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Skyla froze with her eyes on Kramer. The fucking weasel. He was beaten all to hell, and it still wasn’t enough for me. They’d been holding back in order to give Skyla a chance to see him.
Enough blood pooled on the floor that it would be hard for him to come back from his injuries.
I didn’t want him to, but we would respect Skyla’s wishes, whatever they were.
“Skyla.” Her name bubbled through his fucked-up lips. “Thank god. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I promise I didn’t mean it. Just tell them not to kill me.”
I stepped in behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. The scent of her mixed with mine was intoxicating. And with her, even speaking didn’t feel like a burden. I brushed my lips over her ear, and everyone could hear my words except for Kramer with his human ears. “Whatever you need to do or ask, we won’t stop you. If you want to kill him, his life is yours.”
This was what I meant when I said it would help her choose. Skyla knew we weren’t the villains in this, but shefeltlike we were. She needed to see the true depth of this betrayal to understand why yesterday happened exactly how it was meant to, and was probably the best situation we could ask for.
“Whatever I want?” No more than a breath.
“Whatever you want,” I repeated. “You want to cut off his dick with a butter knife? I’ll get it for you. You want to burn him alive? I’ll get you the gasoline.”
I pulled her body back into mine, ignoring the burn in my throat from so much speech. I’d ruin my voice if it made her happy. Anything she needed to bring her close to us. She was meant to be here, and we weren’t going to hide who we were.
Skyla straightened and pulled my hoodie down from over her face. “Hold this for me?” She held her coffee out to me. “Don’t drink it.”
I chuckled, smelling the sugar from here. “The only thing I’ll ever drink that’s this sweet is your pussy.”
Pink rose to her cheeks, but her shoulders stayed strong. With one deep breath, she crossed the room to Kramer and hit him with her open hand. His head rocked from the impact of the blow, and blood now coated the entirety of Skyla’s palm. “That’s the least of what I should do to you for yesterday.”
His head hanging, Kramer said nothing.
“I—” She shook her head. “I don’t even know what to say to you, K. You sold me out. You destroyed my life.”
Now he looked up, fury on his face. It wasn’t the face she knew. “Destroyed your life? Yeah, it looks pretty destroyed from where I’m standing. What about me?”
Skyla looked helplessly at the three of us before back at Kramer. “I don’t understand what could make you do this, K. And I’m not only talking about me. I’m talking about siding with the Legion for anything. You had to know it wouldn’t work out, trying to go around the Shadows when you were supposed to be neutral.”
He spat blood at her feet, and Wraith stepped in, grabbing what little hair he had and forcing his gaze up to meet hers. The metal knuckles he wore glinted in the colored light. “Careful, Kramer. Don’t spit on the one person who can save your life. Though I doubt she’ll want to once you tell her the truth.”
Skyla paled. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Kramer said. “They’re lying to you so they can kill me and not feel bad about it. Nowtell them to let me go.”
The blade flashed in the colored light before it dug into the delicate skin of his neck. “Ah, ah,” Wraith said, his voice taking on the velvet tone he used before he carved someone up into pieces no one would ever find. “I think you need lessons in how to speak to a lady. And you’re going to tell her the truth, one way or another. You can survive just fine without fingers and toes. And believe me, I’ll enjoy taking them from you one by one.”
“Tell me the truth about what?”
Kramer said nothing, gritting his teeth loud enough for us to hear.
“The truth aboutwhat,Kramer?” Skyla stepped forward and wrapped her hand over Wraith’s. A fraction more pressure, and his life was over. “Or I swear to each of the gods every race believes in, I’ll tell them to do their worst to you.”
My cock hardened at the raw strength and violence in her promise.
He still said nothing, and Silver stepped forward. “Let me help, baby girl. Delta did some digging. You can thank him later for that. And found out more about Kramer and how in the hell he had enough money to pay the collateral in the first place. And what it was really for.”
Watching the blood drain from someone’s face when they realized you knew their secret was one of the most satisfying things. And it never got old, because they never learned.
Kramer turned into a beast, jerking against the restraints despite the knife at his throat. I lunged for Skyla, pulling her back just in time. The chair fell over, dumping Kramer in his own blood.
“Let mego,you monsters. I didn’t do anything wrong. You think I could say no to those fuckers when they asked? They would have killed me too. You’re really going to murder me because I was put in an impossible situation?”
I held Skyla against my body. Her coffee was on the floor—I’d get her another one. But she wasn’t getting closer to that asshole if there was even a chance he could hurt her.
“No.” Silver put his boot on Kramer’s ribs. “I don’t envy the position you were in. But you still said yes, and that’s on you. The reason I want to kill you is because you’ve been taking private bids and gifts in order to sell Skyla to the highest bidder. In exchange for the immortality of your choice, of course.”
