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“Getting you out.”
He grabbed me, pulling me behind him even as I yanked away. “No! We’re not leaving him!”
“Moore’s got him, but we need to go, Mari.”
The way he wouldn’t look at me didn’t feel right, and I dug my feet in. I wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. “Promise they’re right behind us.”
“Yes. Now, move.” He didn’t flinch. He held my eyes as he said it, and for the first time ever, I hated him.
Because he was lying.
“No!” I lurched back toward the fight, toward Greyson, and Dominic struck. He snatched me around the waist and hauled me behind him. My ribs ached, but I still fought. Kicking and scratching and clawing. Any skin I could find, I dug into. “Let me go!”
“Will you stop?” he bellowed. “You’re going to get us killed.”
“We have to go back!”
“No.”
“Y—”
“I can’t take you back!”
What?
Looking around to make sure we were alone, Dominic shoved me against the wall with a hand on my throat to keep me there. “Greyson and I made a deal. If one of us got caught, the other had to get you out, no matter what. So, I’m not going to take you back. I can’t.”
No.
“Why?” I shoved him, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. “Why would you do that? Who gave you the right?”
“Because we love you, and you matter more.” He snatched my hands to his chest. “That’s what gave us the right.”
I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have made the same deal, but I couldn’t handle the fact that we were leaving without one of us.
“But Greyson—” My voice cracked, and I felt it through my whole body. Cracking, breaking, splitting open. It felt like the end.
“Will either get out or he won’t, but we have to go, Mari.”
My chest felt like it was caving in. These men. These idiotic, bullheaded men. Didn’t they know they mattered too? They were my heart. I couldn’t survive without them. Just when I thought about saying fuck it and going back anyway, Dominic’s words from weeks ago fluttered through my mind.
Rey died doing his duty. Protecting his queen. Don’t dishonor him by wishing that away.
I knew Greyson. I knew his heart and his mind. If I died trying to get to him, he’d never get over it. They’d made the deal for a reason, and I loved Grey enough to know I had to let him go. I had to honor his choice.
Tears fell down my face as I nodded, looking up to find Dominic just as heartbroken. As awful as it was, knowing that he was hurting and still trying to do what he’d promised propelled me further. A relieved breath shuddered out of him, and he squeezed my throat gently before letting go. “Good girl.”
We crept through the factory, and I flinched at every shot from above, wondering if it was the one that took the last good piece of me from the world. What would I become without Greyson? Without my light. Would I turn into my father—or, worse, Cash? Would all this fighting be for nothing? I had no clear answers, and it was more salt on a wound that had barely begun to sting.
“Nearly there,” Dominic whispered.
We’d almost made it to the first floor when someone grabbed me again. This time, I knew it wasn’t one of my men. Dominic whirled, shoving the Ace away. They twisted and bucked, throwing punches and kicks as they circled each other the best they could on the stairs. Shoving my grief away, I tried to get in so I could help Dominic, but he had it under control. The only problem was time.
The sound of boots on the stairs above and below us told me we were running out of it.
“Get out of here!” Dominic yelled.
But how? We were stuck between the two floors, and unless I jumped the banister, I wasn’t going to make it past the Aces that were coming.
