“I’m not afraid of getting hurt, but I’m terrified of losing any of you.”
My chest squeezes at her words because she included me.
She is terrified of losing me.
I don’t deserve that level of feeling from her, but I’ll take it—and fucking cherish it.
“Clear.” Carter yells, and I walk outside with Heather as both of my brothers stare at a white piece of paper.
“It was on the windshield.” Knox answers our unasked question.
He hands it to me and Heather and I read it together. It only has two words handwritten on it.
Love,
Daddy
“Jesus fucking Christ.”I growl in anger as Carter holds the passenger door open, and I slide Heather onto the seat.
Knox searches the underbody of the SVU with a flashlight and holds a tracker in his hand when he stands back up. He throws it on the ground and smashes it with his foot.
The flames are at the front of the house. It’s a small fire which makes me wonder if this was actually intended to kill us or send a message. If the goal was death they did a piss poor job. As I get into the vehicle and look at Heather I know if the goal was to scare her, they achieved their objective.
“I’ll drive.” Carter states from behind me, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s worried and doesn’t want Heather to know.
Nodding I say, “Alright. Toward Albuquerque.”
I sit on her left, and Knox gets in on her right, taking her hand in his to stop her from digging her nails into the underside of her wrist.
“Tesoro. We are safe. All of us.”
I pull her arm up and softly kiss the reddened flesh.
Knox pulls the seatbelt over her, and I buckle her in as Carter drives away.
Heather turns to stare at me, her eyes filled with horror before she covers her mouth with a shaky hand.
“The fight. It’s not about killing you. It’s about me. That’s why they demanded my presence. It’s a setup, Killian. If I go, I die. When any of you attempt to intervene, they’ll kill you too. That’s the plan. You have to let me go. Nobody can save me, but I can save you.”
I glance at Carter, and spot his eyes widening as he shakes his head as if he’s trying to convince me to say no. Chuckling softly, I stare at her with a stern warning.
“You’re ours, Killer. We will not allow you to leave. And there’s no fucking way anybody is taking you from us. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”
She turns to Knox as if she can reason with him.
“I don’t want any of you to die because of me.That would be worse than death.”
He rubs his thumb over her palm and speaks in a calm but authoritative tone.
“Tesoro. None of us is going to die, but if the choice is living without you or death—the decision is easy. We’d rather die than breathe another breath without you. When you were taken from us before, that was ahell I never want to live through again.
Heather lets out a long, slow breath, trying to calm herself down.
“Then I need to make a call. We need help, and I think Raven will agree to it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CARTER
