Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
VALEN
The moment Clover enters the war room we’ve set up in Madi’s inn with Wrecks growling at her side, I know something’s wrong.
Her face is so white that I’m not sure any blood is flowing through her veins. I feel her fear—it scratches and claws at my insides, fighting through anxiety and rage.
I’m across the room before I’ve consciously decided to move, reading the text she holds out to me as dread settles into the tightness of my shoulders.
Unknown number: I have the old man.
Unknown number: Come to the Chimney. Alone.
Unknown number: Or you won’t like the condition I return him in.
Chief.
Terra must have Chief.
“Fuck. Roman! Where the fuck is Chief?” The words tear from my throat.
“He went into town,” Pops shouts from the family room.
“That was over an hour ago, and he was only getting charcoal from Huckabee’s,” Madi says, filling the doorway with Braxton right behind her.
“Terra has him,” I seethe. “She texted Clover. She has our fucking guy.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, the room erupts into controlled chaos.
Roman barks orders into his comms. Grant calls our federal contacts. Sterling is pulling up satellite imagery while Chase paces like a caged predator, occasionally flashing sympathetic glances at my girl.
“What the hell is the Chimney?” Sterling asks.
“It’s—it’s…” He can’t hear Clover. Fuck, I’m standing right beside her, and I can barely hear her. But this time, it’s not because she’s afraid. No, this time it’s because her jaw is clenched so tightly the words can’t pass through her teeth.
“The Chimney is a place local high schoolers go to party,” Madi says, swaying from side to side while babywearing her little boy. “It’s an old barn in the woods. Everything has collapsed around it except the chimney.”
Watching her like this has my training kicking in. Threat assessment. Extraction protocols. Tactical positioning. This is what I do. This is who I am. I protect people. I save them.
And I’m fucking good at it.
It’s the only thing that quiets the drums in my chest, that nameless guilt I’ve carried since I woke up in a hospital bed with a hole where my past should be. Every life I save, every person I protect, it chips away at the sensations I couldn’t name.
Tonight, I’ll save them all from the terror my egg donor has waged for over a decade. No one will feel her wrath again.
It’s a vow I silently make to them, to me, to her.
When Clover catches my eye, the world stops for a moment.
She’s not counting. She’s not wrapped in her invisible armor. For the first time since I’ve known her, her walls are completely down. Every emotion plays across her face—fear, determination, love. But it’s the anger turning her amber eyes golden that I regret most of all.
She let me in. Somewhere along the way, she stopped hiding from me, and now the poison that is my blood is consuming her.
My fingers brush against hers. They’re ice-cold, so I wrap them in my palms.
“We have to go,” she says, and I’m startled by how steady she sounds. “Now.”
“You’re not going anywhere, Clover,” I growl.
Something flickers across her face. Not fear. Something worse. Resignation. Like she expected me to make a decision, but I chose wrong.
“She has Chief,” Clover says.
“I know.” My voice breaks. “But I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t.” She squeezes my hand hard enough to leave marks with her nails. “But if something happens to Chief because of me, I’ll never forgive myself, and then everyone will lose.”
I know what she’s saying, but I can’t get my mouth to work to persuade her we’ll find another way.
“You’ve made every decision so far, Valen. You’ve moved me from safe house to safe house, and I’ve never questioned you.”
“That was tactical,” I argue. “It’s what I do, what I’ve trained for.”
“But what you’re not seeing is that it’s always been my decision to make,” she says.
“I went along with it because it was easy, it was safe, and I was scared. But look where it’s gotten us.
The only man who has ever felt like a father to me is being held by someone who allowed her twin sister to die right before her eyes.
Do you have any idea what it feels like to constantly live in fear, Valen?
To allow other people to make all your decisions because you don’t trust yourself enough to make them? ”
“You were surviving, Clover.” Madi places a hand on Clover’s forearm, but I don’t think she even feels it.
“I can’t hide behind my fears anymore.” The anger in her tone has softened, but it’s still backed by steel. “This is my decision, and I’m going with or without you. Chief is my friend, my responsibility.”
“I care for him too, Clover.”
“We all do,” Chase says. “You’ve always been one of us, Clover. And that extends to everyone who loves you.”
“We go together,” I say finally. “All of us. I don’t give a fuck if she wants you alone. We’re done giving in to her demands.
“Federal agents are on standby,” Grant says. How many pockets did he have to line to make that happen? He must read my thoughts. “But I can only hold them back for so long. We have to find out what she’s hiding, and soon.”
Everyone understands that whatever knowledge Terra’s hiding could be catastrophic for someone in this room.
My gaze falls to Sterling’s computer screen, and I start running tactical scenarios in my head. Entry points. Sight lines. Extraction routes. If I can just control enough variables, I can keep everyone safe.
That’s what I tell myself.
It’s what I always tell myself.
But this time, I have everything to lose.
The clearing opens before us, and my heart stops.
Chief is tied to a crumbling chimney—a small splotch of blood coats his upper lip while his head lolls to one side, but his chest rises and falls steadily, so it’s clear he’s alive.
Terra Stone stands in front of him, saying words I can’t hear, but when Chief chuckles, her voice rises. “What do you mean, you knew I’d take you? Are you senile or just plain stupid?”
I scan the perimeter, counting threats, calculating angles. My hand hovers near my weapon. I will protect Clover. Focus. Stay in control.
All our planning goes up in smoke when Clover makes herself known. She didn’t even wait for Roman’s signal, for fuck’s sake.
“Let him—” Clover’s voice wavers, and she physically shakes her entire body before trying again. This time, it comes out strong and confident. “Let him go, Terra.”
“There’s my bloom,” Terra coos. “I knew you’d come.”
“Where are Terra’s minions?” I hiss into my comms unit.
“Working on it.” Roman’s voice crackles in my ear.
“Chief,” Clover says. “Are you okay?”
Clover steps forward, and my shoulders tighten. Her posture has changed. This is what she looks like when she embraces her power, her strength. She’s facing the monster of her nightmares without a shred of fear for herself.
The woman who spent fourteen years building a fortress around her heart is standing in the open, completely exposed, to save someone she loves.
I’ve watched her count through panic attacks. Watched her check locks three times before bed. Watched her flinch at unexpected sounds and catalog every exit in every room.
That was how she survived. By controlling her environment, her motions, her connections. Keeping everyone at arm’s length so nothing could hurt her.
But out here, there’s no counting. No walls. No armor.
She’s trusting me to keep her safe.
It’s the most important job I’ve ever been given.
“I’m fine, kiddo. Saw this titwitch in the alley at the hardware store,” Chief sniffs. “Figured it was better she takes me, ya know, unexpectedly, rather than you.”
That damn fool. What he really means is that by allowing himself to be captured, he gave us time to plan and execute a recovery.
“Damn it, Chief.” Clover stomps closer with her hands on her hips. It’s as though I’m tied to her with an invisible string because I drift closer as well. “You should have listened to us. I told you not to take any stupid risks.”
“So demanding.” Terra tsks. Her gaze slides to me. “And you. You’ve grown into such a handsome man. It’s a shame you don’t remember the boy you used to be. But I always knew you’d be a disappointment, just like your father.”
“Don’t talk about him like that,” Clover growls while walking straight to Chief and untying him.
What is Terra’s angle here? I don’t even see a weapon on her.
“I remember enough,” I say. “I remember that you tried to kill me.” That’s not strictly true, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out she was behind my attack.
“Kill you?” She laughs, the sound brittle and cracked.
“I tried to save you. It was her—” She spins in a circle, as though she’s searching for someone, and that’s when I see it.
The blood that coats her left thumb as she digs into her cuticle over and over again with her pointer finger.
Terra’s losing control. “Vivian poisoned you against me. Against everything I built. We were going to be great, Valen. Unstoppable.”
“You built a prison,” Clover says. “You called it salvation, but it was nothing more than a wicked cage.”
“It was family!” Terra’s composure cracks. Her voice is shrill and unsteady. I’m even more thankful now that we were able to get a bulletproof vest onto Clover. “It was everything I never had. Everything that was stolen from me.”
“No one stole anything—”
“They all stole from me!” Terra’s mask shatters, and her chin trembles.
Clover takes a step back. This is not the woman who ran ROS. This is someone else, someone…broken.
“My mother married Henry Dennison, and I thought I’d finally have a father.
But he never claimed us. Not once. We were the burden.
The unwanted ones. He used to tell everyone he only had one perfect daughter—Dahlia.
Dahlia was everything while we were nothing.
My mother was too weak and too stupid to stand up for us, and then she died, and Henry threw us away.