The panic in my chest grew to a rattle. Something was wrong.
Ignoring Reeve’s command to stay in the bedroom, I put on my robe and slipped quietly downstairs.
The voices were coming from the front of the house. Staying in the shadows, I followed them to the foyer. There were several people to my right in the living room, but my eyes caught the familiar figure standing just inside the door.
The panic washed through me now in torrents. It was Joe, his expression somber, his brow knit in worry.
Joe had come looking for me. He’d said he would.
Fuck.
I should have gotten that burner phone from him so I could get a message to him. When I’d disappeared without a trace, he’d probably assumed I’d gotten into the same trouble as Amber.
I probably should have been flattered, but I was too concerned with how I was going to explain him to Reeve.
Joe must have caught sight of me in his peripheral vision because he turned toward me and made eye contact. He didn’t seem relieved to see me, however. Now, in fact, he looked even more concerned. He frowned then looked back toward the living room.
My eyes followed his to the others now. Reeve was there and Brent and Jeb and three of the security men. Reeve was crouched down on the floor, the others huddled around him as they spoke in concerned voices over something. Over someone. A soft keening underscored their conversation, like the sound of a wounded animal.
I took another cautious step into the room so I could see better and stopped cold in my tracks. There, in Reeve’s arms, was the injured creature. No, human. Her blond hair was matted and her face bruised, the V of her tattoo exposed on her shoulder, her sobs quiet, but clear now that I recognized what they were.
And then I was sobbing along, my breathing in tempo with the shuddering of her body, my fists clenching and unclenching as she gripped onto Reeve’s shirt. There were no words for the overwhelming elation that swelled through my body. No words for the jolting dread as my entire world collapsed under me in the resurrection of the woman he and I both loved and hated. Amber.