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He’s threatening them? Urgency stumbles through my veins. I’m pummeled with images of Beau crashing off that tree, a violent, bloody hole ripping his perfect face apart.

Get down. Get down, get down, get down. I am going to kill him for this.

Jasper’s arms tighten around me. “He’ll be fine, sweet girl.”

“He could be shot .”

Lucky gives me a quick look. “He’s in his kit. That’ll take the worst of it.”

“And if it’s a headshot?” I ask sweetly, but my voice trembles too much to hold the snark.

Lucky flashes me a dimple. “Yeah, that would be bad.”

Jasper’s hand slams over my cursing mouth as the stranger’s drawling voice kicks up again. Anger, hot and bright, bubbles through his words.

“You invite us here, try to blow us to high hell, and you’re tellin’ me to identify my self? Boy, who the fuck are you ? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet between your eyes right this god-given second.”

“Shit,” Lucky swears, his smirk dying.

He steps toward Beau, lifting his rifle, then stops to look anxiously back at me and Jasper.

My lips go numb, and Jasper’s grip over my mouth turns painful.

Dom is so still, staring at his rifle like it holds the world’s secrets.

I meet Lucky’s torn gaze.

Go , I beg him silently. I need him, too. Help him.

Beau fires into the air, and I nearly rip out of Jasper’s arms at the sudden burst. My knife hilt digs painfully into my palm, but it’s a good kind of hurt.

If they won’t watch out for him, then I will.

I know I can do it now. I’ve killed for him before, and for Heather, and for myself . I’m stained red to the bone now.

I’ll kill all of them if I need to.

“Let them work, Eden. Trust them. I know it’s impossible, but trust them,” Jasper urges, somewhere between coaxing and commanding.

Trust. The man is standing in the open like a sacrificial lamb . I don’t know our attackers. I can’t trick them, or poison them, or talk my way out of this.

This is another chessboard entirely.

I glare at Lucky, tears stinging my eyes, and he turns his attention back to the trees, shame clenching his jaw under his tight beard. He doesn’t move to help Beau.

“Invite you here?” Beau calls skeptically. “You must be mistaken, stranger. This is our home, and we’re not too fond of outsiders these days. Consider this your official un-invitation.”

A frigid silence bites through the sweltering heat.

Lucky curses, training his rifle in the direction of the strange voice—not that it will matter from here. We’re too far away from Beau and Dom. He doesn’t have an angle on these people.

Jasper releases my mouth, pulling me into a crouch.

“Get ready,” he mutters.

Dom shakes his head, ashen and angry, still hunkered behind the oak Beau is standing on. He looks at Lucky for a long moment, then pulls the whistle from his pocket and brings it to his lips.

His golden eyes meet mine, bridging the distance.

“You need to learn some manners,” the chilling voice replies to Beau.

Run , Dom mouths to me.

I roll up onto the balls of my feet, poised to move.

“Stop! Stop , you idiot fucking assholes!”

Dom blows the whistle.

It’s shrieking, wild, and gunshots begin splattering the air like bursting balloons. I curl into Jasper, watching Beau as he twists, as he drops down beside Dom with a heavy thud and then pivots back around, leaning up over the oak to fire at the intruders.

Still hidden behind its cover, Dom stares at Beau hard, then swears and slams up beside him, joining the firefight. Bullets explode into their fallen tree cover, then past them, into the forest around us. One screeches past me and Jasper.

“Fuck!” Lucky swears, running forward.

A bullet flies past his head, and he swerves, then slides low over the loose leaves, skidding in until he lands on Beau’s other side. He starts shooting, too.

Jasper starts pulling me in the opposite direction.

“Do you have shit for brains? Stop!”

A whistle starts screaming in short, earsplitting bursts, but it’s that voice that makes me catch my breath.

“ It’s Jayk .” I grip Jasper’s kit, dragging back against his pull. “He wants us to stop.”

Jasper stops trying to drag me away, sharply examining my face. He tilts his head, listening, and that rogue lock of midnight hair falls over his forehead.

“Are you sure it’s?—”

“Cock-sucking sons of bastard asshole mother fuckers ! Stop !” the voice bellows.

Jasper sighs, then gives me a quick nod.

I look a question at the others, and he nods again, his grip loosening. He moves toward them, but I drag him low until we’re both crawling through rotting leaves and moist mud.

“Ah! Fuck!” This voice is higher—Jennifer, maybe? “Fuck, fuck .”

Beau pulls back, dropping back behind the oak, swearing. He catches sight of me and Jasper and hisses, “The hell are you doing?”

“It’s Jayk! You need to stop!” I whisper-shout. Twigs scratch my arms as I crawl, and I’m encrusted in dirt and loose leaves.

Beau squints at me like he doesn’t understand. Next to him, Dom’s back flexes with each pounding shot.

“Doc? A little help?” Someone else nervously shouts from the same direction as Jennifer. Sara was with her. It must be Sara.

“Was that a woman ?” a man’s voice calls from somewhere else.

“There’s a whole lotta woman out here, baby boy. Come say hello!”

Jasper makes a surprised sound in the back of his throat, and it takes me a second to place Ethel’s creaky voice.

Jasper and I finally make it to the oak tree. Lucky pulls back, his face draining white when he sees us so close, but Dom continues to fire. There’s an odd smell in the forest, like gunpowder and adrenaline.

Beau swears again and slings his rifle. He quickly checks his hollow med pack, then his eyes lift to mine. “I need to help Jen.” He looks to Jasper next, his eyes reminding me of every deathly cold night I ever spent in these woods. “Get her somewhere safe. Now.”

I grab his arm, burning with frustration. “Beau, listen to me . For once, please, you have to?—”

“STOP!” Jayk shouts, and this time the accompanying whistle goes on and on and on until the gunshots start to fade and even Dom yanks his gun back over the oak and pulls back behind its cover.

The silence that follows is broken only by Jennifer’s pained gasps. Beau hesitates, still crouched to take off after her.

“Reapers?” Jayk calls out, his voice like an anvil, and Beau’s eyes sink closed in recognition.

Who are the Reapers?

There’s a beat of silence, then, “Well, well, well. It’s King himself. Finally decided to show the fuck up, huh?”

“Jayk?” Sloane’s distant, incredulous voice soothes some of my worry. “ You invited these asswipes?”

“They weren’t supposed to come here !”

The drawling voice—aReaper’s?—breaks in. “If I’m going to make a deal with a man, then I’m makin’ it to his face. Man to man, the way God himself intended.”

I frown. A deal? Oh, God. What deal has Jayk made? And with whom ?

Jasper matches my worried look, but Dom... Dom’s jaw is set tight. He meets my eyes again and holds them.

But he stays silent.

My gaze narrows on him.

Jayk’s voice takes on a snarl. “How did you even find us, Sawyer? You?—”

“Are you in charge, King? Or is it fancy Mr. Southern over there? I don’t want anyone wastin’ my time. You better believe we’re going to be askin’ reparations for this whole mess,” this Sawyer man shoots back.

My eyes stay locked with Dom’s.

He shakes his head minutely, almost a warning, and it finally hits me. Why he’s been so quiet, why he’s let Beau take the lead this whole way home. He’s not going back to his old self.

He doesn’t think he can do this at all.

I shoot to my feet and glare at him as I insist, “Dom is captain.”

Right as Jayk confidently says, “ I’m in charge.”

My eyes widen, and Beau wrenches me back down behind the oak. Did Jayk just say...?

“Shoot! They do have women!” someone yells excitedly. “She was right!”

I frown.

“Well, which is it? King here or this Dom fellow?” Sawyer asks, when no one says anything.

Jasper is watching Dom, his eyes shadowy graves, as Lucky checks him over for holes. Beau’s heart thunders against my back, but I don’t look away from Dom. Tears burn my eyes, and I shake my head again as my heart hollows out.

Don’t do it.

This time, Dom’s eyes fall away first.

“Dom,” I whisper.

He shakes his head and stands slowly, like it hurts him to move. But his voice is sure and resonant when he finally speaks.

“Jayk is in charge. Dom has officially stepped down.”