A tear rolled down my cheek. I looked at Draven.
“I suspected from the first moment I met you,” he said, answering my unspoken question. “Only a fool could look at you and not see the family resemblance.”
“Can we stand yet?” Quincy asked in a harsh whisper. “My knees are killin’ me.”
That’s when I laughed. Hard. It felt out of place, considering everything that’d happened, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. They really did make any situation better, my men and my knights. My spies too. Men I trusted and loved with my whole heart.
As the knights stood back up, Duke swatted at Baden’s ass.
“Dirt,” he said.
Baden arched a brow before swatting Duke’s ass, but harder. “You had a leaf.”
Quincy looked between them before twisting around, trying to see his own behind. I laughed again. They were too much.
“Wait.” I scanned the area. “Where’s Reign?”
“I’m touched,” he said from nearby. His voice grew louder as he approached, leaves crunching. “Keep worrying about me, and I may just join your harem after all.”
Maddox scowled.
Any comment I had flitted away as I saw the body at his feet, one wrapped in a thin chain and seemingly lifeless. “Is he dead?”
“No.” Reign nudged Stryder’s side with the tip of his boot. “Not yet anyway.”
“Unfortunately,” Rowan muttered, still toying with his dagger. His eyes, however, burned into Stryder. “One swift movement can fix that though.”
“We need him alive,” Briar said. “He’s the key to learning who’s after Evan.”
“He won’t tell us shit, Specs. And even if he does, he’ll spew nothing but lies. Truth serums have no effect on him.”
“About that,” I chimed in. “King Silas hired him. That’s one mystery solved.”
Callum’s expression hardened. “So Haran is behind it after all.”
I nodded. “I just don’t know why. Other than something special in my blood.”
“Your blood?” Maddox frowned.
Reign, however, smiled. “I knew it.”
Stryder blinked open his eyes and sluggishly rose to a sitting position. A faint shimmer traveled along the chain each time he moved. It wrapped around his torso, keeping his arms pinned down. “You think this can hold me for long?”
“It’ll hold long enough.” Reign turned to Lake. “Will you lead the way to that cottage? It’s too dangerous to speak out in the open like this.”
“Bold of you to assume you’ll make it that far,” Stryder casually said.
Draven grabbed Stryder by the chains and hauled him to his feet. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. The threat in his stare did all the talking for him. One wrong move, and Stryder would start losing body parts.
“And you’re with me.” Maddox gently picked me up.
“I can walk just fine on my own,” I said, cradled in his arms like a baby.
He lowered his face to mine and kissed the corner of my mouth. “Whether you can or not doesn’t matter. I wish to hold you.”
I recalled the way he’d slammed against the bars of my cell, desperate to reach me. My big guy needed the closeness right now. I rested my head on his shoulder and breathed him in, letting his scent calm the nerves not yet dissipated in my gut.
Yeah. I needed the closeness too.
