Silas Cade did not come through the gates like a man expecting a fight. He came through like a man who already knew he had won something, engine idling low, hands loose on his handlebars, smiling at the compound like he owned every inch of it and was simply waiting for the paperwork to catch up to a decision that had already been made somewhere far above either of our heads.
Ronan was already moving before I could say a word, pulling me back from the window with one hand and pushing me toward the hallway with the other, his voice dropped into that low commanding register I had only heard once before, the night the eyes watched us from the tree line.
Stay inside, he said. Whatever happens out there, you do not come through that door, no matter what you hear.
I did not listen. I want to s
