Page 82 of Even if You Fall

“For what he did to you—the way he manipulated you and everything he forced you into—I would’ve destroyed him.” I brushed my thumb along her jaw, my own twitching as something dark and sure passed through me. “For what he still plans to do to you, I’m gonna enjoy it.”

I’d barely gotten a chance to say goodbye to Adam’s family.

It was ridiculous that after less than a day there, nearly all of it spent trying to convince them I wasn’t what they wanted me to be, I was devastated that my unexpected time with his family was being cut short.

But I’d wanted more of their stories that never seemed to end. I’d wanted more of the way Adam and his siblings constantly threw things, and his mom seemed to appear out of nowhere, ready to lovingly reprimand one of them with food and a soft smack on the back of the head. I’d wanted more days of being curled up on the couch, watching as they all passionately spoke in two languages at once, and witnessing their dad’s outright joy whenever he spoke to anyone.

A joy that was so completely pure, it was no wonder Adam had clocked mine as fake the moment he met me.

I’d just wanted more time, but Adam had haphazardly thrown everything into his bag, and we’d been gone within ten minutes of when Cameron had first stormed into the room, demanding we leave.

The drive to the airport had been filled with tense conversations between Cameron, Adam, and whoever Cameron had called. Not one of the Shadow crew, and someone I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, given how he made Asher sound like a child on Christmas morning. I’d slept off the remnants of my exhaustion and vertigo on the plane’s couch while the guys had worked nonstop. But the drive home was filled with a heavy silence.

Adam and Cameron were apparently done planning, as well as talking. Unfortunately, that meant Adam wasn’t talking to me either. He hadn’t spoken to me since before we’d left his parents’ house. And other than glancing over at me every few minutes from where he’d elected to sit with me in the second row of Cameron’s truck, a seat away, he didn’t acknowledge me at all.

Then again, from the worried glances he’d given me ever since he’d more or less let me know he planned to kill Owen, I had a feeling he thought he’d finally succeeded in freaking me out.

He wouldn’t be wrong.

But this wasn’t aget-away-from-me, I’m-reconsidering-everythingkind of panic, it was...well, it justwas.

I didn’t know what all they’d done during their time in the military, and I was sure I didn’t want to know, but I had no doubt every member of the Shadow Industries team had killed someone. Well, maybe not Beau, since he’d been brought in later. But even if Lainey hadn’t filled me in on the small bits of their pasts she was allowed to know and share, Adam had already told me what he was capable of.

“People like that usually turn out to be threats, Bubbles. Now, tell me why I’d let a threat set foot anywhere near my family. Tell me why I’d let a threat live.”

“Chloe, I could kill you without ever waking up. Don’t you get that?”

So, I’d already known, just as I’d known they weren’t idle words. But knowing what he could do and hearing his intentions were totally different things.

I sat up when I snapped out of my thoughts enough to realize where we were—definitelynotmy adorable neighborhood—and glanced around at the land leading up to Asher’s expansive farmhouse. “What are we...this isn’t my house,” I said pointlessly.

When more silence filled the car, Cameron glanced back as if checking to see if Adam would respond, then said, “Everyone’s gonna gather here. It’s safer for now,” he added just as I started askingwhy.

I looked over in time to see Adam tear his gaze from me and drag his tattooed hands over his face. When they fell to his lap, he looked more worried than before and equally determined.

The third car garage door opened as we were driving up, surprising me because it didn’t look like anyone was home, and I was sure the guys had said Asher and Lainey weren’t getting back to Texas until this evening.

But when Cameron pulled his truck in, both Hudson and Mallory were waiting for us in the garage.

“If it isn’t my new favorite,” Hudson called out when I hopped out of the truck.

I gave him my best smile, refusing to let anyone else see what this day was doing to me. “I’m surprised you haven’t found another new favorite yet,” I tossed back as I shut the door behind me and stepped forward to get my bag out of the front passenger seat, only to stagger back when I came face to face with Adam.

Worried eyes studied me as he gently guided me back in that way I was becoming increasingly familiar with—nothing more than his fingers pressed to my stomach.

He reached for the handle of the door I’d been going for, his head dipping low to whisper, “Give that mask to whoever youneed to, Bubbles. But promise me you’ll drop it when it’s just us.”

I felt my eyebrows pull close. “That’s what it took to get you to talk to me? Hudson?”

A heated shiver tore through me when he let his fingers spread across my stomach and around my waist until he was gently gripping me and pulling me closer. “I saw the look on your face earlier. I was giving you time.”

“Time towhat?” I asked earnestly. “Realize you saying one admittedly terrifying thing is going to change how I feel?”

“Yes,” he said resolutely.

My head moved in slow shakes. “If you’d found out I’d actually been hiding something the way you’d assumed—that I was actually a threat—would that have changed the way you feel?”

His jaw clenched as he stared at me, clearly battling over what he knew he should say and what he couldn’t. Because, as I now knew, he’d started falling for me even when he’d thought Iwasa threat to him and the people he loved.

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