Chapter 68 #2
His gaze drops to the nearest one. He crouches, yanks the mask off.
There’s a pause. Then his jaw tightens.
“…Sergei,” he mutters.
His expression goes colder, something shifting behind his eyes that I recognize immediately. The pool. The way they moved. The way they watched.
“They’re not random.” He stands again his expression flattening. “They were in the pool.”
I look back toward Elise and Ryan, still curled into each other behind the aisle.
“They came for the kids..
Seth’s grip tightens on his gun.
“There were three outside.”
“That makes six,” I answer. “There were six of them.”
His eyes flick over me again. “Are you hit?”
“I’m fine.”
His gaze shifts toward the kids, and his face tightens in a way that makes my stomach knot.
I look at Elise and Ryan. They still crouch near the counter, pale and shaking.
“You wanted to leave,” I gesture towards the bodies. “This is what followed you.”
Ryan starts crying softly.
Elise looks at me differently now. The change is subtle but real. She no longer looks at me like I kidnapped her. She looks at me like she understands what almost happened and understands who would have paid for it.
“Stay behind me,” I tell them. “We’re leaving. Now.”
They don't argue.
Seth and I reach for our phones at the same time.
I unlock mine first. Nothing looks out of place. No unfamiliar apps appear. No strange notifications pop up.
Seth checks his next. His jaw tightens as he scrolls quickly through the screen before shaking his head.
“They weren’t tracking our phones. Which means it was theirs.”
I look at the kids.
Their phones.
“They tracked you through these,” Seth says, holding one up briefly before dropping it on the floor.
He brings his boot down on it hard. The screen explodes under the pressure.
I grab the other one and slam it beneath my heel. Glass shatters and the phone bends under the weight until the screen cracks open and the battery shifts loose.
“If they were tracking the signal,” I say, grinding my heel down again, “these would have led them straight to us.”
Elise watches the broken pieces scatter across the floor. Ryan wipes his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.
We move to the bodies, and I hate how practiced this feels. I collect the phones from the men inside the store. Blood smears across one screen as I wipe it clean Seth brings in the ones from outside and drops them onto the counter beside the dead clerk.
Six phones sit there. One of them vibrates in my hand. Incoming FaceTime call. The name on the screen makes my pulse spike hard enough to hurt.
Grant.
I look up at Seth. Seth grabs it before I can react. He doesn’t hesitate. He just answers it.
Grant’s face fills the screen, sitting like a smug bastard in some wood-paneled room, flanked by two other Collective members. One of them is smirking. The other is sipping a drink like this is a normal conference call.
Seth keeps the camera low, pointed at the blood-soaked tile and the dead men cooling around it.
“Nice try,” Seth says coldly.
Grant’s eyes flick, recognizing the scene.
“You sent six,” Seth continues. “You should’ve sent more.”
The smirk fades from the guy on the left. Grant’s smile stays.
“For now,” Grant replies smoothly. “Just wanted to remind you, you’re not ghosts. You’re visible. Traceable. Killable.”
Seth flips the phone around and shows his own face, and I can see the fury in his eyes even through the small screen.
“Enjoy your last days,” Seth's jaw tightens. “I’m going to send you and John straight to Hell.”
Then he ends the call. We stand in the silence. Then Seth tosses the phone into the clerk’s sink behind the counter and smashes it with the butt of his shotgun.
Outside, the parking lot is a mess of broken glass and blood. The Jeep is still parked at the far end. Three bodies sprawl near the curb, and the air tastes like smoke and metal.
Seth walks over, gun still in hand, and plants his boot on one man’s shoulder.
The guy tries to groan, mouth smeared with blood, leg barely hanging on.
Seth presses the muzzle to the base of the guy’s skull and pulls the trigger.
The blast echoes off the empty storefronts.
Red mist hangs in the air for a second before it falls away.
We don't get to leave risks behind us.
We get the kids into the Jeep fast. Elise hesitates for half a second before sliding into the backseat, Ryan right behind her. The doors shut. Seth is already in the driver’s seat. The engine turns over and we pull out before anyone has time to look twice.
The van sits where they left it. I glance at it once, then look at Seth.
“We’re gonna have to get Beau to come back for the van,” I say.
Seth doesn’t take his eyes off the road. “He will.”
The drive back is quiet. Elise and Ryan stay huddled in the backseat, not speaking, not looking at us. I keep one hand in Seth’s, the other braced against the door, eyes fixed on the empty stretch of highway ahead.
I check the rearview more times than I want to admit. Each time, I catch Elise watching us, quick glances toward the front when she thinks I won’t notice. She keeps looking at Seth, like she can’t decide if he’s the threat or the only reason she’s still alive.
When we pull up to the house, Seth cuts the engine. Elise shifts first, crossing her arms, trying to build that attitude back up like armor. I don’t give her the space to settle into it.
“Don’t,” I turn in my seat just enough to face her. My voice cuts through the car. “I’m not in the mood for the whole smartass routine tonight.”
Her jaw tightens, but she doesn’t say anything.
I take a slow breath, forcing my voice to stay calm.
“I understand what you’re going through is hard.
I know you’ve lost both of your parents.
I know we’re strangers to you. And I know none of this makes sense yet.
But what you don’t get to do is put all of us at risk because you want to play the defiant teen card. ”
Ryan’s gaze drops straight to his lap. Elise keeps staring at me like she wants to push back, but her hands give her away, shaking where they’re tucked under her arms.
“When my parents died, I didn’t make reckless decisions. I didn’t run into traffic or go knocking on danger’s door just to prove I could. I survived. I made smart moves. Because that’s the only way to make it out of this kind of shit alive.”
I lean slightly over the center console, making sure she can’t look away from me.
“And this will be the last time either of you pulls something like this. I’m not risking Seth for you. Not again.”
I nod toward the front seat, toward the blood dried into Seth’s shirt, and I force myself not to think about how much worse it could've been.
“You think this is normal? You think people out there are playing fair? Those men weren’t there by accident. They were waiting. Waiting to take you or kill you. You wouldn’t have made it another mile.”
I look between both of them.
“We are here to protect you. Whether you believe that or not. But let me make one thing clear. This man, your brother, means everything to me. And I won’t sacrifice him for anything or anyone.”
Elise opens her mouth like she’s about to argue, but I hold her gaze until she shuts it again.
“Are we clear?”
A beat passes.
Then two small nods.
“Good.”
I open my door before either of them can hesitate. Seth is already out on the other side, moving without a word, scanning the perimeter before shifting his attention back to them.
I pull Ryan’s door open and step back just enough to give him space to move. Seth opens Elise’s side at the same time.
“Out,” he says.
They climb out slower now, the fight gone quiet, replaced with something closer to shock.
Seth stays close behind them, positioning himself between them and the open drive without making it obvious. I fall in on the other side, closing the gap so there’s nowhere to slip through. We move them forward together, straight toward the house, no pauses, no chances to second-guess it.
We aren't giving them room to run again.