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Maybe we could buy a vacation house somewhere else, and I could get my fix every now and then with that. Maybe I could even learn to snowboard or something.

“Hey, girl. You doing okay?”

I blinked and looked across the seat at Tyson. He was visibly concerned, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. I kept spacing out, and my mind wandered to shit that really didn’t matter because I was avoiding the things that did.

I was not okay.

I had been kidnapped tonight.

Chained up.

Drowned and kind of tortured. I could consider that torture, right? Maybe not by most people’s standards, but whatever.

I had killed the same man twice.

Been forced to face certain horrors.

And my dad had killed a man who had once meant a great deal to me, along with several other people.

Yeah, definitely not okay.

I didn’t know how to process any of it, and I didn’t know what to feel or how to behave.

Despite the heat being cranked up all the way to the max in the car the entire ride home, and a hoodie I was wearing that had belonged to one of the twins, my body was still frozen to the point of almost being numb.

I felt like I might never get warm again.

“I need to take a shower,” I croaked out as I reached for the door handle. I avoided answering his questions because I knew he wouldn’t like hearing what I had to say.

I really did need a shower, desperately so. Every time I had a run-in with the Council, I felt like I needed a shower immediately afterwards, and even then it still didn’t make me feel clean.

This time was no different.

I got out of the car and didn’t bother waiting for Tyson as I headed to the door that led into the house. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the headlights flashing in the driveway before closing the door behind me.

My money was on Trenton and Simon. They’d want to be near me right now and wouldn’t be any good at anything other than babysitting because they would be too worried about me.

I thought about sticking around to point out that the threat against me had been eliminated, therefore I no longer required a babysitter, but I knew it would fall on deaf ears.

I didn’t hesitate to make a beeline for the dining room. I moved to the storage room connected to the dining room and jogged up the stairs to my and Dash’s apartment.

All the lights were on in the kitchen and living room. The hallway light was on, but the light in my bedroom was off. The fairy lights around my bed were on, and it hit me that all the lights were on in the house downstairs even though no one had been home. For that matter, the door in the garage that led inside to the house had not been locked either.

Proof positive they’d left in a hurry and hadn’t had the time to lock down the house or even turn off the lights. They’d been so concerned with me they hadn’t cared about taking care of the house.

The door to the closet was cracked open, and the light was on in there. I peeked inside and my heart melted. They might have been in a hurry to get to me, but they’d still taken the time to take care of my babies for me.

A pack ‘n play had been set up in the closet. A gray, soft, fuzzy throw blanket had been placed in the bottom, and both Ash and Bone were curled up in a blanket and cuddled together.

Binx lay on the island with his paws curled up beneath him. His eyes were locked on the sleeping kittens in the pack ‘n play, and when I walked in the room, they shot to me. They looked old.

He looked tired.

But here he was, keeping watch over my kittens for me when there was no one else here to do it.

The sudden urge to cry overwhelmed me. I couldn’t stay in here with these cats or I’d crumble.

“Thanks, Binxy boo,” I whispered brokenly as I backed out of the room and didn’t bother closing the door. Since people were home now, Binx didn’t need to watch over them anymore. He could go back to being ornery, doing Binxy things, and pretending like he hated almost everyone.