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My brows pull together as I frown, my head tilted as I watch the woman I love break into pieces for someone else. The world around me upends, facts I overlooked before blaring with alarm bells as I look at them in a new light.
She wasn’t putting up with his assaults so she could live in his house.
She wasn’t subjecting herself to the grumpy one’s indifference so she’d have somewhere safe to stay.
She wasn’t fake dating the wannabe hero so he’d protect her.
It was all a carefully constructed lie to deceive me, and I was too blinded by my love for her to see what was right in front of my face.
“You tricked me,” I say numbly, staring at the woman in front of me—a virtual stranger drenched in another man’s blood. She startles at the sound of my voice, as if she somehow forgot I was even here. How dare she.
How fucking dare she!
“It was all a lie!” I roar. She shifts in his lap to face me, her chin tilted up and a fierce glint in her eye as she uses her body to shield the miserable sack of skin and bones slowly dying behind her.
Betrayal coats my insides like slime, leaving a sticky residue behind. Everything in me wants to stab and slash and kill. Craving the taste of her blood on my tongue, I advance toward her.
Her eyes remain locked on me. Unlike him, there’s a hefty dose of fear in her gaze, even as she resolutely stands her ground, willing to die protecting the pitiful man behind her.
Wilder’s eyelids flicker before cracking open as he puts up a final fight. “Don’t you fucking touch her,” he growls, struggling against his restraints. He’s far too weak to break free. The pair of them can die and rot down here alone together.
He can spout pretty words about how they’ll find each other in the afterlife, but that’s complete and utter bullshit. If I can’t have Emilia, no one can. Not in this life or the next. They’ll die, and that will be that. No happily ever after for them.
I’ve put years of hard work into cultivating this relationship. Into becoming the person she needed. Into planning our lives together. After years of pain, torture, not fitting in, and being alone, I thought I’d finally found my diamond in the rough.
I can still remember the first time I laid eyes on her like it was yesterday. She was so beautifully broken. I’d been passing through Halston on my way to nowhere when I stopped for a coffee. And there she was, working behind the counter.
When she smiled at me, it reached all the way down to the bottomless pit of my soul. I could see the pain in her eyes. She was damaged, but her splintered edges enthralled me. People believe beauty lies in perfection, but they’re wrong. Beauty is in the chips and cracks. It’s in watching something hit the ground without shattering. Beauty occurs in that moment of collision, when your whole world shatters, and you somehow manage to keep all the broken pieces together.
She didn’t recognize me when we met again, on our first day at Halston University. Of course, I’d dyed my hair and changed my name, and I’d been one of the dozens of customers in the cafe that day. One glimpse of her hadn’t been enough. I’d hung around until her shift ended and followed her back to her dorm room. The new academic year hadn’t even started yet, so I don’t know why she was already there. Guess it was just my lucky day. It was Kismet. We were destined to meet.
Until that fucking brown-haired, green-eyed savior of hers stormed his way in and ruined it all.
Now, staring Emilia down as I close in on her, I can see the difference in her. A difference I hadn’t even known to look for. That broken beauty that drew me in in the first place is no longer there. At some point over the last several months, she’s managed to put herself back together. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who exactly helped her achieve that.
It makes my blood boil. She wasmybroken plaything.Mydamaged doll.Mine. All fucking mine!
She could have had everything with me. Instead, she’s willing to die in the darkwith him.
When I'm a few feet away from her, her gaze shifts to the staircase. Only then do I register the pounding of footsteps over the roaring in my ears. I dive for my backpack as two pairs of legs appear, Grumpy and the Savior Complex scouring the bunker for Emilia.
It’s only more confirmation of how fucking blind I’ve been, and I grit my teeth as a fresh wave of anger crashes over me. My vision turns red as my hand wraps around the gun in my bag.
Grumpy doesn’t even see me as he rushes to Emilia’s side, pulling her up as his hands run over her, inspecting for injuries. Savior Complex immediately clocks me. He moves with precision, steadily sidestepping until he’s standing between her and me, his gun pointed in my direction.
We remain in a silent standoff until Emilia’s teary voice breaks through. “Kai.” He doesn’t turn to look at her, but his shoulders tense. “Wilder… we need to get him to a hospital.”
Shuffling from behind him, as she and Grumpy undo the unconscious asshole’s restraintsdistracts him. He glances away long enough for me to slip up the stairs. Not looking back, I race toward the daylight, his harsh curse chasing at my heels as I reach the ground and sprint into the trees.
I may be fleeing, but this is far from over.
Until now, I’d been protecting Emilia, showing her how much I care.
My love for her has been burned to ashes and left to blow away in the wind and in the scorched remains where love once grew, there’s now only contempt. Cold, harsh bitterness coats my tongue—the taste of retribution.
Chapter22
KAI
