“What can I do?” I whisper. My hands are shaking, and I press them against my thighs so they don’t notice.
“Stay put, Eden,” Dom tells me in a low voice. “I need you to stay out of the way— really stay out of the way this time. We can’t be worried about you right now. Go to the cave with the animals. It’s hidden. No one should find you there. If we don’t come for you in half a day, don’t wait any longer. Leave at night and move fast.”
Bile rises in my throat. “But you—you’ll come back for me. You’ll be fine, all of you. We got here. We’re here now.
Everything’s going to be okay.”
Beau tugs me to him and presses his mouth to mine in a fierce kiss. “Be safe, pet.”
Tears fill my eyes and the adrenaline of the last few hours catches up to me. But that’s not what they need right now. They need to be thinking about the others, about getting them out. I force myself to breathe and swallow down the thick lump in my throat. It’s coated in ash.
“You too, Beau,” I whisper, touching my fingers to his cheek, slightly coarse from his stubble.
I sear his face in my mind. I want to go back to the three of us tangled in the moss and that brief moment when everything was okay.
His cheek lifts under my fingertips in a half-smile, then he pulls back and leaves. My heart hammers as I watch him go. I turn to Dom. I’m about to speak—though I’m not sure what to say—when he takes my hand. He buries it inside his.
“Come with me,” he says gruffly. “I’ll get you as close as I can.”
He holds his rifle in front of him, releasing me when I follow him without question. The urgent speed from earlier has vanished. Dom scans the trees as we move steadily, ducking from one to the next as cover. We stay back from the exposed line of trees closest to the clearing.
As we move farther from the fire, I notice there’s a creeping hush over this part of the forest; the shouts and bangs and snaps of bursting, burning wood seem out of reach. Around us is a thick, deadly quiet. Smoke mars the way and the flickering light transforms everything into a smoggy, nightmarish haze.
Still, as we move closer to the tree line, I catch glimpses between the leaves and need to stifle my sobs. The barn looks like something from a hellscape—an angry orange blaze with a blackening skeleton underneath. Flashes of gunfire light up the darkness like fireworks.
Jayk.
“He wasn’t in there, right? He got out, didn’t he?” I can’t stop my shaky, panicked questions.
Dom doesn’t stop moving, but his lips tense. “I don’t know.”
I bite my lip, nodding. Nodding too much. I’m about thirty seconds from a panic attack.
I think of Jayk’s guitar and his messy bed and the photo of the woman in the dress and the boy with the missing tooth. I think of how he kissed me and his smirk and the look in his eyes when I asked to work in his barn beside him. Mostly, I just pray he wasn’t in there when that barn went up, even though I know he barely leaves it. My palms feel sticky and the thickness in the air makes my breaths rough and sore.
Abruptly, there’s a flash of movement in front of us and before I’ve even flinched back, Dom has lunged forward with the even, deadly speed of a viper. The man lurking in the bushes is disarmed and disabled in seconds, lying at his feet.
“I—”
Dom lifts his hand in a silencing gesture, and I bite my tongue hard enough to draw blood. After a moment, he nods and grabs my wrist, tugging me closer to the tree line.
“Did you kill him?” I mumble, shocked at how quickly that happened.
“Yes.”
I swallow hard, then follow him through the darkness, stepping around the body. From here, we’re about a hundred yards from the action. There are men everywhere, firing toward the barn. There are men all through the trees too. It’s hard to see through the smoke. It’s chaos. Pure chaos.
My heart lurches at the sight. Shifting, I see they’re not firing on the barn, but toward Jayk’s truck, which is parked beside it. In a frenzied, disorganized group, they’re slowly converging on the vehicle. Jasper and Lucky are pinned behind it, Dom said, and now I know what that looks like.
“Fuck. They’re too close.” Dom grunts, then looks down at me, clearly distracted. “I have to go. You can make it from here.”
I know I can. The cave is only fifteen yards away, and away from the action, but I hesitate, eyes dragging back to the awful scene.
Dom nudges me. “Go, Eden.”
I should. I’ll only be in the way, and this is far too much for me. This is far more than one man in a tree. I’m really, truly just about to leave when Jasper roars.
“Lucien, no!”
I spin back around to see a slender figure push from behind Jayk’s truck. The smoke clears enough for me to see his golden hair catch the light. He fires wide, running sideways into the open field, and throws something toward the cluster of men who are far too close. A few men drop under Lucky’s bullet spray, but he’s so exposed.
I lurch forward and hardly notice as an arm wraps around me and yanks me back. Clutching at my throat, I try to track the wild mix of bangs and shouts. My eyes dart everywhere, trying to work out what’s happening.
Then Lucky jerks once, twice. I can see the heavy impact on his body pushing him back.
My heart lurches. “No.”
Lucky drops, and the clearing lights up seconds before a huge, roaring explosion decimates the area where the group of men were standing. The arms around me tighten as Dom throws us behind a tree, and I squeal as shrapnel ricochets into the trees, peppering them with small, sharp thuds.
Grenade, I realize when my brain and heart restart. He threw a grenade. Lucky threw a grenade right before he— The images of his puppet-like jerks, his crash to the ground, play on repeat in my mind. Tears squeeze between my eyes as if trying to dislodge the horrendous reel.
“No. No, no, no, no.”
Something shakes me. “Stop, Eden.”
I recognize Dom’s growl, but there’s a rawness to it. I can hear the devastation in his voice. That does it. A sob escapes.
He shakes me again. “Stop. We don’t have time for this. I need to get to the house if I have any chance of keeping the others safe. You need to be safe. Tears later, you have to pull it together now.”
The others safe. Because Lucky . . .
I can’t help the low groan of pain, and I push my forehead into Dom’s chest. His stern orders ground me, a little, but this is too much.
His hand finds my chin, and he pulls my face up to his. “Enough. Go, little librarian. I can’t keep you all safe at once.”
The beautiful amber light in his eyes captures me. I can see the barely restrained urgency in him, but also the worry. He has to go. That starts to sink in. I draw in a steadying breath. He has to go, and I’m standing here panicking. I’m not a soldier. I can’t compartmentalize and keep my fears locked down so easily. I can’t just let him . . .
When he looks back toward the barn with barely concealed frustration, I can’t help it. I step into him and rise up on my tiptoes so I can press a light, nervous kiss to his mouth. Dom goes entirely still, and watches me as I drop back down on my heels. For the first time in hours, I have his complete attention.