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Mostly sure.
Slash’s resounding growl echoed as Samael let his rage out on the wall, his knuckles not surviving the brutal attack as the skin split and blood splattered against the concrete.
And I just stood there.
The lungs hadn’t left my fridge. I hadn’t discarded them, yet I could not enjoy the meaning behind the meat. I didn’t want anything to do with them. But how had Finn known that? I hadn’t even told Samael or Slash. I hadn’t told anyone.
Why was this fucker so interested in us or what we did? Because of Finn, I had watched two men I loved lose it. The walls were caving in on the freedom we craved, and I couldn’t fucking breathe.
My feet took me back up the stairs into one of the guest bedrooms, the lock engaging as I leaned against the door in the darkness. It had been a while since I needed the silence to hug me. These were not good developments. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Finn was antagonizing us to produce a result. Unfortunately, the result would be chaotic, gruesome, and much worse than Finn could imagine.
My gaze fell on a sleeping Killian, curled into a fetal position. My heart broke at the sight of our fourth, a man I had never planned on loving and yet would never be able to live without. He fit with us like the perfect puzzle piece and yet, the horror he was currently living through terrified me.
Slowly, I slipped in beside him, Killian stirring only to burrow into my chest. I delicately wrapped my arms around him and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. I wanted to whisper ‘it’d be alright’ but I didn’t even believe those words. Instead, I held him close and hoped that my embrace would be enough to keep him safe.
I woke up to Killian convulsing against my chest, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. I shot up, screaming for Samael to do something, but this was outside our expertise. Not even Slash would have been able to diagnose him. I didn’t want to, but we had to take him to the hospital. I refused to let him die in my arms.
Samael slipped him from me, cradling him against his chest as he rushed him down the stairs and into the car. Protecting our identities had meant something at one point but Killian meant more than our secrets. If staying together meant Killian was safe, then I’d risk the public connecting the dots and eventually putting us in the same pot as Primrose’s Terrors.
I traveled close behind Samael, rushing in as they shouted words I’d never heard, Samael grabbing my hand to give me comfort. We watched in horror as they raced Killian down the hall, one of the nurses pulling Samael to the side to ask questions. “He’s pretty badly bruised. We’ll have to call the police.”
He snorted. “Lady, I am the police.” She raised an eyebrow, not believing him, but Samael’s joking mode had vanished. “Save him first, and then I’ll answer your fucking questions. He’s the only thing that matters.”
It felt like forever waiting for someone to debrief us about Killian’s condition, almost as if no one wanted to. I constantly twisted around to look down the hall to where Killian had disappeared through the double doors of the emergency corridor, but no one had exited in the last hour. Samael was stoic beside me, but I could tell he was both terrified of the outcome and worried that we wouldn’t be able to care for the man we had all fallen in love with.
“Detective Stenson?”
We both looked up at the petite nurse who had approached, desperately waiting for answers. I wondered how they knew Merchant’s name, but it was possible in a small town like this. Or maybe Merchant had offered it at some point over the last hour when I wasn’t watching.
“Killian will be okay.” She bit her lip and let out a deep breath as she continued. “Unfortunately, since he is an adult, we can’t keep him here.” Her words tumbled out as she led us down a petite hallway and into a room that should have been holding Killian.
I frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything. Killian had been in serious pain and unresponsive. “Is there something wrong?”
Her gaze shifted uncomfortably between us as she defensively wrapped her arms around her chest. “Once Killian was lucid, he told us he didn’t want to stay.” We both launched forward a step, the nurse scrambling back a few steps.
Neither one of us believed that shit for a second. Samael took a threatening step forward. “So, you just let him leave? He’s injured!”
“No-o. He took off.”
My shoulders fell at the realization that it probably wasn’t Killian who had taken off but whoever was the prominent alter. “How is that possible? You weren’t watching him?”
“He was supposed to be sleeping-” Her words died off beneath Samael’s growl but she held up a restraint that was dangling from the metal bars attached to the bed. Killian hadn’t taken off. He had escaped. That thought alone put me on edge.
I knew that continuing to question the poor lady would get us nowhere. We needed to find Killian, and then we could figure out what the fuck was going on. Thanking her before exiting the building, I immediately called Slash to let him know the situation. If Killian’s father found out about this, we’d never see Killian again, and as much as we could use the help, I wasn’t ready to lose him just yet.
FINN
I cackled in the darkness as I swirled the keys around my fingers, moving toward the holding cell at the back. It was too fucking easy to slip in here. The security consisted of the laziest officer in Primrose, who spent most of his time vegging in front of the TV at the far corner rather than doing his rounds. Slipping in and swiping a spare set of keys off one of the officer’s desks had been a cakewalk.
And now that I was standing in front of the cell that held my victim, I was all too eager to get started. The kid looked up at me, tears streaming down his face as he whimpered for me to leave him alone. He thought he was safe now that he was locked up, but he should have known better. I was never going to let him live.
He knew too much.
And if he blabbed to Chief Matthews about my identity, it would be all over. Those beautiful men would have to give up everything they had worked so hard for, and their little Kitten would be left alone in the world.
I wasn’t that cruel.
“Just leave me be,” he pleaded again, but I was beyond being reasoned with. This was part of the fun, unaliving the ones I hired to play a part. I needed Killian to think a little, to dredge up some memories, to remember who I was, and then run back to his men, crying about it.
