Page 120 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

Sadie knelt beside me, wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, her hands warm against my ice-cold fingers. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”

I shook my head. “She… she said… all of that was on live. I don’t even know how many people saw.”

Sadie brushed the hair back from my face. “Let them see.Isaw it. Anyone with half a soul could tell that girl wasn’t out there to tell the truth—she was there to burn it all down.”

A sob clawed up my throat, harsh and hot. “I can’t. I can’t do this again. I can’t go through all that again.”

Sadie pulled me in closer, held me like I was someone who mattered. “You don’t have to. We’re gonna take care of you, Riley. You’re going to be okay. Medford will make sure of it.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Beckett

Chaos doesn’t always announceitself.

It’s not always a crash, or sirens, or something you can punch. Sometimes it’s just a phone camera and a mouth full of poison.

That was what hit Riley.

By the time we got her inside The Foundry, the storm was already over. Not the kind with wind and snow. The other kind. The worse kind.

The kind that leaves wreckage behind in silence.

She didn’t cry when we walked inside. Not when Sadie saw her and pulled her into a hug, trying to hold her together by sheer force.

She didn’t cry when we sat her down in the office and put a mug in her hands. But after the door shut, and it was just us and the hum of the building around us, she broke.

Not loudly. Just… quietly.

Folding in on herself.

It wasn’t the kind of crying you fix. It was the kind that guts you because you know it’s been waiting.

I stood there, hands useless, jaw tight enough to crack.

I didn’t know what to do with myself.

I wanted to leave. Not to run, but to find Ava and make sure she couldn’t lift a phone again without flinching.

But instead, I looked at Riley, and I stayed.

Then the cavalry arrived.

First was Lila. Hellfire and a baby carrier. She didn’t even wait for details.

“Tell me who,” she said. “And tell me where.”

Behind her were Jaxon, Ryan, Colt—quiet, steady, ready for war.

Jaxon looked at me. “You good?”

“No,” I said. “But Riley is worse.”

Colt crouched next to her, voice low and soft. “I know you don’t know us well yet, but we’ve got your back. That’s how this place works. Medford doesn’t look away.”

Ryan just sat across from her. Didn’t speak. Didn’t need to. He was grounding. He always is.

Lila slid onto the couch and pulled Riley into her side like they were already family. “You don’t have to hold it in,” she said. “Not here.”

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