“Then we fix her,” I shout.

“You need to give her space,” Clay suggests.

“She’ll run, she’s planning her escape already, her eyes are always searching for a chance to get away. You can’t stop her from going home for the holidays and once she leaves, unless you do something to fix this, she won’t come back,” Evan says.

“So we don’t let her go,” I snap. “We take her home to Green Acres for the holidays, she needs to fix things with Cassidy anyway.”

“I’m not sure that’s fixable,” Evan sighs. “Starling only takes Cassidy’s calls on her birthday and Christmas, the rest of the time she just doesn’t answer. Cass cries so hard every time it goes to voice mail that my dad told her to stop calling. We destroyed their relationship and I think forcing Starling to come home will only make things worse.”

“We really are the fucking monsters she thinks we are,” Hunter laughs darkly. “We have until winter break to fix this, if we haven’t, then I’ll drive her to the airport myself and pay for her tuition for her new school. We ruined this girl, we did this and if we can’t fix it, then none of us deserve to have her in our lives.”

When Hunter storms from the room, I stay stuck in my seat, trying to process what he just said. He’s right, this is all our fault, but I know I can’t and won’t give her up, even if I’ll never deserve her. One by one, Evan then Clay leave, until it’s just me sitting alone in the kitchen, considering my sins and what I can do to atone for them. By the time I push the door open to my bedroom and step inside I have a plan in my mind, a way to make her want me, to make her need me the same way I need her.

As I strip out of my clothes and climb into the bed beside her, I vow to fix this, one way or another, there’s no other option.

16

STARLING

My eyes open a few minutes before my alarm goes off and I groan, stretching my arms and legs as sleep dissolves from my muscles, only the pain of yesterday’s activities pulsing between my thighs. I can feel the heat of Sebastian’s body behind me and I freeze, hoping not to wake him as I roll toward the edge of the bed.

“Where are you going?” he asks sleepily.

“For a run.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“It’s too early, run later.”

“I run at five.”

“Not anymore you don’t,” he growls tiredly, wrapping one arm around my waist and the other in my hair as he drags my head backward and presses his lips against mine.

Yanking my head away from him, I wince as a chunk of hair comes free, wiggling away and into a sitting position. “I need to run, Sebastian,” I gasp, feeling panic start to rise into my throat.