by Sienna Blake
“How did this happen?” Jace asks X.
“One of our men found him bleeding out in the basement.”
Jace curses. “The only way that Magnar gets shot in our own fucking HQ is…” He trails off. The weight of this betrayal hangs in the air.
Realisation hits me, souring my gut.
Someone betrayed him.
“Who?” Jace asks, voicing my very question, his voice a thin slip of malice.
“Trust me, if I knew, the traitor would be in more pain than even the devil could inflict right now.” X’s voice is as deadly and as sharp as the knives I know he uses. “We can’t trust anyone. That’s why I snuck him out of HQ quietly once he was found. I told the few who know to keep their fucking mouths shut.”
Jace curses and there’s a clatter. He must have kicked something. “Under our fucking noses.”
“I know. I fucking know. I’ll never forgive myself if…”
Jace takes a deep breath. Neither of them wants to finish that sentence. “Fuck,” Jace whispers. “What’s the damage?”
“Three bullets. One went through his stomach, a through and through. The second went through his shoulder, the same. But the third narrowly missed his heart. Caused a lot of blood loss before someone found him.”
“And…?” Jace can’t finish the question.
I feel sick, because I don’t want X to answer. I’m afraid of the answer.
X sighs. “I’m sorry, Jace. It’s not looking good.”
No. I shake my head, over and over, willing it not to be true. X’s arms tighten around me, his thumb moving slowly against my skin, his chin resting on my head.
“And what of Keegan…?” Jace asks. He sounds tired. So fucking tired.
“Without Magnar, the Kings are weakened. You and I are strong enough to hold it together, but not for long if this war tomorrow continues.”
Jace winces. “If Keegan finds out where he is…that he’s still alive…”
Just.
They will come for him.
Keegan won’t stop till he’s finished the job that the traitor started.
“That’s why I’ve held off on telling our men. But it’s only a matter of time before—”
The squeal of the door swinging open cuts off all conversation.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” a familiar voice says. “I came as soon as I heard.”
I open my eyes to see Liam through my tear-filled haze.
Waylyn
I wake in a chair in the corner of the hospital room. X is no longer holding me. I must have passed out. I’m so exhausted. So worn out from all my tears.
Someone has wrapped a blanket around me. It’s a soft fleece material in an ugly brown colour.
Liam is pacing near the door, his back to me. I glance over to the bed.
Magnar hasn’t moved. He barely looks alive. Only the beep of the machine and his moving chest are signs of life.
I want to touch Magnar. He looks so pale, so weak lying there among the ghostly sheets, thin tubes and impersonal wires. They still haven’t let me near him. Probably because they don’t want me breaking down. Again.
The chair creaks as I stand.
Liam spins towards me, a wildness in his eyes. “Waylyn. You slept for a while. You must have been tired.”
Exhausted. Emotionally and physically. “Where’s Jace? X?”
“Errands,” Liam says.
And they left Magnar here with just you and me to protect him? What about the threat from Keegan?
A strange thread of unease weaves through me.
I must look frightened because Liam shoots me a soothing look. “Don’t worry. There are two men stationed outside loyal to me.”
Something about his sentence niggles inside me, but I can’t put my finger on it. I guess if X and Jace felt it was safe enough to leave…
I turn my attention back onto Magnar. I walk on trembling legs to his side. I can smell antiseptic and iodine strongly now, it’s coming off him in waves. He’s shirtless, a bandage wrapped around his chest and shoulder, dark patches underneath with blood that has soaked through. Bile rises into the back of my throat. The sheets come up to his ribcage, the peek of another bandage wrapped around his stomach. The light seems to wash him out further, purple shadows under his eyes.
Oh God, Magnar. What have they done to you?
“Never seen him with anyone like he is with you,” Liam says.
I jolt at his voice. He’s closer than I expected. I glance over my shoulder.
Liam is standing right behind me, staring at Magnar.
I try to ignore how uncomfortable I feel with him breathing over my shoulder. I want some time alone with Magnar. To pray. To grieve. To touch his face and beg him to stay.
But I don’t think Liam will leave us alone.
“Well,” Liam adds. “Not since my sister.”
Do I detect a hint of bitterness in his voice? Does Liam hate me because he thinks I’ve replaced Caitlin? “I’m not trying to take her place,” I say quietly.
Liam chuckles, but there is no humour in it. “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t think you’re taking her place. No one could.”
What does that mean? I swallow hard and turn back to Magnar, trying to focus on him instead. I want to tell Liam to back off, but I don’t have the guts.
Liam pulls back and the pressure in my shoulder releases, his shoes clipping across the room as he strides to the door. I let out a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding.
I glance over my shoulder and find him standing at the door of the room with his head stuck out. He must be talking to one of our men.
Something occurs to me.
Something Liam said about the men stationed outside… It’s funny how he said they were loyal to him, not loyal to us.
Fear lodges in my throat. I freeze.
My phone. Where is my phone? I quickly pat my pockets. Not on me.
I need to call X. Or Jace. I need to get them back here. It’s probably nothing, but I know I’d just feel better if one of them were here. I scan the room and spot the duffel I packed by the chair I woke up in. Maybe it’s in there?
I stride to the chair as quickly as I can, glancing over to the door to see if Liam has noticed. He hasn’t yet. I unzip the duffel as quietly as I can and rummage through it.
I can’t help but make noise.
Liam pulls his head back into the room and finds me crouched over the duffel. “Whatcha looking for?”
I don’t answer.
Dammit, I can’t find my phone. It’s not here.
Before I can take a step back towards Magnar, the door swings open.
In walks the man from all my nightmares.
Keegan O’Connor.
Same cold glare, dark hair pulled back like an oil slick, a snarl pulling at his whip-thin lips, tailored suit stretched across his wide frame, pumped up abnormally with steroid use.
The smile he gives me when our eyes lock sends an icy shiver through my spine.
“Hello, darling.”
Behind him, two stocky men walk in and block the door.
I’m trapped. We are trapped.
Panic clutches at my throat, seizing all my muscles.
Liam. Do something! I scream in my head because my voicebox isn’t working.
I look to Liam.
He’s just standing there. He doesn’t even look surprised.
Realisation hits me like a punch to the face. “Y-you,” I say, staring at Liam. “You shot Magnar.”
The flash of guilt on his face betrays him.
I stumble back, shaking my head, my veins filling with disbelief. How could he? They were like brothers. “Magnar loved you. Trusted you.”
Liam scowls. “The fucking idiot was going to send our men, our brothers to slaughter, over you. I had to stop this…kamikaze mission.”
“By throwing Magnar to the wolves? By killing your friend?” My voice is a screech. My head spins. I can’t wrap my mind around this.
“It
’s for the greater good,” Liam says. “Sacrifice one for the many. That’s what good leaders do. That’s what he should have done with you.”
A sob lodges in my throat. Thank God Magnar is not awake to hear this. The shock of his friend, his brother in arms betraying him would kill him.
But he probably already knows.
Magnar probably looked right into Liam’s eyes when he pulled that trigger three times.
“As much as I hate to spoil this entertaining little tête-à-tête…” Keegan says. He nods at one of his men at the door.
The man grabs Liam by the arm, twisting it around his back and shoving a gun into the side of his neck.
“What the fuck?” Liam spits out, struggling against the man who holds him. “Let go of me, asshole.”
Any joy I get from seeing the tables turn on him is muted.
“Get rid of him,” Keegan says.
Liam’s eyes widen. “But I—”
“I hate traitors,” Keegan mutters.
The man holding Liam smacks the butt of his gun down on Liam’s temple, knocking him off his feet and cutting off his protests. Liam slumps against his captor.
I have no doubt that is the last I’m going to see of Liam. Despite what he did, my heart sinks for him. Liam is dragged out, the door swinging behind him.
I’m left alone with Keegan and the lone man at the door.
Oh God. What the fuck am I going to do? Where is Jace? Where is X?
“Relax, Waylyn,” Keegan says, his voice almost sing-songy. “Your boys have had the foresight to pay off the hospital so that only Magnar is on this floor. There’s no one to disturb our little reunion.”
No doctors to check in on us.
No witnesses.
The blood drains from my limbs.
“What did you do to Jace? X?” I ask. I’m trying to be brave, but my voice shakes as it comes out.
Keegan shrugs. “My men will have taken care of them. Probably dead.”
Grief seizes my throat. Dead. No. They can’t be. They can’t. Panic closes over my chest making it hard to breathe, and I grow lightheaded.
Magnar, Jace, X.
My family.
There’s no one left to help me.
No one left to save me.
Keegan steps towards me, a cruel smile on his face, like a cat cornering a mouse that he’s going to play with before killing it.
“You are not a helpless victim anymore,” I can almost hear X say in a harsh voice.
If X were here, he’d be disappointed in me cowering away from Keegan. But what can I even do, X? I have no power over Keegan. I’m not as strong as he is.
“You are not a helpless victim anymore,” X repeats in my head. “Say it and mean it.”
“I will never be helpless again,” I mutter under my breath. These words X gifted to me give me strength. He will not have died in vain. And neither will I.
I’d rather die fighting than live on my knees.
Cold resolution frosts over some of my fear, just enough that my head clears.
Keegan won’t risk killing me. He needs me alive. For now.
This is my strength. My life is my advantage.
Keegan pulls out a gun from his jacket and points it towards the body in the bed. “Time to finish what was started.”
I don’t even think. I throw my body over Magnar, clutching at him for dear life, shielding him. He’s warmer than I expected him to be.
“Stupid girl.”
Something’s digging into my hip. I fumble around under me, and my fingers find something cold and metal just lying there near Magnar’s hand.
My fingers trace the familiar pattern of a trigger and a barrel.
A gun.
What the fuck is a gun doing in Magnar’s bed?
Before I can grab a hold of it, I’m ripped away from Magnar. I tumble back, almost falling to the floor. But I don’t.
Keegan is there to catch me in his iron grip. “Did you miss me, huh?” he hisses against my cheek, his other hand running the barrel of his gun between my legs, turning my blood to ice.
I let out a whimper, which I try to muffle.
Dark memories threaten to consume me. They flutter at the edges of my vision, of my sanity. I cannot let them win. I can’t let Keegan win.
I have to fight back. I am strong enough to fight back.
I shove back and the dark fingers retreat, my vision clearing to focus on Keegan’s face up close, his breath hot and sticky on my neck, his stubble rough on my skin. I push my senses out farther. I feel his gun barrel, now running up my side. That’s fine; as long as it’s not pointed at Magnar.
“It’s me you want,” I say. “Take me. I’ll go willingly. Marry you…” my throat sticks on the words, “…willingly. But leave Magnar and his family alone.”
Keegan laughs. “Or else?”
I glare at him, my voice so firm I’m almost proud of myself. “Or I die. And you lose the inheritance you so dearly want.”
Keegan’s eyes flare with rage when he realises I know the truth. That I hold a single ace. A single card that trumps all of his cards in this moment. “You’d give up your freedom. For them?” Keegan lets out a laugh, but it’s tinged with fear.
“My freedom. My life, if I have to,” I say, my voice a threatening hiss.
Keegan eyes me, then laughs, his sour breath stuffing my nostrils. “It’s a deal, wife. We marry today.”
He leans in close. I can see the second that Keegan thinks he’s won, his breathing growing jagged as he rubs his growing erection on me. Keegan has always liked me powerless. Helpless.
I will never be helpless again.
“No,” I demand. “I want assurances that you leave Magnar alone.”
Keegan stiffens. “I already gave you my word.”
“Forgive me if I don’t exactly trust your word.”
Keegan growls.
“We all leave here today,” I continue. “The day that Magnar walks out of the hospital is the day I will marry you. Not a day earlier.”
“I don’t have time for this shite,” Keegan hisses. “Kill him once we’re gone,” he says to the man on the door.
Keegan isn’t going to keep his word. He just needs to keep me alive long enough to force a signature onto a marriage certificate, then my life will be worth nothing.
No. I have to do something. Now!
“Remember, as hard as you can, aim for the balls,” I hear Charli’s voice in my head.
Oh God. Charli. I was so lost in my grief I didn’t even think about what she’d be going through right now in her exile on the other side of the country.
No time to worry about Charli.
Without letting go of me, Keegan pushes me back towards the door, just enough so I can get leverage on my left leg. The gun is at my ribs. But I don’t care about it going off.
I draw all my power, all my rage and knee him as hard as I fucking can.
My aim is true. My knee collides with his crotch.
For a second everything pauses. Keegan’s eyes bug out of his head. Then a strangled noise squeezes out from his throat.
I hear a clatter as he drops the gun, his hold on me loosening. I shove myself back from him.
He stumbles back.
“Don’t fucking move,” a gruff voice says.
I can’t even believe my ears. I turn towards the bed. Magnar is sitting up, eyes open with his gun pointed at Keegan.
“Shoot him.” Keegan curses, still clutching at his balls.
No! I’ve forgotten about the man at the door, a gun already in his hand. Keegan and I are in his line of sight, but it won’t take long for him to sidestep us. Magnar can’t shoot him because I’m in the way.
I brace myself to shield Magnar again.
The door bursts open. Several figures tumbling in at once, a blur of movement and noise.
I blink. My eyes are deceiving me. Or maybe I’m dead and this is heaven.
Jace and X.
In one swift move,
X disarms Keegan’s guard and knocks him out, the man collapsing in a sprawl on the floor.
Jace steps on Keegan’s fallen gun so he can’t get to it. Now Jace, X and Magnar’s guns are pointing at Keegan, who is scowling in a ball on the floor, his hand outstretched for his useless weapon.
“Jesus Christ, Way,” Magnar calls from the bed. “That was some fucking takedown!”
“You’re awake!” I cry.
“Been awake the whole time.” He pushes himself up to sitting far too gracefully. “Where the fuck were you two?” Magnar growls, turning to Jace and X.
Jace snorts. “Nice to see you too. Thanks for coming to your rescue. My heroes.”
“Sorry, King. We had to take out a few more of Keegan’s men than we’d anticipated. Looks like you didn’t really need us anyway,” X says, his eyes on me, shining with pride. “Waylyn was taking care of Keegan herself.”
My lungs fill with pride. I look down at Keegan still sprawled on the floor, looking smaller than I’ve ever seen him now that he has several guns trained on him.
I helped take him down. Me. The little David to this ruthless Goliath. I know that from this moment, my nightmares will start to shrink.
I have to remember to tell Charli! She’ll be so proud.
“We’ll be back. Just gotta…take out the trash.” X rounds up Keegan from the floor and nudges him to the door.
The realisation hits me.
X is going to kill them both.
I look between X and Magnar. “But we’re in public. The bodies. The hospital—”
“—has a morgue with plenty of other corpses for them to disappear among,” Magnar explains. “Don’t you worry.”
I should be opposed to this. Murder is morally wrong. But under the circumstances, this is not murder. It’s justice.
X eyes me, then mouths, “I promised you.”
He did promise.
Keegan will never hurt me again.
My heart warms as I look back at X. Something unspoken passes between us. He loves me. This is his way of showing me. My protector. The one who would kill for me. Who would dirty his hands to keep me safe.
I fall even more in love with my beautifully vicious X.
X herds Keegan out the door. Jace follows, his arm supporting the unconscious guard.