If discarding your gun during life or death situations isn’t a sign of how stupid love can be, I don’t know what is. Because that’s another thing Parker taught me about love. It makes us stupid. Reckless. Self-preservation be damned.
My arms feel heavy, but I hold her against me, breathing in her scent as I bury my face in her neck. “I love you, firefly,” I say, pressing a lingering kiss to her skin there.
“Please, please, don’t...”
Fucking hell. I unwrap myself from her, pushing against her to try to help her off of me, but either I’m dying or she’s stronger than I thought. I look at Jace, feeling myself harden, my heart trampled by a rock avalanche, the warmth of her light chilling as my walls go up inside me. “Get her off me, Jace,” I growl.
Jace doesn’t move for a moment. Just stares at me with something that might be understanding or might be fury. Hard to tell with the blood loss.
“Now,” I say, putting steel in my voice even though it takes everything I have left.
Jace moves. Reaches for Parker, his hands gentle even as his grip is firm. “Parker, come on.”
“No!” Parker fights him, clinging harder to me. “No, I’m not leaving him. I’m not doing this again.”
Cal moves to help. Between him and Jace, they start pulling Parker off me, but she’s fighting like a wildcat. All teeth and fury and desperation.
“Get off him,” Jace says, his voice strained. “Parker, you’re hurting him.”
“I don’t care!” She’s sobbing now, full body shaking. “I don’t care, he’s not doing this, he’s not leaving me.”
Charles moves in, adding his strength to theirs. Three men struggling to pull one woman off me because she’s fighting with everything she has.
“Sis,” Charles says, low enough that only she can hear but I catch it anyway. “If you don’t get off him, he’s going to die. He’s losing too much blood. You have to let him go, sis.”
The words hit her like a slap. She goes still for just a second. Just long enough for them to pull her away.
Jace lifts her, holds her bridal style against his chest as she dissolves completely. Screaming. Fighting. Breaking apart in a way I’ve never seen her break before.
“Silas!” She’s reaching for me, her hands covered in my blood. “Silas, please, please don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you. The boys need you. I need you. Please.”
I look at them. At Parker sobbing in Jace’s arms. At Cal’s expression, caught between fury and grief. At Charles, his jaw tight with the kind of control that means he’s barely holding it together.
At my family.
At everything I’m giving up.
Then I look at Aria. At her finger still hovering over that keyboard. At the power she’s holding over all of us.
Without looking back at them, I say one word.
“Go.”
“Silas, no!” Parker screams.
“Get her out of here,” I snap. “All of you. Now.”
Jace carries Parker toward the door, her screams echoing through the building. Cal and Charles follow, weapons still raised, backing out like they expect an ambush.
The door closes behind them.
And I’m alone with Aria.
She’s smiling. Reaches up to a speaker system I didn’t notice before. Presses a button.
“Medical team to interrogation room. Now.”
Interrogation room. That’s what she’s calling this place.
