Every goddamn word is like a knife to my chest, stabbing and twisting all the way down to my bones. I’m just waiting to see which word will be the one to sever our bond as I singlehandedly ruin six lives this time.
“How much?” Liv asks after what feels like an eternity.
My brow furrows in confusion. “How much what?”
“The payout.” She looks me right in the eye, straight into my black fucking soul and starts shredding it. “How much did you get for the four of us?”
“Liv,” Leon says as he gets to his feet, looking between the rest of us as the severity of the situation takes a hard left. “Baby, I don’t really think that’s important, not when?—”
“How fucking much?!”
“One million per body,” Niko says quietly, his voice broken and full of fear. “Half up front, the rest when the third party got confirmation.”
Our girl nods as she starts backing away again. “Not bad. Might have gotten more if you took home some proof, but I guess things would have gotten messy if you had.” Then she laughs, an empty, hollow sound that makes it hard to breathe. “I wonder what they would have given you if they knew you needed to kill me twice?”
Niko pushes past me, seconds from dropping to his knees, whether to beg for forgiveness, or for our girl to love us even though we don’t deserve it, I’m not sure, but stops short when Liv holds up her hands. “We had no idea, Liv. You have to believe that. We didn’t know, there’s no way we could have.”
“Since I’d never even heard of Boris Volkov until I met you, I can’t imagine the hit was one he came up with all on his own. Some meaningless little omega, a used up sex slave and the gang of alphas contracted to fuck her when she wasn’t being pimped out? That’s just another Tuesday to a guy like him. Business as usual, right?” Liv uses the heels of her hands to scrub the tearsfrom her cheeks. “So, who really wanted us dead? Who was the one that called dear old daddy and asked him to send his best men out to BFE Minnesota?”
I push my hands aggressively back through my hair and grit my teeth. “Hayk Petrosyan. That’s why I recognized the name, it was written on the orders, but I didn’t know him. Neither of us did.”
“They were just doing their job, love.” Styx says cautiously as he and Rune join us. “They didn’t know it was you, and even if they had a name, they wouldn’t have known?—”
“What? That we’re supposed to fall madly in love and become some big bonded pack that pops out tons of babies while we all live happily ever after?” Liv laughs and sobs at the same time, the sound gut wrenching and brutal as she looks at our beta and tries to compose herself. “You’re right. If they hadn’t murdered my pack in cold blood, I wouldn’t be here right now, having my mind fucking blown by the men I’mactuallybonded to. So, I guess there’sthat.” Our girl lifts her hands to her temples, rubbing them for a brief second before she drops them to her sides once again. “I thought my family was bad, and believe me when I say, they are really,reallygoddamn bad and I’ve barely told you a fraction of that trauma, but fuck. Look at us. You were hunting him for a bounty”—she motions between Leon and me—“you shot him a couple of times before abandoning him completely”—Liv points at Niko—“the two of you killed the men who saved me from a life I wasn’t sure I could keep living, and I bet you were even the one who managed to successfully put a few holes in me in the process.” She motions to me again then sweeps her arm toward Rune and Styx. “What’s next?Who’snext? I think it’s kind of like the biting shit. If we haven’t all beenalmostmurdered by someone we’re in love with, what’s the fucking point of being a goddamn pack? Where is the goddamn love in that?”
As soon as those last few words leave her lips, our girl spins on her heel and starts to run toward the barn, stifling her sobs the best she can while she does exactly what I knew she was going to do.
“Don’t fucking follow me!” Liv yells right before she goes inside, and that’s when it clicks.
Fuck.“Where are your keys?” I ask Niko seconds before their truck comes tearing out of the barn at full speed, the wheels kicking up grass and dirt as the Ford speeds across the yard. “Fuck me.”
My head falls back on my neck as I close my eyes, my hands returning to my hair where I tangle my fingers and pull hard at the roots.
This is one hell of a twist of fate.
A hit almost three years ago turns out to be the catalyst for a series of horrible events that ultimately led us to the here and now.
A fucking hit that shattered Liv’s already guarded heart, and I have no goddamn idea if the five of us are enough to put the pieces back together.
CHAPTER 29
NIKO
THE NOOSE - A PERFECT CIRCLE
“What the hell are you waiting for?” I blink rapidly through my tears, not giving one single fuck that I’m crying as I try like hell to get my vision to clear up enough to go after our girl. I watch her peel out of the barn, my heart breaking as the distance between us grows. “Let’s fucking go!”
I go to shove past Leon but he catches me around the waist and holds me back, bear hugging me from behind as I throw elbows, barely ducking when I try to headbutt him and start kicking my legs in hopes of connecting with his shins.
“Let her go, baby,” he says softly next to my ear. “Not forever, just for now.”
“Are you fucking mental?” My chest heaves as my heart pounds against my ribs, slamming out a panicked rhythm as my anger simmers right under the surface. “Let her go?! Let our fucking girl, our bonded omega,go? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Leon sets me on my feet, but he doesn't loosen his hold as Rune comes to stand in front of me and cups my cheeks. “He’s right, Nikolai.” The gentle giant smoothes his thumbs back andforth under my eyes, wiping my tears and trying to soothe my nerves. “Olive needs time.”
“Time? Time for what?” I lift my hands and wrap my fingers around his wrists, squeezing hard in a sad attempt to ground myself. “The moretimewe give her, the further away from us she gets, and the closer we are to never seeing Liv again!”
Rune sighs as he searches my eyes then leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead, but he doesn’t speak.
