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The only people left breathing in this house wanted me dead. The men who lingered on the property wouldn’t be able to hear my screams from Soldier’s Row.
“Shut the fuck up!” he bit out, pressing his hand over my mouth.
My body went cold, my mind flashed to that night all those years ago.
Lines and circles.
Blood staining my carpet.
Aric.
Conor . . .
I struggled against his hold with everything I had, fear slowing my heart and sending tremors through my body when a laugh rumbled in his chest. I thrashed and opened my mouth to scream once it was free, Dare’s name on my tongue, when a low voice I knew like the caress of the wind sounded behind us.
“Lily O’Sullivan.” He laughed darkly when Johnny turned us to face him, letting the laugh end with a contended sigh. “I think this might be the greatest moment of my life.”
Even in the dark and with a bandana covering most of his face, I knew him.
His stance. Those demanding eyes. The other half of my soul . . . he was there.
“I was coming to find you,” Johnny said, his breathing rough from dragging me.
“I can see that.” Dare casually raised his arm, enough for me to notice the gun in his hand. Tilting his head to the side slowly, he asked in a mocking tone, “Are you scared, Princess? It won’t hurt.”
The venom dripping from his words was so unlike anything I’d ever heard from him, his hatred for me tearing at my chest.
“Don’t do this,” I pleaded, the ache in my heart continuing to pour through each word. “I know . . . I know about your fiancée. Dare, I’m so sorry.”
I knew the moment I slipped up.
Felt it in the way Johnny nearly crushed me.
Saw it in the way Dare’s head jerked back.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Dare gritted as he took slow steps toward me. Glancing at Johnny, his eyes narrowed on him. “Drop her.”
As soon as Johnny’s arms disappeared, Dare’s hand closed around my throat and he lifted his gun to my forehead.
But once we were in that position, I saw it.
What Dare was seeing, but not understanding.
The woman he was pressing to the window who looked so similar—yet different—to the one he’d been loving.
Using the barrel of the gun, he pushed the hood back to reveal more of my face, the disbelief in his eyes increasing as he did.
“Johnny, light.” Before Johnny could respond, Dare bit out, “Fucking light. Shine a light on her eyes.”
I flinched against the cool glass, instinctively closed my eyes when the light from Johnny’s phone appeared directly in front of me, and cried out when Dare roughly forced my head back, the window creaking from the blow.
“Open your eyes!”
I blinked rapidly against the blinding light until I could hold my eyes open and had to blink again and again once it disappeared. When I could look at Dare again, hurt, disappointment, and an overwhelming confusion lingered in his eyes.
He shook his head with a quick jerk and said, “One chance to explain what you just said.”
It took me a few moments to realize what he was asking, and then I was nodding. One chance . . . and I had no doubt that was exactly what he was about to give me. “You’ve taken everything from me.”
