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“Thank you for the best night ever,” she whispered.

I sucked my lips between my teeth and cautiously wrapped my own arms around her. And then just like that, Azelie whirled away again.

I couldn’t wait to tell Colette what just happened, and I dug into my pocket for my phone. Unlocking it, I tapped into my messages, and right as I pulled up our thread, a call seared through the bliss.

It was Dom. He knew where I was, and I knew at that moment that there was no more pretending.

I tapped the answer button and put it up to my ear. “What’s happening?”

“It’s your family’s restaurant,” he stated as faint crackling and sirens pierced the speaker.

With a deep attempt at a steadying breath, I clamped my hand over my other ear and blocked out as much background noise as I could. “How bad is it?”

“The fire department is on the defensive, just trying to contain it to the restaurant only. There’s no saving it. Any of it,” he replied.

I closed my eyes. “Who’s all there?”

“Your parents, Mawmaw, Mikey and Scottie.”

There it was. The explosion that we’d been waiting for. I knew deep down that there was no coming back financially from this for my parents because I could practically guarantee that there would be some evidence that it was arson, yet no evidence that it wasn’t my parents or Mawmaw.

“Anything on the security cameras?” I finally asked and glanced back to the middle of the dance floor. Azelie spun with a carefree smile up on her face in the middle of her friends.

“They went down about fifteen minutes before. That’s what got us here, but it was already too late,” Dom answered. “Ford,” he added with a tone that sent a shiver down my spine. That wasn’t just a friend talking anymore, but my lieutenant commander, drawing me back to the present.

“Roger,” I said and hung up the phone. There was no logical need for me to end up at the restaurant, especially since Azelie wouldn’t need to see that. Colette was at home, which was where we would be heading, because I couldn’t protect both of them without being with both of them at the same time.

A stone weighed heavy in my heart as I watched Azelie spin around the dance floor with Cory. She clearly felt free and happy, and I knew the moment I told her we needed to go that I would crush what was supposed to be the most blissful night of her life, or at least one that ranked high on the scale.

And selfishly, I didn’t want it to end and be ruined either. Maybe five more minutes letting her dance would be alright? Griffin and Bernie were back with Colette and her family, even Kat and Jane were there, and both of them could put up a fight. Colette had her knives and wrestling gators was a fuck ton scarier than a couple dudes, right? Except these dudes probably had guns, and she had daggers, not a weapon that worked well from a far distance. Griffin and Bernie were certainly carrying. Kat and Jane possibly were, too, right?

Still, I wasn’t too fond of the odds that were quickly adding up in my mind.

Scanning the room once more, I locked on to three familiar faces standing at separate ends of the gym. Except this time they weren’t nearly as greasy and drunk-looking as the first time we’d crossed paths, and they were staring directly at me.

The same three assholes who had approached Azelie and her friends while they’d been waiting at the track a couple weeks ago.

Shit. I’d had my suspicions then, and it only pissed me off even more that I was right to begin with.

I wasn’t a fool and hardly believed in coincidences, and I’d first chalked up those three drunk and high bastards as potential cronies of O’Connor’s then let them off as some simple fucking creeps. Never again would I second-guess my gut.

Keeping the three menaces in my peripherals, I quickly stuffed my phone back in my pocket and paced over to Azelie. The moment I reached her side, all three stepped off the walls they leaned against simultaneously, leaving one single escape route.

“Time to go,” I gruffly stated in Azelie’s ear and grabbed her arm.

“Ow! What are you doing?” she cried out, clawing at my hand.

“Don’t fight me. We need to go,” I ordered again and dragged her away from her friends as the three men funneled us toward the same entrance we’d come through. Shit. Shit. Shit. One exit route was never good.

“You’re hurting my arm,” Azelie stammered again and dug her heels into the gym floorboards.

“What are you doing?” Macy demanded and slapped her hand around Azelie’s free arm.

I glanced at my daughter. “Azelie, wehaveto go,” I said and immediately swept the room again. We were losing any distance that could possibly allow me to usher us out and disappear as the three men marched toward us with deadly sights locked onto my daughter.

Her eyes widened as she straightened herself upright and scanned our surroundings. Though I knew she had no idea what I saw that had me on high alert, it was enough to get her to agree. “Right. Sorry, Macy. I’ll text you!” she shouted and nodded at me.

Without running, we walked as quickly as we could without drawing too much attention toward the double doors beneath the glowing green exit sign. “No matter what happens, you keep going, got it?” I instructed as we slipped out of the gym into the hall.