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I took a breath and tried to relax. I looked over my shoulder and watched as someone else locked up the shop’s door for the police. “I just feel bad,” I said. “No one will know what really happened to her. She did sacrifice herself in the end.”

“She wasn’t a bad person,” Randy agreed. “Just in a bad situation.”

I stuck the vials in my pocket as we approached the bike. Before we got on it, Randy pulled me close. He tipped my chin up to look him in the face. Slowly, his mouth lowered over mine. I pushed up to my tiptoes to pass the distance quicker. With so much going on around us, it was easy to get lost in the stresses, but I had this, too. This beautiful connection with four guys. Randy’s hand worked up into my hair and angled my head to deepen the kiss. I followed his lead, the world falling away around us as I lived in this moment with him.

Sadly, he pulled away, his breath caressing my lips. “I’m right here, Norah.”

I nodded, needing to hear that. Then, we hopped on the bike and started toward headquarters. Driving down the back road in the bike was a lot different from the comfort of the Jeep. The ruts that were just little nuisances in the Jeep were like giant craters to the bike. Randy had to slow down at an almost unbearably slow speed as he maneuvered around and straight over the ones he couldn’t avoid. When he finally pulled to a stop right behind the Jeep, he helped me off and then rubbed my butt after he got off himself. “Little sore?”

I smacked him in the hand. “I think I’d prefer to ride in the Jeep next time. My God. You ever thought about getting another vehicle?”

“I thought you liked the bike?”

“I do,” I said. Maybe just not when we had to go to headquarters.

“I could probably sell it back to Travis if—”

I turned. “What? This was Travis’s bike?” I stared at the black bike as if there was some marking on it that would tell me it used to be Travis’s. It didn’t. I never would’ve guessed it belonged to him.

Randy nodded. “Yeah. I bought it off him when I started my own jobs.”

That was interesting. I hadn’t pegged Travis as the type of guy who rode a bike. “I don’t want you to get rid of it,” I told Randy. “I love the bike. I just maybe don’t want to ride on it when we come down that road again. That wasn’t fun.”

Randy smiled and reached down to give my ass another pat. “Maybe I can make it up to you later.”

“Maybe there’s no maybe about it,” I said, raising my eyebrows and walking past him toward the tree I remembered the entrance was close to. Just before I got to the right place, the air started to shimmer and transform. The shape of a door formed, and Randy opened it for me and I took the steps down to the cavernous area. The torches on the wall flickered. I hadn’t even taken two steps when a shrill scream rose up.

“Oh, shit.” I ran forward, my feet slapping against the rock at our feet until I got to them. The witch was sitting up now, her legs crossed in front of her. She stared up at Travis with a murderous glare. “I told you I didn’t do anything! How many times do you need me to say it, Travis? You know me. You know I shouldn’t even be here.”

Travis paced in front of her. “We have to go with what we see.”

“And tell me what exactly you saw again. Me passed out? Me looking like this? Yeah, I look like a threat, don’t I?” she asked, rolling her eyes. I hid a smile. I loved it when Travis got shit.

“Just shut up,” Liam said, coming forward suddenly. The girl flinched away from him. I stopped, surprised at Liam’s words and Randy ran right into my back. “You’re here. Get over it,” he snarled.

The woman’s eyes widened, and she stared at Liam’s back when he finally turned from her and went back to sitting on his stone bench.

“A little more tact, Mate,” Gabe said, throwing an accusatory glance his way. “Just maybe? She is one of us, you know.”

“Then she knows what we need to do. It shouldn’t be such a shock to her,” Liam fumed.

I walked forward. “Okay, what’s going on?”

Travis ran a hand through his hair. “Jules woke up. She has no memory whatsoever of what happened, and she can’t believe we’ve even brought her here. That about sums it up, right?” Travis asked, looking right at her.

She completely ignored Travis and stared at me. “Who are you?”

Randy pushed forward. “A friend.”

The girl, Jules, gave him a withering look. We were losing this battle fast. Liam would’ve been the one to reassure this lady, but he wasn’t going to do that now. He might’ve even started the gas on the fire. I stepped forward. “I am a friend. The truth is,” I told her, “We found you around a foul smell that translates to evil magic. That’s why we had to mark you.”

She hissed in a breath and stared at Travis. “You already marked me?”

He peeked over at me, his head dropping to the side.

Oh shit. She didn’t know that part yet. I shrugged. I hadn’t realized they didn’t tell her. Why would they not tell her?

“It’s no big deal,” I told her, mimicking what they all said to me earlier. “If there’s nothing bad about you, you’ll continue on your way. If you’re doing something bad, you’ll pay, so if you always strive to be good, we shouldn’t have a problem here.”