I cocked an eyebrow up. “Were you going to leave them as they were when your boys were done with them? Or were you guys going to wash them and fix their clothes so they wouldn’t know what happened to them?”

“Oh God.”

I had no clue who said that, but it wasn’t one of the girls.

It was one of the guys, and the guy who spoke swung toward Harper. “You said we were just chilling, pulling a prank on Allen ’cause we didn’t invite him.”

Harper stepped back. “It’s not like that.”

The guy next to him was frowning at him, then at us, then Alex, and back to Harper. “We’re here as a favor, dude. You’re getting kicked out. We all know it and we came here to say goodbye. None of us knew any of this shit was going to happen.” He nodded to the girls. “This was not our idea and we would not have been down for it.”

Aspen growled.

Yes. Aspen.

I wasn’t mistaken.

“I don’t care. I’m pissed.” Also from Aspen.

Harper began backing out of our group, and he studied the group, then studied where all the vehicles were going.

He was going to make a run for it.

“Are you kidding—”

At that moment, like we were characters in a movie and were in a rebel camp, masked guys materialized from the woods. All were masked, every single one of them. They weren’t there a moment ago, then blink, and there they were. And they were dressed head to toe in black. There was no sound.

Harper kept talking, digging into his pockets. He hadn’t seen them.

I didn’t think—someone yelled, “What the fuck?!”

Someone saw them.

Then everyone saw them.

The girls jumped together, gasping and one screamed. I thought that was Angeline but couldn’t tell for sure.

Alex moved in, his back to me.

Nice to know he was going to protect me.

He darted around me, going to the girls, and he placed a hand in the middle of my shoulders and pushed me forward.

Yep. There’s some of the old Alex.

I shot him a look, but I couldn’t deny that I was freaked.

Every instinct in my body was screaming to run.

These guys—there were too many of them, and they were fit. The black from head to toe helped with the dangerous vibe I was getting, but half of them looked like they could eat these guys for breakfast and a late-night snack. Forget boulders for these guys.

And they were holding guns.

I hadn’t noticed until now.

More than a few had AK rifles swung over their chest. They were walking forward, unfazed by the yelling from the guys, but they moved through them with ease.

They were looking, looking, looking.

More moved in.

We were completely surrounded, until one came up from behind us.