Good, because Alex could fight, too.

Relief flooded me, almost so much that I got lightheaded for a second.

“What are you doing?” Harper barked at Alex.

A laugh was his response. “Have you seriously never seen Bren fight?”

Harper flinched, his gaze cutting to me.

Alex saw the look, frowning at me.

I shrugged. “I beat him up once.”

Harper’s chin jutted up and he puffed up. “I didn’t have my bros then. It wasn’t a fair fight.”

“You didn’t even fight back, dude. And I was the only one swinging.”

He cringed, but then caught himself and covered. “Whatever.”

I was running an inventory of my weapons, but I really only had one. My knife. The one with the wolf carved in the handle.

Harper was glaring at Alex. “Are you serious right now? You’re going to throw down for this bitch?”

Alex’s eyes got all glittery and dark. That was the old Alex, but he was darker now. Before he’d been angry, and the ego had been his biggest weakness. I wasn’t seeing the ego anymore.

It was nice to see people could change. I mean, besides myself, though I wasn’t really feeling a lot of change right now.

I’d accepted our situation, so the alarm had diminished into acceptance.

Now I was starting to get thirsty. I was beginning to salivate. And it wasn’t for something to drink.

Alex saw the look and his grin spread. “Missed seeing that girl. Nice to know she ain’t totally gone.” I shot him a look. “Who said she was gone?”

“Everyone.” He snorted.

I didn’t know if I should be insulted or complimented by that?

Harper shook his head. “This is stupid. You’ve messed all of this up, Monroe. You being here is forcing my hand. I wanted to do this smooth—” Meaning he wanted to drug the girls. “I wanted everyone to have a good time—” Meaning he wanted the boys to have a good time. “And we’d all be good afterwards.”

Meaning that he was going to dose the girls with enough drugs so they’d forget what happened.

I cocked an eyebrow up. “Were you going to leave them as they were when your boys were done with them? Or were you guys going to wash them and fix their clothes so they wouldn’t know what happened to them?”

“Oh God.”

I had no clue who said that, but it wasn’t one of the girls.

It was one of the guys, and the guy who spoke swung toward Harper. “You said we were just chilling, pulling a prank on Allen ’cause we didn’t invite him.”

Harper stepped back. “It’s not like that.”

The guy next to him was frowning at him, then at us, then Alex, and back to Harper. “We’re here as a favor, dude. You’re getting kicked out. We all know it and we came here to say goodbye. None of us knew any of this shit was going to happen.” He nodded to the girls. “This was not our idea and we would not have been down for it.”

Aspen growled.

Yes. Aspen.

I wasn’t mistaken.

“I don’t care. I’m pissed.” Also from Aspen.

Harper began backing out of our group, and he studied the group, then studied where all the vehicles were going.

He was going to make a run for it.

“Are you kidding—”

At that moment, like we were characters in a movie and were in a rebel camp, masked guys materialized from the woods. All were masked, every single one of them. They weren’t there a moment ago, then blink, and there they were. And they were dressed head to toe in black. There was no sound.

Harper kept talking, digging into his pockets. He hadn’t seen them.

I didn’t think—someone yelled, “What the fuck?!”

Someone saw them.

Then everyone saw them.

The girls jumped together, gasping and one screamed. I thought that was Angeline but couldn’t tell for sure.

Alex moved in, his back to me.

Nice to know he was going to protect me.

He darted around me, going to the girls, and he placed a hand in the middle of my shoulders and pushed me forward.

Yep. There’s some of the old Alex.

I shot him a look, but I couldn’t deny that I was freaked.

Every instinct in my body was screaming to run.

These guys—there were too many of them, and they were fit. The black from head to toe helped with the dangerous vibe I was getting, but half of them looked like they could eat these guys for breakfast and a late-night snack. Forget boulders for these guys.

And they were holding guns.

I hadn’t noticed until now.

More than a few had AK rifles swung over their chest. They were walking forward, unfazed by the yelling from the guys, but they moved through them with ease.

They were looking, looking, looking.

More moved in.

We were completely surrounded, until one came up from behind us.

He moved to Harper and took him by the arm, then he lifted his hand and made a motion. A few others made the same motion, and almost as eerily as they had materialized, they started to leave, except they didn’t return to where they had stepped in from the woods.

They moved past us.

No one moved.

No one spoke. The yells had cut off abruptly.

The air was almost suffocating, but everyone felt the same instinct that kicked in with me.

These guys would kill, so shut the fuck up.

Everyone shut the fuck up.

The only person who argued was Harper. “Hey!” That was his first fight, but he was jerked forward as the guy who found him began walking him back toward where the vehicles were all parked, where the road led in from the other road. One by one, these men walked past.

All silent.

All moving like shadows, except they weren’t. Their feet touched the group. They left tracks.

They moved past me, and they were close enough that I knew they were real, and not a figment of my imagination, but it was almost like they weren’t.

And then there was one who brought up the back end of the group. He didn’t have the black from head to toe. He wore a white mask, like a hockey helmet or a white mask that a serial killer would wear. No joke. For real. A serial killer.

He moved, but it was like he wasn’t moving at the same time.

I looked down not wanting to make eye contact, but as he went past me, that white mask looked my way and he stopped.

My heart lurched into my chest, but I held firm.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t inch back.

I couldn’t show weakness, so I kept my face impassive, and a second later, he moved forward.

I felt as if he’d let loose with a spell on me, and I could suddenly breathe again. It was so sudden and so jarring, that I felt tears surge to my eyes, but then another guy, one of the last two who brought up the rear passed me by.

He went slow and I could see through his goggles.

The others, no. I didn’t know why, but this guy—his eyes were…recognition flared through me, and I gasped, but he shook his head. He was telling me to keep quiet, and I clamped down on my reaction because I knew who this guy was.

Heckler. The Red Demon with the almost white eyes.

Holy…shit! Those were Red Demons.

And they were here.

And they grabbed Harper.

Why did they grab Harper?

Was one of them my dad?

Was Maxwell the one wearing the white mask?

A thousand questions ran through my head, but Harper was quieted almost immediately, and then they were gone. Simple as that.

They materialized. They found their target. They left with their target, and no one made a move to stop them. No one was stupid enough. If we had, they would’ve killed us. Everyone felt it in their gut, and I was shook, because the last time I felt this was when my attacker caught me coming into my bedroom, when he pushed me to the bed and covered my mouth with his hand.

But like that time, I would’ve fought back.

After a few minutes, as if we were all afraid to move or say a word, someone broke the seal. “I think they’re gone.”

Then it was chaos after that, but not within me. I could breathe. I just breathed. The other girls started crying.

I mean, they were crying, but they were also pissed. And they were swearing.

And Veronica had sidled up next to Alex.

I pulled my phone out, saw there was no reception, and now knew why Cross hadn’t rolled up.

I asked around, “Anyone have a phone with reception?”

BREN

Cross and the guys arrived three minutes after the masked men left.

We’d called the cops, so it wasn’t too long after they got there when the air lit up with blue and white. Cross swept me up. Jade looked to Jordan. Both seemed tentative with each other, but Jordan pulled her in for a hug. Angeline was eyeing Zellman, and he was eyeing her back. It seemed like a beat later when Blaise drove in with Zeke exploding from his passenger side.

I glanced at Cross. “You called him?”

He nodded, his jaw tight. “He was quiet.”

Oh, whoa. That said everything.

Cross’ arm tightened around me, and he buried his head into my neck. He pressed a kiss there. “Got a text from Zeke.”

“You did?” That wasn’t normal either.

He nodded, his face grim. “Asked if I knew where you were, thought it might be where his brothers were.”

That said a lot. Zeke reaching out to Cross, not a thing. Ever.