Page 86 of After the Burn

I’d missed him something terrible, even though it had only been a day. Ever since I’d claimed him, we’d been inseparable. He’d saved my life countless times.

Finley walked in, holding Rory’s hand. “Rory wanted to keep him until you were settled, but Max had other plans.”

Max whined as if he could understand him, then trotted to the little girl, his head hanging as if he were apologizing.

“It’s okay, Maxi.” Rory kissed him right between the eyes. “I’ll come visit you at your new house.”

“We’ll definitely be visiting now,” Harper laughed. “Let’s get out of here and let them get to it. I’d imagine they’re ready to leave this place.” She grabbed Rory’s hand. “Oh, I almost forgot…” She ducked into the hallway and grabbed something propped right outside the door. “…never know when you might need it.”

Now it was my turn to smile. “Thanks. I don’t like being without it.” I grabbed GG from her and set it beside my bag.

“For a while, try not to go anywhere without one of your men.” Finley’s face turned grim. “Mace doesn’t like losing.”

Beck put his hands on my shoulders from behind as Adrian laced our fingers together. “We’ll keep a close watch.”

I felt my face flush. This new relationship was going to take some getting used to.

I reminded myself that evil queens didn’t blush, but it didn’t seem to help.

“Ready?” Adrian asked. “We should get settled before dark. Beck and Lucas need to be at the gate shortly after that.”

The street looked like a photograph from another life.

Old live oaks shaded modest brick homes whose porches had weathered decades of Texas summers. Wind chimes swayed lazily in the breeze, forgotten rocking chairs sat empty, and faded American flags still hung from a few porches, bleached almost white in the relentless Texas sun.

Vegetable gardens replaced manicured lawns, rain barrels lined nearly every house, and a rifle leaned against more than one front porch as naturally as a welcome mat.

It was beautiful…and just a little heartbreaking.

A man knelt beside a raised garden bed a few houses down, pulling weeds while another repaired a section of fence with practiced ease. Two teenage boys hauled buckets of water toward a greenhouse someone had built from salvaged windows. Every person I saw was working toward the same goal.

Survive another day.

Max trotted ahead of us with his nose glued to the cracked sidewalk, stopping every few feet to sniff something only he found interesting, then bounding back.

“They’ve really figured things out here,” I admitted quietly.

Adrian glanced toward the tree-line beyond the rooftops. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I glanced up at him in question.

He raised our joined hands and kissed my fingers. “I don’t want you to get too comfortable. Looks are deceiving, and the underbelly of this place is much uglier than the surface.”

“How ugly?” I bent down and grabbed a stick, throwing it for Max.

“I’ve heard rumors even in the short time I’ve been here,” Lucas scowled in my direction. “And even if it were everything it seemed, we need to get back to the farmhouse.”

I ignored the shitty way he aimed that last comment at me. Lucas and I were never going to repair the damage between us. I knew most of it was my fault, but at this point I was at a loss for how to fix it.

He wasn’t wrong about needing to get back. The farmhouse tugged at the back of my mind like a guilty conscience.

Lane.

Avery.

Emery.

And even Ethan.