Page 160 of Hell Breaks Loose

I mean, I trust Evan. I’m just not sure he’s Evan one hundred percent of the time. And if he goes back to her and she forces him…

It could put my mother in danger. Make her a target to get to me.

I can’t deal with that right now. I’m still reeling from our night together. Feeling him again, loving him opened a wound that I was not ready to address yet.

Sing lets it go, leaning his chair back and closing his eyes.

His fears aren’t unfounded.

Toying with the bracelet my mother gave me, I let the light coming through the window across the aisle from us glimmer off the metal. It’s just like the ring I have back at the camp. Identical, actually. Just bigger.

Which makes me think that maybe there are more.

And if my ring was a key to the lockbox in my dad’s cabin…

Knowing what we need to do when I get back makes the flight take so much longer. Not knowing where Evan went, or if I will ever see him again, makes everything else hard to focus on.

So I close my eyes.

Maybe if I sleep long enough, all of this will take care of itself, and I’ll wake up in Sanctum with my guys. Maybe all of this can just be a bad dream.

“How did everything go to shit while I was gone?” I’m pressing my palm to my forehead to keep from flipping out. The conference room at Camp Clive is a little crowded.

Mostly because there’s too many updates.

My own included.

It’s been a long day of comparing notes and we’re not done yet.

And all I want is to take a bath and crawl into bed and maybe have two delectably sexy men rub my shoulders. Kiss me. Snuggle me.

Maybe fuck my brains out, just a little.

I bite my lip to keep from laughing at my inner monologue.

“It was already shit,” Tell argues, giving me one of his prize-winning half-grins.

“Worse shit, then.”

“Blame your aunt. She’s got the freaks out en masse hunting for us. For you, actually,” Gavin rumbles, running a hand over my back as I try to digest the recent developments.

“Why is everyone always after me like I’m the key to the treasure chest?!”

“Aren’t you?” Ora snarks.

“No! These are, though.” I lay down the ring, the bracelet, letting everyone get a good look.

“So your mom had the other one.”

“Yep. My dad gave it to her, said he needed to get it far from town as a safety measure,” I explain, shifting the five circlets around to find some sort of pattern or clue.

“And he had the ring hidden at his little place in the woods.”

“Where was it, anyway?” Alaya picks up the ring, examining it again. “I looked all over the damn place trying to find this!”

“Picture frame. That’s what reminded me that Mom had one, too, actually.”

“Damn. Should’ve looked harder. Could have upped my contribution to the plan!”

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