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31
Wylder
Mercy lookedlike a goddess of war, bathed in her enemy’s blood. Taking her in, I had to catch my breath despite the gore. The way she’d fought back, kept grasping at every hope of survival no matter how fiercely Gia had attacked her, was nothing short of spectacular.
How could I have thought this woman couldn’t stand strong alongside us?
She drew herself up straight, and I had the urge to offer a supporting hand, but I could already tell from the tensing of her jaw that she’d refuse it. She wiped her fingers across her cheek, and I was jolted back to the full reality of the situation.Imight be admiring her in her blood-drenched state, but it was doubtful she was enjoying the experience all that much.
“I can explain all of this,” she said, her voice rasping. It’d looked like Gia had nearly crushed her throat.
I reined in my emotions. Some of my father’s men had come out at the commotion. They were watching me now, evaluating how I handled the situation.
“I’m looking forward to hearing that explanation,” I said. “But why don’t we get you cleaned up first. I’d rather talk without you dripping blood all over the furniture this time.”
The corner of her lips curled with what might have been the start of a smile. The sight made my cock twitch in response. Fucking hell, just like that I wanted to kiss her, blood and all.
To my surprise, Anthea stepped up beside her, nudging Mercy toward the house. “Come on. I’ll walk you in.”
“I’m fine,” Mercy muttered, but she let herself be ushered.
“Sure you are,” I heard my aunt say as they walked away. “But you’ll be fine-erif you stop being so stubborn about letting people give you a hand now and then.”
What the hell was going on there? I guessed I’d find that out when Mercy was ready to talk.
My gaze fell to the woman sprawled on the road. It was hard to see Gia as a person anymore, as anything more than a hollow shell.
There’d been a time when I’d felt a pang of guilt when I had to kill someone. Now, I could recognize it as inevitable. It’d been Gia or Mercy, and I’d seen and heard enough even without Mercy’s full explanation to know I’d made the right choice.
“Let’s go,” I said to the guys, jerking my head toward the house. “Call the clean-up crew and have this taken care of. I need a drink before storytime starts.”
* * *
By the next morning, I was beginning to think that an entire bottle of brandy wouldn’t be enough to numb the ache in my head from untangling the bizarre scenario I’d been faced with. I swirled the liquid in my snifter and leaned back in my armchair as Rowan, Kaige, and Anthea trooped into my study at my summons. Gideon was already seated next to me, his fingers flicking over his tablet’s screen.
Kaige looked from me to him and back again. He seemed to read my expression. “It’strue? All of it? You’re fucking kidding me.”
My mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “I’m as serious as Mercy looked splattered in Gia’s blood last night.”
“Fuck,” Rowan murmured. He hadn’t raised any arguments against Mercy’s convoluted tale last night, but I suspected we’d all found it difficult to accept at face value.
Anthea propped herself against my desk. “Well, we know that psychotic bitch definitely tried to killme. I talked to a guy who saw her tinkering with my car yesterday afternoon—she told him I’d asked her to give it a tune-up.” She rolled her eyes. “Naturally, just like the rest of us, it never occurred to him that ‘some groupie chick’ would have murder on the mind. What else did you manage to dig up?”
She was taking this whole situation pretty calmly considering her first point. I guessed it ran in the family.
“I excavated Gia’s cot in the groupie room after the others were up this morning,” I said, and motioned to the evidence on the side table by the arm of my chair. “Everything Mercy mentioned was there—the jeans with the bleach stains that could be hydrogen peroxide, the magazines with the flyer and various… tokens that appear to have come from Kaige.”
Kaige’s mouth pulled into a grimace. He touched the dog tags hanging around his neck where he’d kept them during every waking hour for as long as I’d known him, until they’d disappeared one night a few months ago. “Just like she stole these. Why the fuck— I barelytalkedto her.”
I shrugged. “Who knows? She was clearly unhinged. I mean, anyone would have to be to fall in love withyou, right?”
Kaige glowered at me, but the teasing remark lifted the gloom that had settled over the meeting just a bit.
Anthea picked up the jeans and studied the marked fabric. She leaned closer and sniffed. “She washed them, but there’s still a trace of vinegar scent too. She must have been wearing these when she doctored the fire escape railing.”
“And then she managed to ambush Titus—to overpower him?” Rowan said, not exactly disbelieving.
I nodded. “We all saw she was a lot stronger than we’d have suspected from the way she went at Mercy last night. And Gideon tracked down some footage from the fights that’d been uploaded online…”
