Fuck yeah, she’s mine. Mine to punish. And she is guilty. Anyone else would be flayed alive if they’d done what she had. I have no doubt Vale fully believes, at last, that I’m done with her. Maybe he doesn’t quite believe I’d kill her with my own hands. But he doesn’t have a doubt that I’ll order her death.
The old Damien would have. The new Damien...
The new Damien would burn the world down to protect her.
My phone buzzes again.
Logan:Anyway, I don’t want anything to do with it.
Me:I might need your help.
Logan:Why?
Me:Needs to be believable. He might have doubts if I pulled the trigger myself.
Logan:I mean it, D. Leave me out of it.
I sigh and throw the phone aside. My migraine is back. This is not the time for it. I’m about to barge into enemy territory and take my girl out of there, right under the noses of five bloodthirsty guys. I need to stay sharp.
My fingers crisp around my gun as Vincent pulls to a stop in front of a side door of the warehouse. Well, here goes.
I take a deep breath and slip inside.
-
Present.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
I stare at Logan. He’s walking around in circles, massaging his head, and I find myself wondering if my migraine is contagious. Then he comes to a stop in front of me, his eyes set back in deep crevasses, the dark bags contrasting with a smooth face that looks odd without its usual smirk.
I’ve only seen him like this once before. It was the morning after I left him to man the ship at Devil Tower the first time. I asked him to look after my pet while I tried to build up a wall of protection to prevent the Feds from closing in on us.
The thought flashes in my mind again.What did he do?
But I push it aside. We have far greater issues right now.
Namely, my girl is gone.
“It was a mistake. We shouldn’t have done it. Not this way.”
Logan’s words ring true, and I bite down on a furious reply. He’s right. And it was my fault. My decision. “I’m going to fucking kill Vincent.”
“You can’t kill him for a mistake you made,” lashes out Logan.
“He should’ve kept a better watch on her.”
“He did his best to trail her without alerting anyone to her existence. Everyone believes her dead, Damien. If he got too close, they would have found her.”
“We should have set up a safe house. What were we thinking, letting her go free like that? What wasIthinking?”
“We didn’t have a choice,” argues Logan. “There was no time. We thought that with Vincent trailing her, we’d be able to keep her safe for a few days. Just long enough for us to deal with the situation, and then get her back. We couldn’t have known it would turn to shit so fast.”
I’m the one who’s pacing now, cracking my knuckles, my hands shaking as I try to keep them from punching holes in the wall.
“Is she still alive, do you think?”
My voice comes out needy, begging, throaty from keeping the tears at bay, and Logan glances up at me in surprise. He’s never seen me like this. But I can’t help it, and I don’t want to try anymore.
