It was just me now. I tried to gather some energy, but there was nothing. I could barely lift my head. Gene’s arm pressed against my throat. It was the only thing keeping me from the floor.

“Fuck,” he grunted against my ear. “I didn’t think this would be so damn hard.” He paused, held his breath.

It was coming. I had to fight.

I lifted my head and sank my teeth into his arm until I tasted blood. A surge of satisfaction flared through me, as he shoved me to the ground and howled in pain.

“Fuck! Fuck! You bitch!” He kicked me in the side and I doubled over, blinking back tears.

“Boss.” One of the guards stepped over. “We’ll do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Go get cleaned up. We’ll take the bodies to the car.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Gene sounded exhausted. “Thanks, Mitchell.”

I watched his feet move toward the door.

The guard standing over me lifted his gun and aimed. Another guard stood over Cole. He took aim, too. I couldn’t look. I couldn’t not look.

Then Gene opened the door—and froze. “Wha—”

Bang!

His body dropped to the floor to reveal Carter standing there, gun in hand.

I’d heard him coming.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, and when that traitor revealed himself, my gun was up. A look of shock and horror flashed over his face when he saw the 9mm in my hand. But it didn’t matter. He was dead the second he saw me.

I still stood over his body and fired two more times as Peter and Michael rushed around me. Gene’s men didn’t stand a chance. In seconds they were all dead, their blood mixing with my mentor’s.

“Carter!” Emma was up and running at me.

I caught her halfway and lifted her in the air. This was the fourth time I’d thought I’d lost her. I was chilled to the bone. This had come too close. He’d had time. He could’ve put a bullet in her head. A shudder wracked through me. Never. I was never letting her go again. Burying my head in the crook of her shoulder, I whispered, my lips pressed against her neck, “Marry me.”

She stiffened, then choked out a sob and whispered, “Yes.”

Thank god. We held each other even tighter after that.

“Carter.”

Michael waited beside us as Peter rushed from the room. I knew what Michael wanted, but I was still reluctant. Shit. How many times did I have to get her back, hold her, and then release her right away? But I nodded at him and let go of Emma.

“Carter?”

She looked terrified and fierce at the same time. I didn’t think I could love this woman any more than I already did, but I felt a whole new level deepening in me—a level I never knew was there.

Michael reached for her arm.

She frowned at him. “Carter?”

“You have to go with him,” I told her.

Two more gunshots rang out from the back of the house. I had to go. A wall went up in me. It was time to kill, not love. I nodded to Michael. “Take her.”

She jerked out of his hands. “What the hell are you doing? I’m not going anywhere.”

“Emma, go with Michael. We need to sweep the house and see who else is here. Go with him. There’s a car outside. You’ll be safe there.”

She opened her mouth. I knew she was going to keep arguing, so I cupped the side of her face. Her protests died down.

“I can’t be distracted. Please. Go with him. So I know you’ll be safe,” I whispered, pressing my forehead to hers.

“I’m scared for you,” she whispered back.

“I know. But I’ll be fine.” I gave Michael a look. “Take her.”

“Ca—” she began.

But instead of grabbing her arm, he bent down and threw her over his shoulder. Then he was gone, and I knew he’d drive her to the house.

She was safe. Emma was safe. I had to keep telling myself that as I looked down at Cole, still unconscious. Hearing another gunshot, I left the room. We’d come back and pick him up. Peter needed me now.

“Where are you taking me?”

I was pissed. Goddamn this crap—making me leave all the time. I got it. I couldn’t fight like them, but I was tired of being treated like I was helpless. I wanted to fight. No, it was more than that. I wanted to be there to protect my man. This wasn’t just about Carter protecting me. It went both ways now. We were an evolved couple, damn it.

Michael had put me in a car waiting in the driveway and was behind the wheel and moving in an instant. There’d been a truck beside it, and I knew that was left for Carter and Peter. Cole—I remembered him and jerked upright in my seat. “We have to go back.”

“No.” Michael kept driving.

“Cole. We have to go back for him. We can take him to the hospital.”

“Carter will take care of him.” His voice was gruff. “And Carter and Peter will be fine. They can handle themselves. It’s you we need to worry about.”

“But—”

“Emma, it’s not just Carter who cares about you.” His knuckles were white as they gripped the steering wheel. His jaw clenched. “It’s us, too. We care about you, and we’re like a family now. So…you’re going where you’ll be safe. Okay?”

The fight left me. I knew they cared, but hearing it now—my eyes got misty. Goddamn, I wanted to go back so much, but hearing that, I couldn’t do a thing. I leaned back in my seat, folded my arms over my chest, and said, “Well, I care about you guys, too.”

“We know.” He glanced out of the corner of his eye at me in the passenger seat. “We know.”

I couldn’t talk. My throat felt swollen. I loved these guys, too. Family. He’d said that word, and he was right. I looked down at my lap, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that. A year ago, I’d had Mallory, Amanda, and Ben. That was it. And even then, we hadn’t been the family I’d thought we were. We were always dysfunctional. But now, so many things had changed. A family closeness had formed among Amanda, Theresa, Noah, and me. Then there was my actual sister and now Peter, Drake, and Michael. A laugh slipped out. It wasn’t just Carter and me after all. We had all these people loving us, worrying about us.

“What’s funny?”

“Just…with all of this.” I gestured around the car, but I was indicating our life. “The people trying to hurt us, you guys, with everything that happened because of Mallory a year ago. I have family. That’s an amazing thing”