I was mortified. “What the fuck, Cezar?”
“I’m just saying, obviously, I realized it was short for nyctophobia. Pretty clever if you ask me. Think we could find who named you?”
“I am not a dog. I don’t care who came up with the name. I guess it fits. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“You say that a lot, you know?Doesn’t matter.Sometimes, I know you are telling the truth. Sometimes, I think you arelying. Trying to hide the fact that it does matter. I get it. Fuck emotions, right? They make us weak.”
I hated the part of me that understood exactly what he meant. Maybe that was why I kept trying to outrun mine.
“I should get going.” I started grabbing my stuff so I could once again leave for a mission that may be my last. This time, I felt the need to stay at this safe house that had started to become home.
Cezar stopped me in my tracks, grabbing my arm and twisting me around to face him. Anger flashed in his eyes, a side of him I hadn’t witnessed before. “You’re not seriously thinking of going there, knowing what they’ve done?”
I freed my arm from his grasp. I didn’t even need to question how he knew where we were headed. He was always one step ahead. “Yes, I am. The deal has to be stopped. Their past deeds don’t matter. This is what needs to happen.”
He tried to grab me again.
“Don’t, Cezar.”
And just like that, he stopped. Not sure why he cared so much. Everything would probably be fine.
“I just… what if you get hurt?” There it was. He was worried. The tone, the look on his face—his body showed the underlying fear.
But why?
“Are you worried about me?” I questioned with a raised brow.
“How could I not be?”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all. It was one thing to think the way I did, and the way I knew he did, but to say such things out loud, to almost promise that things could be different. No one should make promises they couldn’t keep. I grabbed my stuff, got dressed, and was out thedoor before I could dwell on any of it. By the time Dorin came outside, I was already waiting in the car.
“Is he going to stay there and wait for you? Did you instruct him to?” Dorin asked at the door when he noticed me. Then he laughed, teasing me further. “You feel all right? Your cheeks are red.”
“Yeah, I am fine. Let’s just get this over with.”
I hoped Cezar was still there when we got back.
Chapter 27
CEZAR
Watching her leave hurt. All the intimacy we shared the night before, all our pain, felt like it meant nothing to her. Maybe she was scared. Hell, I was scared. But not of her. I feared losing her to someone who had no right to take her.
She talked to me, never telling me the whole story. I’d done the same.
I didn’t want that to be the reason we never saw each other again. With her walking into danger and things left unresolved between us, all I could think about was what if… and that would be it. No chance to make amends.
I knew where she was going. At this point, she had to know I tracked her, watched her, hovered in every shadow she stepped into. She knew the kind of information I had access to. The ties knotted into my family’s rotten branches.
I stuffed whatever gear I could find into a bag, then realized halfway out the door that I had forgotten the vest. Whatever. At least I remembered the guns. And maybe Iborrowedsome other things from their weapons room.
I had no idea how fast I drove. I just knew I got there in record time. The sound of gunfire pierced the air, and my heart sank. I needed to find Lina.
Sneaking through the buildings, I could easily distinguish her men from the scum surrounding them.
One of the things I grabbed from the vault was a machine gun. It had been a long time since I’d used one, though I still remembered the feel of it. The moment my finger hit the trigger, a hail of bullets rained down. The recoil crashed into my arms, and the adrenaline surged like a drug. I kept the barrel high so none of her people caught a stray round. The distraction worked. Her men shifted position and regained ground.
What I didn’t think through was the part where every gunner on the fucking property now had me in their sights. No one could see exactly where I stood, and the mask only added to the mystery. Perfect time to wreak fucking havoc. In all black, I shot out from the trees and killed the first bastards who came at me.
