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“She was right there, and I couldn’t do a damned thing.” He closes his eyes.

I kneel in front of him. Grabbing the back of his neck, I rest my forehead against his. “Who knows what I would have done in the same situation? I can only hope I would have been as brave as you.”

Jack opens his eyes and narrows them on me like I’m fucking with him. But it’s the truth. Of all of us, Jack is the coolest under pressure. He has his moments of fury. But in that moment, he didn’t let it control him.

“He had a knife to your throat. He cut you. She needed you. One misstep and you would have been dead, and she would have been alone. You survived.” I squeeze the back of his neck and close my eyes, willing him to listen to what I’m saying. “You were there when we couldn’t be. She didn’t have to face it alone. Who knows what kind of damage we’d be dealing with if you hadn’t been there. If you hadn’t known what happened in that van.”

Jack’s eyes shimmer in the light from the movie, but he doesn’t let a tear drop.

“We can go round and round about last night and what we should have done.” Caden’s voice is heavy in the room. “We could spend hours figuring out where we went wrong. Or we can appreciate that all of us made it out alive.”

I meet Jack’s eyes. “I’m glad you made it through.”

Jack nods and we hug each other tight. All of them are my brothers. That’s what makes this work. We don’t need blood to make us a family.

“Harper’s been there for all of us.” Eli runs his hand through his hair as Jack and I pull away from each other. “It’s time for us to be here for her. Whatever she needs. Whatever makes her feel safe.”

I grab Jack’s arm and study his eyes. “I was serious about those pain meds.”

He nods and drops back into the chair. “Yeah, something to take the edge off.”

Everyone settles in their seats, lost in their own thoughts. I walk out into the hallway to the bathroom. I grab some ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet and cross back to the movie theatre room.

“Hey!”

I turn and find Kenz hurrying toward me.

“Oh, thank fuck,” she says. “I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life lost in these hallways. Penny let me in, but she needed to get back to Will.” She blows out a breath that lifts her bangs off her forehead. She gestures toward the open door in my hand. “H. in there?”

I open it wider and gesture for her to come in. “She’s sleeping.”

“Yeah?” Kenz shivers as she walks down the hall to the seating. “I barely slept. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again.”

I grunt my agreement. Last night is going to haunt us for a while.

“She doesn’t remember,” I say softly as we walk up to the guys. I head over to Jack and give him the pills.

He downs them quickly and bumps my fist. I return to my seat next to Harper.

Kenz sits down and looks at the screen. “Good choice.”

“How is everyone else?” Eli asks. He leans forward, lacing his fingers between his knees.

“Angela was the first to be discharged. She barely had a scratch on her.” Kenz shakes her head. “Pretty sure the only reason she was there was for Tanner’s alibi.”

That makes sense. Though there was all the chaos when the guys cut the lights and set off the sprinklers with the smoke bombs and flash bangs. She could have easily “lost track of Tanner” in the ensuing panic.

We should probably look a little closer at Angela Harris, just to cover our bases.

“Brandon and I waited to make sure Tanner was going to live.” She shakes her head. “I should have told Penny where to stab to hit the artery in his thigh. That bastard doesn’t deserve to live.”

“What happened after you were taken?” Eli asks.

“Woke up with our ankles shackled to the floor. It was cold. Penny and I were headed to the bathroom, and that’s the last thing we remembered.” Kenz takes a shaky breath. “All we could do is wait. Then someone came to the door to take Penny. When he released her, she ran and Will tackled the guy in the mask. Will made sure I got the key to the shackles, but the guy grabbed Will by the throat. Penny stopped and pleaded with the guy to put Will down.”

She drags in a breath and rubs her hands on her thighs. “Will had an asthma attack and stopped breathing. Someone came to get the guy, and they took Penny with them. I revived Will. We unlocked our shackles. They left the door open, so we got out.”

“Oh my god, Kenz.”