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“Baby,” he whispered, and then he was crouched beside me. As much as I wanted him to wrap me in his arms, I knew he wouldn’t. Instead, his eyes travelled over my body, assessing if I was hurt anywhere, and then slid to the manacles. His jaw tightened, and his muscles flexed when they landed on my scraped and bleeding hands and fingers.
“I’m okay,” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling.
“I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay,” Aiden taunted. “Okay, let me tell him. I was there in her bedroom, ready to kill her on her seventeenth birthday, but I waited, and you didn’t come, Gate.” Vic was like a stone, not reacting to Aiden’s words. “I thought it was a good plan. Ethan finding her and screaming and shit. You running out of the shadows to barge in and see her dead. God, it would’ve been beautiful. But when that monster—and he was a monster for what he did—interrupted, it was like fate. Oh, and don’t worry, Gate. I tortured him before I killed him.” He grinned. “But this is so much better. Bringing us back to where it all began. It’s rather poetic, don’t you think?”
“Brother.” Callum’s voice cut through the damp air like a knife.
Aiden spun on his heel and the flame went out. He quickly struck another match. “My baby brother, you came. I just knew you wouldn’t let me do this alone. It’s been how long since we’ve seen each other? What? No hugs? No cries of glee?”
Footsteps followed Callum from the shadows and Ethan appeared. Ethan? Why was Ethan here? His gaze instantly went to me, and I saw his hand curl into a fist while the other went to the gun at his waist. Ethan had a gun? I didn’t even know he’d ever handled a gun.
“Oh now, isn’t this nice,” Aiden said. “The famous Ethan North. All we need is the Chief of Police and Jaeg Mason and it’ll be a big old reunion. Except this time, it’s me who will torture all of you. Just two more. Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he sang.
Vic wasn’t paying attention to Aiden anymore. His focus was on me as he ran his hands down my body, checking for any wounds.
“Vic, I’m fine.”
He didn’t say anything as his eyes went to the chain links I’d managed to untwist. Then to my bloody fingertips. “Fuck,” he swore beneath his breath.
He reached into one of the pockets on his black tactical vest and pulled out a small, pin-like tool. He reached for my hands and inserted the pin into the lock on the one manacle. Within seconds, it slipped from my wrist, and he moved to the other.
“I let you live,” Callum said, staying at the mouth of the tunnel. He wasn’t wearing tactical gear like Vic, but there was no question from his steadiness and control that he knew what he was doing.
Aiden struck another match and smiled. “Yes. Yes. But it wasn’t because I was your flesh and blood. No, you only let me go so I’d tell you what I did with your girl. Ah, sweet young hidden love. You know everyone thought she ran away. But you knew it was me.”
Vic’s hands stilled on my wrist, and he swore beneath his breath.
Callum kept his gun steady on Aiden. “You sold her.”
Vic slid his hand into mine.
Aiden made an exaggerated sigh. “She told me how much she loved you and got all emotional and shit… God, that was beautiful. Really touching stuff.”
Vic urged me to my feet. Then his lips grazed my ear as he whispered, “This is going to blow up at any second, baby. Need you to do everything I say.”
I nodded. His fingers squeezed my waist, and he slowly backed us toward the gate while keeping his eyes locked on Aiden.
“You fuckin’ sold her because she was mine. You killed her,” Callum said, his voice strained with barely controlled rage.
“Now, that’s not fair. I didn’t actually kill her,” Aiden said.
It was like a movie playing in slow motion as Aiden’s head turned toward us, his eyes widening and the match falling from his fingertips at the same time as Callum’s gun went off. Vic dove on top of me, covering me with his body as the gas can ignited and blew up. A burst of flames roared up, and then the fire circled the platform like a snake, trapping us inside the cage.
Vic leapt to his feet, bringing me with him. He reached for the gun under his pants leg and fired off several shots at Aiden, who was holding his shoulder and running toward a tunnel. His pants leg was on fire, but he either didn’t notice, or didn’t care as he ran.
“Callum. Ethan. He’s headed down the tunnel toward the house. He gets there first, he’ll trap us inside,” Vic shouted.
They were blocked by a wall of fire, and the tunnel where they’d come from now engulfed in flames.
Callum and Ethan covered their faces with their arms and leapt through the fire, rolling on the other side. Callum took off running after Aiden, and Ethan ran for us.
“No. Ethan, I got her. Go. If he gets through that door, we’re all dead.”
Ethan looked at Vic and then me before he took off.
“Baby.” Vic kissed the top of my head, then pulled back. “We need to move fast. He’s rigged explosives through the stables. Saint and Jaeg are looking for the detonator, but I have no way of knowing if they’ve found it and are able to stop it if they have.”
He cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs stroking back and forth on my cheeks. “We have to jump through the fire. Run. Jump and roll. Then run for the tunnel. I’ll be right behind you. Okay?”
