Page 97 of Reverie

Normally, if there were anything involving me and law enforcement, I’d have them come to my territory. In this case, that would be Amelia Manor. Except Amelia Manor is also devastated.

First the raid, now this.

All this…because I refused to play along.

“Suuuure,” the shorter man says, elongating the word. “We’ll be in touch, so stay close by.” He stares me down with a hard gaze, and I feel the rising accusation in his expression.

I open my mouth to speak, but Leo jumps in first. “We’ll be there,” he says.

The shorter man nods and, sharing a look with his partner, turns from Leo and me.

“Why do I get a feeling they think we’ve got something to do with this?” Leo mutters once we’re several feet from the spot. In my periphery, the body in the rubble stands out like a beacon. My mind is playing tricks, amplifying the position of the hand, the arm, the head, but even knowing that I can’t help seeing it.

“H,” Leo grinds out, pulling me to a stop with a hand on my forearm. “Where’s your head at?”

His voice is low, and I lift my gaze to see him focused on me. I inhale as if I haven’t done so in a while. “They think we’re responsible because we are responsible. Well, I am, at least.”

Leo blinks before looking to his left and right and ushering me back to the bulletproof Tahoe. It’s unlikely for anyone to make a move on us with so much law enforcement hanging out, but stranger things have happened.

Get into the vehicle, Hunter.

When the door slams behind me after I slide into the back, I stare at the seat in front of me and wait for the man to my side to speak.

The AC is on, so I’m acutely aware of the sweat that freezes and dries on my skin in contrast to the heat from the debris and summer sun.

Leo sighs in the passenger seat as Jared puts the car in drive.

Misha insisted that he and Jared accompany us to our headquarters as soon as I announced that I was going. Leo, of course, was already on his way to the garage in search of an armored vehicle.

Now that we’re headed back to Misha’s mansion, I send up a prayer that we can get through the ride back to the compound without input from the pakhan. It seems that God stopped answering my prayers a while ago, though.

“Three more people just died in the hospital,” he says, scrolling on his phone. “Fifteen more are in ICU. Some others are in trauma, but they’re expected to survive. Physically, at least,” he adds.

I turn my head away from his words.

“You know, Morris Winthrope is the one who has the real vendetta against you, Brigham. It’s not just that he wants Ella in his possession.”

I stare at the back of Leo’s seat, so I notice when his shoulders tense.

Misha continues, “What I think you fail to understand is that the entire Legion is after you.” He darkens his phone and drops it on the seat next to him.

“They’re after you. Your girl. Your children.”

“Stop,” I grind out, still not looking at him.

Four hundred and thirty-two people dead. Make that four hundred and thirty-five, and this is on top of the thirty people who died at Amelia Manor during the raid.

So much death. So much death because ofme.

“You think I’m being dramatic, perhaps, when I say that they’re after full-scale destruction. Maybe you think, who could possibly accomplish such a feat?”

Jared’s hands tighten on the wheel as he navigates us onto the highway. Four other armored vehicles make up the detail, guiding us back to base.

“But if it doesn’t take more than four hundred people dying today to convince you to take action, I’m unsure what will,” he finishes.

I glance at him out the side of my eye.

“You done?” I reply.