“I didn’t tell him shit. It wasn’t me.” I let him go and run for the kitchen door. Throw it open. Go inside.
“Ella,” I call out.
The house is empty.
I know it, because I can sense it, because it’s my job to know. I know this stillness.
I look anyway.
The sitting room is both dark and quiet, without the lit fire, without her waiting there with her gorgeous dark gaze giving me a longing that echoes within myself.
Anger and regret are a bitter thing to swallow. I take the stairs two at a time, checking her bedroom, the guest room, everywhere. It still smells like her up here. I was only gone for twenty minutes. I run back down and grip the doorframe at the sitting room. She’s not here. It’s empty.
She’s not here.
Damon’s footsteps stop close by.
“Kamden had suspicions,” he says from behind me, an edge in his voice so hard I don’t dare look at him. I can’t. “He put cameras in the house, Zander. They know.”
Dread washes over me. But Damon doesn’t stop talking.
“Caleb and Ella are with him now. There may be an emergency hearing.” He’s pissed. At me.
“Cameras—more than the ones we installed?”
“Yes.”
I finally face him. Anger and desolation stare back at me. “Everybody knows what happened.” A deep breath. “You’re being removed. You aren’t allowed to see her again.”
My own rage boils over. “You’re not going to keep me from her. Whatever you said, whatever you did, you fucked this up—”
Damon stabs a finger into my chest. “You fucked this up, Z. You crossed a line. You hid it from everybody. You could have hurt her. You could be taking us all down, so don’t try to blame me for your own stupid mistakes.”
“You can’t do this.” I don’t know if I’m talking to him or myself. “You can’t take her from me.”
My oldest friend huffs out a breath and straightens his jacket, disappointment rolling off him in waves. “I didn’t do this. You did. Look me in the eye right now.” I do it, and he returns my gaze, furious and hurt. When he speaks, it’s with an icy clarity. “It’s over. For good.”