"Then we go after them." Richard's hands were trembling. "Right now. We get in the cars and we follow them.""Follow them where?" Sebastian turned to him. "We don't know which direction they went. We don't know what vehicle they're using. We don't know if there are more ambush points set up along whatever route they're taking."Richard's mouth opened. Nothing came out. His trembling hands pressed against his thighs to stop the shaking.The patriarch arrived beside them, his broken cane still in his grip. He looked at the hatch, at the drag marks, at the blood on the dirt. His face was carved from stone."This man," the patriarch said. His jaw barely moved. "This Jerry Stone. I want to know everything about him. Every property he owns. Every building he's ever walked into. Every person who has ever worked for him. I want it by sunrise.""Grandfather—" Richard started."By sunrise," the patriarch repeated. His eye moved to Carden. "And you. You're going to find her."Carden looked at th

Richard's jaw clenched so hard his teeth made an audible sound. He stayed where he was, but every muscle in his body was fighting the stillness.Jerry stopped walking twenty feet from Carden. His men fanned out behind him in a formation that was half defensive and half theatrical. Vivian was positioned slightly behind Jerry, close enough that everyone could see her but far enough that reaching her would require going through multiple armed men first."You called?" Jerry's mouth curved. He looked down at Lorenzo on the ground and the curve flattened slightly. "I see you've been keeping my son company.""Trade," Carden said. One word. His boot remained on Lorenzo's chest. "Your son for my wife. Right now. No conditions."Jerry tilted his head. "That simple?""That simple."Jerry's eye moved to Lorenzo. Studied him. The bleeding wrist. The pale face. The shallow breathing. The fear in his son's eyes, visible even from twenty feet away. Something moved behind Jerry's expression, but it se

Lorenzo was standing.Nobody had noticed when he'd gotten up. In the chaos of the gunshot and Jerry's theatrical performance, he had pulled himself off the ground and stumbled three steps sideways until his back found the side of a vehicle. His bleeding wrist was pressed against his stomach.His legs were barely holding him. But he was upright, and his eyes were fixed on his father with an expression that had nothing to do with loyalty.He watched Jerry spread his arms wide. Watched him mock Carden. Mock the patriarch. Mock Richard on his knees. Watched his father perform for an audience, commanding attention, radiating power, doing what Jerry Stone had always done best.And Lorenzo felt nothing.Not pride. Not fear. Not even anger.He felt the absence of something that should have been there. The hollow space where a son's admiration for his father was supposed to live. He had been lying on the ground with a dagger through his wrist while his father negotiated his life away like a co

He came from the north side of the clearing.Not running. Walking. Each step deliberate and measured, carrying a weight that went beyond the woman in his arms. Carden's face was pale beneath the dirt and blood that covered it, and his jaw was locked in the particular way that belongs to someone who is channeling every remaining unit of willpower into the act of staying vertical.Vivian was in his arms. Her body was curled against his chest, her bound hands pressed against his collar, her face buried in the space between his neck and shoulder. She was shaking. Not the small, controlled trembling she had been performing for the past several hours. Full body shaking, the kind that comes when the thing holding a person together finally lets go.Behind Carden, on the back of his shirt, a dark stain was spreading. It started near his lower spine and expanded outward in a circle that grew larger with each step he took. The fabric around it was torn where something had entered, and the blood

Carden's hand came up slowly.It took everything he had left. The muscles in his arm trembled, the fingers shook, but they found Vivian's face and rested there against her tear soaked cheek. The warmth of his palm against her skin made her cry harder."Listen to me." His lips barely moved. His voice was fading at the edges, thinning out the way a flame thins when the air around it changes. "I will never let you suffer again. Not like this. Not ever.""Stop talking." Vivian pressed her hand over his, holding it against her face. "Save your strength. Please.""Protecting you is the only thing that matters." His thumb moved once across her cheekbone. "Everything else is noise.""Carden, please stop." Her voice broke on his name. "You need to save your energy."His hand slipped from her face. Not because he wanted it to. Because his body had reached the point where wanting and doing were no longer connected by the same wire.Sebastian was already moving.He dropped to his knees beside Car