Even if what scared me most was how true it was.
Royal grinned, then handed me a burner phone and a black hoodie from a box marked “disguises.” “Welcome to the team,” he said.
Ryker squeezed my shoulder, letting his hand linger for just a second. “We’ll keep you safe,” he promised, and against my better judgment, I almost believed him.
Outside, the night pressed close, full of possibility. And the three of us formed a new kind of family: the kind that ran towards trouble, not from it.
Ready or not, we were going to war.
∞∞∞
That first night, I barely slept. Ryker paced the warehouse, checking the doors and setting up small booby traps for anyone who might get clever. Royal sat by the window, watching for headlights. In the stillness, I started to wonder if I was the same person who’d stood in a classroom last week, worrying about spelling bees and glue sticks.
I wondered if Mia even remembered me. I thought about her, the mysterious shadow I’d loved despite not recalling what she looked like. The one who’d disappeared when our mother died. If I were the bait, did that make her the trap? The bullet, or the target? I couldn’t decide, and the not-knowing made my heart thud so loudly I wouldn’t be surprised if they could hear it.
I must have drifted off at some point because I woke to a hand gently shaking my shoulder and Ryker’s whisper in my ear. “Time to move.”
Royal was already up, loading bags into a back exit. Mabel was zipped into her carrier, her green eyes blinking at me with disapproval for all this mess.
Ryker’s hand hovered at the small of my back as we hustled into a battered sedan and drove fast, lights off, down a side alley. “They know where we are,” he said to Royal. “How?”
Royal didn’t look away from the road. “No clue. The only thing I can think of is that they had to have bugged the van. Hence why I boosted this beater,” he said, smacking the dashboard.
Ryker’s jaw tensed. “They’re close?”
“Within ten minutes.” Royal glanced at me in the rear-view. “You ready to be a decoy, Lily?”
I should have hesitated. But I nodded, throat tight. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter 11
Ryker
Iwas the bait that night, standing beside her in the dim concrete belly of the parking garage under the closed grocery store. Our plan was stupidly simple: she and I loitered like decoys at the bottom level while Royal held position one floor up, primed to pick off anyone who got too close.
Matheson’s goons moved like specters—too precise, too fast, always two steps ahead. We hadn’t even crested halfway up the ramp when a black van glided in, sealing off our only exit.
“Oh, shit,” she hissed behind me, and I flattened us both against a support column.
The first shot tore through the silence of the night with a crack so loud it felt like the universe was snapping a bone. Concrete dust cascaded from the ceiling.
I caught her hand, counted on my fingers: three. A flicker of movement overhead. Two. Another shot—this one grazed her cheek, left a burning welt. One—
I shoved her down behind me and bolted from cover. I hit the shooter in mid-swing, body-checking him into the slab-floor with a savage roar. Limbs tangled, fists flew. Cries of surprise and pain echoed in the stairwell. Then I twisted free, chestheaving, and landed atop him. His face was a mask of anger and blood.
“Who sent you?” I snarled, voice low and dangerous.
He spat, blood mixing with saliva. “Matheson. He wants the girl.”
“Why?” I pressed, clenched fist ready to fire the next punch.
“To get to Mia,” he rasped. “He’ll hurt her sister slowly— until Mia caves.”
My stomach pitched, but I tipped my head so she could see him. “Tell Matheson he’s an asshole,” I barked.
He laughed—a ragged, coughing sound. “Don’t worry. He’s coming himself. He wants to see her face when she dies.”
“Lily, look away.” Trusting that she did, I buried my knife into his throat. He went limp. I wiped the blade on his jeans, then rolled him under the nearest SUV. “Let’s move,” I said, voice flat.
