I turned and swung, clocking Sebastian clean in the face. He dropped like a bag of weights, and I kicked at him, double-checking. He was unconscious.

“Mason?”

The bat fell to the floor again. I knelt down and rummaged through his clothing. Feeling his phone inside of his pockets, I took it and stepped back. I pointed at the door, which Garrett left propped open. “Take him. Get him out of here before I do something permanent to him.”

He glanced at the phone. “What are you going to do?”

“If you want Samantha to be in your life, you will protect her after this.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

I didn’t have to. He’d know in a second, and after that, Sam would know, too, if he was going to actually step up as a dad or hang her out to dry. Either way, it was going to end after this. I gestured to the door again. “Take him.”

I waited thirty seconds until he was gone before I did what I needed to do. Once it was done, I picked Sam up in my arms and left. Nate was in the car, waiting for us, and when I got inside, I never let her go. I held her as I told Nate, “Go to the hospital.”

He took off, but looked in the rearview mirror. “Is she going to be okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. We all will be.”

Then he asked, “Did you do it?”

I nodded again, resting my head against the seat’s headrest. Yeah. I used the passcode Summer told us her brother used for his phone. Once in there, I clicked on the e-mail I sent from the computer upstairs to Sebastian’s phone. Then I sent it to his entire list of contacts titled The Network.

Everyone within The Network would see the blackmail material the organization had on them, and on everyone else. What they did with that, was up to them. When they would look into it, there would be no evidence linking me to the e-mail. Everything was connected to Sebastian. He would say it was us; I knew that much, but now everything was in Garrett’s hands.

He would lie for us. He would protect Sam.

Finally.

SAMANTHA

I was dreaming about flowers, weddings, and candles. Mason got up from the bed, and the mattress dipped from the movement. That woke me up as he padded barefoot to my bathroom. He didn’t turn the light on. The sun filled the room enough, and I waited one moment, guessing that it was eight thirty-two in the morning before I opened one eye, seeing that I was right from the clock on my nightstand.

The smell of pancakes and coffee told me the time more than how bright it was in my room. Malinda would’ve gotten up around seven. By this time, it would be the second pot of coffee, and I sat up, waiting for it.

“Mama Malinda, you’re looking fresh this morning.” Logan’s voice could be heard all the way down to my room in the basement. A faint grin came over my face, and I snuggled back down underneath the sheets.

Home. That was where we were.

I woke up in the hospital where they got the drugs out of my system. I told them I’d been at a party, and it must’ve been slipped into my drink. After a few hours under intense scrutiny, they released me to go home with Mason. It helped when Garrett came later to check on me, stating that he was my father. He brought my phone too. When Mason was finally allowed to take me home, Garrett followed behind to the house. There, with Nate and Logan, we all sat around the table, and he told us Sebastian’s fate.

“I didn’t even tell them about Sam.” His gaze lingered on me before casing a sharp look to Mason beside me. “You already leaked the e-mail.”

Mason smiled at him. “What e-mail?”

Logan sucked in his breath as a wide smile started to grow. “Oh, damn.”

“It’s like that, huh?” Garrett’s eyebrow lifted up.

Logan coughed into his hand, “Burn.”

Mason started to speak, but Logan cut in, leaning forward and placing a hand onto the table, “We never admit. To anything.” He made a show of looking Garrett up and down, and his top lip curled upward. “You know, so we can’t be incriminated for things we don’t do.”

Garrett’s eyes grew lidded, but he nodded. “Fine. Whatever your ‘policy’ is, I’m here to tell you that once the e-mail was leaked, everyone went into chaos. They blamed my godson—”

Logan opened his mouth, but Mason held up a hand, putting it in front of his brother’s face. He said first, “Which they should. It came from his e-mail. Right?”

“It did, indeed.” My biological father had a knowing spark in his eyes. It was like he was realizing Mason wasn’t a normal college student.

I glanced down to my lap, slid my hand from underneath Mason’s, and tangled my fingers together. Mason and Logan weren’t normal. I wasn’t either. When they burned Sebastian’s frat house down, I knew things were different. Or I knew things were going to be different, and they had been. We all went our own paths during this semester. Each of us tried to protect the other, but all in our own ways. I didn’t want that to be the normal routine. I enjoyed, relished even, the feel of Mason and Logan always having my back. I didn’t know why, but I frowned to myself. We were individuals, but we were family. Mason and I—we were individuals, too. Yet, we were together. I knew nothing would get between us, not unless we allowed it.

This was a different feeling than before.

I had changed.

I didn’t need them in a way like before. Mason and Logan were there for me. Seeing my biological father across the table, he stood for the other parents in my life. All of them abandoned me. I was left with no one. That was when Mason and Logan came in. They became my real family. I was related to Garrett and Analise by blood. David raised me, and Malinda would be there for me for the rest of my life, but Mason and Logan—they were the real deal for me.