“I swear, Zach. If I make it through this alive and my daughter doesn’t, I will Register and kill you myself,” Daniel says through his teeth.

Zach blanches and looks to Lynell, almost begging her for help, to talk sense into Daniel.

“Okay,” Lynell whispers. Gathering any remaining energy, she pushes off the wall and steps between the men. “Okay, you’re both right. We can’t waste any time, but we also can’t blindly run into a trap.” Her words seem to deflate Daniel, and he lets out a breath. “Eric said he will kill them if we don’t come?”

Zach nods.

“Who? All three of us?”

Zach’s mouth opens and his eyes widen as he follows her thinking. “No,” he says. “Just you and me. He didn’t mention Danny at all.”

Lynell sucks her lips in and nods, looking down so she doesn’t have to meet Daniel’s eyes. “So, we go. Just you and me.”

She looks up at Zach and can tell he doesn’t like it, but he still gives a slight nod. “It’s not a bad idea.”

“No, absolutely not!” Daniel says.

Finally, Lynell faces him. He’s staring down at her with so much pain that she can physically feel it. And when he talks, his voice is so soft and broken that she thinks she’ll never be able to get the sound out of her head. “You’re not supposed to leave me again, remember?”

“No, we won’t be leaving you,” Zach says. Daniel finally rips his eyes from Lynell to look at Zach. “We’re making you our secret weapon.”

For the second time in less than two weeks, Lynell watches the world fly by as she heads to the Elysian house with Zach by her side. He’s behind the wheel, silent, eyes focused straight ahead. He stops at the gate, the long driveway ahead of them.

“Remember, whatever he says—”

“Stick to the plan,” she finishes for him.

Zach nods just as both his door and Lynell’s are opened from the outside. Lynell looks to the right and sees a guard standing there.

“Hey,” she says. The guard frowns. “We have an invitation. Something about a family dinner party? I didn’t bring a gift for the host. Do you think he’ll be mad?”

Zach chuckles.

“We need to search the vehicle. You can ride to the house with Felix,” the guard on Zach’s side of the car says.

“I’m assuming you’re Felix?” Lynell asks, looking back at the man who opened her door. He gives her a stiff nod. “I heard once that Felix means happy. But you don’t seem very happy.”

“Lynell,” Zach says, a warning lilt to his voice.

She unbuckles her seatbelt. “Just trying to cut some tension,” she mutters as she gets out of the car. Felix reaches for her arm, but she sidesteps out of his reach. “I can walk myself, thanks.”

She and Zach follow Felix to a car waiting for them inside the gate and climb in the back. A woman with short hair and a thick neck sits in the passenger’s seat. Felix gets behind the wheel.