“Piper,” Cam said, his voice quiet and calm, although interestingly enough, his eyes weren’t either. “Before you go to battle, please at least hear everyone out. Because if you speak now without knowing everything, you might say something you shouldn’t. I know far more about this than I want to. The last thing I said to Rowan was pretty much ‘fuck you,’ and now he’s gone and I can’t take it back. He died with those words in his ears.”

Piper understood that, but she couldn’t function with the anger and betrayal flowing through her veins. “There’s not going to be a battle. I’m done.”

He looked at her for a beat, gave a single nod and left through the front door.

Okay, so he was done too, she supposed, and it felt like her heart cracked in half. Letting out a breath, she eyed her siblings, realizing Cam had been right about one thing. “I need a time-out before we do this.”

Winnie pushed to her feet. “I know I should’ve told you everything, but I got scared. And I felt like shit because I knew you’d think that my problems were about to become your problems, like always. And I didn’t want that. Not this time. Not after all you’ve done for me.”

“For us,” Gavin corrected. “Piper, I know we fucked this all up, but I swear, our intentions were the opposite. Please tell me you can get to the place where you believe that.”

Piper realized she was holding her breath, and slowly let it out. “I’m going to take my time-out now.”

They looked at each other and then nodded and walked away, leaving her alone.

Huh. That was one of the first times they’d ever done something she’d asked without having to nag. Okay, then. She wasn’t sure what to do with herself and her newfound knowledge that everyone she knew and loved had betrayed her. She turned and stared out the window at the lake, but found no peace. She knew she needed to talk to Cam. She was still furious, but . . . God. That look in his eyes when he’d talked about Rowan, and it being too late to take back the things he’d said.

She wasn’t the only one hurting, and dammit, that was hard to ignore. She went outside to look for him, but he was gone, and so was the boat.

Clearly she hadn’t been the only one in need of a time-out.

Hoping she’d find him at the tire swing, she headed that way on foot. She wasn’t a runner. She hated running. It was actually her personal idea of hell, but her feet seemed to forget that, because she was suddenly sprinting down to the lake and moving along the path around it at a pace that had her heart bursting out of her chest.