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“Tommy?” I whispered hoarsely, brokenly, glancing towards where I had last seen him. My heart froze when I saw he was no longer there.

Until he walked through the front door, his hand clasped with a younger boy with light brown hair and large headphones around his neck.

“He was staying next door with the neighbors. The neighbors you, by the way, tied up and assaulted,” Tommy said dryly, but there were tears of relief in his eyes and a wide smile on his face.

Nikolai glanced up at me, eyes widening slightly, almost imperceptibly, before he ventured one step forward.

Now, I couldn’t keep in the desperate sobs that escaped me. My brother. My little brother.

Standing in front of me.

Alive.

Unharmed.

Safe.

I knew he hated physical contact, but I couldn’t stop myself from lunging at him, arms encircling his thin waist. He stiffened immediately before hesitantly holding me back. That stunned the hell out of me, but I was too lost in my own emotions to focus on that novelty.

“Nik,” I sobbed into his hair. His arms left my waist, but he didn’t pull away as I clung to him, crying.

I cried until my eyes were red and raw. I cried when Fallon and Declan both crowded me, as if they couldn’t bear to be separated from me even for a moment longer.

I even cried when Tamson and Asher sheepishly released our prisoners.

Somehow, those tears turned into a drowsiness, dark curtains being drawn closed. I was aware of someone holding me to them, my body being lifted like a bride entering her new home.

And then, I was aware of nothing.