Nessa.
With a gun pointed at Travis.
With her betrayal sifting through the air.
With my bullets still in her body.
“Don’t underestimate me.”
I never have.
Or so I thought.
Nessa was something I didn’t see coming. How many others has he manipulated and bought?
Are some of them standing around me right now?
Stepping back, I lightly bump into Torin’s body, which earns me his hand on my hip, and I shove it away.
I don’t want to be touched.
I don’t want to be looked at.
I don’t want to be anything.
“What’s wrong?” Torin asks attentively, and this is too much.
I thought I could handle this just fine, but I’m notthere. The glumness on my chest, which has already sunk its way into my heart, won’t lay off me just yet.
I miss Dad.
“You underestimate her, Wildes,” my ex announces just to hear himself talk. “Do you honestly believe she’ll keep you around now that she’s Queen of South Shore? You’re never going to become king. Now, she’s the heir of The Landings, she’ll either die, and they’ll kill you, or she’ll actually pull it off, and they’llstillkill you.”
“Dino,” Torin orders sharply, stepping away, and I instantaneously miss his body warmth.Make up your mind, Astor. “Get her to the car and drive her home. No stops. Ozzy is there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Whoa.
Glimpsing over my shoulder curiously at the man who has the damn politeness of someone born in high society, that’s when the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life cracks through the air with a boom.
My ears instantly ring before I’m pulled back and surrounded by men in white masks. It feels like a sledgehammer was taken to my head as I stretch my jaw, tucking my chin into my chest to blink off the deafening sound of nothing.
Then I hear the argument of male voices and chaos.
Guns click back to lodge a bullet in their barrels.
And I can’t see a fucking thing with ten-foot-tall walls of muscle blocking my every move.
“This is a nice set-up. A little dusty, though.”
“Are you fuckin’insane?”Torin. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I came for my ward.”
Who the fuck is that?
I can barely hear the voice from the profound thundering roar in my ears, but I remain hidden, like The Nameless wanted me to be, I guess.
