Red Dreams (The Reaper Duet #2)

17. Layla

17

LAYLA

My heart stops. The whole world narrows down to those two words. Kill him.

Cassie claps her hands together, the sound loud and jarring in the tense silence. “Okay, boys! Let's set the stage, shall we? I want everyone to see this.”

At her command, her men spring into action. They drag Ethan from his chair, ignoring his grunts of pain as they shove him to the center of the room. They force him to his knees, one brute holding him in place with a meaty hand on his shoulder.

Cassie's men form a loose circle around Ethan, their eager faces lit by the golden lamplight in the suite.

Kaden's hand falls away from my throat. He looks at Cassie, then at Ethan. His expression is unreadable.

“No more excuses. No more delays,” Cassie continues. “You want to prove you're with me? Then do it. Kill Ethan Rutledge, nerd extraordinaire.”

Ethan makes a low, pained sound. He tries to straighten his posture, to face his fate with some semblance of dignity, but his injuries make it impossible. He slumps under the foot soldier’s hand in defeat.

I can't let this happen.

“Kaden, please.” I grab his arm, forcing him to look at me. “Don't do this. You're not Morelli. You don’t kill innocents. All Ethan has done is help us. He saved your life! You're better than this.”

For a moment, just a moment, I see the doubt in his eyes. A semblance of the man I know is still in there somewhere, buried beneath the Scythe.

Then he blinks.

Nothing reflects back at me. No warmth, not recognition. Just emptiness.

Kaden pulls his arm from my grasp and steps away. Toward Ethan.

“No!” I lunge after him, but Cassie grabs me, yanking me back. Her nails cut into my arms as she holds me in place.

“Watch,” she hisses in my ear. “Watch what he's willing to do for me.”

My heart seizes in my chest. This can't be happening. After everything, Kaden can't seriously be considering...

“I made my choice long ago,” Kaden says quietly. He looks at Cassie. “My loyalty has always been to my daughter.”

Ethan's eyes lock with mine. A silent apology. A goodbye.

Cassie practically vibrates with anticipation.

“Do it, Daddy,” she urges. “Let's be a real family again.”

For one breathless, endless moment, Kaden goes utterly still.

And then he moves.

Kaden looms over Ethan, who stares up at him with resignation. He knows there's no escape. No mercy to be found.

“To think I thought we could be friends one day,” Ethan says to Kaden with a lopsided, weary smile on his lips.

“I'm sorry,” Kaden says quietly. And then his hands are around Ethan's throat.

Ethan's eyes bulge. His mouth opens in a silent scream as Kaden squeezes, cutting off his air. His feet kick weakly against the carpeting.

A scream builds in my throat, tearing, clawing its way out. An inhuman sound of grief and rage.

No. No, no, no!

I thrash against Cassie's hold, desperate to get to them, as Cassie’s laughter dances against the roaring in my ears.

Ethan's struggles grow weaker, his face turning a sickly shade of purple. And still, Kaden doesn't let go.

Ethan's eyes roll back, his body going slack under Kaden's merciless grip. I scream until my voice gives out, tears soaking my face as I watch the light fade from my best friend's face.

Kaden holds on a few seconds longer, ensuring there's no flicker of life left. Then he releases Ethan and steps back, letting his lifeless form crumple to the ground.

I fall to my knees, Cassie's hold on me loosening as she stares at her father with a mixture of awe and satisfaction.

“You did it,” she breathes. “You really did it.”

Kaden doesn't respond. He just looks down at Ethan's body.

I crawl forward, moving between the men’s legs and ignoring their jeers about my ass and how it would be nice to ram me from behind, and reach for Ethan with shaking hands. His skin is still warm, but his chest isn’t moving.

He’s gone.

A wail builds in my throat, tearing free in a raw, animalistic keen of grief. I gather Ethan into my arms, cradling his head against my chest as I rock him back and forth.

“No, no, please no,” I sob brokenly. “Come back. Please come back.”

But there's no answer. No miraculous resurrection. Just my friend's heavy, empty shell growing cold in my embrace.

I lost him. I couldn't save him.

Tears drip off my chin, soaking into Ethan's blood-matted hair as I clutch him tighter. As if I can somehow pour my own life force into him or bring him back through sheer force of will.

But I can't. I'm powerless. Helpless.

Just like I was when my father left. When my mother chose her revolving door of boyfriends over me.

Everyone leaves me in the end. I'm never enough to make them stay. I wasn’t enough to get Kaden to change. To choose me.

Kaden's words echo in my head, taunting me. My deepest fear laid bare. Abandonment.

I feel Kaden's gaze, heavy and assessing. Watching me shatter. Watching me drown in a despair of his making.

“Look at me.”

His voice cuts through my sobs, unfeeling and commanding.

Slowly, I raise my head.

He stares back at me, his expression devoid of warmth. But then, just for a moment, he lets me in. A brief flash of ... regret? Apology? I can't be sure. It's gone before I can decipher it.

Kaden turns to face Cassie fully. “There. It's done.”

Cassie applauds, bouncing on her toes like a delighted child.

“Oh, Daddy, that was perfect! The way he just ... went purple. So deliciously brutal.”

She skips over to Kaden, throwing her arms around his neck. Kaden stiffens at her first affectionate display but puts his arms around her. His eyes never leave mine over her shoulder.

“I knew you'd prove yourself,” Cassie purrs, nuzzling into his neck. “Knew you'd show everyone here you could be part of the Morelli family.”

The men surrounding us chuckle and jeer their agreement. They leer at me, still cradling Ethan's lifeless body, like vultures eyeing a fresh carcass.

“So what now, boss?” one of the burlier men asks Cassie. “We still got the broad to deal with.” He jerks his chin at me.

Cassie untangles herself from Kaden, tapping a finger against her lips thoughtfully.

“Hmm, you're right. Can't have any loose ends, can we?” She grins, feral and sharp. “Though it would be a shame not to have a little more fun with her first.”

The men chuckle, a low, menacing rumble that sends icy tendrils of dread down my spine. I clutch Ethan tighter as if his body could somehow shield me.

“No.”

Kaden’s voice is quiet, but it cuts through the room like the crack of a whip. Everyone falls silent, all eyes snapping to him.

Cassie frowns. “No? But, Daddy, she’s a witness. She knows all about the AI and my plans. We can’t just let her?—”

“I said.” Kaden moves, putting himself between the rest of the room and me. “No.”

Confusion flickers across Cassie's face, quickly replaced by petulance. “You don't get to give orders here. This is my show, remember? My empire.”

Kaden smiles. It's a chilling thing, devoid of compassion or humor. “Is it now?”

It happens so fast, my brain can hardly process it.

Kaden moves like smoke made into flesh, there one instant and gone the next. The first guard doesn't even have time to cry out before Kaden's hand locks around his throat, a quick twist snapping his neck with brutal efficiency. He drops without a sound.

The others are slow to react, disbelief warring with rising panic as they realize the Scythe has turned on them. Two men shoot at Kaden, but he flows around their bullets like water and gets to them, striking pressure points and nerve clusters with surgical precision. They crumple to boneless heaps at his feet.

Cassie watches, her expression morphing from confusion to shock to a grudging sort of admiration as Kaden tears through her men like they're made of paper. There's a terrible grace to his movements, a deadly dance honed by years of training and an intimate knowledge of the human body's frailties.

A stolen knife materializes in his hand. He chooses it over the many guns available. He slashes, parries, and thrusts, blood spattering the walls, the floor, himself.

Through it all, Kaden's face remains a mask of icy calm. His eyes blaze like blue lightning, the only outward sign of the life raging within him.

And I can't look away, even as a traitorous heat unfurls low in my belly. Because seeing him like this, unleashed and unfettered, stokes a hidden part of me. A part that craves his darkness and yearns to be consumed by it.

In mere moments, it's over. The last guard falls with a gurgling sigh, Kaden's knife buried to the hilt in his eye socket. Kaden stands amid the carnage, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his hands and face.

Kaden stalks toward me, slow and purposeful, a jaguar approaching a trembling doe. Crimson drips from his fingertips. There is no remorse in his eyes. Only ice and shadow and the promise of exquisite ruin.

He crouches before me. I’m still cradling Ethan's lifeless form, and the dichotomy is jarring—the gentle way I hold my friend juxtaposed against the savagery of Kaden's blood-soaked hands as they reach for me. His fingers, slick and warm, brush my cheek. Paint me in the viscera of his kills.

“Wraithling,” he murmurs, his voice a bleak caress. I shudder, leaning into his touch despite myself. Despite the horror of what those hands just did.

“Resist me,” Kaden commands softly.

Compelled by some base instinct, I don’t obey. I meet his gaze and fall into fathomless depths. Drown in the inky promise of his darkness.

His thumb traces my lower lip, smearing it scarlet. “You watched me tear them apart. Felt their blood spray your skin. And still...” His other hand curls around my nape, pulling me closer. “Your pulse races. Your pupils dilate. I can smell your arousal, sweet and thick.”

I tremble under his knowing gaze and his words, hating how right he is. Hating how much I crave his merciless touch even as I cradle the broken body he destroyed.

A broken sound escapes me, half sob, half moan.

“Don’t be so devastated,” Kaden croons loud enough for Cassie to hear, his fingers tangling in my hair. Gripping tight. A delicious sting.

Kaden leans in, his breath ghosting over my parted lips as he murmurs, “Because I never left you, and the boy is still alive.”