The heat of it spreads through me, threatening to consume me with the shame and fear that what runs through my veins matches what does in the man who shares my face.
He took my mother’s life so easily.
Holding this gun in my hands, I hope it won’t be easy for me, that if I have to pull the trigger, it will only be because I don’t have any other option in order to protect what I love—this place and the people in it.
A hint of moonlight filtering in through the open main door starts to lighten the way ahead.
Almost there.
Once I’m out on the other side, I can go to Connor’s quickly through the trees and send him to warn Killian.
Then I can get back to Lucky…
She’ll be okay…
Those words echo in my head as a heavy boot falls on the hardwood somewhere to my left.
I whirl toward it, leveling the shotgun in that direction, but the blow doesn’t come from there.
Something hits me from behind, knocking me forward and causing my only weapon to fly from my hands.
Pain shoots through my head, warm blood spilling down my neck, and my chest slams into the floorboards, knocking the air from my lungs in an agonizing rush. Despite being disoriented and struggling to breathe, I turn my head to the side, gasping for air and try to push up, to regain my feet.
A boot presses against my back between my shoulder blades, forcing me down, and the barrel of a rifle presses into my face.
“Where is she?”
Lucky…
Her face flashes before my eyes. The way she looked at me tonight when she told me she loved me. When she said the words I wasn’t sure I would ever hear. Ones I didn’t know I needed so badly until I heard them and absorbed them into my heart like a balm that soothed all the wounds I’ve carried for almost a year.
I struggle against the hold, throwing all my weight back, but he hits me with the butt of the gun again, sending me sprawling at his feet with bright flashes in my vision as pain explodes through my head.
“Where the fuck is she? Which cabin?”
He doesn’t know…
A flicker of hope ignites in my aching chest, and I clench my jaw to keep myself from showing him just how badly he hurt me while I swallow the blood in my mouth.
“There’s no way in fucking Hell I would tell you that.”
The man dips his head lower, his hard eyes close enough for me to see them, even in the darkness. “We’ll find her with or without you. She was stupid to think she could ever hide from me.”
From me.
Me.
The word flashes through my head.
This isn’t just some nameless, faceless goon working for the Lorells. This is “Brad.” Brent fucking Lorell.
In the weeks since she told me all of this, Killian, Connor, and I have done our own digging into the family. Even Raven got involved after Willow and the rest of us swore her to secrecy.
And what we found would have stopped anyone else from looking further.
These are not the people you want to fuck with.
Anyone who does isn’t around long enough to regret it.
