through clenched teeth. He shook his head viciously at me.
“Trust us,” I pleaded gently.
“Skye—”
“Please, Rhodey.” I grabbed his shoulders. “You know we won’t let anything happen to Larkin.”
I saw the very second he accepted it. He sagged slightly against Katy and Dante. After a second he gave me an almost imperceptible, limp nod of his head.
I turned back to Remy with a slow nod.
“Fine,” Remy snapped. “But since you’re negotiating the terms, I’m adding in another one.”
“Do tell,” Damien inquired.
Remy’s eyes flickered past me. “We all know what’s going on in Norwood. We know about the facility you have and that you’ve taken women and children.”
“Have I?”
“Maren Lopez. We want her back.”
Katy’s soft gasp made my heart clench.
He sighed heavily, like the request was putting him out. “And why would I bring her?”
Remy scoffed. “Don’t bullshit me, Damien. You know what she means to us, and we want her back. As a bonus, I’ll even bring Elias Samuels with me. I hear he’s kind of important to you.”
“Very well. We’ll see you all in two days,” Damien replied and hung up.
Remy slammed a fist down on the disconnect button, snapping the flimsy plastic encasing the phone into pieces that went flying in various directions.
Stunned, we all stood there silently.
“You two are our best friends,” Rhodes said slowly, his voice shaking. “If you fuck this up …”
“We won’t,” Remy replied firmly as I helplessly nibbled on my lower lip.
Oh, God. What had we done?
Rhodes spun and stalked from the room, ripping the door open hard enough that it crashed into the wall. A framed picture of Gabe and Mallory on their wedding day fell down, the glass cracking.
“You made the right call,” Will offered. “We’ll protect Larkin and Skye.”
“I know,” Remy answered, his voice somewhat detached.
Dante touched Will’s shoulder. “Let’s see if we can calm him down.”
Nodding, Will followed Dante from the room as Katy stood up and walked over to the fallen picture. She gingerly picked it up and traced the cracks.
“Thank you,” she whispered, looking up at Remy with tears shimmering in her eyes. “For thinking about Maren.”
Remy nodded and braced his elbows on the desk, lowering his face into his hands.
Katy shot me a worried look.
“Go,” I mouthed, jerking my head at the door. I watched her leave and close the door before I looked back at Remy.
I’d never seen him look so stressed, so defeated.
“Tell me we just did the right thing,” he begged softly after a moment.
A fissure opened up in my heart, threatening to crack wide open.
“We did,” I assured him.
He finally looked up at me, his dark eyes filled with worry and pain. “Skye, if we’re wrong. I lose you. Rhodes loses Larkin. Katy loses Maren.”
I quickly made my way to his side, threading my fingers through his hair when he pulled me close and pressed his face against my chest.
“If we lose, then we all lose,” I replied brokenly. “Not just us, but everyone in our pack.”
“What if I can’t do this?”
I tightened my fingers in his hair and made him look up at me. “Remember what you told me? You’re not alone. You don’t have to carry this alone.”
“We don’t have much time,” he muttered, pushing the chair back and standing up.
I tilted my face up. “Then we better get to work.”
50
Skye
Lulu glanced around at the hundreds of copper wires surrounding us on the grass later that day. The pieces of metal glinted in the fading evening sun in the backyard. Lulu sat before them, looking better, but still tired.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow when you’re stronger?” Dimitri tried from where he stood with Remy, off to the side.
Lulu frowned at him. “No. A few hours won’t make a huge difference, and the sooner we do this, the sooner Skye and I can start recovering.”
Remy bristled at that word, and I shot him an encouraging smile.
After we had talked with Damien, Lulu had asked if we could work on the charmed bracelets tonight instead of tomorrow. The only problem, other than Dimitri and Remy’s reluctance, was finding five hundred copper bracelets.
Apparently copper was the best conduit for this type of magic. Lulu had muttered something about it being a war metal that imbued protection.
Actual bracelets made of copper were limited, so Ryder suggested copper wiring. He had dropped off several spools of it from the construction site a couple of hours ago. Katy, Larkin, Tate, Dimitri, and I had spent the better part of two hours fashioning