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But Liam. He kissed her. Laid down his life.Her hero.
It’s my only thought, looping in an internal rant that drowns their indignant demands.
Liam gathers the blood pooling from his brow, nose, and mouth with a swipe of his shirt, his valiant chest scars mocking me. “It’s all on video. I didn’t even use my typical polished moves. It was innocent.”
“Innocent?” The word tumbles out, charged with poisonous accusation. He’s always wanted her. Nothing about this is innocent.
Except my Little Storm.
That much I know.
He slinks down the wall, unfazed by my gun threatening him. “Yes,” he snarls, stretching his legs out to find a less painful position. “Watch it.Goddammit, I did itfor you,for her, and it nearly cost meeverything.” His eyes narrow at mine, glossy and plagued, a reflection of my own torment. “It nearly costmeIvy.”
I reholster my gun and drop into a chair.Fucking Christ, I can’t get my head straight.
Ty drags a chair beside me, collapsing with a remorseful groan. “Your grandfather contacted us, giving us the option over someone elsehe’d chooseto do God knows what. We weren’t about to let that happen. Gage and I couldn’t sell it to her. It had to be Liam.”
It had to be Liam.That isn’t the cushion Ty intends. It had to be him because on some level, she deemed him an option. My gut wrenches. “Let me see it.”
Liam’s finger swipes over his phone without hesitation. “There’s a time-lapsed part in the car. She wouldn’t talk to me. Ty edited and sent it to KORT while I was in surgery.”
It pings on my phone, and I put my earbuds in, not willing to share this even though I know they’ve seen it. The video is shoddy, the angle poor. She didn’t know she was being filmed. In the dark, like always. I watch their playfulness, their lighthearted laughs volleyed back and forth. Different from her and Ty. Different from us.
She enlivens with a zeal when he smashes the doughnut into her pouty lips, my little brat ready for a takedown, giving it right back.
Then the kiss.
Liam’s right. It’s quick and chaste. Not his usual ferocious swallowing. Eviscerating all the same.
And her eyes. They pool with both betrayal and empathy. Her serene demeanor is sweet, letting him down gently, before the panic hits her and her storm brews, clouded with conflict. In a flash, they’re parked in the driveway.
Talk about nailing a fucking loyalty test on every account—grace for us all. Over and above what would be expected.
Jesus.That’s why Liam saidnearly.Ivy made it clear he’d never lose her, and in spite of my impulse to disembowel him, I love her even more for it.
There’s no video once they’re out of the car. Only the shot blaring through the stale air. Her sobs. Her shock. Her terror and pleas. Liam calling herbaby girland telling her she was worth it all—deathbed devotion completely removed from the loyalty test. If I don’t tarry there, a thankfulness bubbles over from my boiling blood.
He protected her, would’ve died for her.
Then, she’s gone, and I’m frozen, staring at the blacked-out screen, wondering if any part of that girl is left. I’ll love her regardless, but she’s harder.
Because I allowed this to be her fate.
Both Gage and Ty are eyeing me, foreheads scrunched in question. Ty spins the monitor they’re viewing. It’s stilled on our land, an image ablaze.
“Know what that is?” he asks when I remove my earbuds, his tenor leery.
The answer is an anvil clobbering me. My lungs empty all the air inside them. “It’s a phoenix. A phoenix clutching a sword.”
They all gape at me to confirm what they’re already speculating.
I exhale another ragged breath. “She’s erasing herself and takingher swordwith her.” Afuck youto both us and KORT. I don’t share that though, not with all the chairs on video conference.
Gage muted their chatter, but they’re still privy to ours—the only reason Ty,only Ty, was permitted to call Ivy and also why he couldn’t share anything.
I snap into action. She spoke to us on a burner, but she was in the Ferrari, and we have that tracked too. I pull up the tracking app, gushing relief. “I’ve got her.”
Ty’s face relaxes as Liam whoops a stilted laugh. Our heads all whip toward him in question. His eyes twinkle in a way they haven’t sincebefore.
