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I groan, and just as I’m about to respond, Ember sits forward, pulling her feet off the edge of the bed and meeting my stare. “Don’t hate me for this, but I think the boys are right. You need to be somewhere that you’re safe. I mean, can you imagine if someone actually got through and killed you? Dynasty would be up shit creek, the boys will be a mess, and the world will be a really shitty place without you. If I could protect you half as well as they could, I’d keep you locked in my closet, but I can’t. It won’t even be that long. The boys will find the threat and deal with it. Once it’s gone, you can move back to your own place and rebuild it without all of your mother’s shit.”
“But—”
“No,” she says, her tone firm and filled with authority. “You know that I’m right. You’re just too stubborn and pigheaded to admit it.”
My face scrunches in distaste, hating that she’s right, and hating even more the feeling of being ganged up against, but there’s no denying it. They’re all a hundred percent right. My home isn’t safe and I’d be a fucking idiot to keep living there while there are still so many threats against me. “Fine,” I grumble. “I’ll move into Carver’s place, but Lady Dante is coming with me.”
Cruz, King, and Grayson all sigh while Carver just sits still, more than happy to mask his emotions, but what’s new? I wouldn't expect anything less from Carver. “Thank fuck,” Cruz says, tipping his head back against the couch and showing just how much the idea of me staying in my home was weighing on his shoulders.
“Wait,” I say, making all their gazes snap back to mine. “I just have one condition.”
Grayson’s eyes narrow to slits. “What?” he asks cautiously.
“I’m coming with you when you go to find London.”
Carver shakes his head. “No, absolutely not. You’re staying home where you’re safe. I thought we’d been over this.”
“That’s just the thing,” I snap back at him, hating how dismissive he can be. It’s as though he has a magical gift for getting under my skin. “Where does it leave me if you guys all piss off to the mountains and there’s another attack? You’re leaving me vulnerable. So, which is it? You can’t have it both ways. The whole reason you want me in your place is to keep me safe and keep me close. So, do you want me safe or should I just risk my life by staying behind with no protection? Besides, this is the home my father was murdered in. I have the right to go and see it. I’ll stay in the car until you clear it if you have to, but I’m coming and you can’t stop me.”
The guys look around one another, their shifty eyes seriously getting on my nerves, but the hard set of Carver’s jaw tells me that I’m just as much working his nerves as they are mine.
King sighs, seeing that I have them backed into a corner. “We’ll talk about it later,” he tells me. “Let’s just focus on getting you out of here, and once we’re home, we can work out the details there.”
I nod, knowing that’s the best I’m going to get out of them.
“Good,” King says. “Now, can we talk about how Cruz still has the ‘YAHTZEE’ video?”
Grayson scoffs, his tone dark and deadly, and clearly pissed about the whole situation. “How about we talk about how Cruz screamed that he loved Ellie while she was bleeding out?” he says, throwing him right under the bus.
Cruz’s eyes bug out of his head as his sharp gaze slices back to mine. “I … uhh … fuck,” he stumbles out as I try to think back to my time lying in my own blood on the garage floor. The whole thing is blurry, and over the past two days, I’ve only been able to remember little snippets of it.
“You, umm … you said that you love me?” I murmur, keeping my stare locked on Cruz’s as I recall that only yesterday morning, sitting in this very hospital, King had admitted something very similar while talking with his little sister.
Ember clears her throat and gets to her feet. “I think I hear Corey calling my name,” she says, refusing to meet my eyes before she high-tails it out of the room.
King, Grayson, and Carver follow her out, and before I know it, it’s just Cruz and me with nothing but a world of tension sitting between us. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” he tells me. “I was in a panic and terrified that I was going to lose you. I didn’t want you to go without knowing, but you have to know that’s not how I ever intended on telling you. In fact, I wasn’t planning on telling you for a long fucking time.”
