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Dare considered his response for a moment before conceding with a subtle slant of his head, but his tone was unapologetic when he said, “Had other things on our plates than answering your calls, rockstar.”
“No,” Maxon said over him, stepping close as his head wildly shook. “No, your family home blows up? Someone needs to let me know my wife and daughter are—”
“My wife was taken this morning,” Dare ground out, meeting the challenge with a coldness that had me taking a step away from them. “My mom was murdered. My house was destroyed. In the middle of all that bullshit, we were ambushed tonight.” With another step closer, Dare asked, “When should I have taken your call?”
“Shit, man, I—I’m sorry.” Maxon’s jaw shifted a few times before he asked, “Lil?”
“About to go get her,” Dare explained, then corrected, “We’ve been trying, but things keep stopping us.” He gestured meaningfully from Maxon to where the other three members were huddled close, eyes wide and hollow, faces leached of color. “Your daughter and Libby are safe, but Libby’s in an unreachable spiral because she left Lily right before it happened.”
At that, Maxon’s throat bobbed forcibly. “Shit,” he breathed, eyelids shutting momentarily before he glanced around as if taking in the scene for the first time. For only a second, he locked on Jentry and me, eyebrows furrowing before he must’ve decided we weren’t important right then. With a harsh shake of his head, he asked, “Where are they?”
“Go with Kieran,” Dare muttered, jerking his chin toward the hall across from where we stood. “He needs to go that way anyway.”
“For the record,” Maxon said as he started in that direction, then pointed toward his band members, “they don’t think they’re being Punk’d anymore. Have fun explaining who you are.”
A ripple of irritation left Dare at the taunt, but he just turned for the opposite hall, barking orders as he went. “Rockstars: Get over all the bodies or call the cops—one’s right there.” He pointed behind him in the general direction of where Jentry stood as he went on. “Einstein: Update on Lily and KSG. Everyone going to Virginia: Gear the fuck up; we’re leaving in fifteen minutes. No more delays.”
One of the other Henley members, Ledger Hale, watched as Dare disappeared down the hall before taking in the great room again and mumbling, “There were enough signs and mafia jokes that we wondered if you were. But this?”
“You were never supposed to see this,” Maverick said gravely.
“Except you did it in our house,” the lead singer, Lincoln Grey, argued numbly.
“You were warned against buying the estate,” Maverick said as if reminding him.
“Because of this?” Lincoln shot back, some life returning to his expression and voice. “Because y’all wanted to use it for your own personal bloodbath playground at random?”
“Because it was already covered in blood,” Diggs cut in coldly. “It was mob land for generations, and that world still remembers this place. All the sin, anguish, and betrayal that comes with our lives doesn’t just disappear because someone new moves in. It disappears when the threat’s gone.” He gestured to the men on the floor. “You’re welcome.”
A low laugh started from Henley’s fourth and final member, disbelieving and aggravated. “Let me see if I have this right,” Jared Kerr began, pointing between people as he went on. “You all forced me back to Wake Forest in time to be implicated in a full-on massacre at our house?”
“No one has ever forced you to be here,” Lincoln said irritably.
“Mafia. Cop. Shit ton of dead people,” Jared continued as if Lincoln had never spoken, pointing from the twins to Jentry to the men on the floor. Before anyone could confirm what he’d said, he nodded and turned for the front door. “I need a drink.”
“You can’t speak about what you know to anyone,” Maverick said before Jared could reach the door, earning a stunned laugh from Jared as he tossed a wide-eyed, disbelieving look over his shoulder.
“No shit.”
After a brief hesitation, Lincoln and Ledger followed.
Once the door closed behind them, I looked at Diggs and felt my heart fall into a familiar rhythm that had my eyes burning when I found him watching me.
Gray stare soft and worried, assessing and adoring before he forced it away. “Gotta get ready,” he said, voice thick and uneven as he focused on his brother.
With a heavy sigh, Maverick nodded and started walking backward, toward the hall Dare and Einstein had disappeared in. “Jentry?”
I felt the hesitation from behind me before Jentry finally said, “Yeah, let me check on Aurora first.”
“No more delays,” Maverick reminded him. “You can do that while gearing up.”
Jentry hesitated for a few seconds before slowly following in the direction the twins had gone. Leaving me alone in the great room with two dead men and my vibrating phone.
I was sure I’d been about to have a heart attack the moment I’d felt it go off. But as I slowly reached for where I had it in my back pocket, my pulse hammered harder and harder as dread overwhelmed my initial jump scare.
It could’ve been my mom since I’d abruptly hung up on her the night before and never called back. It could’ve been Cora checking on me since I’d given her a hasty, bullshit excuse for not making it in today.
But the ice creeping into my veins warned me the reason behind my phone going off was so far away from the world I’d known just twenty-four hours before. And as I finally lifted my phone, a defeated, chilling breath rocked me when I saw Detective Higgins lighting up my screen.
