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My eyes moved from Victoria to Craig. He still stood over Candy’s body, his belt hanging useless and bloody from his hands. I moved without a thought, closing the distance between us in a few long strides.

“I didn’t mean–” Victoria started.

“Stop.” I bit out, turning my attention back to Craig. “I told you, I fucking told you not to give her more god damned ammo. That I’d reconcile this shit when the time came, but it wasn’t supposed to be today!” I yelled. Craig opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off. “Fucking hell, I’m not actually saying it’s your fault, but Iamyelling at you for it! She shouldn’thave fucking been here, but I knew, I fucking knew, if I tried to stop her you’d just talk me out of it. And you,” I whirled on Victoria, and her eyes widened. “All you had to do was be our peace, but you just couldn’t do that. You keep inserting yourself where you don’t have the skills to be, so fuck. Fucking,fuck it!Starting tomorrow, you train like a fucking grunt. I don’t want to hear a single god damned complaint out of you over it, either. We could have learned something today, but instead, you let your emotions run you, and you killed our only lead. That willneverhappen again.”

“I know you’re pissed,” Craig started slowly. “But wedidget information today from Jen. And knowing Candy the way I do, we were never going to get anything from her that we didn’t already have.”

“Jen’s info didn’t do anything except clarify whatalreadywent down. Yeah, youknewCandy, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have gotten anything else out of her. The bitch loved to fucking slip bits of information out to taunt you the whole goddamned time you were fucking her!” I bellowed, throwing my hands up.

“Az, you have every right to be angry, but you know as well as I do she wasn’t going to give us anything because wewantedher to. She’d rather have died. I know we don’tknowthat for certain, but we do.”

“Again. Angry, yelling.Youjust happen to be here!” I snapped.

A sniffle near us drew our attention, and I turned my head to see Victoria wiping tears from her eyes, leaving a blood smear across her cheek as she curled in on herself.

“I… I didn’t mean to. I just… I was so angry. I don’t—” Victoria’s voice quivered, and my mind warred between wanting to comfort her and throttle her.

“Well the fuck aware.” I snarked, barely able to rein in my anger enough not to rip into her completely.

“Bunny, that’s the problem. We don’t kill people without intention…” Craig trailed off, thinking, “Well, occasionally Leighton does. Buteven then, it’s never when it’s important. Everyone we end has a purpose.”

“What about me?” Leighton called out, walking back into the warehouse.

I rolled my eyes at him and returned my attention to Victoria. “Tomorrow, when Ian leaves for work, you start training. No more going easy on you. No running to Craig when you feel like it’s too much. When one of us says jump, and we will say jump, you start jumping. We’ll tell you when you’ve jumped high enough. No sass, no backtalk, you take your orders and follow through, just like any other boots on the fucking ground for the Horsemen. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Sir.” Victoria said, looking at her hands as she fidgeted with her fingers.

“Don’t either of you go easy on her either. She’s in this for real now, no backing out and no pulling punches. She wasn’t built for this life, but she’s here and we’re going to make sure she fucking survives it. Where the fuck is Joey?” I asked, effectively ending the conversation about Victoria’s training.

“What?” Joey’s clipped response had me turning in his direction, where he stood just inside the warehouse door.

“Starting tomorrow, you’re back to training her with the rest of us. She’s following in your fucking footsteps, and since she won’t take ‘no’ for a fucking answer, we’re going to make sure she’s not a danger or a liability.” I snapped back.

“The fuck? I get training her to keep her safe, but since when are webringing her in? That’sneverbeen the plan!” He started storming toward us, a heavy glower on his face.

“Since she keeps killing people, that’s when. She has a body count of two, do you really want her racking up more onaccident?”

“She killed Rinaldo on purpose.” Leighton remarked.

“Not what I meant smartass, and you fucking know it.” I growled, reaching out to smack him in the back of the head. “This was an accident, otherwise she’d never have landed another body on my watch.”

Phil walked in with a small crew following behind him, acknowledged us with a two-finger salute, and started directing the clean-up operations. I gave everyone a harsh look, moved outside to the SUV without looking back, climbed in the driver’s seat, and slammed the door.

I had to remind myself to slow down when we got closer to Dawn and Ian’s house; it wouldn’t do for us to get pulled over for speeding while we had two people covered in blood in the car. My hands hurt from how hard I gripped the steering wheel as I pulled in, cut the engine, and climbed out. I slammed the door behind myself and stormed up to the house.

Fuck, I wanted to hit something. Or to smash things up like I had in my room at the manor, which felt like a lifetime ago. I couldn’t do either here, and I had to remind myself not to jerk the front door off the hinges as I stepped inside. Dawn noticed something was off the second I stepped inside.

“Come with me.” She ordered. Standing from the couch and moving toward the kitchen.

I followed her in silence as she led me through the door in the kitchen and into her greenhouse. She paused near a set of shelves, opening them and reaching high enough that she had to stand on her tiptoes. Before I could ask if she wanted help, she’d pulled down a whiskey bottle and returned for two glasses.

“When Rich would call me, I’d always come out here.” She started, pouring both of us two fingers before handing me a glass. “I didn’t drink every time, but the times when it was bad… When the things he was telling me made me sure I was going to bury one of my boys, I’d have a drink to calm my nerves.” She took a sip from her glass and then let out a huff. “Who’d have figured it wouldn’t be any of those calls that cost me one of you.” She shook her head and then pinned her gaze on me. “You wanna tell me what’s going on? What’s got you all in a tizzy?”

“I don’t think you want to know, Dawn.” I sighed before taking a sip of my whiskey.

“Well, the way I figure it, you can tell me, or I can just guess until I get it right. Either way, I think you need to let it out before it eats you up inside.”

I set my glass down on the long table where she had plants in the process of being repotted and studied her. Rich called her when there was a problem he couldn’t solve, but, as far as I knew, he never told her more than he needed to work shit out. My chest twinged with the reminder that I wasn’t him. I didn’t know what lines I couldn’t cross when talking to his mother. I knew I was starting to crumble under the pressure of his absence.