Page 25 of Enter if you Dare: Part One

The tears roll down her face, and Cave turns toward her and wipes them away.

“Beautiful,” he says.

She chuckles. “I’m not beautiful right now. I’m a mess.”

Cave reaches out and wipes the tears from her face again, his thumbs dragging across her cheeks. Then, without warning, he scoops her off the bed and cradles her to his chest.

“What are you doing?” she gasps out. “Put me down.” He ignores her as she pushes against his chest. “Cave, seriously, I’m fine, you don’t have to⁠—”

A growl rumbles from him, and he wraps his arms tighter.

“Okay,” she says, losing her fight as he walks out of her room. Cipher nods, and we follow behind him. I guess when the big man grunts, we all just follow.

“Valli . . .” I call, and she turns her head to look at me over Cave’s arm. “You don’t have to have it all sorted tonight. Let us take you back to the island. There you can have something to eat and a sleep.”

She huffs.

“The video and your brother can be dealt with in the morning. But you are not safe here right now. I hate to say it, but if you choose to stay here, Cave will not budge either. People could die if they come here, your brother included. If you haven’t noticed, Cave is not one to use his words.”

“You don’t say. Fine, but I have nothing packed.”

“I’ll grab it,” Cipher offers, and he disappears back into her room before she can protest.

“You’re allowed to let people help you,” I chide gently.

Her shoulders slump in Cave’s hold. “But I barely know you guys. I can’t ask you to fight this battle for me. Rowan is my brother, and I have to figure it out.”

“You didn’t ask; we offered. Cave doesn’t like many people—I thought he didn’t like me until recently. Besides the people in this house, there are only one or two other people he sort of likes, and he strangled one of them tonight because he was worried about you.”

She slaps Cave’s arm, and his amber eyes shoot up to meet hers. I open my mouth, but she beats me to it. “You cannot hurt your friends over me. That’s not nice. Who did you hurt?”

Cave looks at me, and I laugh. “You’re in trouble, big guy. You’re on your own for this one.”

Valli stares up at him and waits. He opens his mouth and tries to form the word. “K-Kayla,” he finally gets out.

Valli gasps. “Absolutely not! You cannot hurt her, Cave. She helped me, so you need to apologize.”

I snort as Cipher comes out of her room holding a bag. He simply glances between us all and heads toward the door.

I guess we are going back to the island with the girl.

Valli

Normally I don’t sleep well, but Cipher let me take his bed last night, so I snuggled up and just wanted to sleep and forget my problems. Noa said he would be back in the morning, and Cave stood watch until I fell asleep.

And for the second time on the island, I slept great.

That is until the sound of a smoke alarm wakes me, and I jump out of bed. I race into the main room of Cipher’s shed, where he is sitting at his workbench explaining something to Cave. The big guy is stoically nodding his head, while Noa is fanning the toaster.

“Sorry, I burned your breakfast.”

“You made me toast,” I say with a laugh.

“The coffee is still good; I added cinnamon.”

Cipher looks over at me. “Good, you’re awake. We need to see Ares.”

“The problem is Clay will likely be there, and after last night, I’m not sure Cave is someone they want to see,” Noa adds.