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Now no one is laughing.

Violet has her phone clamped to her ear and is crouched down, almost curled completely into a ball, her arm wrapped around her shins, her face buried into her knees.

“What the fuck did you do?” I growl, reaching for my brother.

He doesn’t move, doesn’t bat me away. Just says, “She got a call, Ace. I think it was from her brother. She said TJ and now she’s—” A nod to the side.

Now she’s curled up into a protective ball.

I immediately drop my hand, turn to Vi, and crouch down next to her. “Baby,” I say gently. “Talk to me.”

But when I settle my hand between her shoulders, she jerks, jumping to her feet and doing it so fast I nearly fall onto my ass.

“I have to go,” she says, one hand in her hair, clenching at the strands. The other holding her phone so tightly at her side that her knuckles have turned white.

“Princess, look at me.” I stand, reach for her.

She skitters back a step.

“What the fuck?” I whisper.

“I-I have to go,” is all she says. “I have to go right now!”

Then she’s turning for the house.

Sprinting for the house.

Those heels are practically an extension of her feet, and I haven’t seen her so much as bobble in them over the last two weeks.

Now, before she makes it to the patio where the net and sticks and pucks are, she trips.

“Fuck,” I say, snapping out of my shock and taking off after her.

I have no hope of getting there in time—and neither does Beck, who’s at my side—before she goes down hard.

“Fuck,” I hiss, but I don’t stop moving toward her. “Baby⁠—”

She pushes up—and out of my hold. “Don’t touch me!”

I freeze.

Beck sucks in a breath.

“You can’t touch me,” she whispers. “If you touch me, I’ll—” A sharp shake of her head. “You can’t touch me.”

Her knees are bleeding and the scrape on her palm is torn open.

But nothing is worse than the look in her eyes.

Like something is broken inside her.

“I need to go,” she whispers. “I just…” Her eyes slide closed. “I need to go right now.”

I move to her, and I do it slowly, like I would approach a cornered animal. “We can go, baby. We can leave right now if that’s what you need.”

Right when I’m close, just before my hand can touch hers, she steps back. “I need to go.”

Then she whirls around and races inside.