We end up at the Oak River dormitory on the third floor, where the girls’ room is located. They have what the school calls a ‘family suite’, designed for up to four siblings to share provided they all attend the elementary school.

The door is open when we arrive and Kara is crouched inside of the wardrobe, shaking and crying. She throws herself into Aaron’s arms as soon as he opens the doors, twining her arms around his neck.

“Where is Heather?” he asks her, setting her on the edge of one of the beds and pushing her gently back so that he can look into her eyes. Aaron sweeps chestnut curls from his sister’s forehead and gives her a gentle shake. “Kara, talk to me.”

“She took her,” she repeats, sniffling and shaking her head. “We asked our teacher if we could come back to our room to get Heather a new tie since she spilled milk on hers at lunch.” My hands clench into fists at my sides as Hael rubs my back in comforting circles, trying to keep me calm the way I did for him at his parents’ house. I’m going to flay that fucking teacher alive. At the same time that thought crosses my mind, I know I can’t blame her. The campus is secure; it’s safe. There are security guards everywhere. Who would ever think something like this might happen on a sunny day like today?

“And then what?” Aaron encourages, crouching down and managing to keep himself calm as he presses his sister for information. “Who took Heather, Kara?”

She shakes her head at him again and rubs at her nose, glancing up at me like she’s ashamed of herself.

“When we heard someone trying to come in the room, Heather told me to hide,” Kara explains, and I feel my knees get so weak that I’m afraid I might collapse. Hael pulls me to him, my back to his front, and keeps me standing by banding his arms around my waist. Why are you always trying to be the goddamn white knight, Heather? I think desperately, but I only love my sister all the more for trying to be a hero. That’s just who she is, like Hael or Aaron. Desperate to be a good guy in a world populated by villains. “And then this lady came in and she talked to her and called her Heather instead of Hannah.”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Kara pauses and looks away, like she’s afraid to tell the rest of the story. Aaron very gently encourages her to turn back to us with his fingers on her chin.

“Heather told her she didn’t want to leave, so the lady hit her and grabbed her arm and she made her …” Kara trails off as I feel my eyes sting with angry tears. There’s only one woman on this campus who would think to take my little sister.

Just one.

“What did she look like?” Aaron presses, stroking Kara’s hair as he waits for an answer. “The woman who took Heather?”

Kara pauses for a moment and then points directly at Victor.

“Like Vic, except in a red dress.”

And then we’re all moving again. Oscar is on his phone, trying to pull up the security footage and cursing at how tightly guarded Oak Valley keeps its secrets. He and Cal start with a search of the immediate area while Aaron and Hael peel away from us to take Kara to Ms. Keating.

Vic and I head directly for the Student Parking Area where all the guest vehicles for today’s event have been left—including Maxwell and Ophelia’s. If she’s trying to get off campus, she’ll have to go there first.

On our way, we spot Trinity Jade striding down the path toward the girls’ dorm and disappearing inside. Vic and I exchange a look. We don’t need to communicate with words to know what the other is thinking.

I follow Trinity into the elevator just before it closes, Victor slipping in behind me.

She whips around and plasters herself against the mirrors as I slam my palms on the wall on either side of her head. I’m seething; I’m shaking; I cannot fucking breathe. If I lose another sister, I’ll die. There won’t be anything left of me for the Havoc Boys to save. It’ll be over for me then. Over for us. Heather cannot die. She cannot be taken from me.

“What did you say to Ophelia?” I snarl, because if she thinks I didn’t see them slip into the bathroom together, then she sorely underestimated the depths of my Havoc-induced magic. “What?!” When Trinity doesn’t answer right away, I slam my palms against the wall again.

Victor casually presses the emergency stop button. While the VGTF sneaks up on the school, executing their carefully planned raid, nobody is likely to check on us in here. We have at least a few minutes. And this elevator, it’s a motherfucking dark zone.

“I didn’t say anything to her,” Trinity purrs back at me, her genteel voice rife with smug superiority. Whatever she did, whatever she said, she thinks she’s gained some sort of advantage over us.

I backhand her then, careful not to leave a mark. Blood smears my knuckles anyway as I draw back and ask again.

“What. Did. You. Say?”

This is the last time that I’m going to ask.

Trinity smirks at me, but says nothing, testing the very limits of my temper. But with Heather on the line, there is no holding back. There are no doubts. There are no worries about getting caught.

I haul back and hit Trinity as hard as I can in the stomach with a closed fist, making her wheeze and gasp as she doubles over. Shaking my hand out, I ready myself to do it again. It won’t leave a mark, but it sure hurts like fucking hell.

When Trinity finally straightens up, panting heavily but still carrying that superior gleam in her eye, I punch her a second time and then grab the back of her neck while Vic watches, allowing me to carry out the interrogation. I can feel his godlike control wash over me as I wet my lips.

“You’ve made a huge mistake,” I breathe, standing back up and pulling out the cluster of red rope that Oscar slipped into my pocket this morning. It’s supposed to be for fun, but … didn’t he say something about a survival situation?

“What the fuck are you doing?” Trinity pants as Victor steps forward to assist me, holding Trinity still and arranging her limbs for me so that I can tie her up the way Oscar showed me. My knots are nowhere near as pretty as his and probably very difficult to undo, but I don’t care if Trinity is uncomfortable or if she suffers or if this hurts.

Survival situation, remember?

Once Trinity is bound on the floor in a hogtie position with her legs spread wide, her graduation gown rucked up around her hips, and her panties showing, I steal her phone from her pocket.

“What is the code?” I ask, kneeling down beside her. She shakes her head at me, but I swipe at her screen anyway, a giddy, sadistic rush traveling through me when I see that face recognition access is an option. With Vic’s help, I maneuver the phone in front of her as she thrashes until … bingo. It’s that easy to unlock. “Tell me what you told Ophelia or I’m going to text your father the truth about Maxwell Barrasso. Regardless of what you say to him after that, he’ll always have that seed planted in his mind.”

“Okay, fine!” Trinity snarls, finally losing her temper as she struggles against her bonds. “Untie me and I’ll tell you.”

“Tell me now or I text Samuel,” I continue, thumb already typing out a simple message.

You’re not my real dad; Maxwell Barrasso is.

I show that message to Trinity, but it doesn’t seem to shake her confidence at all. She just grits her teeth and looks away from me. She doesn’t believe I’ll give up this piece of intel against her. She thinks I actually care as much about the inheritance or the deal with Ophelia as I do my sister.