I screamed, dangling in his enraged hold. My bare legs showed the faint whip marks from Jethro’s attentions, and his t-shirt I’d slipped on when I went to the bathroom barely covered my black knickers. “Let me go!”

“You and him—you’ve fucked me over for the last time.” Cut breathed hard, his face gleaming with sweat. “Did he think I wouldn’t notice? That I would let you get away with this shit!”

I fought his hold, willing tears to hide. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! Stop hurting me. Let me go!”

Daniel cackled. “You know exactly what we’re talking about, bitch.” He marched over to his brother, scooping the bloody body of Jethro into his arms. Jethro moaned, his eyes squeezed and blood rivering from his mouth. He tried to fight Daniel off, but the vicious attack before left him half dead.

“I don’t! Leave him alone.”

“Yes, you fucking do,” Cut snarled. “I just witnessed the so-called video of you paying the Third Debt. Kestrel thought I’d buy his bullshit doctored video?!” His eyes turned deathly cold. “Two of my sons. Both of them betraying me. But it’s the last time. The last fucking time they make a mockery out of me.”

Dragging me from Jethro’s room, he didn’t stop or care that I crawled and stumbled beside him. His fingers noosed in my hair, leaving me no choice but to fumble in agony.

I couldn’t see Jethro, but Daniel’s footfalls vibrated the carpet behind me.

“Please!” I scratched Cut’s hands over and over, but he didn’t flinch. Too amped on fury to feel a thing. “Please, let us go!”

“Oh, I’ll let you go alright. I’ll fucking let you go to Hades.”

Hawksridge Hall covered acres of land with twining halls and cavernous rooms, but it seemed like a postage stamp with how fast we left the bachelor wing and burst into the day parlour with its swan-silk loveseats and ornamental music boxes.

The moment we exploded through the doors, Cut threw me forward. I fell with vertigo and inertia, slamming to the floor. I crawled away as fast as I could. Daniel mimicked his father, tossing Jethro to his knees, kicking him violently in the gut.

Jethro coughed loudly, air refusing to filter into his lungs. He fell to his side, gasping, bleeding.

I scrambled toward him, but Daniel stepped in front of me. “Look behind you, whore.”

I glowered. I wanted heaven to smite him into stone. “Leave him alone!”

He chuckled. “You sure about that?” Leaning over me, he yanked me to my feet, twisting my head to look behind me. “You sure you choose him?”

I fought in his hold. I worked up saliva to spit in his face. But then I set eyes upon my undoing.

The past twenty-four hours, disappeared.

The love I’d found, vanished.

The promises I’d made, disintegrated.

Gone.

Dust.

Ash.

No. No, no, no.

I keened in awful horror.

This can’t be true!

“Threads,” Vaughn mumbled through bleeding lips. His eyes were puffy and half-shut, his body as mangled and bruised as Jethro’s. He sat on the floor between two Black Diamond brothers who I didn’t recognise. His entire demeanour weary and beaten. He was no longer Robin Hood sent to rescue me but a thief about to be killed.

Terror fed my heart—it raced out of my chest straight toward my twin.

“No!” I tore myself from Daniel’s grip and crawled toward V. Tears waterfalled down my cheeks. Guilt and self-hatred layered. I’d done this. I’d cause this. V was hurt all because I made a Hawk choose me over everyone.

“V!”

Vaughn shook off his handler’s hold, throwing himself toward me. We crashed together, hands clutching, arms hugging, hearts thundering. “What happened? Are you okay?”

V hugged me hard. “I’m okay, Threads. I’m so sorry.”

Daniel stood over us, arms crossed; his lips twisted in a sadistic laugh. “Fucking cocksucker deserved it.”

Jethro let out an agonising cry. My attention split from my twin to my soul-mate. Cut kicked him, his fists clenched and ready to rain. “I saw the fucking video, Kite.” Cut’s voice was death and eyes evil incarnate. “Kes might know computers, but did you honestly think I wouldn’t notice!”

Everything happened too fast. Way, way too fast.

What is going on?!

“Stop!” Jethro shouted, bracing himself for another kick. “Let me explain.”

“Explain?” Cut laughed coldly. “Explain the fact that you drugged Daniel and me, then proceeded to splice a fucking video of Emma Weaver. You had the fucking nerve to trick me into believing we’d had a turn with Nila?”

Vaughn choked, his face turning ghostly. “What—what are they talking about, Threads?”

As much as I feared for my brother, my loyalties were to Jethro first. He was my family as much as V was. I staggered to my feet, balling my hands. “Don’t take it out on him. It was my idea.”

Cut paused, his eyes spinning with hatred. “Your idea?” He stalked forward. “Your idea. So you were the stupid one to believe I didn’t imprint every moment of that night. I remember everything about Emma. I have fucking dreams of using her. Do you think I wouldn’t fucking notice!”

My heart split with a thousand swords, thinking of my mother being hurt by Cut. But that was the past. She was gone. I couldn’t save her anymore. But I could save Jethro and V. They were mine to protect—mine to rescue.