Page 53

Why wasn’t she fighting for us?

Why wasn’t she fighting to come home?

I had seen the fight drain from her eyes. She had given up, both body and mind. For the briefest moment, I felt a stab of blistering anger. It burned a hole through my chest, a branding rod. Just as quickly, the anger diminished to be replaced by something colder. She gave up because she didn’t have faith that we would save her. She gave up because she didn’t trust us.

Because of me.

Because I had failed her.

Asher appeared from around the corner, a large duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Fallon had instructed him to go to the local hospital and gather all of the supplies he could as quick as he could. Kill anyone who tried to stop him.

From the fresh blood darkening his blond hair, I concluded that he had obeyed Fallon’s orders.

“Grabbed random shit. Didn’t know what I needed,” he muttered. His eyes were in a perpetual daze. Ever since Adelaide had been shot, he appeared as if he was drifting through life. He couldn’t even bring himself to put on his usual friendly, boy-next-door mask. No, in its place was a stone-cold killer. A hunter. An assassin.

Without a word, he pushed open the bedroom door, slipped inside, and shut it softly. I found that I couldn’t bring myself to look up during that brief moment the door was opened. I didn’t want to see Adelaide lying pathetically in the bed, her brown curls damp with sweat. Blood cascading from the gunshot wound in her stomach. Blood. So much blood.

I had never considered myself queasy before. My job wouldn’t allow me to be. But, just then, I thought that I would vomit all over the carpeting.

I didn’t know if I wanted to be sick or stab someone. Anyone.

Elena - the bitch - was lucky she had left when she did. If we would’ve come back to see her and her traitorous team, there was no telling what we would’ve done. People like her made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe that I had once kissed that creature - a creature who believed it was acceptable to knock the crown off another woman’s head.

I knew Addie, once she woke up, would be devastated by the turn of events. She had considered Samantha and Lilly friends, if not a bit too quickly in my opinion. Even Elena had wormed her way into Addie’s heart. To know that they had betrayed her, left her for dead? That wasn’t something she could easily recover from.

Declan poked his head out of the room he was wallowing in, the damn black kitten held tightly in his arms. He seemed to have this misconstrued mentality that if he held the cat as close to himself as he could, it would somehow rouse Addie from her fatal slumber.

He raised an eyebrow at me, eloquently asking for any updates. In answer, I merely shook my head. I didn’t have the energy to raise my hands to sign to him, nor did I even want to talk. My body felt weak and sluggish, a physical extension of my mind.

The front door opened and closed once again, and my body automatically tensed.

“Honey, I’m home!” Ryder called cheerfully. There was a sound of flesh hitting flesh - no doubt Ronan slapping his brother - and then a slew of curses, quickly muffled.

“What the fuck are you going to do with the body?” asked Tommy indignantly. My curiosity instantly piqued at that. Body? Where the fuck had they gotten a body?

My question was quickly answered when Ryder and Ronan came around the corner. Over Ronan’s shoulder was an unfamiliar male with a shock of dark hair and pasty skin.

“Where’s Fallon?” Ronan asked, hoisting said body further up when it began to slip. “I need to figure out what to do with this heavy asshole.”

Tommy appeared from behind him. His sparkly pink glasses were noticeably absent from his pudgy face. He took one look at Declan, petting the squirming black cat, and then lifted his gaze to meet Calax’s. Understanding dawned on his face followed quickly by a shattering. That was the only word I could think to describe it. His entire expressionshatteredas if he had his world turned upside down. As if a rock was thrown at a mirror. A pebble tossed into a once tranquil pool. He may not have loved her the way we did, but he considered her family. I didn’t know which type of love was more dangerous.

Without his usual sly remark, he turned on his heel and stomped away.

Ryder and Ronan were slower to catch on, both of them engrossed with the body. Ryder was poking the man’s cheek, attempting to stir him awake, while Ronan was bitching about the weight breaking his shoulders.

“Where’s Addie?” Ryder asked, finally diverting his attention. His umber eyes, a strange golden color that seemed to flash yellow in the artificial lighting, widened. Before I could answer, he was already shaking his head in denial.

Ronan dropped the body unceremoniously, and it fell to the floor in an undignified heap.

“No,” he whispered meekly. His attention was fixed on the closed door as if his eyes were somehow able to penetrate the wooden barrier and see the girl within. I didn’t know how he knew she was in there. Sixth sense? A magnetic pull?

Before I could stop them - not that I wanted to - Ryder and Ronan shouldered their way inside. Once again, the door clunked ominously as it closed. It seemed to be an accurate metaphor.

The door closing.

Adelaide dying.

They were one and the same.