Jace knelt and picked up Lance, tossing the unconscious tom over one shoulder. “We need to go.” His voice was calm. Too calm.

Marc rounded on him, eyes flashing in fury, pupils too pointed to be fully human. “Where the hell were you while he was carving her up?” He stomped across the floor, but Jace held his ground. He looked guilty as hell, but the twitch in his right arm said he was ready to defend himself, even one-handed.

Marc pulled his fist back, and I raced across the room. “What good are you, if you can’t protect her?”

I threw myself between them and shoved Marc with my left hand. “Stop it! Jace is the only reason Dean didn’t carve his initials into my chest. And we do not have time for this shit!” Marc blinked and forced his eyes to focus on me. When he dropped his arm, I exhaled slowly and Jace headed out the door with Lance. “Help me lock up. Kaci’s waiting for us.”

Marc blinked again. His nostrils flared as he tried to rein in his temper. Then he spun around and stomped to the front of the trailer where he locked the front door, then started covering windows.

I rolled Dean over again, giving him at least a fighting chance to breathe, but his nose was a lost cause. It was swollen and still pouring blood. He bubbled and gurgled with each breath.

“Don’t make me regret this,” I said, then pulled the tape from his mouth.

Dean sputtered, spitting out his own blood, and rolled his eyes up to glare at me in seething hatred. “Does Marc know?”

I froze, my heart thudding in my throat. Marc turned from the last window to raise one brow at me in question. I shook my head. I was a deer frozen in the headlights; I could see disaster coming, but couldn’t avert it. I couldn’t even get out of the way.

Jace clomped up the back steps but stopped in the kitchen, warned by the sudden, obvious tension. “What’s wrong?”

Dean laughed, then hacked up more blood. “He wouldn’t fight for you if he knew you were fucking Jace.…”

Marc went so still he could have been made of stone. His gaze burned into me, begging me silently to deny it. To explain it. To say something to ease the pain and betrayal suddenly swimming in his eyes.

But I couldn’t lie. I wouldn’t.

My heart splintered into a thousand pieces and my next breath caught in my throat, refusing to budge. My eyes watered, mercifully blurring his pain. Yet I couldn’t breathe.

Marc looked from me to Jace, then back to me. His hands curled into fists at his sides. Then he stomped past me. “Let’s go.”

“Marc…” I jogged after him, but he pushed me away before I could touch him, and my whole world crashed on top of me, crushing me.

With his eyes focused on the door, I thought he’d stomp right through the kitchen. But at the last second, he whirled around and buried his fist in Jace’s stomach. Air rushed from Jace’s lungs. He flew backward three feet and crashed into the cabinets left of the sink. His elbow went through one faux wooden door and he hit the floor hard enough to echo throughout the trailer.