EMBER’S POV

“Absolutely not,” Knox says it casually. “Gale is an unrepentant, violent piece of shit who beat my woman for eight years and hasn’t shown a flicker of remorse. He’s not going anywhere except deeper into hell.” His thumb traces my thigh. “But Logan doesn’t need to know that. Logan needs to believe the trade is real long enough to hand over the flash drive. Once I have it, I take both of them. Logan joins Gale. They can spend the rest of their natural lives rotting together. Every true love story deserves a happy ending.”

“And if he doesn’t take the bait?” Nathaniel asks.

“Then we use brute...