“Yeah, well, don’t think this means you’re not responsible for me anymore, because you are. Bunny too. And Shai.” My Shai.
Cillian gives me a mischievous grin. “Fuck yes we are. You’re ours, Ror. Always.”
More rustling comes through the comms, the sound muffled, distorted, like the connection is jammed or the unit messed up. But then I hear Shai say, “You’re so fucking dead, and you don’t even know it. I will kill you, and if I can’t, Rory will. He will bathe in your fucking blood.”
That’s it. My name. It’s time.
I hear Shai grunt in pain, and then…nothing. The connection is gone.
“Let’s go,” Rian says. “Now.”
He’s on the other side of the house, all of us spread out so we can come in from different angles. Cil and I make a run for it, side by side, my person right there with me to go save the man I love. Butt of the rifle against his shoulder, Cillian shoots a guy to our right, the large body, all dressed in black, immediately falling to the snow. My brain is in that place it goes where I’m disconnected from my body, from the world around me, but this time I’m laser-focused: Find Shai. Protecthim. Find that control. Bring him home.
I shoot another man, keep moving. Step over his body.
Shai.
Shai.
Shai.
Did he get to his mom? Did he find a weapon?
He’ll be okay. I know he will be.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
My head is all over the place.
I take another shot, then another, as we creep around the side of the old house. Tiernan and Dean come around the front the same time we do. There’s a dead body on the porch, the back of his head blown off. Conan and Rian must already be inside.
Tiernan nods for me and Cil to go first. I know he’s doing that for me.
For the first time, I notice the gunfire going on inside, like my brain had blocked it out until I could see that fighting with my own eyes. My gaze shoots around the room, searching for Shai or Kat, but I don’t see either of them.
“Rory!” Cillian shouts just as something hits me across the back. I stumble, pain searing through me, before my best friend shoots the man who hit me, a metal bar falling from his grasp.
“Thank you.” I grin, this wild, manic smile I know has no business on my face right now. I’m being eaten from the inside out, all worry and adrenaline, this potent cocktail that’s making me feel like I don’t fit in my own skin. I’m stuck between that place that enjoys this, loves the violence, and my fear for Shai, because if he doesn’t make it, there’s no Rory without him. Not now that I have him. No sitting in a bloodybed for eight hours is bringing me out of it, the way it did with my mom. I’ll be completely gone, and I can’t imagine what that will do to Cillian.
“I’m finding him,” I say to Cillian.
“Not without me.”
We nod at each other, understanding reflecting back at me.
This is a fucking disaster. I don’t know how we’ll deal with this mess, but I don’t care about that. I just want this motherfucker dead and my man home.
My finger stays on the trigger, Cillian beside me as we search the house. I push open a door—a bedroom—do a quick sweep, but no one’s inside.
When I hear a tumbling sound above us, I head straight for the stairs, heart in my throat. There’s a guy there when I hit the top, gun pointed at me. Before he can realize what I’m doing, I lunge at him, taking him by surprise. He stumbles into the wall, my fist connecting with his face, before grabbing his wrist and slamming it against the wall, knocking the gun free. Mine is strapped to my torso, but instead I pull a knife from my sheath, slit his throat, and watch the thick red blood spill free. He drops to the ground.
When I turn around, Cillian’s fighting someone too, my heavy feet taking me there, and I plunge the blade into his back. He screams in pain, and then Cillian kicks him, picks up his handgun, which fell to the ground, and puts a bullet in his head. Blood splatters my face and chest, but I ignore it, forehead pressed against Cillian’s.
“Fuck yes,” he says.
