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Once they’re on, I run down the stairs and out the door, barely looking at Matt as I pass him on the couch. Nothing matters more at this moment than seeing those men. Knowing that they can never hurt Bianca.

Knowing that they won’t be able to betray her the way my family has betrayed me.

When I get back outside, the wind is dying down and Royce is still standing beneath the stars, looking more handsome than he did the day he left.

He glances at me, a look in his eyes like he thinks this is a bad idea, even if he’s not willing to say anything. Royce rubs a gloved hand over his jaw. “Gia?—”

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. Please. Not tonight. I need to see them. You know I do. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen a body.”

“I know.” Royce looks down at me as I join him, a thin shred of warmth in his eyes that gives me a little sliver of hope for our future. “I know I need to take you out there, but I wish you wouldn’t go. I wish I could protect you more.”

“There’s no more protecting me.” I tuck my hands into the pockets of my jacket, the air still cold. “Take me to the bodies.”

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

GIA

No matterhow many times I see a dead man, it never gets any more normal.

Not when it’s bitterly cold and they’re half-wrapped in a blue tarp. Not when my breath comes out in white bursts around me, the world looking like a winter wonderland.

Certainly not when I think about the baby sleeping safely at the house, blissfully unaware of the fact that both of her parents are killers.

That we’re likely both going to have to kill again before the war between our families is over.

I crouch down beside the bodies, my stomach rolling.

Their faces are drained of color, skin sallow and eyes wide. Not in shock, but more in a disbelief that someone would actually kill them.

Life looks good until Noah decides you're expendable, and then you’re the first one he sends to the chopping block. Neither of them would’ve come out of this alive. If Royce hadn’t killed them, the moment they got home, Noah would have put a bullet in their heads for failing him.

Royce puts his hand on the small of my back, though I can barely feel him through the thick coat. “Are you okay?”

I swallow hard, trying to untangle the mess of emotions. “I don’t know. Knowing that they’re dead is a relief, if that makes sense. I let these men be around our daughter. I trusted them to watch her if I had to run out, and now they’ve come to kidnap her. Or do whatever the hell it is that Noah wants with her.”

“Do you think he’s capable of hurting his own niece?”

Yes.

No.

I don’t know.

My stomach flops as I look up at him, his forest-green eyes staring straight through to the soul. It’s unsettling, but he’s always been able to see straight through me.

I take a deep, shaking breath, clenching my hands into fists so they stop trembling. “I wish I could say no, but the truth is that I have no clue. I think I don’t even know the beginning of what he’s capable of.”

Royce’s body tenses before he nods. “Aiden wouldn’t hurt her, I don’t think, but I can’t promise that he wouldn’t use Bianca as a pawn in the war.”

“You think he would hand her over to Noah if it got him what he wants?”

His lips press together, nearly becoming invisible behind the beard as he shrugs.

I would almost think he’s indifferent to what happens, except for the anger shining in his eyes. It’s clear that he hates that he can’t trust his own brother.

Would he be willing to kill his brother to save me?

To save Bianca?