.

“We got the manifest. Confirms Liberty as the destination,” Asher says. My stomach tightens.

“Can we refuse landing?” Hudson asks. “The only place they can land is at the hotel.”

“That’s not the destination,” Asher says, his voice almost drowned out by the blast of a horn. “Shit. Are you on your way outside? We’re a minute away.”

“Wait, where’s the destination? Where the hell else can he land?” Hudson asks.

“It says the area to the north of the resort,” Asher replies.

Hudson shakes his head. “There’s nothing to the north except?—”

My stomach turns to stone. “Except my house,” I cut in, my voice low.

The line goes silent for a beat, then Asher swears.

And suddenly I’m moving, heart hammering.

He’s going after her.

And if he lays one finger on Eden, I swear I’ll make him regret it for the rest of his life.

EDEN

The chop of the blades cut through the air before the helicopter even crests the horizon. I’m shoulder to shoulder with Bennett on the grass outside the North House, bracing as the rotor wash slams into us. Salt burns my lips, my hair whips across my face, and for a second it feels like the ocean is trying to tell us this is a really bad idea.

“West is calling me again,” Bennett shouts over the cacophony. “What should I do?”

He’s been calling all of us in turn for the last half hour. Me, then Autumn, then Bennett. Luckily, Autumn has decided to drive to the coffee shop to stock up on pastries for us all, as wellas to give herself some plausible deniability if Parker asks if she was involved.

She has my niece or nephew to think about, after all. Plus, I can think better without her here.

“Answer it if you want to,” I yell back. It’s too late for him to stop us now anyway. And I hate that I’ve dragged Bennett into all of this. Or that Vin has. And I feel like I should give him an out. I’m doing this, no matter what. But he doesn’t have to.

“Ah, he can wait.” Bennett puts his phone firmly back into his pocket, just as the helicopter lands on the grass. My heart hammers in my chest as the rotors slow, then a door opens.

And Vin Marchetti’s bodyguards step out.

“You know them?” I murmur to Bennett.

“Not really. They look pretty scary though.”

Yeah, they do.

The man himself is next. Even from a distance, before I can see his face, I know it’s him. The way his suit catches the wind, the broad set of his shoulders.