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And yes, I said wicked seduction.

As I watched, mesmerized like a lovesick fool, she walked away. I couldn’t look away as her lithe figure retreated down the street.

Who the hell was that girl, and where had she been all my life?

Emerald came up to me, bitching about Ronan, but I barely processed her words. I couldn’t stop thinking about the strange girl planting a garden in an apartment complex she didn’t even live in.

She hadn’t left my mind since.

* * *

Nothing could compareto the panic I felt when I arrived back at the van to discover Adelaide was missing.

There were no possible words to describe the way I felt - the tightening of my chest, the sudden difficulty I had breathing, the haze coating my vision. My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides as I stared at the blood smeared white exterior of our vehicle. There must’ve been a battle here - the ground was covered in bodies.

Tam, who had arrived before me nursing a bruised rib, was holding Mof. The damn kitten had not stopped crying, as if he knew...as if he knew something had happened to his owner.

I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to scream or cry. I had been feeling pretty good about myself, as I was able to take out at least a dozen of Ragers.

Eliminate the threat. Protect what was mine.

The mantra, to some, might sound masochistic,but I can assure you that is the furthest from the truth. Addie owned me, heart, body, and mind.

I didn’t want to think about a world where she was no longer in it. I had thought it before, after she had been taken from the collapsed resort, and it had completely destroyed me. This - knowing how she felt about me even though she couldn’t say it - was ten times worse.

I finally knew what it was like to be truly loved by a girl like Addie. By anyone, really. I had never been loved before.

“Where the fuck is she?” Ryder demanded, eyes wild. He looked as if he was getting ready to tear the world apart.

It was then that I realized something that was so bluntly obvious. How had I not noticed it before?

He was in love with her.

I couldn’t focus on that, however. Not with Addie missing and possibly-

I couldn’t even think that word. She couldn’t be dead. I would be able to tell.

Declan, pacing, had rounded on Ronan. His hands were a flurry of undefinable movements. I was too tired, too dead, to read what he was signing so dogmatically.

Ronan blanched, face paling.

“You were supposed to be fucking watching her!” Ryder exploded, storming towards his brother. Before Sarge could intervene, Ryder’s fist connected with Ronan’s face. Bones cracked, and Ronan tumbled over the gruesome body of one of the fallen. I couldn’t decide if it had been a zombie or a human.

At least it wasn’t Addie.

Ronan allowed Ryder to pummel his face, not bothering to raise a hand to defend himself. He looked lost and forlorn, a mere shadow of the cocky bastard I knew and occasionally loved like a brother.

An idiotic brother, but a brother all the same.

“Enough!” Sarge screamed, grabbing Ryder by his shirt. “I said enough! This isn’t going to help anything!”

“You fucking left her alone! You had one fucking job to do! One!” Ryder lunged for Ronan again, but both Asher and Sarge held him back. Sarge looked, as always, cool and stoic, but I saw him continually clenching and unclenching his jaw. He was worried about Addie too, and I tried not to think about the reasons why. “You better hope we fucking find her! You better fucking hope!”

Ronan was staring at his brother, and I watched as realization slowly dawned on his face. He apparently hadn’t been aware of the extent of his brother’s feelings either. I saw his expression morph, surprise giving way to unreadability.

Ronan’s eyes flickered to something over Ryder’s shoulder, and his expression froze.

“We have to start looking for her. If she’s alive, she couldn’t have gone far,” Sarge was saying.

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