The second the shot rings out, chaos ripples across the clearing, but I’ve got one priority.
Lilac.
She’s in my arms before the echo even fades, her body tense and trembling, her breathing all wrong. I don’t stop to look back. I don’t stop to check who’s down.
I already know.
Adam’s body is crumpled in the grass, blood pooling too fast beneath him, but I can’t focus on that now. I can’t afford to. Not when she’s going into shock right here in my arms.
“Come on, bambi,” I murmur, voice low and steady as I press her head to my chest, trying to block her view. “I got you. I got you, baby.”
The others are moving too. Hayden and Tristan each have their girls in their arms, flanking me like a tight unit as we veer off toward the tree line. There's an old trail near the edge of the property that winds down to the bottom side of where we parked, and the cover up ahead is thick enough to give us time to regroup.
Lilac’s fingernails dig into my shoulder. She’s not crying, not yet. She’s just breathing like she can’t catch up, like the air is burning her lungs.
“He’s dead,” she whispers. “Callum… Adam is dead.”
My grip tightens. “I know, baby.”
I don’t lie to her to make her feel better in the moment because I have a feeling that this night is only going to get worse before it gets better.
I stop behind the thickest trunk I can find and shift her weight, pressing her back to my chest so I can wrap my arms around her tighter, keeping her upright as her knees start to give.
“He was awful to you,” I murmur into her hair. “He didn’t protect you. He used you. But I know that doesn’t make this hurt any less.”
She nods, barely. Like the movement costs her everything.
“I didn’t want him dead,” she says. “I just wanted him to leave me alone. I wanted him to stop ganging up on me with our parents.”
“I know, baby. He can’t hurt you anymore. No one can,” I whisper because I need her to believe me. After tonight, no one causes her any more pain. We’re done with all of this.
I can feel my girl trembling, like she’s vibrating under my skin. Every shaky inhale slices into me. I’d do anything, ruin anyone, to take this pain off her shoulders, to go back and stop all of this before it started.
“Do you think it was Vincent?” she whispers. “If my parents set all of that up the night we came here. Maybe Adam wasn’t in on the whole plan. Maybe…”
I don’t answer right away. My jaw tightens. Because yeah, it could’ve been. Or it could’ve been someone working for him. Or someone else entirely.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’m going to find out.”
I run my hand through her hair, long slow passes, whispering whatever quiet things I can think of…sweet nothings I don’t even remember forming in my head before they’re pouring out of my mouth. Just sound and breath and comfort. My chest feels like it’s caving in. Like someone’s got their hand around my heart and they’re squeezing, punishing me for letting her be hurt this way.
Hayden is the first to speak when everyone makes it up to behind the vehicles. “We need to leave. It’s too risky to try to get up to the house.” He’s pushing Madi toward the car, and I know he’s worried about her.
“If we leave now,” Ramsey snaps, appearing beside us like fucking Beetlejuice, “whoever’s behind this shit is going to follow you back to Castlebrook. And now my fucking face is attached to all of it.”
Lilac takes a deep, ragged breath and lifts her chin.
“We end this tonight,” she says. Her voice is frayed but strong. “I’m tired of looking over my shoulder every time I step outside.”
“Same,” Madison and Winter echo behind her, nodding their heads.
“I have an idea,” Hayden chimes in.
Tristan groans. “I need to be sedated if we’re letting Lockwood take over the plan.”
Hayden ignores him, holding up a can of lighter fluid. “We want them to come to us, right? So we can see where they are and how many of them there are. We douse the outside of the mansion and pick them off when they come running out.”
My jaw tightens.
