Chapter 5

When they rushed into my room, no one was there.

The bed was a mess. A half-packed bag sat beside it.

They exchanged a look, and for a second they both relaxed.

"Her stuff's still here. She can't have gone far. Get people out looking for her."

"I thought for a second she actually walked out on us."

Just then Nash's phone rang.

"Nash, I tracked the photos like you asked. I just sent it. But…"

Nash didn't even stay on the line. He hung up and played the recording that had just come through.

The voices on it were Camille's and one of her friends'.

"Everything I told you to handle, is it done? I'm coming home soon. I won't let anyone take my place with Nash and Kieran. I want her finished."

"All done. I circulated her photos everywhere, leaked her number. They hated her from the start, or why would Nash take those photos of his own girlfriend? I even set a few Rogues on her."

Camille laughed. "Clean it up. Don't let them find out."

"Got it. They were the ones who set it up, anyway. I just added the spark. After this, Miss Beaumont, don't forget what you promised me."

Kieran had been on edge all night. When he heard this he couldn't hold it.

He roared at Nash. "What the hell is this?"

"You said it was all an accident. You said the photos were handled. How did this happen?"

Nash was dazed too. He couldn't work it out either.

A huge panic climbed up from the soles of his feet.

"I never wanted her photos out there. I was drunk. I didn't know anything. The next day they were just out there. Who knew?"

"Don't tell me how to run this. I am getting to the bottom of it. I am telling Wren face to face."

Nash's people moved fast.

Every person tied to this was dragged into the underground garage.

Even Camille, still supposed to be at the hospital.

She'd never been treated like this. The second she saw them her eyes watered.

Voice trembling, she whispered, "Nash, Kieran, they tied me too tight. Please tell them to let me go…"

Kieran kicked her before she could finish.

His eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed her throat. "What did you do to her? If you don't talk, I'll make you hurt a hundred times worse than now."

Camille had never seen him like this. She caved instantly and nodded.

"I'll talk… I'll talk…"

When they dropped her, she coughed violently.

Nash warned her coldly. "Tell the truth. We'll find out either way. Playing games won't help you."

Kieran kept smoking, trying to keep himself under control.

He understood now why his chest had been so tight. Something important was slipping out of his hands.

The girl who used to follow him around calling him brother was really gone.

He'd been the one most desperate to get rid of her, and now all he felt was regret.

Camille sobbed her way through it. "I just cared about you two too much. I couldn't stand someone like Wren Hayes taking my place with you. That's why I had her photos put out."

"When I heard you two were going to scare her, I paid people to go rape her…"

Nash slapped her across the face.

"You sick bitch. How could you do that to her?"

He finally understood why Wren had always looked at him with such dead eyes.

She'd thought it was him and Kieran behind all of it.

No wonder she'd looked like there was nothing left in her. She'd lived through all of this.

Nash could not believe it.

In his memory Camille had been gentle and kind. He'd never imagined her capable of this.

And still he'd thrown Wren aside for her, over and over, when Wren had needed him most.

She must have been so alone.

He thought about the cruelty of the things people had said. The photos of Wren driving a blade into her own chest to fight back.

Regret crushed him.

Right then his assistant showed him another clip, camera footage from the night he and Kieran had been drinking in the lounge.

In the video Wren had stood outside the door from the moment they started talking.

She'd heard every word.

Nash's hands shook and he couldn't stop them.

"So she knew from that night…"

Kieran slapped himself, hard. "This is on me. If I hadn't come up with this, if I hadn't had you trick her, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have left."

Seeing him like that, Nash was wrecked too. "I… I've liked her for a long time. I just couldn't say it, because you hated her."

He turned on the assistant. "Where is she? Didn't you say she had five more days? Why can't anyone find her?"

Camille, both cheeks swollen, suddenly laughed.

She got there first. "Because she's done with you. She left early."

"You didn't know? Professor Ellsworth moved the schedule up. He took her out yesterday. She's never coming back. You'll never see her again."

"Never coming back." Those words were too loud.

Nash and Kieran both staggered a step back, murmuring almost to themselves.

"We were wrong… She's not going to forgive us."

Three years later.

In the Moon Accord Institute Grand Hall, the award ceremony was underway.

The Pack Tech project the professor and I had been working on had finally succeeded. The new intelligent tech had pushed our field forward.

For three days I hadn't left the institute.

Everything here was still strange to me, but it made me feel safe.

After the ceremony, my coworkers pulled me out to celebrate.

I hadn't gone out in so long, I said yes.

I didn't expect to see Nash and Kieran outside.