Maybe she would be better off with Zane and his gang of criminal misfits, at least until we could neutralize the threats against her.
The three of us stood there in silence as the two bikes disappeared through the main gates of our estate, then Kody turned to me with an accusation clearly written all over his face.
I closed my eyes, but didn't flinch. I knew what was coming well before his fist met my cheek, snapping my head back and making my ears ring.
I deserved that. And more.
"This is on you, Arch," he seethed, glaring daggers as I squinted back at him and dabbed my lip. He'd split it open, but I'd wager he wanted to do a whole lot worse. "This whole fucking mess could have been avoided if you'd been honest with her from day fucking one!"
I gave him a casual shrug, totally at odds with the screaming turmoil inside me. "Well, you know what they say about crying over spilled milk. She'll get over it."
This time I didn't see the punch coming—despite how badly I deserved it—because it came from Steele and was delivered solidly to my kidneys. He may not have any interest in fighting competitively, but he'd trained with Kody and I for years. That fucker could make a punch hurt.
"You fucked up, and you dragged us down with you," Steele growled, his fists clenched like he wanted to keep hitting me. "And you're not fooling fucking anyone with this blasé attitude, Arch. Just because you refused to fuck her doesn't mean you haven't fallen just as hard."
I grunted but couldn't force the denial past my lips. He was wrong, though. I’d kept her at arm’s length because I’d known this day was coming. They should have done the same.
The two of them gave me disgusted, disappointed looks and stalked back into the mansion—my mansion—without another word. Understandable, considering there was literally nothing else to say. Nothing could take back what I'd done over a year earlier, and nothing could fix the betrayal and heartbreak Kate must be feeling now.
I sank down on the front steps, sitting my ass right beside the bloody lump of meat which had once sustained a rapist Wraith. Her stalker and I seemed to be more alike than I'd originally realized, considering I'd sent Kody out during the night to kill that piece of shit Wraith himself.
Scrubbing a hand over my scruffy stubble, I released a heavy sigh.
The cat was out of the bag, and now I needed to figure out where we went from here. Did I even really want to bring her home?
Of course, that wasn't even a question. Because deep down I knew the answer. I'd known the answer to that underlying question for years, ever since I’d held the hand of a frightened eleven-year-old girl while she watched through the window as my father executed a man.
Did I regret my choices? Not a fucking chance. Owning her meant she was safe. She was free from servitude. But more important than anything else... it meant she was mine. And that was something she could never change.
2
MADISON KATE
Trepidation curled through my belly as Bree turned her car into the familiar driveway of Shadow Grove University. It'd been four weeks since that day on the front steps of Danvers mansion—sorry, I meant D'Ath mansion—and I was nowhere near ready to face my new reality yet.
But unfortunately for me, SGU wasn't going to go pushing the semester start date back so I could take a couple more mental health days hidden away in Bree's Aspen chalet, so here we were.
"I mean, they're probably not even going to be here," Bree offered with a hopeful shrug. "Didn't you say Steele was graduating after finals?"
I sighed heavily and stared out the window. It was still snowing, but it lacked the magic of Aspen. There was something about ski resorts that was so totally removed from the rest of the world. They were quieter and cozier. It was so easy to forget all my real-life problems when for four weeks in a row all I needed to do was catch the first ski lift of the morning then come back and drink mulled wine.
"I don't want to talk about them, Bree," I told her in a tired groan. We'd only returned from Aspen the day before and had spent the rest of the day and night decorating my new apartment. For some reason I'd gotten it into my head that my bedroom needed to be painted before I could settle in, so Bree had come over with wine and Chinese and we'd spent half the night playing interior decorator.
She bit her lip, shooting me a sheepish look as she stopped her car in a vacant spot some way from the campus buildings. We'd both overslept, so we were lucky to get a space at all.
"Right, of course," she said with a nod. "No more mentions of those-who-shall-not-be-named."
We piled out of her car and I shivered as the cold air bit through my sweater before I got a chance to pull my winter coat on. Bree checked her phone, smiling all girly, and I couldn't help grinning.
"Dallas?" I asked, and her cheeks heated.
"Yup," she replied, all cagey and shit as she tucked her phone back in her bag. "Just wishing us luck for the first day back."
I laughed. "Uh-huh, sure he was. Pretty sure that wouldn't make you blush like that."
After everything that had gone down the night of Archer's fight, Bree and Dallas had been able to sort things out pretty quickly. Neither one of them had mentioned that weird interaction again—when Bree had thought Dallas was hitting on me—and they seemed totally smitten with each other. So I was happy for them.
He'd visited us once in Aspen, just after Christmas, but otherwise it'd been all hushed, late-night phone calls and dirty texts. It was cute as shit. It gave me hope that one day maybe I'd be able to move on from the three time-bombs who'd detonated my heart and left it splattered all over the steps of the fake Danvers’ mansion.
"So, do you know if Scott actually managed to transfer here?" Bree asked, linking arms with me as we made our way to the lecture halls. "He seemed pretty determined to make it happen." She waggled her brows at me, and I gave her a flat glare back.
"Stop it," I muttered, feeling my own cheeks heat. Except mine wasn't the fuzzy, loved-up glow that she got when Dallas dirty texted. Mine was embarrassment... I think. "He was just talking it up to try and get me to sleep with him."
Bree snorted a laugh. "No shit."
Scott was someone we'd met on a night out in an Aspen bar after a long day on the snow. He was a part-time snowboarding instructor and had been pretty forward about asking me out. I'd refused—thanks to my severely damaged trust in men and my shattered heart—and he'd become a pretty good friend to us in the weeks since. A flirty friend, for sure—he'd made no secret of the fact that he was attracted to me—but a friend nonetheless.
When it had come time for Bree and I to start packing up to return to Shadow Grove, Scott had declared he was transferring from Newton College. We'd all been decently drunk at the time, so we'd laughed it off. But the next day he’d left Aspen with a promise to see us on Monday morning.
"I mean, it'd be cool if he did," I added, thoughtfully. "I could probably do with a few more friendly faces around here."
Bree scoffed. "Please. As if you need anyone else besides me. Come on, let's get inside and learn some shit." She cuddled into my side tighter, and we walked in sync into the main building, even while my nervous jitters increased with every step we took.