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“Hope not,” Darien said again, knowing exactly what he was getting at.

“Ivy’s really upset, you know.” He aimed at the target and threw the blade so hard the room shook.

Darien felt a pinch in his heart, as if Jack had thrown that knife at him instead of the target. “I know.”

Jack sniffed. “She loves you.”

Quieter, Darien said, “I know.”

Jack threw his last blade. “We all do. So what you did kinda feels like a kick in the balls.” He turned then and stared at him, empty hands hanging at his sides. This time it was Darien who felt like he couldn’t meet Jack’s gaze. He forced himself to anyway, because Jack deserved it. Any time he opened up, he deserved the full attention of whoever he was pouring his heart out to. “You gave me a home, Darien,” Jack said. “You gave mea family. You did that for all of us, not just me. Did you not even consider how we’d feel when you decided to end your life?”

“I haven’t ended it.”

A cold smirk. “You’re stuck in a slow motion crash. It’s gonna happen before the new year—you said so yourself. We’ve all been too busy to really discuss it, but this shit stings.” He shook his head and chewed his lip. “I know you love her, man, but—” He glared at the target with gleaming eyes. “Do you ever regret it?”

“No,” he answered truthfully. “Never.” He never regretted anything when it came to Loren. “I only regret the pain it’s causing everyone else.” That last part was true, too. He could count on one hand the amount of times he’d seen Jack upset like this, and although he knew that most of these emotions stemmed from concern for his wife, the things he was admitting right now…

They weren’t lies. Jack didn’t lie.

“I don’t know what hurts more,” Jack began. His words were thick with emotion, his face red. “Watching my wife bawl her eyes out over losing her brother, or coming to terms with the fact that you really don’t give a shit about yourself at all. You think you’re this horrible person who doesn’t deserve to be alive or happy, but Darien, man, we hunt horrible people all the time.” He gave a quiet, unamused chuckle, the tears threatening to fall. “You’re not one of them.” He fiercely wiped at his eyes, smearing moisture across his flushed cheeks, and crossed the room to the target. “If you were, you would’ve killed me back when I deserved it,” he added with a mumble.

Darien straightened. “Jack?—”

“I want to be alone.” He kept his back facing him, and when he turned to cross the room again he did it with his head down. “Thanks for stopping by. Maybe I’ll come down tomorrow.”

He resumed throwing. He didn’t look Darien’s way again.

So Darien left, closing the door softly behind him.

Two hours later, while he sat by himself at the dining room table with nothing but the ticking of the clock for company, the remnants of the salt he’d snorted while trying to track his family scattered across the wood, he heard the sound of tires rolling down the driveway.

He pushed out of his seat and hurried toward the front entrance, boots and heart pounding.

“Lace?” he called into the quiet house. Something about his tone had Lace getting up immediately on one of the upper levels.

Hope filled his heart, but he refused to let it take full control as he swung open the door?—

And found one of Roman’s vehicles parking out front.

The driver’s door opened. A familiar male voice drifted through the twilit yard.

Relief washed through him, so strong his head spun. “Jack!” he bellowed. No response. Shit, he was going to wake up Loren, wasn’t he?“Jack!”Still no response. He cursed and hollered louder, “JAAAACK!”

Jack opened his door.“What?”he called from the fourth floor.

“Get down here.”

A low groan. “I’m not in the mood, Darien.”

“Get down here, Jacky. Now. That’s an order.”

Jack cursed. Then he stomped down the stairs, muttering, as Tanner and Kylar stepped out of the car, moving their seats forward for Ivy and Eugene to climb out.

As Jack descended the stairs, the big arched window above the front entrance gave him perfect view of his wife as she grabbed her bag out of the car. The minute he saw her, he almost tripped before going perfectly still. Just for a second.

And then he broke into a run.

He cleared the last of those stairs faster than Darien had ever seen him move. Darien stepped aside just in time as Jack blew past him and out the door like a bullet?—