Questions shout over questions, indistinguishable noise crashing down like a wave of glass.
I instinctively look toward the back of the room—where Seb and Kabir had been.
Gone.
My stomach flips as I catch sight of them again—now near the entrance, backs against either side of the double doors. Subtle. Controlled. Watching. But what catches my attention is their hands… hovering near their waist.
Jesus.
I snap my attention to Cece. She’s still in her seat, but I can see the way her knuckles have whitened around the armrest. Her jaw trembles slightly every time the volume in the room spikes.
She flinches when someone screams behind her shoulder, “This has to be doctored!”
A chair topples somewhere in the chaos.
I move fast.
Fuck the rest of the short speech.
I abandon the podium and cut through the noise. My eyes don’t leave her. Just as I reach her, ready to crouch down and shield her from the hell storm that’s been let loose—
The double doors swing open.
Four suited, armed men enter first—broad, unreadable, stepping with deliberate authority.
And then behind them, six agents in full combatgear push in, bearing the unmistakable sheen of government-issued firearms and black tactical vests.
Silence doesn’t fall, it implodes. A sharp scream slices the room. It takes me a heartbeat to recognize it.
Odette. My mother.
“THIS IS A LIE!” she screeches, voice shrill with indignation. “This is a frame job! I’m being framed! I didn’t do this. It was only Thomas. Not me. I… Levi… tell them. LEVI!!!”
I’ve never heard her this utterly unhinged before.
She’s halfway out of her seat, flailing, before two agents flank her and she stumbles back, almost tripping over her heels.
I drop to my knees in front of Cece. Her wide eyes meet mine. “Hey,” I whisper, curling my arms around her, pulling her tight to my chest. “You’re okay. I didn’t know it’d go down like this, but I’ve got you.”
The room is still screaming. My mother is losing her mind. My father and Gareth seem to be having a silent conversation with each other. Charles is shaking in his seat.
All I can hear is Cece’s shallow breath against my neck. My own heart racing. But from the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a firearm, in the hands of someone who absolutely shouldnotbe possessing it.
A shot.
A scream.
A transient silence.
And then—the quiet click of a dozen safeties unlocking.
TWENTY-ONE
Cece
“Thanks, Ranger,” I hear someone say.
My head is fully nestled in Levi’s chest like he can’t bear for me to see whatever is happening around me. He thinks I’m scared.
