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CHAPTER 8
Max
I eyed the whiskey bottle, desperate for the oblivion it would offer me. I’d managed to resist the siren’s call for the entire night. I couldn’t allow my senses to be dulled, no matter how keenly I craved to drown out the memories of fire searing away my flesh. My face burned with ripples of agony that were just as intense as the night my father had scarred me for life. The fresh burns on my forearms were nothing compared to the terror that’d consumed my mind with each passing hour without Allie in my arms. She soothed me like nothing else, and I needed her like a drug.
But I couldn’t drink to numb the pain. I didn’t know when she would come to me; she’d promised to return once she was discharged from the hospital. I wouldn’t allow her to find me in a drunken stupor when she arrived. She would need me to be strong for her after the nightmare my cousins had inflicted.
My fists flexed uselessly at my sides. It had to have been them. They must’ve wanted revenge against me for preventing them from getting made. I thought I’d proven my power over them, but they’d retaliated by targeting my biggest weakness: Allie.
I wanted to hunt them down and make them scream before I killed them. They’d been the ones to instruct me in the cruelest tortures when we’d exacted revenge on my mother’s murderers. Now, I would turn those skills against them. They’d tried to take Allie from me. They’d hurt her, made her bleed. She could’ve died if I’d gotten to her even a minute later.
I shuddered and shoved the thought away. I couldn’t contemplate a world without Allie. I needed her more than my next breath, and the wait for her to arrive was interminable.
The sun had risen hours ago. My eyes itched like my lids were lined with sandpaper, but residual terror and rage rode me too hard for me to feel weariness.
Her soft knock on my door pierced my chest like a bullet. I leapt to my feet and rushed to her, throwing the lock back so that I could pull her into my arms.
She pressed her face to my chest, inhaling deeply, as though she was as desperate for my scent as I was for hers. As I breathed her in, I knew that she was with me, safe and whole. I was grateful that I’d showered off the stench of smoke and changed out of my singed clothes. I’d been nearly out of my mind with fear for her and demons from my past, but I’d needed to get that scent off me.
The acrid smell of smoke and fear finally faded as I held her close. My arms shook, and I tugged her impossibly closer as I breathed her name.
“Are you okay?” she murmured against my chest. “Are you hurt?”
I forced myself to pull back slightly, so that I could look down into her eyes. She was worried about me? The last time I’d seen her, she’d been covered in blood and scarcely breathing.
Now, I took in the dark bruise that marred her alabaster cheek, and rage ignited in my chest. “I’m fine, Bambi. You’re the one who’s hurt.” I forced my jaw to unclench so I could ask, “Who did this to you?”
She released a shuddering sigh and leaned into me. “Your cousins. But I’m okay,” she hastened to add. “The doctor said I’ll be fine, and she gave me painkillers. It doesn’t even hurt.”
I’ll kill them. I kept the promise locked behind my bared teeth, knowing that she might beg me not to if I voiced my intentions aloud.
“What did they do?” I managed to growl. “Tell me.”
I would extract each of their sins from them before I allowed them to die. I needed to know every detail so that I wouldn’t spare them one ounce of pain as I cut their confessions from their flesh.
“They were waiting for me outside the office,” she began with a small shudder. “They threatened to shoot me if I didn’t go with them. I wanted to stall and wait for you, but they said they didn’t care about going to prison. They wanted revenge on you more than they cared about getting arrested?” The last was a tremulous question.
I stoked my fingers through her hair, the silken sensation against my callouses reminding me that she was alive and safe.
“They hate me.” I forced the words through gritted teeth. I couldn’t tell her what I’d done, that I’d been able to prevent my cousins from getting made because I’d reclaimed my birthright. All because I would be using her vulnerable words to blackmail her father.
Her eyes searched mine for a moment, shining with compassion. The gentleness I saw there knifed through my heart. She’d asked why I was loyal to my family when they treated me with cruelty. She didn’t understand that I didn’t have a choice: blood was everything.
That wouldn’t stop me from killing John and Paulie. As long as they were breathing, Allie was in danger. I wouldn’t fucking allow it.
“They forced you to take them home with you?” I prompted, needing to know what more they’d done to her. They would scream every word before I finally ended them.
Her slender fingers flexed into my biceps, clinging tightly to me. “Yes. They wanted to…” She bit her lip and shivered, and red flashed over my vision.
She didn’t have to say it aloud; I knew what they’d wanted to do to her.
“Did they touch you?” I growled. They’d lose every finger for that.
Her eyes squeezed shut. “They stopped when I told them you would come looking for me. Paulie hit me, and I blacked out for a little while. I’m not sure how they started the fire. But I heard them say that you wouldn’t save me. They thought you wouldn’t come into the fire for me.”
She cupped my cheek, her trembling fingers sliding over my scar. “Thank you. I know that must have been awful for you. You saved my life.”
I would’ve let the fire claim me before I’d have left her to die alone. There hadn’t been a choice.
