Guns were drawn. It all happened so fast. I blinked, and Mason, Maddox, Kreed, and Raine all had a weapon in hand, pointed at Rusty. Kreed shifted his body in front of me. “I could ask you the same,” Kreed barked back.
“It seems like we’re still at an advantage,” Mason added, adjusting his grip with a cocky grin he absolutely did not feel.
Raine’s tone was light, but his eyes were pure ice. “I imagine most of your Vipers have abandoned you by now. I’m honestly surprised they let you live. Or…” He tilted his head. “Are you running from them too?”
I was freaking out inside, my pulse thudding against my ribs, each beat frantic.Thud. Thud. Thud.The gun pressed against my spine, and I took a greedy gulp of the damp and thick air, smelling of pine needles and moss as Carson moved closer toward me. He hadn’t meant to draw Rusty’s focus, and I shivered when those black eyes fell on me.
“Don’t fucking look at her,” Kreed snarled.
The night vibrated with tense electricity, and I had no idea who would move first. This wasn’t how the scenario had looked in my head.
A branch snapped, drawing Rusty’s gaze from me. His head tipped, a shadow passing over his features. “Jesse, what have you gotten yourself into?”
Jesse stood behind the twins, posture rigid. “You didn’t leave me much of a choice.”
Rusty’s smile honed into something monstrous. “You have a choice now. Stand with them and die… Or go inside, and I’ll forget your part in this.”
Before Jesse could react, Mason grabbed his arm and yanked him close. The muzzle of Mason’s gun pressed hard against Jesse’s temple. “Flinch,” Mason warned softly, “and I’ll shoot.”
Rusty made a tsking sound. “You could shoot him, but who’s to say I’m alone? These trees provide the perfect coverage for an ambush. One signal from me…” Rusty made a shooting gun motion with his free hand.
“Or,” Raine countered, “you’re a bluffing, desperate lunatic.”
Rusty’s gaze slid back to Kreed, studying him. “Are you willing to take that chance? Willing to sacrifice your brothers…for her?”
The idea that he was willing to lose his son said everything I needed to know about Rusty’s state of mind, of the sort of man he was. “My father would hate you if he could see you. He’d kill you,” I spat.
He wasn’t a man.
He was a monster.
Rusty’s smile evaporated. “All the more reason he had to die.”
A roaring filled my ears, rage, grief, disbelief, mixing into something white-hot and blinding. My fingers twitched toward my gun, and I shook with the force of wanting to pull it, aim it, and fire it. End him. If I had been alone, if there had been no chance Kreed or the others could get hurt, I would have pulled the trigger. Inside, I was screaming.
“Jesse,” Rusty commanded again.
Mason’s hand remained steady, the gun still pressed firmly against Jesse’s temple, and only his eyes moved, flicking toward me. Then to Kreed. “I’m right where I need to be.”
“Suit yourself. But before anyone gets trigger-happy…” Rusty’s grin resurfaced, twisted and malicious. “I have a surprise that might change your mind.”
“Fuck, I really hate surprises,” Maddox grumbled under his breath.
Rusty’s smile widened and was so smug that it made me sick. It made me feel as if I was missing something, that he had an edge, but I couldn’t figure out what or how. His eyes glittered triumphantly like a man who had just laid his trap and couldn’t wait to watch us fall into it. “I think you’ll like this one,” he said,angling his body slightly to the side as a figure moved into the doorway.
I peeked around Kreed’s form to see as one of my hands glided behind me. Rusty would expect the Corvos to shoot, but would he expect me to?
Kreed’s frame pulled taut under the fabric, the hoodie shifting as if it struggled to contain the sudden coil of muscle beneath it. His brothers had their weapons trained on Rusty, barrels gleaming in the beam of headlights. Even Jesse tensed beside Maddox, his face drawn tight with dread that hollowed out his cheeks.
The forest fell dead silent.
Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
The silhouette filling the doorway took shape, their features coming into the light, the familiar hard jawline, all sharp angles and no softness. The silver-streaked hair swept back from his forehead. The dark, tailored coat he wore, buttons gleaming, not a thread out of place, and my stomach plummeted.
Donovan Corvo.
Kreed’s fucking father.
