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“My place,” I tell him, barely getting the words out before he hits the gas and turns the Escalade around.
We get back to my home and Carver goes as far as to park the Escalade in the garage so that we can get Ember out of here without any of our too-nosey neighbors knowing what the fuck is going on. Though, I doubt anyone is awake at this time of night, but we won’t risk it.
The garage door comes down behind us and Grayson moves to the back of the Escalade and scoops Ember out of the trunk. We all make our way into the house, moving up the stairs as one, only Cruz breaks away and heads for the bathroom to find the boys’ massive box of first aid supplies.
Grayson lays Ember down in my spare bedroom and I dart into the attached bathroom to grab a washcloth and warm water.
As I come back into the room, I find Grayson and King stripping her out of her bloodied clothes and quickly getting her dressed into something a little more comfortable. I watch them with pride, seeing the respect they have for her despite how they can’t stand her. They’re gentle with their touch and they don’t ogle her body as they dress her. They’re the perfect gentlemen and I love them more for it.
I crawl up onto the bed beside Ember and start cleaning her up as Cruz comes in with the box of first aid supplies. The boys quickly start mending her wounds as Grayson doses her up with morphine, taking his role as group doctor as seriously as he can.
There’s an odd silence around the room and I can’t help but feel that the boys are devastated that they’re not storming the school right now and watching as a bullet pierces through the front of Knox’s skull, but they will in time. I wouldn’t dream of letting them miss out on that kind of fun. That is the kind of shit that makes their dark little hearts race with excitement.
Twenty minutes pass before Ember begins to stir. A pained groan pulls from deep within her chest as she attempts to open her eyes. I instantly pull back on the washcloth as the guys also pull back, not sure how this is going to go.
As if remembering the trauma she’s just been through, Ember’s eyes fly open and she stares up at the ceiling, hard and fast gasps tearing through her. She quickly looks around, panicking as she tries to figure out what the fuck is going on, but seeing my face, she begins to calm. Though the fear doesn’t completely wash away. She doesn’t trust that I have good intentions, and right now, I don’t know if I trust it either.
“Where … where am … I?” she asks, the words getting stuck in her dry throat and sounding as though each word spoken causes her more pain than she’s ever felt in her life, but the morphine should be starting to work.
“My place,” I tell her with a blank expression, silently letting her know that while I was the one who allowed her in, she’s not exactly welcome. “You were dumped at the Estate gates.”
Ember swallows hard and quickly glances at the guys before bringing her stare back to mine. She nods and I watch as tears begin to fill her eyes. “Who did this?” I ask.
Her brows crease and I see nothing but heartbreak written across her face. “Paris,” she murmurs, her voice coming out in the softest whisper, almost as though she still can’t believe what happened to her. “She blamed me for letting you get away. She … she…”
I shrug my shoulders. “You did let me get away,” I remind her. “It is your fault. If you didn’t lose control the way that you did, Paris probably would have had her chance to slit my throat. You took that away from her.”
The tears fall from her eyes and her heartbreak only doubles. “I thought … I really thought that she loved me. I thought that she wanted to be a family.”
“I tried to warn you,” I tell her. “I gave you an out where you could have spent the rest of your life with your adoptive family being happy and free. You could have done whatever you wanted in life, but you chose to follow Paris knowing what kind of person she is. You knew all the shit that she did to me, you knew that she kidnapped those kids, and yet you thought that you were different because you share the same blood? Open your fucking eyes, Ember. She’s my aunt—the only thing that’s left of her twin sister—and she’s been trying to kill me since I was born. How could you be so stupid?”
