To burn down the men who built this war. To avenge the girl too stubborn to die quietly.
Because I’m not losing her.
Not now.
Not ever.
I grip the steering wheel like it’s the only thing keeping me from snapping. My tires scream across the pavement as I rip into my father’s driveway, the sound loud enough to rattle the bones of every bastard inside. Good. Let them know we’re here. Let themfeelit.
This isn't a warning. It's a reckoning.
Wells glances over, calm as a corpse. “What’s the plan?”
“There is no plan,” I snarl, teeth bared. “We go in. We tear everything down. We ask questions after the blood stops spilling.”
He smirks. “Anything goes?”
I turn my head slowly, grinning like the devil himself. “Anything fucking goes.”
This should’ve happened years ago. After every broken bone, every scar, every scream buried under a pillow,thisis overdue. My father’s gonna feel what it’s like to bleed out on the floor he used to command.
We step out just as my phone lights up. Fred’s name. I nearly throw the damn thing, until I hear the voice that cracks something inside me.
“Wyck?”
Athens.
FuckingAthens.
“Athens?” My tone shifts, sharp to reverent in a blink.
“It’s me,” she breathes. “Where are you?”
“I’m at my father’s. We came for answers.”
Her voice dips into a whisper, soft and hoarse. “I need you.”
Fuck. My eyes shut. Fist clenches.Not now. Not when I’m this close.
“Please, Wyck. I need you.”
I growl low in my throat, teeth grinding. “Fuck! I’m coming, baby. I’m on my way.”
“Hurry,” she whispers before the line goes dead.
Wells sighs. “So… she’s awake, and we’re aborting the mission?”
I look over, jaw tight, hands twitching. “This won’t take long.”
He nods. “In and out. Fast and brutal.”
No masks. No need to hide. My father knows exactly who we are, and Iwanthim to. I want him to be the one to spread the gospel of what’s coming for them. One by one.
“Krewe,” Wells mutters. “You figure out who the fuck that is yet?”
I shake my head. “He’s nobody I know. But he made the mistake of breathing in our girl’s direction. Now he’s got a bounty so high, evenGodcouldn’t afford to save him.”
“Fucking right,” Wells growls as we step to the front entrance.
