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But I didn’t think letting the assassin beside me go was a smart move either.
“Kieran, I’m sorry,” I began. “I’m—fuck, I’m so sorry about Jess.”
His eyes narrowed on me in a way that warned I should stop talking—that I should probably run—but I edged closer and said, “I can’t begin to imagine what you’re going through or feeling, but I would change it if I could.”
Conor grunted but stayed silent otherwise.
I swallowed roughly, struggling to do the simplest action when standing beside a person as dangerous as Nightshade and as broken as Kieran. “But going with us...”
“I know what Dare told you,” Kieran said before I could go on. “If I didn’t want it getting back to you, I never would’ve told Conor. And I told Conor so they could lead me away from those thoughts.” I watched as his jaw trembled and his eyes glossed over. “The thoughts are still there, and they’ll be there because my wife is gone, but a greater part of me knows the truth. I know Willow sacrificed herself so the other women and my kids—all our kids—would be spared.”
I nodded even as I said, “I can’t trust you not to snap when you see her.” I gestured to where Sutton stood. “You’ve done it before.”
Kieran’s gaze briefly shifted to her and Conor before focusing on me. “You need me on this, and that kill belongs to me and is overdue.” Taking a step closer to me, he lowered his voice even more. The emotion there pulling at my chest when he vowed, “I won’t let Willow die too.”
My head bobbed as I repeated my earlier words, “I would change that night if I could. I would bring Jess back.”
“We all would,” Conor said soberly.
Kieran’s eyes welled with unshed tears, but he just rocked back and cleared his throat. “We going? I have a Keane to kill.”
I watched him stalk away, then kept my voice soft when I asked Conor, “Is he gonna be okay?”
“You can trust him tonight if that’s what you’re asking. It’s the next months I’m worried about.” A heaving sigh left Conor as he clapped my shoulder and started in the same direction with me by his side. “We’ll be safe from Kieran...no one else will.”
Then we would watch him. Be there for him and stop him from whatever destructive path he went down.
I just needed to know he wouldn’t be a liability tonight.
WILLOW
I’d been afraid to even move after reading the note that girl had given me.
I’d stood there, looking for cameras from my position in the middle of the room for an embarrassing amount of time before I’d realized the likelihood of there being any was slim.
She wouldn’t have risked giving me the note if there were. She wouldn’t have lied about having forgotten my food.
But that didn’t ease my worries because there had to be something. Well, according to the girl with the winking heart eyes. Which...I wasn’t sure I wanted to put any kind of trust in anyone wearing a neon mask.
Still, I’d found myself being overly attentive to every sound I made as I finally moved through the room, looking for any kind of device that could transmit the sound from this room to somewhere else.
When I eventually sank to the bed, forcefully enough to ensure whoever was listening know what I was doing, my only relief was that I hadn’t found anything in the bathroom. Because there was something...and it was directly next to the bed, attached to the back of the nightstand.
Assholes.
With a slightly exaggerated, pained moan, I curled up on my side, preparing to wait.
I didn’t know days from nights in this windowless room, but between giving into the mental and physical exhaustion and trying to pass the long stretches of time between meals, I knew I’d been sleeping away most of my time there.
However, that foolish hope blooming in my chest had my mind alert and my eyes locked on the door, waiting for when that girl returned—if she returned.
I held back a belittling sigh at the realization that I was putting all my faith into one of my nightmares, but given the circumstances, I wasn’t sure what other options I had.
But when the lock sounded hours later, sending my pulse into a frenzy of anticipation, that hope flickered when a mountain of a dog loped toward me as if I were her favorite person.
With a hushed demand, the dog abruptly stopped just before the bed and sat, looking excitedly at me as neon red filled the room behind her.
I guess we’re back to the mask then...
