“Where did you bury that urn?” The question blindsided me.

A faint smile tugged at his lips. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to bring up old stuff,” he murmured. He shifted, clearly struggling, as if he wanted to get closer. I leaned in, bringing my ear near him. His voice was barely above a whisper, but the weight of his words hit me hard.

“Listen carefully. That urn has a data sync device inside. My phone’s synced to it. There’s… a lot of critical info in there. If anything ever happens to me, take the device and give it to the authorities.”

I froze. The urn… it had been hiding something this huge all along? It was Yara who gave it to me. Did she know about this, too? The thought of her made my stomach twist a little. “Why not have Yara deal with this instead of me?” I blurted.

Hayden let out a quiet laugh. “You’re jealous right now? Really?”

I huffed, but he kept going. “She and I are just comrades. Nothing romantic, I swear. And besides…” He took a shaky breath before continuing, “She doesn’t know what’s inside. She handled the ashes, sure, but that’s it.”

I frowned. “Then how did you even get the device in there?”

He smirked faintly. “What do you think?”

It didn’t take me long to figure it out. “You messed with the urn before it was sealed, didn’t you?”

“That’s my girl—so sharp,” he said with a soft chuckle. The way he said it, so natural, so familiar—was the confirmation I’d been waiting for. He was admitting it. He was Hayden.

A mix of relief and frustration surged through me, and before I knew it, I leaned down and bit him lightly. But when I tasted the faint tang of blood, I froze, guilt washing over me. Instead, I pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and stayed quiet.

The ambulance arrived not long after. As they loaded Hayden onto the stretcher, he leaned close. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” It was supposed to reassure me, but all it did was make the knot in my chest tighten. The second he was out of sight, I grated my hand across my face and dialed Wayne.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“What?” His voice was all fake confusion. “Xander was nearly run off the road, then ambushed and beaten. Don’t even try to tell me this wasn’t your doing,” I snapped.

Wayne was silent for a beat before he finally said, “You think I’d do something like that?”

“What do you think?” I shot back.

“Rea, about last night—I was impulsive, okay? I owe you an apology for that. But Xander? I’m grateful to him. He stopped me from doing something I’d regret forever. Why would I want to hurt him?”

His tone was all calm and reasonable, which honestly made me even madder. He was apologizing and acting like he had zero beef with Hayden.

I stayed quiet.

“Where is he now?” Wayne finally asked, like he didn’t already know.

“In the hospital. Emergency care.”

“Is he… seriously hurt?” He still sounded way too clueless.

Thinking about Hayden’s whole “let them think I’m weak” plan, I decided to lean in. “Wayne, if anything happens to him, I’ll never forgive you.”

Then I hung up before he could say another word, staring back at the glowing EMERGENCY sign. Hayden had told me not to stress, but yeah, sure. Like that was even possible. He’d bled so much. Those guys had gone hard. There was no way he was fine.

Minutes crawled by, my nerves getting worse, until—boom—Wayne and Cole showed up. Like, one after the other, both standing in front of me before I could even blink.

“Rea, I didn’t order anyone to go after Xander. I’ll prove it to you,” Wayne said, still clinging to his story.

Cole chimed in, “I’ll have my men look into it too. Anyone messing with someone under my protection? Yeah, that’s a problem.”

Well, wasn’t that a lovely little alliance forming right in front of me. As Wayne and Cole swapped their little passive-aggressive jabs, the ER doors finally swung open.

Hayden was being wheeled out. He wasn’t wearing the clothes he’d come in with. Now his chest was bare. He wasn’t even sitting up. He was flat on the gurney, eyes shut.