King also heads for the side gate, but instead of jumping straight over it, he uses it to launch himself up to the second story of the house while Grayson pulls me around to the side of the garage and hoists me up through the window.
He comes down beside me, landing on his feet like a cat. He instantly grabs my wrist again, pulling me through Carver’s massive garage and skimming his eyes over the ruined car collection. Whoever the fuck came in here threw buckets of acid over his cars, the paint dissolving before our eyes. The fumes are the worst part, coating our throats and burning our eyes as we forge forward.
The wreckage is heartbreaking, but I can’t focus on material things right now. Houses and cars are replaceable; the lives we stand to lose today are not. God, even Lady Dante; if anything happens to my puppy, I can’t fix that. Just the thought of her running around this house scared and alone sends my heart into overdrive.
Grayson moves through the garage with me on his heels, his tactical training apparent in the way he rounds each dark corner, letting the barrel of his gun sweep right to left as we move. When the garage is clear, we approach the internal door, my gun held down at the ground in a sweaty death grip.
We stop for a moment and Grayson silently pushes the door open and peers into the house. I doubt the assholes who did this are still here, but we’re not taking any chances on this. The boys’ lives are too precious.
He looks back at me and nods, silently telling me that it’s all clear, and without a spoken word, we slip into the main part of the house, keeping to the walls and scanning every inch of the rooms as we go.
There’s devastation everywhere. Broken windows, shattered vases, destroyed couches. Whoever the hell did this, did it with the intention to scare us, and something tells me that they were kinda hoping that I’d be here as well.
Within moments, we meet Carver and Cruz who both nod. “It’s clear,” Carver tells us, keeping the emotion out of his tone despite how broken he must be feeling at seeing his home like this.
“Lady Dante?” I question, keeping my voice as low as humanly possible.
Both Carver and Cruz shake their heads. “Nothing yet,” Cruz murmurs before nodding toward the stairs.
We all walk as one, and I don’t miss the way the boys create a protective circle around me as we start creeping up the stairs. With every step we take, heaviness sinks into my chest. Something is wrong. Every time I come home, Lady Dante meets me at the front door. I hear her yapping from inside and she jumps up and down until I scratch her belly.
“She’s not here,” I mutter to myself, shaking my head.
“You don’t know that,” Grayson says, keeping his stare focused on every little thing around him, but he’s wrong. I do know it. I know it deep down in my heart. If she were here, she’d be at my feet, yelping and trying to tell me exactly what’s been going on, but she’s not. I can’t hear her. I can’t feel her.
We get to the top of the stairs just as King steps out of the private study. “Clear so far,” he tells us. “It’s just the bedrooms to go.”
Carver nods as we all turn down the hallway that leads to our bedrooms. We pass Carver’s on the left first while Cruz’s door is a few steps down to the right, and at once, Carver and King storm through his bedroom while Grayson and Cruz search his, leaving me out in the hallway, staring down toward my door that’s been left open just a sliver.
I know I should wait for the guys, but I can’t stop myself from moving forward. One foot in front of the other and I have absolutely no control.
My eyes are wide as my heart thunders in my chest, and with every step, it just gets louder.
I creep closer, fearing what I might see, and as I reach my bedroom and raise my hand to nudge it open, I hear the boys in the hallway. “Winter,” Cruz rushes out just as all four of them start storming toward me, but I can’t wait.
I push the door open and step through to my room, and as the boys barrel in behind me, my whole world shatters.
Lady Dante lays lifelessly over my bed, her blood smeared across my destroyed room and seeping into my sheets. There’s a slice right through her little body, starting at her throat and going straight down through her belly.
“Fuck,” King spits as a loud, horrific scream tears out of me. I collapse to the ground, Cruz only just catching me before I make matters worse. My stare locks onto Lady Dante’s glossy, dead eyes as tears quickly well in mine and run down my face. Who the hell would do this? She was just an innocent puppy who only just got her second chance in life. She was happy here with me. She was supposed to be safe.