“Yeah,” Micah answered from above.

Aydin continued to gaze down at Alex as he said, “I want the house and grounds searched. Now.”

The two stood there for a moment, and then they splintered off, searching the second floor first.

It was easy to dismiss Emmy’s arrival as a lone fluke—or a stroke of luck for some of them—but Alex here, too, meant it wasn’t an accident. We were being infiltrated, and Aydin still liked to behave as if we were here of our free will and this house was his domain.

Bending down, he gently lifted Alex up, staring into her eyes and wiping away the blood under her nose with his thumb.

She hesitated for a moment, but then…she jerked away, stepping back.

He held up his hand, staring at the blood dripping off his thumb.

Then he looked at her again and slid it over his tongue, licking it off his finger.

“Alex,” he said, swallowing. “Palmer.”

“You know each other?” I asked.

How the hell did they know each other? I darted my eyes to Alex, but she just stood there, her shoulders squared and her mouth shut.

“How many more are here?” he asked her. “And where are they?”

I watched them, hating how calm he seemed, because he always looked like he was expecting anything that came along and already had an agenda in place.

It was the one thing I’d learned from him. The appearance of control was just as powerful. Make a decision and act like that was the plan all along.

When she didn’t answer him, he lowered his chin and shot her a small smirk. “You didn’t do this on your own,” he said. “How did you find this place?”

Without waiting for an answer, he drifted past her toward Emmy, who remained by the front door.

He tilted her face up to look at the bruise forming on her cheek. “Looks like you found your noise in the walls,” he said.

She didn’t respond, but she let him turn her face side to side to inspect the damage.

I wanted to remove his head.

“How do you know I wasn’t brought here against my will like Emory?” Alex asked.

But Aydin ignored her, asking Emmy, “Why are you fighting?” He shot me a glance. “Over him?”

Again, Em kept her mouth shut, neither confirming nor denying.

“Forced to make a choice, he won’t choose you,” he told her. “You’ll have to look out for yourself. Get used to it.”

“There’s nothing I’m more used to,” she said in a quiet but firm tone.

He winked at her, signaling his approval of her response.

I stared at them. What the hell was he doing? Were they fucking bonding or some shit?

He dropped his arms and looked down at her feet, seeing the bag of food on the floor. He met her eyes for a moment before grabbing the black coat off the stand by the door and draping it around her.

“Taylor?” he said.

The other guy stepped up a couple more feet. “Yeah?”

“Hold Will,” Aydin told him.

I tensed. What?

Before I could spin around, Taylor grabbed me, sliding his arms around mine from behind and locking his hold against my chest.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled.

Aydin opened the front door, looking at Emory before he dipped down, picked up her bag of food, and handed it to her.

She paused, her gaze shifting between him and me as I struggled. “You’re letting me leave?” she asked. “After all of this?”

I threw Taylor off, shoving him and hearing him tumble against the candelabras.

I shot forward.

“I wish you wouldn’t,” Aydin told her. “But you can.”

She looked over at me, and I stopped, gauging my choices. If she ran, Alex was right. We’d just be delayed, trying to find her and make sure she didn’t wind up dead, and I wasn’t even sure why I cared anymore.

Goddamn them. Michael and Kai and Damon and all of them. If they weren’t coming, I wouldn’t be so pressed for time right now. I wasn’t ready to leave yet.

Of course, they just needed to swoop in and save me.

Emmy stared at me—maybe waiting to see if I stopped her, or hoping I would—and I didn’t want this confrontation with Aydin. Not yet.

Because she wasn’t leaving, even if I had to fight them all and suffer every bone in my body breaking.

Something crossed her eyes, and she looked like she did that morning in the movie theater so long ago. Like she wanted to melt into my arms.

Like she didn’t really want to go, because she wanted to stay with me.

But before I could take her hand, slam the door, and figure out how I was going to fight Aydin and Taylor for both of these women, he leaned into her ear and appeared to whisper something as she held my eyes.

She listened as his jaw moved, and three seconds stretched into ten, and then finally…she dropped her gaze as if processing and nodded to him.

He closed the door, removed her jacket, hanging it up, and took the food bag from her before flashing me a look bearing the ghost of a smile.

I straightened.

Walking past me, he left the room, Taylor following, and I stood there glaring as Emory remained silent.

She was running from me. She fought Alex in order to leave.

And now she was staying?

Because he had more control over her than I did.

“Get your shit,” I told Alex, my gaze never leaving Em. “You’re bunking with me.”

“Will—”

“Now!” I barked as Alex protested.

Fuck it. She could grab her stuff anytime. Taking her hand, I pulled her up the stairs, leaving Emory in the foyer as I disappeared down the hallway, through the last door, and up the stairs to the third floor.

Emory was safe. She was under his protection now.

I slammed my hand into a wall as we traipsed down the hallway.

“Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Alex said, pulling her hand out of mine, “but when we leave, she’s coming with us. You can sort your shit out back in civilization. When I run, you and her are both coming.”

I locked my door and turned on the lights, debating about grabbing my laptop and having my contact intercept Michael and the crew and stop them. But they needed to come now in order to take Emory and Alex to safety.

“When are they arriving?” I asked.

“Any day now.”

I pulled on a shirt and walked over to the window, closing the curtains.

“You want to go home, don’t you?” Alex asked.

I shot her a look.

“Will…”

I paced the room, feeling like I was about to jump out of my skin.

“Your parents…” she said, her voice softening. “The way you always talked about them. They love you. Given everything, they adore you.” She approached me. “Why are you still here? Would they really have kept you away so long? It doesn’t make any sense.”

I should tell her. I just wasn’t sure I wasn’t going to fail, and I needed to do this on my own. I’d put in too much time and work.

I had to go home ten times the man. I needed to see this through.

She took my chin and tipped it toward her, stopping me. “Damon, Winter, Michael, Rika, Misha, Kai, Banks…” she said their names as if I’d forgotten them. “You belong home. Don’t you want to leave?”