If you want it, I guess you’ll have to come and get me.

How did that saying go…you have to give a little to get a little?

Guess that works both ways, huh?

Oh, and if you are thinking about going after the guys I love again—don’t. Because if they die, you’ll never find it.

SORRY… SORRY…SORRY… SORRY… SORRY.”

It was exactly seven seconds after I hit send that my phone lit up with a text message. I read the first three words of it only.

“Why you little—”

And then I rolled down the window and threw the phone out into the snowdrift as I kept driving.

I didn’t really know how to get to Maine from Charlotte. I just knew that it was up. I tried not to think about anything as I drove, only to focus on the driving and to keep driving until I was too far away to turn around. But it was impossible not to think about the guys. And it was impossible not to think about what they would do when they woke up and found me gone.

I hoped that they would know that I did this for them. I couldn’t bear the thought of them thinking that I had just abandoned them. I had no phone, no way for them to contact me. And they would never in a million years think that I would have gone to Maine to find the one person alive that was in charge of my mother’s fortune. I didn’t care anything about the fortune, though. I hated money and all of the trouble and greed that it caused and all the foolish things that it made people do.

The only thing I cared about was keeping the guys safe and keeping my crazy family away from them.

Maybe someday this would all be over, and I could go back. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too late then and hopefully they wouldn’t hate me. Aunt Naomi knew where I’d be going, and I hoped that she came to chase me.

Because I’d be waiting to kill her myself.

26

“Lisette?” Michael called when he woke up and reached for her body but found nothing there. “Lisette, where are you?”

He got up and wrapped one of the giant, heavy furs around his shoulders.

Michael walked into the house and straight into the bedroom looking for Lisette. He didn’t even notice the letters on the table.

“Where’s Lisette?” he said with an edge of anxiety in his voice when he saw that she wasn’t in bed with Adam and Rob.

Michael walked over to the bathroom, but the door was open, and Lisette wasn’t there either. He grabbed a pair of pants and threw them on frantically. All three men raced out of the bedroom and into the rest of the cottage in a panic to find where she had gone.

“What happened?” Adam asked. “Wasn’t she with you by the bonfire?”

“What bonfire?” Rob asked.

“Lisette asked me to build her a bonfire, and to get her some furs. I knew she would be using them with you last night. I thought that’s where she was when I opened my eyes and saw that she wasn’t in the bed with us.”

“She was there with me,” Michael said urgently. “But when I woke up, she was gone.”

Rob was at the front door and opened it to look out. “The car is gone.”

“What?” Michael shouted. “We have to find her! How could someone have taken both Lisette and the car without us noticing?”

“How are we going to get anywhere without the car?” Adam asked hysterically.

“I can call the precinct and have them send me a car from the local Sherriff’s office,” Rob said as he grabbed for his phone.

Michael grabbed his phone too and started to call Lisette but there was no answer. He messaged her repeated panicked texts, asking her where she was and if she was okay, and then he tried calling her again.

“It has to have been Naomi,” Adam said. “We have to get back to Lineage and get her from that woman before she kills her.”

“They’re sending a car now,” Rob said as he hung up the phone.

The three of them paced the cottage like stalking beasts as they thought about all of the things that could have possibly happened to Lisette.

“We can’t just sit here and wait,” Michael said.

“You’re not going to get anywhere faster without a car,” Rob said. “We have no choice but to wait for a few minutes until it gets here.”

“Guys,” Adam said. His voice was so full of dismay that both Michael and Rob stopped their fretting and turned to look at him immediately.

Adam held up three envelopes in his hand, one addressed to each of them in Lisette’s handwriting.

“That’s a trick,” Michael said as he gave in to his denial before he let himself give in to the belief that Lisette had planned one last, wonderful night before she left him.

“I don’t think it’s a trick,” Adam said. “I think Lisette left these for us to read.”

“I said it’s a trick,” Michael shouted as he lunged at Adam and knocked him to the floor.

“What are you doing?” Rob shouted as he pulled Michael off of Adam. “Get off of him, have you lost your mind?”

Michael stood up and Rob gave Adam a hand to his feet.

“It’s okay,” Adam said. His voice was shaking, and he knew that Michael hadn’t meant it. None of them were in control now.

Adam reached down and picked up the letters that were scattered on the floor. He handed Rob the letter with his name on it and then handed Michael his. When Michael refused to take it, Adam just set his letter back down on the table for him. Rob went into the bedroom and sat down on the bed to read his while Adam went outside to sit by the dying bonfire. Michael just stood in the middle of the living room staring at the letter from afar with a look of anguish in his eyes. He was not going to open it.

Dear Adam,

I know that when you read this, you’ll be mad at me. You always were the one who was best at being calm and cool and never really getting upset with me about much of anything. Even when I told you about what had happened between Michael and I in the stone room, you seemed like you were okay with anything I did because you loved me. But I know you’re not going to be okay with this.

You and I needed each other as much as any of the other guys did too. It just always felt easier and more natural for us, didn’t it? I’m not really sure why that was, I guess that we were just kind of meant to be. Even Julian knew that I think, that’s why he ended up liking you so much (even though he’d never admit it).

You were the first one to love me, I mean really love me. You were the first one to come back for me and the first one to really believe in me, and for that I will always be grateful. It’s because of that, that I am going to ask you to do something again for me now. I know, you’re probably mad about the last favor that I asked you to do for me. I bet you would have never gotten the furs or started the bonfire if you knew this was how it was going to end. But I’m afraid I still need to ask you for one more favor, because you’re the only one that can do it.

Rob will be fine, in fact he’ll probably move on, but you and Michael won’t. I know that. And for that I am so deeply sorry. I hope that you know that I did this only to protect you guys and not for any reason other than how much I love you. Remember when you told me how much you wanted to hear me say those words to you…well I’m saying them to you now.

I love you, Adam.