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I let out a shaky breath. “My dad.”

Ihadtoignorethe call. There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let my fuck up of a father ruin the best night of my life. This was our night, and my dad had nothing to do with it.

I went to put the phone back in my pocket, but Maddox grabbed my wrist to stop me. “You can’t ignore it,” he said. “What if it’s the only chance we get to confront him?”

He had a point, but it was our goddamn engagement night. “Madd…”

“No matter what he says, it won’t ruin our night. I promise.” He touched my cheek with surprising gentleness.

He could drop clues, give us some sort of expectation, or taunt us in a way that let us know what came next, and any advantage at this point was welcomed. Nate and Xavi were somewhere without us, Mom was at Mary’s unguarded, and I needed to know they were all safe.

I answered the call on speakerphone without saying anything. We sat in the sand with blood on our faces and engagement rings on our fingers, listening to static on the other end of the line. He breathed, and the sound of it grated on every nerve. Jim had no fucking right to breathe. I must have tensed, because Maddox leaned into me for support—offering it or taking it, I didn’t know.

The waves kept lapping, the moon kept shining, and we kept waiting. There was an intake of breath like someone was going to speak, but no words came. I didn’t want to say anything, and I knew Maddox wouldn’t, so if Jim didn’t say something within the next minute, I’d hang up the phone, check on my family, and spend the rest of the night fucking my fiancé.

There were so many things I’d learned over the past year and a half, and the most important one was that nothing trumped Maddox and my brother. But because of my dad, we lived in constant fear, looking over our shoulders every day just to make sure he didn’t spring up on us and take something else.

I was done.

Done letting my dad dictate my life. Ready to take charge of our lives and take the power back.

My thumb hovered over the red button to end the call. Maddox kissed my neck, showing support while leaning into me.

Just as I was about to press the button, my dad spoke.

“I see congratulations are in order.”

Ice coated my sweaty body, and Maddox jumped to his feet so fast I fell forward. We scanned the beach together, looking around frantically, fighting for the position of protector even though we didn’t know where the threat came from.

And then my dad laughed through the line. It was sick, maniacal, and twisted.

42

-Maddox-

Ihadnoideawhat I expected Jim to say, but it hadn’t been that. How the fuck did he know about our engagement when itjusthappened?

We’d been through the damn ringer, and this engagement was supposed to be the start of something new, something good and exciting for us after so much turmoil. Like always, Jim fucking Sawyer found a way to wedge himself into it, and I was so pissed, I felt like burning the fucking trailer park down.

I paced the length of my mom’s trailer, trying to calm down so I didn’tactuallyburn anything, but this rage stewed and threatened to overwhelm me. The only thing that kept me calm was Devon and my need to check in on him. Nate and Xavi came over after Devon called them to come back. We’d discreetly checked on Mary and their mom just in case Jim went after her, and my parents were here. Andrea called to say she’d stay at Mary’s for the night and let us know if anything happened. That lady was a saint.

I wanted one thing in life: Devon. Why the fuck someone constantly thought they could threaten that and get away with it was beyond me, but if Jim thought we’d roll over and take it from him, he had another thing coming. He ruined my fucking life there for a bit, more than once, and he ruined Devon’s whole life, so fuck him, fuck the boat he rode in on, and fuck his goddamn game. I didn’t want to be a coward anymore. Avoidance wasn’t the answer here.

To be honest, I felt pretty damn murdery at the moment.

“Go celebrate,” my dad said. “We’ll handle Jim. This is your night.”

Oh, I planned to spend the rest of my life celebrating, but tonight, I wouldn’t move a damn inch until I had some plan of attack. Devon looked at me, his blue eyes calculating mine, but when he nodded, I knew we were on the same page. Couldn’t wait to marry that prick.

“We will,” Devon said. “But first, we need to figure out how Jim knew where we were.”

My mom sat at the table and patched up Devon’s busted knuckles. I loved her for it, but I got a bit jealous too. Patching him up was my job, and I didn’t appreciate anyone else doing it. But it made my furious rage turn into smug pride when he smacked her hand away after she tried to take off his ring to clean beneath it.

“He had to have been on a boat,” Nate said. “If he was out on the water, no one would have noticed him. He had binoculars or something.”

“Because no one saw shit,” Xavi agreed. “And if he was onshore, someone would have seen him.”

“Unless they covered for him,” Devon spat the words. “That piece of shit seems to have unlimited means to pay people off.”

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