Page 103 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

I’m mortified.

My car was stolen after Liam and Skylar drove it home. I managed to locate it easily enough, parked at the curb of my parents’ house. My childhood home. Like someone was just… returning it.

Not just someone, but Lux. I could almost smell her when I climbed in. It was adjusted for a shorter person, the mirrors angled differently, the seat lifted, and the steering wheel shifted down. I drove it in disbelief back to Boston, leaving it like a beacon outside my new apartment.

Part of me hated moving, loathed the idea that Lux might not be able to find me again if she came searching. But the car… she’ll find that, if anything.

But she won’t.

“What’s the nine-one-one?” Liam demands. “I just left Sky in a café with Masters.”

Caleb straightens. “The detective? Jim Masters?”

I groan. That detective has history with all of us, and it all seems to be bad. The fact that he’s crossed into Massachusetts can’t mean anything good.

“You okay?” Eli asks. “Why did you leave her with him?”

Liam groans. “Because you assholes said there was an emergency.”

“There is an emergency,” I say. “Lux is back. Sort of.”

He scowls. “It’s been two fucking years. I saw your car out front after you said it was stolen—”

“She put it in front of my mom’s house.” I stand and cross to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water. “She’s back and she’s hiding. I just don’t know where.”

“It’s because of this.” Caleb tosses me his phone.

I look down at the headline. It’s from a small-time newspaper covering a trial. Alan Whitmore, found guilty of murder. The victim was a man found dead on the DeSantis estate. Even with the high-profile names involved, somehow this case never made a splash in the media.

No one seemed to care that a man was killed and burned during an engagement party.

Still, the memory of fire flashes in front of my eyes. I haven’t thought about what we did in too long. What I did to protect her. What I would do to keep her safe, if she gave me a chance. We would’ve been fine—no one was even looking in our direction.

“They probably interfered,” Caleb says. “We figured as much a year ago.”

I grunt and toss his phone back. Someone else taking the fall—a hardened criminal, nonetheless—just illuminates my failures. My mother called me when the police filed charges against the man, even though he was serving time back then. She wasn’t happy, per se. She believed in true justice.

But relief for her son overshadowed that.

“I have to find her.”

“She’s put you through hell,” Eli says quietly. “And you let her go.”

A growl slips past my teeth. “I could’ve said the same about you and Riley. But I kept my mouth shut.”

He lifts his chin. “It’s different. We—”

“Don’t you fucking dare say you have history.” I yank him off the counter, slapping the half-eaten orange out of his hand. “Because that’s just bullshit to compare your—”

“Easy.” Liam seizes my arm and tows me away from Eli. “He’s not saying that.”

“Sure I am,” Eli goads. “Poor little Theo and the girl he refuses to have. At least we all did something about it.” He gestures around the room. “Caleb wasn’t afraid to go after Margo. Riley and I figured our shit out. And Liam’s with Sky. They’re figuring their shit out. But you had her. She was obsessed with you, asshole.”

“And then she fucking left!” I lunge forward, but Liam’s quick hands hold me back.

Eli rolls his eyes, unfazed. “Sure she did. What would’ve happened if you weren’t a bag of dicks the night she disappeared? If she didn’t leave your old place and go back to campus?”

His words stab into me.

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