Released: Highgate Preparatory Academy, Book 3

I cast my eyes around the guys that surround me, my own Knights, all within touching distance. We’re in Enzo’s office, and I’m seated on the worn, leather sofa, sandwiched between Jax, who refuses to let go of my hand, and Ash, who has a possessive grip clamped tightly on my thigh. Loki and Kai are on the floor, refusing the chairs offered in order to sit at my feet, both with warm palms wrapped around my ankles, Loki’s massaging and rubbing them, making it very hard to concentrate on what is being said.

“Julian put a hit out on Lilly,” Ryan starts, no fucking build-up whatsoever, and I feel each of my guys stiffen.

“How did you find that out?” Ash asks, his voice laced with suspicion, and I cast him an annoyed look. Surely he doesn’t think that Ryan can’t be trusted? Although, I was wondering the same thing myself, and Ryan wanted everyone here before he explained. The man in question gives me what can only be a sheepish look, a blush staining his rugged cheeks.

“Being the bouncer at Grey’s isn’t my only occupation, just the one I have on paper,” he tells me, and it takes a moment, but when it clicks, my eyes go wide and I sit forward suddenly.

“You’re a fucking mercenary?!” I all but screech, and he winces but nods. “Jesus. Since when?” He rubs the back of his neck and dips his head, looking away.

“Always, Little One,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons why your mother and I never got married.”

“Well, shit,” I huff out, feeling a twinge of guilt for always blaming Mum for not taking that step with him.

“How did you find out about the hit on Lilly?” Kai interjects, and all of their grips tighten on me. My heart thuds, a surge of pain in my chest flaring at the thought of receiving a picture of them lying broken and bleeding, and I grip Jax’s hand back tightly.

“I’m one of the best at what I do, so I get the pick of jobs,” Ryan tells Kai unabashedly. “As soon as I saw who the mark was I took the job, anonymously of course, and came straight here. The payout was high enough that I knew it would attract attention, so I needed to fulfil the terms as soon as possible.”

We all sit in silence for a moment, processing what he’s just told us. Julian wanted me dead, offered up a huge amount for someone to come and take my life. And the life of my unborn child, his grandchild for all that he knows. My hand comes up to caress my stomach, feeling my baby move inside me, and my breath hitches at the thought of how close he or she came to never having been born at all. Water fills my eyes, and a huge palm comes to cover my own. I look to the side to see Jax staring at me, his blue eyes full of a fierce fire.

“I will never let anything happen to you or our child,” he vows in his gruff voice, and a tear escapes at the way he’s claimed my baby as his own. I sniffle, clearing my throat and removing my hand from underneath Jax’s to wipe the moisture off my cheek.

“What happens now?” I ask, turning to look at Ryan, then Enzo, and finally Tom. Enzo assured us that Tom will not breathe a word to Julian or any of the others on the board. Tom is loyal to his family, to Enzo, first, and the guys seemed happy with that.

“You stay dead,” Ryan tells me, an apology in his eyes but his lips set in a grim line.

“I have a new identity for you, cara mia,” Enzo states, stepping forward with a large, manilla envelope that he holds out to me. “Lilly Vanderbilt will be buried and no longer lives.”

I take the package, opening it to find all the documents that I will need; passport, birth certificate, driver’s licence, medical documents, all in the name of Lilith Taylor.

“But you have to remain hidden for now, Little One,” Ryan states, and I look up from the papers into his pleading eyes. “No one can know that you’re alive. Not until Julian and the others have been dealt with. I assume you have a plan?” He turns to Ash as he says the last part.

Ash stiffens for a moment, then heaves a sigh.

“Yes.”

“Care to share with the room?” Ryan asks, one brow raised and the corner of his lips tilted upwards, as though he finds Ash’s distrust amusing. Ash waits for a beat more, eyes narrowed at the three men before us.

“Kai,” he says, clearly giving Kai permission to divulge their plan. Kai sits up straighter, though doesn’t remove his hand from my ankle.

“Every year we have to go on a late summer hunting trip with the rest of the board,” Kai starts, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose in a cute as fuck gesture. “Well, with their fathers and my uncle,” he clarifies. “It’s in a cabin in the mountains, on private land, no neighbours.” I lean forward, eager to hear the full plan. “We will drug their drinks on the first evening there, kill my uncle then frame the others, leaving prints on the weapon, shoe marks in the blood, and other forensic evidence that will point to them as murderers.”

I sit there, and I’m stunned by my lack of horror at the casual way that Kai talked about murdering his uncle and setting up their fathers to take the fall. A grim sense of satisfaction fills me, and I think that my reaction should worry me, but it doesn’t.

“Regardless of the forensic evidence, why would anyone believe that they wanted him dead?” Ryan asks, and my forehead crinkles when I consider his question.

“Kai is due to take over from his uncle, who only held his position until Kai came of age and graduated,” Ash states and all eyes turn to him. “We’ve been laying a trail to show that his uncle is unhappy relinquishing his power and has been syphoning off more than his fair share from company profits.”

“Plus leaking important confidential business information to leading competitors,” Loki adds, and a small, tentative smile spreads on Ryan’s face.

“Very thorough, boys,” he praises, and I can see my guys perk up, chests pushing out at his approval. “How will you keep the suspicion off yourselves?”

“Easy, we drug ourselves too, with a smaller dose of course,” Loki adds, and I can hear the devious smirk in his voice.

“And how are you going to stop them from hiding the body? Sweeping it all under the carpet?” Enzo asks, his Italian accent lending a beauty to his words that really shouldn’t be there when plotting a murder and frame job.

“There’s where you come in, coach,” Jax rumbles from my side, and I turn to see a dark, wicked grin on his face that should scare me. Of course it doesn’t, it just makes Her Vagisty sit up and fucking purr, the horny bitch.

Enzo just nods, so Kai continues.

“An anonymous tip-off from a lost hiker who heard all the screams and called the feds,” Kai tells Enzo, who just nods again.

“And where will I be?” I question the room, holding my spine straight when they all swing their eyes to me.

“I have a cabin just over the state lines in Utah. No one knows about it, it’s in a false name,” Tom speaks for the first time, and I turn to look at him. He looks back at me with softness in his eyes, and not for the first time I wonder who I remind him of to make him look at me like that. “It’s about a three-hour drive from here, so far enough away from everything.”

My heart sinks, my stomach feeling hollow at the thought of being separated from my guys again.

“I hate having to be apart from you, Princess,” Ash says in a low voice, his hand guiding my face to look at him. “But I think that this is the best plan to keep you safe. Julian needs to think that you’re dead, otherwise, he’ll keep gunning for you.”

“I know,” I murmur back, moisture filling my eyes once more, and I blink furiously to try and clear them away. “I just… I hate being without you all when I feel like I only just got you back.” A hot tear falls then, and I can see the pain in Ash’s eyes. The knowledge that just an hour or so ago he thought that he’d never see me again hurts something deep inside me.

“We’ll be together soon, my love,” he tells me, pulling me close so that our foreheads rest together, and I close my eyes as his warm palm cups my cheek, rubbing my tears away. “I swear it.”

I let myself bask in his warmth, breathing in his ginger scent as if trying to memorise it for the time ahead without him.

“I don’t want to be all alone,” I confess after a few moments, pulling away and looking around the room, my chin wobbling.

“I’ve already messaged Rowan and Roman,” Loki tells me, letting go of my ankle to come up on his knees and grasping my face in both of his hands. “They’re coming with Mai. We just need to give them an address, and they’ll be there.”

More tears fall at that, at the relief that washes over me with his words. I’m glad that it’ll be them, the twins keep my spirits up, and Mai was like the older sister I never had.

“We’ll wait for nightfall, then head to the cabin,” Ryan tells me, and I tear my gaze away from Loki’s emerald ones to stare at the man who was like a father to me.

“Tonight?” I ask in a soft voice, and Ryan gives a heavy sigh, his mouth downturned.

“I’m sorry, Little One, but we need to get you out of here,” he softly tells me, coming closer. My head moves up and down in a nod in Loki’s grip, even as my soul feels like it’s being torn into four pieces.

“Why don’t you all go upstairs?” Enzo asks us, and I look over to him, frowning.

“Upstairs?” I question, and he gives me a small smile.

“I have a spare apartment above the gym, cara mia,” he informs me, stepping towards us and handing Ash a key. “It’s yours until you have to leave.”

If I didn’t feel like my heart was breaking, I’d blush. Enzo, Ryan, and Tom know what’s likely to happen between the guys and I in his apartment, but I’m too heartsore to feel anything other than my own pain.

How can I bear to say goodbye after only having just gotten them back?