Chapter 45
The world tunneled. There was nothing but the awful scene in front of me. The blood.
But through the roaring in my ears, I heard muffled curses, and someone turned me away from the sight in my locker.
“Get her out of here,” Ronan barked.
An arm went around me, and some part of my brain recognized Dash. “Just breathe. Nice and easy.”
I struggled to obey, but my stomach roiled, the scent of death still coating my airways. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Dash swore and quickly tugged something out of his pocket. “Breathe through your nose.”
I forced myself to do so, even though my body battled against it. The scent of peppermint filled my nose. Clean. Soothing. The worst of the nausea eased.
“We need to keep moving,” Colt said in a low voice.
Suddenly, I was aware of all the attention focused squarely on us.
Declan pressed in on my other side. “Can you walk?”
I nodded. My legs were shaky, but the last thing I needed was the entire school seeing one of the guys carrying me out of here. I forced myself to move, to start walking. Declan, Dash, and Colt surrounded me, and the murderous looks on their faces had everyone scampering out of our path.
The walk to the Range Rover was a blur. I was barely aware of Dash and Declan loading me in and buckling my seat belt as Colt climbed behind the wheel. No one said a word as we drove.
Seconds later, two other blacked-out Range Rovers circled us on the road. One took up the position in front, the other behind us. My heart picked up speed. Did we need to be this worried? To have security meet us on the ten-minute drive from campus?
Then an image of the contents of my locker filled my mind, and I nearly lost my breakfast.
Dash pressed the little satchel to my nose again. “Keep breathing.”
The scent of peppermint was back, lessening the worst of the roiling in my stomach.
Declan rubbed a hand up and down my back. “We’ve got you.”
I noticed he didn’t say I was safe. Probably because it had been proven time and again that I wasn’t.
The gates to The Nest opened as we approached, and the two Range Rovers peeled away for us to enter. As Colt pulled to a stop in front of the house, Baldwin charged outside, worry carved into his face.
Declan and Dash helped me from the SUV, and Baldwin was on me in a second. “Are you okay? What do you need?”
I didn’t have the words to answer him, but a shudder ran through me.
Dash wrapped an arm around me. “How about some tea? My sassafras blend?”
Baldwin nodded and hurried inside. “Get her in the lounge. There are blankets in there.”
The guys obeyed, guiding me toward the room I’d met Dash and Trace in my first night here. It felt like a lifetime ago.
The moment I sat, Declan wrapped me in the softest fuzzy blanket.
Colt crouched in front of me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “It just—it’s awful.” I wasn’t particularly a fan of rats, but killing an innocent creature just to send me a message? It was disgusting.
His hands rubbed up and down my calves. “We’re going to figure out who did this. I promise.”
“It has to be Damien or Chloe. No one else hates me that much. Well, my mom, but she’s not here.”
The guys shared a look, something unreadable passing between them.
“What?” A little life flickered inside me. “It’s incredibly annoying when you do that.”
A small smile curved Dash’s mouth. “Sorry.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
Colt sighed. “We can’t tell you everything and not because we don’t want to. But what I can tell you is that we have enemies. This could’ve been any number of people.”
A weight settled deep inside me. “Just because I’m hanging out with you?”
The front door slammed, and Colt was on his feet in a flash.
Footsteps thundered in the hall, and Trace skidded to a stop as he entered the room. His violet eyes blazed with a fury that stole my breath. “Move,” he barked at Colt.
Colt didn’t budge. “You need to take a breath. You don’t want to hurt her, Trace.”
“He won’t,” I croaked.
I wasn’t sure how I knew, but it was as certain to me as gravity.
“LeeLee…” Colt said.
“He won’t,” I pushed.
Colt swallowed, stepping out of Trace’s path.
Trace’s chest rose and fell in ragged breaths, as if each inhale and exhale was a battle he was barely winning. He took one step, then another, halting just shy of me, his gaze roaming over me. “Did they hurt you?”
His voice vibrated with rage.
I shook my head. “I’m okay.”
Trace swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Promise me.”
“I promise.”
He jerked his head in a nod, then whirled on Colt. “Where are we at?”
Colt squeezed his shoulder. “Not now.”
Anger blazed in Trace’s eyes, but he didn’t argue.
All of a sudden, exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks. Dash seemed to sense it and wrapped an arm around me. “You okay?”
“I’m just so tired all of a sudden.”
He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Adrenaline crash.”
“Lie down,” Declan encouraged. He grasped my legs, placing them in his lap and taking off my shoes.
Dash put a pillow on his lap and positioned my head there. “We’ll stay with you. I promise.”
It was all I needed to let sleep claim me. Deeper than I’d had in a long time.
I didn’t know how long I’d been under, but faint voices tugged at my consciousness. My eyelids were so heavy they didn’t open right away, couldn’t. So, I strained to listen.
Dash’s hand stroked my hair, but I could feel that Declan was gone now. I heard Colt’s voice, then Ronan’s, and finally a third I didn’t recognize.
“You should’ve called me immediately,” he said.
“I called you after we got Leighton settled. She was our first priority,” Colt argued.
The man let out a low growl. “And that’s exactly the problem.”
It was then I recognized the voice. Darius. The friend of Colt’s father who was running the business.
“Call her a problem again and I’ll burn every inch of skin from your body,” Trace said. His voice was deceptively calm with almost a musical quality to it. But underneath was a menace that turned my blood to ice.
Darius muttered a curse. “You know what I mean. Her gift never manifested. She’ll have no way to protect herself. I know that and so do you.” He sighed. “You never should’ve brought her here.”