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“I’m glad you’re already wearing boots,” she says.

Shifting my weight, I think about what Emil said.

“So where does that leave me?” I ask him. “I’m way over my head, and they’re likely to continue this. They want me to beg for something.”

“Boys like that want to know they have power,” Emil growls. “No hiding. Let’s see your hair.”

Making a face, I shove the hood off my hair and Liliana grimaces as she hands me a face shield.

“At least they left us enough to fix it. I’m losing my patience with them, Mr. Emil,” she admits.

“Alastair, Ciaran, and Draven threatened us,” Theo says, making me blow out a breath. “You’ve done a really good job at appearing normal, Rachelle.”

“I am normal,” she laughs. Glancing in my direction, she bites her lip.

“I already told her,” Theo rumbles. “I won’t have Noor thinking that she needs to protect any of us, or making decisions she doesn’t need to based on incorrect information.”

“You’re all serial killers, aren’t you?” I ask stoically.

“Not exactly,” Emil snorts. “I only kill people who steal from me or piss me off. These boys are quickly getting on my shit list.”

Theo shudders, surprising me. “It’s a really bad list to be on.”

“Put the face shield on, and break some shit,” Liliana advises.

“Where are the kids?” I ask, pulling the shield on. My voice is slightly muffled, but I can see well through it.

“At school for another half hour,” Elijah says, his brown eyes unhappy. I’m sure I seem a mess to him.

I don’t know how to change or explain why I’m making the decisions that I am. I did tell him over the weekend I didn’t take the pill. Elijah merely nodded and that was that. I’m not sure where this leaves us. It feels like I’m disappointing them all.

“Don’t go to their stupid party,” Theo growls, handing me a tire iron. “We can have you work at the damn shop if that’ll keep you away from them.”

“That could work,” I allow. “With how busy my schedule is getting, Rachelle and I agreed to put a pin on working.”

“Parties with guys like that aren’t a good idea,” Rachelle mumbles. Elijah wraps his arm around her and I can see that she’s fighting back memories. “If it’ll keep you away from them, work instead.”

“Okay,” I say. “Thank you.”

“I feel like we’re doing the bare minimum,” Elijah sighs.

I don’t see Ignacio or Jared around, but I just assume they’re working or headed to get the kids. I’m well aware that the world doesn’t revolve around me, and I’m okay with that.

“Even the bare minimum is better than what I’m used to,” I mumble. “Is there anywhere I should start with this?”

We’re far enough from the kids’ playground that broken glass shouldn’t affect them. There are old televisions, ugly lamps, tapestries, glasses, plates, and so much more.

“Nope,” Elijah says. “There’s a bat tucked next to items, knives to cut shit up, and mallets. Oh, you should put on these gloves. I have to at least pretend to be a decent adult.”

I glare at him because he’s not being fair to himself, but I take the gloves and pull them on. Picking up the weapon I tucked between my legs while I was doing that, I head to the television to begin smashing it.

I’m in the middle of destroying a really ugly chandelier when I hear something break. Turning my head, I see that Elijah is wearing protective goggles and smashing plates with a sledgehammer. Yep, I can tell when someone is working out some shit.

Telling him I needed the morning-after pill is going to bite me in the ass at some point. I blurted it out while I was freaking out, and asking him to keep my secrets isn’t right.

Rachelle joins us in breaking shit, and that makes sense to me. It’s clear that what is happening to me is bringing up past events for her.

The most satisfying things to smash for me are the ceramics and ugly figurines. My mother used to have so much of it that I was never allowed to touch. I wasn’t even allowed to look in the direction of it, because she believed it would make something fall.