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Meaning me—and Aydin bringing me here.
He sniffled, wiping the blood off his face.
“Rory.” He jerked his chin to the supply of rope sitting on the table. “Micah, help him.”
They tied up Aydin who was too exhausted and beat, barely kicking and thrashing as they secured him.
Will called us. “Alex,” he said, standing back and watching them. “Emory.”
Alex immediately went to his side, but I stayed rooted.
A fire lit behind his eyes. “I will raise hell and reduce this house to ash if you act like this is a choice for one more second!” he bellowed at me and then pointed to his side. “Now!”
I jumped, tingles throbbing between my legs, and I clenched my teeth, walking over to him.
“All this time?” Aydin breathed out. “All these months and all the fights. All the times you lost, it was on purpose?”
“You don’t have what it takes to be me,” he told Aydin, his deep tone sending chills up my spine.
Oh, my God.
He’d faked it. He’d faked everything. He was working the house for some reason, slowly turning everyone on his side, and he’d put up with months of this shit because he wanted Aydin’s loyalty, but he didn’t want it through force.
Micah and Rory finished and came over, standing with us as everyone stared at Aydin on the floor.
Will loomed front and center like an oak rising, and I swore I had to tip my head back to look up at him at my side.
“You can come with us,” Will told him. “I don’t want Dinescu, but I’ll take you.”
Alex stood on Will’s other side, a flash of pain in her eyes as she looked at Aydin.
But Aydin just laughed bitterly. “Kill me,” he said.
Will stood there another moment, absorbing his answer as the thunder cracked again, and I started to back away, everyone slowly following.
The boys turned and darted up the stairs as I watched Alex drag her feet, the distance between her and Aydin like nothing as the heat of their look grew.
“You wanted me,” she told him, backing away from him.
He nodded, his hands bound to some rusty piping as he sat on the floor. “Now I just want to win.”
She shook her head. “You’ve already lost.”
“Not yet,” he retorted. “I do know where you’re going, love.”
The hair on my arms stood on end, and she hesitated a few moments as his words hung in the air, but then…we both spun around, darted up the stairs, and slammed the door behind us.
“Alex…”
“Don’t,” she said, and I could hear the tears in her throat. “I already forgot his name.”
We raced upstairs, a thick stench hitting me as we pushed through the door.
I inhaled. “What the hell is that?”
Hearing commotion, we ran back toward the foyer, instantly halting as flames engulfed the drapes on the windows, rising to the ceiling and spreading onto the walls.
“Oh, Jesus!” Alex cried.
