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He doesn’t respond, focusing back on the road and sending the car back into silence. Ciro seems to sense that the conversation is over and reaches for the volume control again. He presses a few buttons to change the music, and a classical string piece fills the car, completely wrong for the atmosphere.
Is this Ciro’s music? Is this what he likes?
It seems so at odds with what I know about him, but then again, I don’t know anything about him.
Not anymore.
I should stop convincing myself I do.
After several more songs play, I decide to try a different approach to get them to talk.
“You know, there was a time when the tables were turned,” I venture, wondering how they’ll react. No one says anything, so I continue. “You know, when you protected me, not…”
“We’re still protecting you, Grace,” Lucas says, and I can feel his mood shift into the same brooding frustration that everyone else is feeling. “Things have just changed. Can you imagine what would have happened if we didn’t take you? Would you rather have been kidnapped by strangers? Or worse?”
He has a point, even if I don’t want to admit it. I’d rather be a captive of my onetime friends than by the other group of men who attacked my wedding.
“Who were the others?” I ask. “You really don’t know?”
Once again, the car is silent, until Zaid says, “No. We don’t.”
“Unless you want to tell us,” Hale butts in from the front seat.
Annoyance tears through me. We’ve been over this a thousand fucking times. He knows I don’t know anything about the people who were at my wedding other than that they weren’t supposed to be there.
“What about you, Ciro?” I ask, turning my focus to him in my newfound boldness. He doesn’t respond, so I stubbornly continue. “You’ve changed the most out of everyone. What happened to you?”
I feel Zaid and Lucas tense at my side, mirroring the tension that’s taken over Ciro’s frame. He stays completely still, shoulders rigid, looking out the window.
“You never used to be so… broody.” I try to think of the right word, but I don’t know what about him has changed. There’s just something off about him. “You were always quiet, but now you don’t say anything. See, you’re proving my point right now.”
Hale’s hands flex on the steering wheel, knuckles going white. He’s pissed. I’ve clearly broached a topic that is off limits, but it’s too late to stop now. The train has left the station, and it’s going full speed.
“Shut up, Grace,” Hale growls, staring at the road in front of him.
But I don’t.
“It can’t be that bad. Scorned love, maybe?” I wrack my brain for possibilities. I’m not really that curious, but something inside me is enjoying getting under these men’s skin for once. They’ve wreaked havoc on my emotional state since they barged back into my life and took me captive, so it’s satisfying as fuck to get a little payback. “Let’s see… Lucas or Zaid got promoted before you? Or maybe you’re just high all the time and—”
“Grace, stop it,” Lucas mutters.
“Why is everyone being so hard-headed?” I ask sarcastically. “It’s not like I’m asking much. I just want to catch up with some old friends—”
The car lurches as Hale stomps on the brakes. Lucas’s arm instantly flies out in front of my body, absorbing the impact better than the seatbelt could. In less than three seconds, Hale pulls to the side of the road, parks, and slides out of the car. Then he flings the back driver’s side door open.
Reaching over Zaid’s body, he pushes at my buckle and yanks me out of the car, then drags me with him through the snow and ice. My feet slide against the icy road, but he holds fast to me, flinching as he keeps me upright. As he pulls me off the road and into the woods out of sight of the car, I’m too pissed to worry about being murdered.
“Hale, stop it—” I try to tear away from him, but he throws me up against a tree, pinning me to it with his body.
“I told you to fucking stop.” He’s fuming. I try to drag my arm from his grip to push him away, but he presses into me tighter. “While you were off in your pretty little castle, sitting on your pretty little ass, the rest of us were still out here in the real world trying to clean up the mess you made when you decided to leave.”
I glare at him. “What the fuck are you talking about? It wasn’t my choice. My father was—”
“I don’t want any of your bullshit, Grace.” There’s something about the way he says my name that makes him sound like he despises it. Like he despises me. “You don’t know what Ciro has been through, so don’t fucking push him.”
“He didn’t say anything about it,” I insist, even though I should really drop it. “So who’s the one overreacting, Hale? Who’s the one who dragged me out of the car and through the woods for no reason other than to work through his pissy attitude? Looks like you’re the only one worried here—”
“When you
