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I scrambled for the door. Tried to. I stumbled into tables and desks on my way out of the room, my vision blurry as I called for Willow in a panic.
Maverick was waiting outside the room and stopped me. Grabbed me in a tight embrace that had my stomach dropping and soul wrenching before he whispered, “Thought we lost you.” When he pulled away, his expression was drawn and wary. “Would’ve been my fault.”
But as he led me through the house, he wouldn’t answer the one question I repeatedly asked.
The only thing that mattered.
“Where’s Willow?”
He wouldn’t say anything at all. But then we made it to where the rest of our family was gathered in the large, industrial-sized kitchen. The grief sitting so thick in the room, I could taste it. And at the sight of their somber expressions, I swayed unsteadily before grabbing onto one of the counters.
Dread building and suffocating with each unexpected face I saw and each person I didn’t see.
The cop was still there—as was his wife—solemnly holding Kieran and Jessica’s kids, even though they were nowhere to be seen. All the rockstars were gathered in a corner. And even though the sight of Lily should’ve been a relief, it had my soul wrenching because Tree was nowhere to be seen.
“Mav, where’s Willow?” I asked one last time as my head pounded out a punishing rhythm.
He gave me an apologetic look before confirming, “Keane Street has her.”
* * *
We’d failed. Miserably.
As if that hadn’t been obvious the night before—shit, the entire day before—each detail I was given over the next hour had driven that stake home harder than before.
Dare told me about his and Willow’s plan—one she’d decided on only because he’d placed the idea in her head—one that was pointless because Lily had never been where we thought she was.
Jentry explained how he and Jess had gone different ways to come up from the opposite side and how she’d disappeared behind an SUV—one none of us realized had been there for most of the day because we’d trusted Einstein’s security.
Maverick shamefully admitted how he’d bailed from his position behind me to get to Einstein—to protect her—when Dare informed us Keane Street had made it to her too.
I let them know the last thing I remembered was Kieran going for the clown holding Jess as I’d fired two shots directly into the head of the masked asshole who’d thought it was okay to touch Willow—to hurt her. I’d seen them start to fall, and that had been it.
Maverick said they’d found me later, among the rest of the bodies, unconscious and bleeding. And while Willow was with the enemy, Jess was fucking gone.
We’d gone against all training. We’d lost focus. And we’d failed.
Or maybe it was that we’d gotten comfortable during these three years of peace and forgotten how to do our jobs correctly. Either way, the outcome was the same.
Keane Street had used the ex-Borello and Holloway ambush as a distraction to move into place against us—as a way in. They’d used Einstein’s skills and security against her to throw her off and keep us blind to what was really happening. And they’d used what was most important to each of us to get away with what they wanted.
Spouses. Kids.
That collateral damage I’d sworn off for so many years—had tried to keep safe and lost.
And Lily? She’d never been in Virginia or Keane Street’s den of corruption. She hadn’t even been in any of the vans that had kept Einstein occupied for so long. They’d brought her back here, to the estate, almost immediately after the explosion and kept her locked up inside Soldier’s Row until late this morning.
She thought we knew because Einstein had assured her we had her position locked. She’d even warned us not to go outside, thinking we understood it was the same outside as hers.
And none of us had ever picked up on it.
There was only one other time I’d failed my family, but only I had suffered for it. This? We’d all failed, and we were all suffering.
“Kieran?” I asked my brother as my stare settled on where Jentry and Aurora held Kieran’s kids.
“Never seen anything like it,” Maverick muttered. “Guy was savage. Breaking shit and raging like the demon our world thinks he is. Screaming that he killed her.” Maverick’s eyebrows lifted even as he shook his head. “Conor had to put him to sleep. When he woke up, he was so silent and still...never been as afraid to be in a room with him as I was then.”
A grunt of understanding worked up my chest. “Plotting.”
