Page 59

Haven

Xander and Lucas have been gone for three long, excruciating days. Colt and I were both relieved when Luc called and told us that Phil woke up yesterday. He’s still not doing great, but the doctors are confident he’ll continue to get better.

Still, I can’t help but be worried, and I know Colton is, too. When he’s not working on his laptop or making hushed phone calls in his room, he’s pacing and checking for a new text every two minutes. I’m not doing much better.

Currently, we’re both in the loft. We need to study, but neither of us can bring ourselves to do it. I’m petting Star instead, trying to derive some type of comfort from her presence. I don’t think it’s working.

“What if they don’t make it home in time for finals?” I ask nervously.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“And if they make it home but don’t pass?”

“I’ll take care of it,” he repeats. His hand comes to rest on my thigh. “They’re graduating. I need them by my side for what’s to come.”

“And me?”

His eyes lock on mine, and I’ve never seen him look so serious as he says, “I don’t think there’s been a single day since I met you that I didn’t need you, angel.”

My heart squeezes. “Colt—”

His phone vibrates, and he grabs at it, only for his shoulders to sag in disappointment. “It’s not them. But… goddammit.” He types back a reply and stands. “One of the Rooks I need to sway onto my side wants to meet with me. He says it’s urgent. I have to run to the Grand Hotel.”

“You won’t—you won’t be in danger, will you?”

“No.” Colton drops a kiss to the top of my head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I stand as he rushes for the stairs. “Just promise me you’ll be safe?”

“Always,” he says, turning to face me. “I’m coming home to you, Haven. I promise.”

With that, he disappears, and I hear the garage door slamming a minute later. I lower myself back onto the couch with a shaky breath. There’s still a lot I don’t know about the Rooks, but I know it has to be dangerous. Colton keeps multiple guns throughout the house, and he knows how to use them. Lucas and Xander are the same way. It has to be for a reason.

I’m not sure how long I sit in my worried state before the doorbell rings. I hop up and practically run down the stairs, hoping for a distraction. Athelia knows how worried I am about Xander’s family. Maybe she came to surprise—

I freeze when I open the door to find a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair staring at me. A familiar man.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Mark says. “Is Colton here?”

He gives me a smile, but something feels off about it. After his reaction to Colton and I getting married, I don’t think it would be smart to let him in.

“I don’t think he’d like to speak to you,” I reply.

As discreetly as I can, I slide my hand down the door so it’s hovering right over the deadbolt. If I need to, I can slam the door shut and lock it in a matter of seconds.

Mark frowns. “Him and I were supposed to meet today to discuss some things. I know you probably want your husband all to yourself, but you still need to remember your place. And right now? You’re overstepping.”

“I’m not—”

Mark pushes past me and into the house. As he does so, his shoulder knocks into mine hard enough that I stumble backward.

“Be a dear and point me in the right direction,” Mark says. “Is he in his room? His office? The kitchen?”

I stay silent, contemplating whether I should risk trying to make a run for it. He hasn’t shown himself to be a threat yet, but that could change at any moment. Men—especially power-hungry men—should never be trusted.

“He’s not here, is he?” Mark asks.

With a hard swallow, I shake my head.

“Well, I don’t mind waiting. Would you put the kettle on for me? Rainy days and all that. They call for a warm drink, you know?”

I need to call Colton. But I stupidly left my phone upstairs in the loft. Why didn’t I think to bring it down with me?

“Yeah, of course. I just have to run upstairs real quick.”

Mark grabs my arm as I try to move past him. “I don’t think so, Haven. Kitchen, now.”

My stomach twists, both with disgust and fear. Being told to get into the kitchen brings back memories I’d prefer to forget, and his grip is firmer than it needs to be.

“All right,” I say softly. “I’ll go.”

He releases me, and I walk to the kitchen as calmly as I can. Once the water is heating up, I lean against the counter so I’m facing Mark.

With his dark suit and perfectly groomed hair, he fits in here. Sleek, flawless, confident. Maybe those are the things Colton inherited from him, because aside from a slightly similar nose shape and the same square jaw, the two men look nothing alike.

Mark begins humming to himself as he goes through Colton’s tea stash. It strikes me as odd that he knew which cabinet to look through, but I suppose Colton is his son. Maybe he helped Colt move in or something.

“Would you like some tea, Haven?” Mark asks.

“No, thank you.”

“Are you sure? Colton has quite the collection.” Mark waves at the still-open cabinet and the shelves lined with boxes, bags, and tins of different teas. “He got his obsession from me. Started him young.”

“I’m not the biggest fan,” I lie. Something tells me I shouldn’t ingest anything this man gives me.

“Ah. Are you a coffee person?”

“I suppose.”

My mind is screaming at me to bolt upstairs to grab my phone, but there are too many what ifs.

What if Mark grabs me?

What if he gets to my phone first?

What if he turns violent?

It’s possible I’m being paranoid and he’s really just here for a meeting that Colton somehow forgot about, but I don’t think so. Colton wouldn’t bring his father around me. I know he wouldn’t.

The kettle whistles, and Mark pours some steaming water into a mug before dipping a tea bag in. His movements are calm and nonchalant, yet there’s something deadly about him.

“So, I hear you grew up in a cult. Is that right?” Mark swirls his spoon around in his mug, glancing up at me with a startlingly disarming smile.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve heard of one or two on the east coast. What’s this one called?”

“I… prefer not to talk about it.”

“Have you ever thought about going back?”

“What?” I ask, unable to hold back my shock.

“Not to stay, of course, but just to see how things are going. Maybe get some closure. You haven’t talked to your family since you left, correct?”

“Since I escaped.”

“Interesting,” he muses. “So it was really that bad?”

Defensiveness bubbles to the surface, making my fists clench. This motherfucker doesn’t know what he’s talking about. What the hell is he getting at?

“What about your siblings?” he asks. “I’m assuming you have some? Are you really going to leave them there?”

His question knocks the breath from my lungs, and pain splinters through my chest. Since the moment I left, I’ve hoped that I could find some way to get my siblings out, but I have to be careful.

There’s a reason Julie didn’t pull me out until I was eighteen. If I’d been any younger, according to the law, it would’ve been kidnapping. She had to wait until I was a legal adult. I have to do the same for my siblings, and that’s if I can find a way to get to them.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” I say carefully.

“Right, of course.” Mark raises his hands. “I was just curious. I couldn’t imagine leaving my family behind like that. I’d at least want to try, you know?”

Says the man who emotionally manipulated and abandoned his son.

It feels like he’s trying to convince me to go back, but if I did that right now, I’d never be able to get out again.

Julie can’t even attend church there anymore to keep an eye on my siblings and quietly try to help someone else escape. As far as I know, she has no idea why Cornerstone shut everyone out. No outsiders are allowed in, and if they got their hands on me, there’s no way I’d be able to escape.

“If you’d like to break into the cult to get my siblings out, by all means, be my guest,” I say dryly. “If I did, I’d likely get killed before I was able to make a difference.”

He narrows his eyes, obviously pissed at my attitude. There’s a dangerous undertone to his voice when he asks, “Is that so?”

Alarm bells are going off in my head, and I stand, my nerves making it impossible to stay still for any longer. “Maybe I should call Colton.”

“Oh, there’s no need. You and I are quite overdue to spend some time together, don’t you think?”

“I’m not sure how Colton would feel about that.” I’m already inching toward the living room.

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s not here then, isn’t it?”

Mark says it so menacingly that my body jumps into action all on its own. I sprint toward the stairs, but before I’m even out of the kitchen, Mark tackles me. I hit the ground hard enough that the breath is knocked out of me. Before I can recover, Mark is yanking me up.

“This would’ve been so much easier on you if you’d just drank the goddamn tea,” he grits out.

Oh god, I was right.

“Y-you were going to drug me?!”

“Easiest way to get you out of here without a trace.” He slams me against the wall. “Tell me, is marrying you part of Colton’s larger plan, or is he just chasing after some childish idea of love?”

“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me, girl. I know he’s been plotting something. What is it? Is he trying to take over the Glass Rooks?”

“The… the what?”

“He wouldn’t have married you if he didn’t trust you,” Mark snaps, and the unhinged determination in his eyes has my lungs constricting. “That means he’s let you in on his plans. What are they?”

“I don’t know anything, I swear,” I manage. “He doesn’t tell me about those types of—”

He slaps me, and I yelp in shock before I can stop myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Showing weakness only emboldens monsters like him.

“You think I can’t force the truth from you?” he grits out. “You think I can’t wring every drop of my son’s plans out of your brain like you’re nothing more than a wet rag?”

One moment, I’m glaring up at him, wondering if I can scratch his eyes out, and the next, he has his hands around my throat. He squeezes just enough to make me panic. I grab at his arms, trying to push him off me, but he’s too strong.

“Tell me,” he growls, “or I’ll drag you back to that cult so they can kill you.”

My limbs freeze in terror, but then I hear Colton’s voice in my head.

Mark will stop at nothing to get what he wants, which means we have to match his drive plus more.

When Colton told me that, I wasn’t included in the we he was talking about. But right now, I’m as much a part of it as the boys are. That means I’ll protect their secrets to my grave. It also means I have to think like them—go as far as they would.

With a yell, I claw at Mark’s face. Scratch marks appear on his skin, and I manage to poke his eye before the lack of blood flow has my brain going fuzzy.

“Stupid girl!”

Mark throws me away from him, and my head collides with the counter before I collapse to the floor, vision blurry. My movements are sluggish as I drag myself away from Mark, but all it takes is a few strides, and he’s towering over me again.

Pain explodes in my side when his shoe connects with my ribcage. It forces a cry from my throat, but I don’t let myself focus on how much it hurts. My mind is yelling at me to fight, to survive, possibly for the first time in my entire life.

So when Mark bends down and makes a grab for my hair, I kick him in the face. His head jerks back, and when he straightens, his eyes are filled with fury.

“Don’t think you can get the best of me,” he warns. “I’m twice as big as you and ten times stronger.” He grabs my leg when I try to kick him again, and his grip is too firm for me to break free. “Now tell me what Colton is planning.”

“F-fuck you.”

His eyes flash, and then he’s on top of me, his hands wrapped around my throat again. Something falls from his jacket and clatters to the floor—a small, black case. But before I can figure out what it is, Mark lifts me up only to slam me back down, and my head cracks against the tiles. Everything goes black for a split second, and in my disorientation, I swear I hear Colton calling my name.

But that can’t be. He’s miles away at his meeting.

No one is coming to save me.

Loosening his grip around my throat, Mark slaps me again. “Is he planning on forcing me out? Is that it?”

“I’ll never tell you anything,” I seethe.

A shadow passes over both of us, and then Mark’s body is yanked off mine. I heave in a breath as he disappears from my field of vision completely.

What…?

“Haven, get out of here,” Colton yells.

Colton.

Colton?

Rubbing at my throat, I push myself upward, and there. Colton is fighting his father, dodging blow after blow while managing to land a few of his own.

“How…”

“Go.”

It’s not the firmness in his voice that snaps me out of my stupor, or the hint of fear laced into that single word. No, it’s the care. The desperate need to get me as far from this man as possible. To protect me, not out of duty, but out of love.

Grabbing onto the counter, I slowly pull myself up. Mark lunges past Colton toward me, and I scramble back as Colton grabs him and hauls him away. It sends another rush of adrenaline through me, banishing the fuzziness that was still clogging up my thoughts.

“Haven, now.” Colton places himself between me and Mark. “Hide. I’ll find you once I’ve dealt with him.”

But I don’t move. All I’ve ever done is run. But over the past few months, I’ve discovered something that’s given me a reason to stay. A reason to fight back for once, instead of bowing to the will of another cruel man. I can’t do it again. I can’t leave Colton, even if I have no idea how to help him.

“I can’t,” I mange to get out.

“You can, and you will.” Colton’s shin makes contact with his dad’s ribcage, but Mark remains mostly unfazed. “Please, angel.”

I don’t respond, instead watching as Colton goes on the offensive. He lands three blows to his father’s face, and Mark stumbles back until he hits the wall.

“You think you’re different than I am. Better,” Mark spits out as he regains his balance. “But you and I are cut from the same cloth, boy. One day, you’ll see. One day, you’ll be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to rise to greatness.” As he says the last part, his gaze cuts to me, making sure his point is clear.

“Like hell I will,” Colton growls.

Mark inhales deeply and rolls back his shoulders. “You’ll understand when you’re older. But for now, I’ll do what needs to be done. I’ll do it for you. She dies today.”

“Over my dead fucking body.”

Mark laughs. “Don’t fool yourself. You have too much to live for to die for a girl who betrayed you at the first chance she got.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Colton grinds out, and the defensiveness in his tone heals one of the fractures in my heart.

Mark is rolling up his sleeves while eyeing me menacingly. “She’s not worth it.”

“Yes, she is.” Colton opens and closes his fists. “And I mean it, Dad. If you want to kill her, then you’ll have to kill me first.”

Shaking his head, Mark pulls something from underneath his suit jacket. “One day, you’ll thank me for this.”

Before the gun is even fully aimed at me, Colton is lunging for his father and tackling him to the ground. He focuses on restraining Mark instead of trying to knock him out or hurt him more.

I’ve seen Colton train with Lucas and Xander. I know what he’s capable of. So why is he holding back? Unless… unless there’s some reason he can’t hurt Mark too badly. Not yet, at least.

That’s it. It has to be. Colton needs a way to detain Mark without severely injuring him. It’s what Mark originally planned for me, I think. He was going to slip a sedative into my tea instead of attacking me.

As Colton dodges another punch, everything clicks into place. My gaze locks onto the black case near the spot where Mark strangled me on the floor.

And just like that, I know exactly what I need to do.