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“Just bring him back in one piece, and don’t come back without him.” I glare at Clay. “And don’t be a dick.”

“I’m never a dick.”

Brawley and I both regard him skeptically. “Fine, I’m rarely a dick. But I promise we will bring him back, even if I have to knock him out.”

Brawley growls and Clay laughs. As they head for the door, Brawley stops in front of me. “I will bring him back.”

“I know you will.”

He presses his hand to the side of my face for a second, then turns and follows Clay outside.

Ares hasn’t moved from the chair, still staring at me with that calculating look of his. I almost find it comical that he is way out of his comfort zone right now.

“I won’t fall apart. I know I’m safe here with you.”

“Are you? We did a pretty shit job at protecting you.”

“How could anyone have known my crazy ex would show up and try to bury me alive?”

Ares shrugs. “Someone should have gone with you.”

I laugh. “That would never have worked. I refuse to have a babysitter, and you know it.”

“If you think any of those three are going to let you out of their sight now, you have rocks in your head.”

That’s a fight for another day. “Do you know what I thought when it was happening?” I ask him, and Ares shakes his head. “About how much I needed you in that moment. I might talk a big game about not being able to be controlled again or manipulated, but you have weaseled your way in and are now someone I need.”

Ares is silent, and though I didn’t expect him to say anything, I need him to know that he is needed.

“Do you think Vero is having an episode?” I continue.

“Yes,” he simply says.

“Are you okay?” I ask him, knowing this could not have been easy on them. Digging someone up and not knowing if they are alive is a lot for anyone to handle.

Ares blinks, and it’s the closest to surprise I have seen on his face. “You’re asking me if I’m okay? You’re the one who was just pulled out of a box in the ground.”

“And you dug me up. So I am asking if you are okay.”

Ares stares at me for a moment, and I hold his gaze. He may have had a gut feeling about Luca, but he would never have been able to uncover the truth about him. I won’t let him sit there and punish himself.

“I’ll be fine,” he finally states.

“Good,” I reply. “That’s the right answer.”

He smirks at me, and a knock at the door breaks the tension between us. Ares gets up to answer it, and I hear voices in the hallway, then Banks walks in ahead of Ares.

“You look terrible,” Banks says. “You have dirt on your face.”

“I have dirt everywhere, Banks. I was buried alive after all.”

He sets down the bag he is carrying and pulls up a chair. “Run me through what happened.”

I start by telling him how I think I was drugged, and Ares’s face falls. I forgot to mention that part earlier.

“Do you know what he gave you?” Banks asks.

“No idea”—I shrug—“but I’m sure it was in my water bottle.”