I swallowed that first lick of heat, closing my eyes as the Scotch raced down my throat and spread through my body. Fuck Coulter. Fuck him and Harmon and Hale and every other sick motherfucker that didn’t deserve to take another goddamn breath.
The moment Helene was on that goddamn truck, we were out of here. I could finally get on with my life…what was left of it, at least. My thoughts turned to the future, to the one I hadn’t planned on. A flicker of jealousy flared as I glanced at my brother.
I wanted to go back to the house in the city, and to the place I’d known Helene best. Would she come back to me after this was all over? Or would I open the door to my brother’s apartment and find her there?
A wince tore through me.
“All my fucking work gone.” Kane groaned and swallowed his drink.
It was the same thing I’d heard for hours.
His work.
His data.
His years.
I came back into my body at the faint crackle of the two-way, but the volume was low and the call garbled. I ignored it.
Beep.
“What the fuck now.” I muttered and grabbed my cell.
Words danced across the screen. Words I didn’t quite understand. Time slowed, seconds became an eternity as I swiped my thumb across the screen and opened my messages.
Walker: THEY HAVE HELENE! GET HERE NOW!
“They have—” I started, and the glass fell from my hand.
I was already turning as the crash came when it hit the floor. Already lunging toward the counter to grab my gun.
“What the fuck?” Kane called. “What is it? Riven…RIVEN!”
My steps were too slow. My pulse too quiet as I gripped the weapon and punched through the doors. The bright corridors blurred.
They have Helene!
THEY HAVE HELENE!
My cell rang. I answered instantly, barking down the line as I headed through the first lot of doors and out into the hallway. “The trucks are supposed to come tomorrow!”
I slammed my access card on the scanner and pushed through before I ran.
“It’s not the truck.”
I slowed at the next doors, slammed my card once more and waited for the lock to release for me to punch through.
Red.
I hit the door on instinct. Boom! The lock didn’t release, causing me to bounce off the door. “Fuck!” I stepped back, slamming the card against the reader once more.
Red.
Again.
Red.
“What do you mean, it’s not the trucks?”
“There’s been no trucks through the gate.” Walker grunted as he panted. “Jesus fucking Christ. Stevens is dead. They put a fucking bullet in his brain. There’s—hold on—“
The low creak of a door echoed, followed by the thud of his steps. “There’s a sign of a struggle in her room.”
“A struggle?” I repeated, my voice low.
The words resounded in my brain…a struggle.
I turned back to the scanner and drove my card against it once more.
Red.
Red.
Red.
“I can’t get in.” I lifted my gaze to the doors. “I CAN’T FUCKING GET IN!”
“What do you mean?”
I stared at those doors as the thud of steps came behind me. “They revoked my fucking access.” I answered and lunged at the doors, throwing my shoulder against them. “They FUCKING REVOKED MY ACCESS!”
“Riven!” Kane roared. “What the fuck is going on?”
I couldn’t answer, just stabbed my finger at the scanner. “Open the goddamn door!”
He looked at me, then thrust his card against the same device. Still, the scanner glowed red.
“Walker.” I gasped desperately. “We can’t get in.”
“Hold on.” He grunted, sucking in hard breaths. “I’m on my way to you.”
“Riven!” Kane barked. “What the hell is going on?”
I didn’t want to say it. Because if I did, then it’d make it real. Instead, I shook my head and gripped the gun. “When we get there, stay out of my fucking way.”
Movement came through the glass in the doors up ahead. Walker was a blur, barreling through the doors to shove them open.
“Hale’s office. Now!” I roared.
We all ran. Walker charging ahead to open the doors, leaving us to follow barely a step behind. But the moment I neared the wing of offices, I felt that emptiness. I slammed against the handles as Walker hit the locks. The door flew open, hitting with a crash.
But it was empty and silent.
“They’re not here.” I swivelled around, my mind racing.
Images flickered. Coulter and his men were around the conference table. A choked sound ripped free as I strode forward and snatched Walker’s card from his hand. I knew instantly that’s where they were.
Hold on, Trouble, I pleaded. I’m coming.
My erratic pulse slowed as an eerie calm washed over me. I ran, driving my boots against the floor, and headed for the conference room.
“Fuck. That’s it!” A grunt billowed out.
“I’m next.” Another snarled as I stumbled inside the room.
My mind froze. Men stood around the table. Coulter stood off to the side. His shirt was open, his pants, too. Why was his fucking pants open?
A guard thrust into something at the end of the table and as he groaned, he moved…then I saw her. Splayed out, her hands pinned to the table by two of the other commanders.
Rage moved through me.
Rage like I’d never felt in my life.
There was no room for thought. Only instinct as I lifted the gun, stepped forward, and took aim.
Bang!
Blood and brains kicked out from the fucking animal inside her, and his body followed.
I was cold.
So fucking cold…when I lunged and grabbed the bastard who held one wrist. My hands didn’t shake, not when I drove the butt of the gun into his nose, hard enough to stun him with a crack. His head snapped backwards and blood shot out, spurting over my hands as I forced his head against the table.
“YOU GET THE FUCK OFF HER!” I screamed.
I couldn’t stop.
That howling need inside me was all there was.
Bang!
His body jerked and blood splattered the table and her arms.
I was already lifting my gun to the piece of shit on the other side as roars came all around me in the room.
Walker was a blur, charging forward to slam against Coulter’s guard as I lifted my gun and took aim at the dead man who held her other wrist down.
“I didn’t.” He shook his head and lifted his hands.
Bang!
I didn’t care.
Not anymore.
Because he would have…I sucked in hard breaths and spun, catching as Walker shoved the muzzle of his gun in Coulter’s guard’s face.
“One fucking move and I’ll blow your goddamn head off.” Walker promised.
“YOU get the FUCK AWAY FROM HER!” I bellowed and aimed around the room, stepping closer to the motionless form on the table.
She was naked, her legs stretched wide, and there was blood…
Revulsion burned as I forced my gaze away. Narrowing in on Coulter. He never moved, just watched this all play out as Kane came through the door.
“Jesus Christ.” Walker groaned, finding her on the table, then glared around the room. “YOU FUCKING DID THIS? YOU GODDAMN ANIMALS!”
No.
I sucked in hard breaths, finding the glint of amusement in Coulter’s stare.
He did.
He lowered his gaze to her lying naked, spread out on the table. “Looks like this one isn’t worth the two million after all.”
My lips curled.
Black was all I saw.
The color of his eyes.
The cold, hard obsidian of my heart.
The gaping hole of my future where I died murdering every single one of these bastards. It’d be worth it.
I lifted my gun, took a step, and aimed.
He never even looked at the weapon, transfixed instead by my pain as though it was his entertainment.
“I will kill you.” Rage shook my voice. “I will kill every last one of you.”
“Riven.” Walker tugged my arm. “Come on, we need to get her out of here.”
He was right. He was…right.
I scanned the room, etching every fucking stare into my mind before I made for the motionless figure on the table.
Kane was already talking to her, opening her eyes, finding her pupils slow. He winced as he looked down. Blood and bite marks marred her body, but I couldn’t look at them.
Not yet.
Not without spilling more blood.
Come dripped between her legs. The glistening mess shimmered in the corner of my eye as I reached under her legs. “Get her a blanket or something, for Christ’s sake.” I snapped.
Walker spun around, but Kane was already tearing the buttons of his shirt free and wrapping it across her. I met his gaze briefly, finding his shell-shocked stare before I looked away. “She needs the infirmary.”
She needed a lot more than the help of doctors and the nursing staff, but right now, that was our only option. I handed my gun to Walker before I lifted her and pulled her body against me.
She’d held on…
But I hadn’t been there.
The words detonated inside me as I carried her from that room and back out into the hallway. Walker strode ahead, slapping his access card against the scanners as we went.
Coulter had set this up from the very beginning.
The files on the drive.
The locked doors.
All designed not just to drive us out…but away from her.
“Whatever happens after this, I want that motherfucker to pay.” I murmured as I turned and headed for the banks of medical beds. “And I want to be the one to do it.”
Two of the male nurses rose from their seats in the nursing station and headed our way. But Kane just shook his head and turned around. “Just point me toward your antiseptics and scrubs.”
One lifted his hand and pointed, kicking my brother into action. He moved fast, gathering what he needed as I shifted my attention back to her.
I didn’t want to lay her down, not yet. I wanted to hold her against me forever, anything so I didn’t have to look into those vacant eyes anymore and see what those monsters had done to her.
Monsters like me.
I winced, holding her carefully, my voice husky as I said. “You’re okay now. You hear me, Helene? You’re okay.”
She never responded, not even to moan as I eased her against the cold sheets. If it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of her chest, I would’ve thought she was dead.
Maybe right now she wanted to be.
The words stuck in the back of my throat as I eased away. She stared with that soul-crushing vacant expression, not even flinching when I brushed the hair from her face. “Trouble.” I whispered. “Can you hear me?”
I’d take her fists more than this.
Her screams.
Her clawing nails.
Just not this fucking silence.
My hands curled into fists. I closed my eyes as that punishing agony ripped me apart on the inside.
“Okay.” Kane urged, coming closer. “Let me tend to her.”
I didn’t want to let her go. Not even for him. I opened my eyes and met his stare.
“I have to see to her injuries, brother.” He said quietly.
He knew. He knew what she meant to me. As I searched his agonized stare, I knew she meant the same to him. With a slow nod, I pulled away, glancing over my shoulder to Thomas and Walker.
They said nothing, just watched until Kane pulled his shirt away from her body. Then both of them turned around.
“I’ll see to Stevens.” Walker muttered, before he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Goddamn them to hell for this.”
He left then, hanging his head low as he disappeared. The splash of liquid followed the sound of tearing plastic. It seemed like only yesterday we were doing this exact thing when we implanted the tracking device under her breast.
I’d held her then, and kissed her to take her mind off the pain.
But I couldn’t kiss her now.
“Jesus.” Kane moaned and hissed.
My stomach was a stone. Still, I forced myself to turn around to her. I forced myself to look.
Every bite mark was wiped with iodine. Every torn skin was cleaned and taped. Kane worked quietly, his hands gentler than I’d ever seen before.
One nurse came closer. “Can I help, Doctor?”
“No.” His tone was bitter. “This one is ours.”
The nurse backed away, and I moved closer, reaching for her hands.
“She has broken nails.” He started. “Internal bruising from their fists.” He sucked in a hard breath and moved to the bottom of the bed before he gently lifted one leg, easing it to the side. “Easy now.” He murmured. “I just need to look, baby, that’s all.”
It was pointless to speak. She couldn’t hear us. She barely existed.
“She can hear you, you know.” He said carefully. “Talk to her.”
“And what the fuck am I supposed to say?” I snapped.
He met my stare. “You can start with the truth. But know this, whatever you do and say will write the course of your relationship. Hell, it’ll write the course of ours. She’ll remember these words forever…or until they destroy her.”
I jerked my gaze to hers.
Destroy her?
Rage punched all the way through me. If I could murder those bastards all over again, I would. I would murder them all. “It’s too much.” I croaked, shaking my head. “It’s too much for her to bear.”
“It is.” He answered. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
What was I going to do about it? I took a step closer and reached out, carefully taking her hand in mine. “Whatever she needs me to do.”
Kane said nothing, just worked quietly, checking her over as softly as he could. “There’s tearing, but it’s minimal, considering.”
I swallowed the revulsion that rose. “At least that’s something.”
I gazed at her wide, staring eyes. “I’m right here, trouble. I’m right here whenever you’re ready.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and raced down her temple. But I was there to capture it, smoothing the wetness with the brush of my thumb.
“I will make them pay for what they did to you. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.” I whispered, staring into those dark brown eyes.
She turned her head. Her eyes bored into mine. “And what about what you’ve done? What revenge will you enact for yourself?”
I couldn’t answer.
I couldn’t breathe.
Because I was shattering on the inside.
Shredding my soul apart in a million little slivers.
“I will stay.” I croaked. “I will look you in the eyes every step of the way. I’ll hold your bruised hands. I’ll tend to your wounds. I’ll love you as much as you’ll let me.”
I waited for her to say something that’d ease the gaping hole inside me. But she didn’t. Instead, she closed her eyes and her breaths slowed.
She slept.
While I waited.
Her hold eased around mine.
Still, I held on, not moving from her bedside.
When she woke screaming an hour later, I was there, smoothing her hair. Telling her how much I loved her, and after an hour of rocking her against me, she fell back to sleep…
Only to wake fighting for her life once more.
She cried.
She hit.
She bucked and thrashed in my arms.
She screamed until her voice was hoarse and there were only gasping howls of air left.
Still, I never moved.
Because I finally saw.
I saw the devastation, the ruination…and the battle I’d never seen before.
And I hated myself more than ever.
