Page 95 of Torin

“Someone gonna make breakfast?” Orson asks.

I stare at him. “Torin just killed someone.”

Orson shrugs. “Yesterday.”

I gape at him.

Torin closes his eyes. “Orson.”

“What? I’m hungry.”

A laugh almost escapes me, which makes the whole thing feel even more insane.

I get to my feet. “I need some air.”

Neither of them tries to stop me.

I shoulder past Orson and stride down the hallway, through the kitchen and out the back door. I don’t stop until I reach the terrace.

A woodpecker hammers somewhere among the trees. Birds flit through the pines as if this were any other morning.

I sink onto the outdoor sofa. Torin killed Cade. A few minutes ago, I was sitting on his bed cleaning blood from his face. Cade did that to him. The black eye. The split lip. The claw marks across his ribs. And Torin went there knowing exactly what could happen. My stomach knots.

He could have died.

The thought makes my chest hurt. I’d lain awake half the night waiting for him, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he might not come back.

I stare out at the trees.

I don’t know what happens when one bear kills another. I don’t know whether Torin is in trouble now, or whether this is simply how things work here.

I’m completely out of my depth.

A car door slams somewhere around the front of the lodge. I jerk upright.

A second later, another one follows. Then voices—a man and a woman. I strain my ears. They’re laughing, cheerful.

My shoulders slump. Definitely not my father, or any of Cade’s henchmen.

Then, who?

Gunnar, of course. And Alexandria.

They’re back early.

I look down at myself. Yesterday’s jeans, old T-shirt, hair shoved into a ponytail. I haven’t even had coffee yet.

And somewhere between waking up and now, I’ve discovered that the man I’m falling for killed someone because of me.

The front door opens.

Apparently, I’m about to meet the family.

18

Hannah

Another peal of laughter floats around the side of the house. I close my eyes.