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“A bit bruised and worse for wear, but no lasting physical damage,” Sienna said, purposefully not mentioning the mental consequences the whole ordeal had left on her. “How are you? Are you okay?”
Adrianna pulled away to look her in the eyes and shook her head. “I haven’t been anywhere around it. The moment the alarms went off, Angel gave me a gun and locked me in his room, ordering me to hide in the closet until he came, so that’s what I did.”
“You did well. It was for the best,” Sienna assured her, noting Adrianna looking uncomfortable with the admission of hiding.
“I know, but I can’t stop thinking that maybe I could’ve helped make a difference, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe if I’d be out there, I could’ve killed someone and then we wouldn’t lose so many people on our side,” Adrianna said, then grimaced when she realized how ridiculous it sounded.
“Or maybe there’d be one more casualty on our side,” Sienna replied, pointing out the obvious.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Adrianna reluctantly agreed.
Sienna pulled her best friend into another hug before excusing herself to go and check on others.
“My best guess is to go to the war room,” Adrianna suggested.
“Thanks,” Sienna said with a wave and went toward the direction she was sure Jensen had gone when she got stopped by Adrianna, which also led the same way where the war room was.
Sienna did her best to ignore the splattered blood on the ground and the walls. Many of the bodies had already been put away, but there were still a lot left behind, waiting for the next van to collect them. The compound was in ruins, with fallen debris lying all over. From the far side of the building, she could see rising smoke, but she’d been assured that the fire had been contained and was soon to be put out.
The threat must’ve truly been dealt with, otherwise Jensen wouldn’t have left her alone. Kyle and his crazy supporters were dead. Sienna told herself that she should feel relieved and lighter, but something inside her warned her to stay strong. Jensen had mentioned that some people weren’t as lucky. She shuddered only at the thought of who could’ve lost their lives in the attack. The not knowing and the uncertainty of what was happening had bothered her more than she thought it could, so she picked up the pace and half-ran to the war room. She needed to know.
There were no guards stationed at the entrance of the room, and Sienna didn’t bother to knock. She entered without a hint of hesitation. A bunch of heads turned her way with startled expressions on their faces. Sienna figured that it was a bad idea to surprise them like that, considering they’d all been traumatized by Kyle’s sudden attack. Regardless, she stopped long enough to take in the faces of the people she recognized.
“What are you doing here? Adrianna should’ve taken you to the nearest ambulance to check you over,” Jensen said with a frown, and only now it made sense in Sienna’s mind why he left her behind. She and Adrianna had been too happy to see each other and failed to pay attention to him when he said that.
Sienna ignored him, her eyes finding her biological family. Patrick Lockwood kept an arm over his wife’s shoulders, tucking her closer to him. They both looked at her with relief in their eyes, but there must’ve been something on her face and in her expression that warned them not to approach. Standing next to them was Angel, and when Sienna met her brother’s eyes, he gave her a small nod in acknowledgment and a smile. She didn’t return any of it, not because she wanted to be mean, but because she was too busy keeping counts in her mind of who was there and who was missing.
Her eyes moved on to Jaxon whose usually bright blond hair was now almost completely dark. He had a long scratch on his cheek, but someone had already cleaned it up and stitched it together with a field stapler. Next to him was Xavier, who was the cleanest of the bunch, except that the skin on his knuckles was completely gone. There was no disguising the fact that he was also in a fight.
At last, her eyes returned to Jensen. He was the one who had found her in the gardens, but then she was too out of it to get a good look at him. His left eye socket had been completely swollen, and she was actually surprised that she hadn’t noticed it before. His face was severely bruised, but the lacerations on it were mostly shallow. The worst visual injury was his eyes. Sienna didn’t want to think what type of injuries lay hidden beneath their clothes and even worse, in their souls. Maybe this was something they’d never be able to recover from.
“Where are your parents?” Sienna asked the heirs, then elaborated even though it wasn’t necessary. “Mr. and Mrs. Carrington?”
The heirs exchanged sad glances that filled Sienna with dread. Something was wrong. It was Jensen who got up and gestured for her to come closer.
“Come sit down and we’ll talk,” he said, sounding tired.
Sienna wanted to argue and tell him that she was fine standing, but she couldn’t find it within herself to cause him more problems than he already had. The man looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Sienna suppressed the urge to hug him and tell him that everything would be okay. She couldn’t do it because she wasn’t sure she believed it herself.
“Our father has died,” Jensen said at last with a sad but firm voice.
Sienna’s eyes widened, and she looked around the room. The other Carrington heirs had avoided her gaze and preferred to look at their hands. The only person who didn’t shy away from her was her father, who gave her a subtle nod, which was the only confirmation she needed to know that this was real.
“I’m sorry,” she said, voicing the only words that came to mind in circumstances like this.
“Thank you,” Jensen replied and forced a small smile on his face.
It was then when it hit Sienna that she was looking at the head of the Carrington family. Jensen wasn’t just an heir apparent anymore. With his father dead, his status changed into the boss and the leader. No wonder he looked like he’d aged twenty years. The responsibility of dealing with the aftermath of Kyle’s attack fell onto his shoulders. It was up to him to bring his family out of this hell and show them a way to a new life.
“What about your mother?” Sienna asked, realizing that no one had told her anything about her. “Where’s Aurora? Is she also…?”
“No,” Jensen said quickly and shook his head. “She’s okay. She accompanied Aiden to the hospital. We didn’t want to leave him alone and needed someone we could trust. You know yourself that the only people we can trust in times like this are family.”
Sienna nodded, relieved to hear that Aurora was alive. She wasn’t too fond of the woman, but she didn’t want her dead. They had their differences, but Sienna knew that deep down, Aurora kind of liked her and only wanted to protect her sons. Sienna would never fault her for that.
