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My eyes cut to Zayden, and he quickly adds, “She was his target. It makes sense that he was watching her⁠—”

Xavier holds his hand up to silence his brother. “The moment you heard who it was, you told me to go to Silence’s room. You knew he was up there.” I twist my fingers together, frantically trying to come up with an explanation. Xavier looks between Zayden and me. “Do you fuck other people?”

Zayden pinches the bridge of his nose. “We’ve got more important things to worry about than our sex life.”

We do, but the way Yale is looking at me is hurting my heart. We really do tell each other everything, but this was something I couldn’t share. Zayden and I weren’t even sure what we wanted; how was I supposed to voice that to his brother and my best friend?

“We need to find out who this guy is,” Zayden says. “Cleo is looking into it, but if he managed to get past our background check, we might not find anything.”

“Let’s ask Grant.” Xavier winces as he sits up.

My heart climbs around my rib cage. “Oh God, I can’t believe I didn’t even ask about Grant. Is he okay?” Tension seeps into the room, Xavier and Yale avoiding my eye. Zayden locks his gaze on me, though. “No. He … he isn’t⁠—”

“He’s alive,” Zayden says gently. “But he’s the reason Ryker found us in the first place.”

The words float between us, and my lips twitch into a smile as I wait for a punchline. “No. Not Grant. He wouldn’t …” I look to Yale. “Surely not? It must be a mistake.”

“He admitted it, Q,” Yale says, brows pulled together in sympathy. “He was following you and reporting back to Ryker.”

The betrayal is like a knife twisted in my gut. I perch on the edge of an armchair, worried I might fall over if I don’t.

Grant has been in our lives for years. He’s known the brothers even longer. We double-date with him and Monica.

“Where is he?” I force the question out, but I almost choke on each word.

No one speaks.

Xavier tuts. “He’s in the trunk. Why are you shielding her from this shit?”

“Because she shouldn’t have to know,” Yale bites back. “She specifically asked that we tell her as little as possible.”

He’s right. I did. The moment their secret was revealed, I stewed for weeks. Eventually, the long conversation I meant to have with my husband was glossed over, and we fell back into our routine. Then one day, the words slipped out over dinner.

“Let’s pretend I don’t know,” I’d said. “I don’t want to hear anything about it.”

Probably not the healthiest way to deal with the fact you married a killer, but the alternative was digging up my past, and I already have enough dirt under my fingernails.

“This is different. You think she’s not gonna notice Grant is gone? Pretty sure Monica will tell her,” Xavier rightfully points out.

“What are you going to do to him?” I ask.

Zayden remains quiet. So does Yale. So, for the first time since I’ve known him, I look to Xavier for answers.

“We’ll kill him.”

My stomach bottoms out, an acidic feeling pooling there, and I turn away.

The smell of blood, the red-dotted clothing that never seemed to ever truly come out no matter how much bleach I used … it all comes screaming back to me.

“They’ll come for us, Silence. They all will.”

“Silence?”

Rubbing my arms, I face the brothers again. “You can’t kill him. There has to be another way.”

Xavier snorts. “Sure. We’ll make him pinky promise not to run back to Ryker.”

“Don’t be a dick, X,” Yale snaps. “This is new to her.”