The collective gasps of shock as the garage was opened made me wish I’d let the dogs eat me out there in the trees.

“Lucas, go put the dogs in the house,” Manson said, his voice hollow. “They’ll cut their paws in here.”

Shattered glass covered the floor, sparkling in the fluorescent light. It crunched under Manson’s boots as he carried me inside. The cars were dented, the windows busted, tires slashed. Tools had been ripped off the walls and thrown to the floor, drawers had been flung open and their contents scattered.

“Holy shit,” Vincent said. “Holy fucking shit.”

Manson set me back on my fight, and for a brief moment, I wasn’t captive. Manson stood beside me, surveying the destruction with a slack expression as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. For nearly a minute, they stared, expressions of stunned disbelief frozen on their faces.

Suddenly arms gripped me from behind, pulling me back against a hard, broad chest.

“We’re going to have a nice long chat about this, Miss Martin.” Lucas had returned, and his voice was so cold that I shivered. Manson and Vincent walked among the ruins, Manson rubbing a hand through his hair as he shook his head. Jason was rapidly typing on his phone, glancing up only occasionally as if taking notes on the damages.

“Thousands of dollars,” he said. “Fucking thousands of dollars in damage.” He whirled around, glaring at me. “You. You…” Any insults that came into his mind clearly weren’t good enough. He turned away and slipped out the open side door, which swung crookedly on its hinges. The alarm finally stopped blaring, and Jason was back a few seconds later.

“They cut the wires for the cameras,” he said. He swore under his breath, looking at me with disgust. “Looks like they tried to kill the security system completely, but the backup battery took over.” He leaned his hands against the trunk of his white Nissan, head bowed over the scratched, dented metal. “Fuck! God fucking damn it!”

“You did it now, Jess,” Vincent laughed bitterly. “Fucking hell.”

“I didn’t do it!” I cried. I jerked against Lucas’s hold on me, trying and failing to break it. I didn’t even know what to do if I did get him to let go of me. Was I going to run all the way back home in the dark? Move out of Wickeston and pretend this night had never happened? Never leave my house again and hope they didn’t come knocking on my door?

I’d royally fucked up.

“Keep fighting me and this is going to get a hell of a lot worse for you,” Lucas hissed. “You’re not running away from this.”

“I didn’t damage your cars!” I insisted. “It was them. I didn’t do it!”

“Oh, right, of course,” Vincent said. “As always, it couldn’t possibly be your fault.”