Page 3 of Vengeful

"I know so. You said it yourself, he wants you to beat her, not kill her. This couldn't have worked out more perfectly." He kissed my forehead.

"I hate to say this, but Hunter is right," Parker said. "I'd go as far as to say it went exactly to plan. I mean, if you really wanted to kill her, you would have bought a cheap, plastic car, not one designed to protect the driver and passenger in a crash."

I chose the cars because my father wouldn't have sent anything cheap, but maybe deep down he was right. I didn't want her dead, just beaten.

"First of all, I'm always right," Hunter said. He paused for effect before adding, "There's no need for a second point."

Parker chuckled. "Keep telling yourself that. It might be true someday. Although, that's kinda unlikely."

Hunter lifted his hand from my shoulder long enough to flip him off.

"Are you all right?" Slade had been talking to the paramedics and helping them move Zachary, but he stepped over to us now.

I managed a faint smile. "Yeah. I'm okay. Thank fuck Chloe and Zachary are okay too."

He gave me a slightly surprised look, but quickly rolled with my response and nodded.

"This could have been much worse. They're going to need some time off from the Academy for a while. Zachary in particular. It won't be for more than a few days."

"It's wonderful," Hunter said a little louder than necessary. "I hope no one minds if I organise to have someone give Lila's new car a thorough going over. I'd hate to have this happen to her too."

Chloe stopped to frown at him before letting herself be led over to the back of the ambulance. She glanced over at me, then at the car. Whatever she was thinking, she clearly hadn't come toa firm conclusion yet. She would, soon enough. No doubt she'd blame it on me. I was going to have to work hard to play it cool.

In the meantime, I'd need to speak to my father.

"I don't mind," Parker said. "We don't want this happening again. Although, a whole new car would be better."

"Yes, don't drive that one," Slade said softly.

I glanced at him sharply. Did he really say that? Like so often, his blue-green eyes were hard to read.

"I couldn't be sure she’d take the silver one," he explained. "And if only one was faulty, people might ask questions. Don't worry, I wasn't going to let you get behind the wheel."

"You better not," Hunter growled. "If anything happened to Lila, I'd rip your fucking head off. I mean that in the most caring, brotherly way."

Slade snorted softly. "Of course you do, bro. If anything happened to her, I'd rip my own head off."

Parker cocked his head at him. "I'd like to see you try that. I mean, not literally, but how would that even work?"

They talked in low voices which I mostly ignored while watching the paramedics help Chloe into the back of the ambulance. One of them sat her down and wiped the blood off her face.

For the first time in I didn't know how many years, she reminded me of the little girl she used to be. The one who'd cry if she skinned her knee, or if her balloon flew away.

I pushed away the sliver of guilt that tried to worm itself inside me. If the tables were turned, she'd be laughing over me being hurt. Or she'd be regretting that I wasn't dead. Or that the twins weren't dead too. Remorse didn't seem to be in her vocabulary.

On the other hand, I understood why. All the things she did came from a dark place. One where she was still a scared little girl. Everything we did to each other was because of that.

Could we ever get past this without adding to our own trauma?

CHAPTER 2

LILA

"Are you sure about this?" Parker gripped my hand and squeezed.

"We didn't come all this way to walk away," I said. If only I felt as confident as I sounded. On the inside, it was my turn to be the scared little girl.

I hated that feeling. I pushed it away as violently as I could.

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