The Heir She Loved (Shadows of Sin #4)

12 Everett

July 5th, 2022

I needed to call her.

The feeling was overwhelming enough that I couldn’t even have my fun with this kill. I would call her as soon as I was done, ask her what exactly she was doing.

If she was touching herself again, it would just add to the list of things I was going to ‘punish’ her for when I returned.

Part of me wondered if she was doing that on purpose.

Another part of me didn’t care, I just wanted to get back to her and fuck her for days. Lock her in my room, put a leash on her, and start trying out everything I had written down in the new notebook that I had gotten.

So many things, so little time. From things she had written about, to ideas I had imagined myself. Starting with some nipple suctions, a cunt clamp, and a vibrating cock ring.

I pulled myself back to the present and ripped the blade across the woman’s throat, nearly decapitating her. Whatever was going on with these fucking Initiates was absolutely ridiculous.

Just another reason why I believed the school was a good idea. Better vetting program, more thorough. We would have less people slipping through the cracks, but on top of that, if we did have traitors among them, they would be far easier to deal with than doing this.

Taking her out on an assignment, going about it normally, only to bring her back to the city and kill her on her father’s doorstep.

He shouldn’t have vouched for her, and he was lucky he wasn’t the one getting decapitated. Fucking pathetic.

I didn’t know why Malachi chose to spare her father when he’s the one that put such scum in our program, but it wasn’t my job to question him.

But if he kept having issues with these Initiates, I was going to start having problems with my belief. Problems that would lead to making difficult decisions regarding the so-called ‘hierarchy’.

My phone started vibrating just as I dropped her on the stoop, and I couldn’t help but hope that it was Olivia already calling me. Impatient little vixen. Perhaps I wouldn’t wait until morning. Perhaps I would head there right now, steal her away from her little party, and fuck her in every way she craved.

I turned towards the trees. Luckily for me, Mr. Zarrow lived in Manitou, deeper in the woods, secluded. I could send this kind of message without worrying about people wandering by and doing something stupid like calling the cops.

I pulled out the phone, Evelyn’s name flashing across the screen, my irritation only growing. Nothing made my mood worse than expecting a call from my girl and getting a call from my sister instead.

With a roll of the eyes, I answered, balancing it between my shoulder and ear so I could wipe the blade on my handkerchief. “You’re supposed to be heading back to—”

“They took Baily,”

she said, her voice hard.

I paused, something terrible twisting in my gut. “What?”

“Stella called the police, we have to deal with that, but she said Olivia knew something was wrong, so I tried calling her, she wouldn’t answer. She told me Olivia said she would fix it. She’s trying to fix it, Ev.”

A calm sort of anger washed over me. “Call everyone.”

I immediately headed for my bike. Now, I know she wouldn’t do something stupid like allow herself to be alone long enough to get herself kidnapped. I knew she wouldn’t. She was too smart for that.

Way too smart.

Smart enough to figure out that the only way to fix it was to purposefully do something as stupid as getting herself fucking kidnapped.

This was Baily, I realized as I slid my earpiece in and shoved my helmet on. And as much as Olivia wasn’t sure about having kids, I knew she had loved that little girl since the second she first laid eyes on her, I had seen it. I had seen that look in her eyes. That kind of connection couldn’t be faked.

Azrael’s words echoed through me as I revved that bike up and sped back through the woods towards the main road.

“So, if you want your pretty little rose to keep her bleeding heart, you should pick a side and quit playing games.”

I tried calling her, my heart slamming in a way that was wholly unfamiliar. There was a roaring in my ears, the world felt as if it were suddenly too big, too vast, too predictable.

It went to voicemail.

She had that earpiece in, I know she had that earpiece in, I had told her to put it in. She wouldn’t break that rule. She was too addicted to me to break that rule.

I called again.

And again.

Nothing.

“Fuck!”

I snarled, my speeds nearing 120.

130.

140.

My phone started ringing and my heart stuttered.

I hit answer on my phone just as soon as I hit the suburbs, a few blocks from where she lived.

I forced myself to slow. “Baby.”

“No. Next block over, behind her house,”

Evelyn stated. “Malachi and Beckett are here.”

I ground my teeth together and hit end, glancing down her street as I road passed it.

People were laughing, happy, still watching fireworks.

Fuck them.

Fuck them and their ignorance, their stupidity, their fucking holidays. Fuck them.

I turned down the road, seeing a running car down the street, headlights off, three people standing over two bodies, another bike a little ways down. Evelyn’s.

I rode up beside the car and shut off my bike, tearing my helmet off as I took in the scene quickly and thoroughly.

A male, several bullet holes in him, lying dead on the grass.

A few yards from him laid another body, so torn to shreds, I almost wouldn’t have recognized him if he hadn’t been wearing those ugly black shoes.

Wade.

I fucking knew it, that piece of fucking shit.

“Careful,”

Malachi said as I headed for Wade. “Lucy won’t let anyone near her. She’s been hit.”

My heart slammed and my eyes swung back towards Wade. Lucy was there.

Fuck me, she was. So covered in blood, I wasn’t able to distinguish between she and Wade’s mangled body. “Fuck that,”

I said, storming up to her.

She snarled at me, warning me to back off, but she was still alive, so I’d take the bite to the hand if it meant keeping her that way.

She was covered in blood, her fur coated in it as if she had jumped in a pool of red. She was whining and snarling and snapping and crying out in pain when she moved too much. The sounds she was making were painful.

I hit my knees beside her, her breathing labored, her eyes wild.

She snarled, snapping at me, but I ignored the warning, carefully using one hand to pin her head down and running the other over her ribs. “That’s a good girl,”

I told her, feeling her breathing slow, her snarls turning to a soft whine, and then nothing at all other than hard breathing.

I slid my hand over her stomach, feeling for it, for the wound. It took me a minute or two, but eventually I found it. The bullet had hit her right below the ribs, tearing through her stomach, it felt like.

“Fuck,”

I muttered, carefully leaning over her, feeling for an exit wound. When I found one, hope touched me. “Beckett,”

I ordered.

He joined me on his knees. “Here,”

I told him, gesturing to the bullet wound. “Press down. Evelyn, call whoever you need to call, get them here right now. We can save her if we’re quick, so be fucking quick.”

I gently pet Lucy’s head, hoping beyond hope that she lived. “You’ve done good, girl. Real good. Keep fighting.”

She had to live. She didn’t have a choice. Olivia was coming home, and she was coming home to her family whole.

I shoved myself to a stand and joined Malachi. “Did Evelyn catch you up?”

I asked, my eyes finding that male again. It had to have been Olivia. She must have shot him before they got her.

“I’m assuming they killed her mother when she didn’t respond to the threat and then took the kid to get her attention,”

Malachi said, taking in the scene.

That had to be it. Baily had been fine this morning, I had called. I checked on her. I made sure she was safe even after finding out about Olivia’s mom. She had been safe.

“Our cleaners are on their way, and I found this,”

Malachi went on, holding out her gun, “discarded on the street when I drove up. Evelyn said it was hers. She even left gouge marks in his right arm. I assume he tried choking her, and there was a discarded needle. More than one person.”

That’s my girl. She killed one. She did that for us. She was leaving evidence for us. They had Baily, she was going no matter what, but this carnage was to give us some sort of trail to work from. “How many bullets?”

“None. She emptied the clip into him. He didn’t stand a chance.”

I nodded, taking the gun from him and shoving it into the back of my pants.

“I think it’s time you come clean, Everett,”

he told me as I continued to take in the street, searching for anything that could give me a clue. Cameras, witnesses, anything.

Other than blood splatter on the grass and black tire tracks on the street, there was nothing. It was like this whole fucking street was set up just for this goddamn night.

“Everett,”

Malachi spoke evenly.

My lips curled, my hands flexing at my sides. “I claimed her,”

I finally said, finding his eyes. “She’s my Claim. Mine. And I don’t care what you have to say, if you or Beckett or fucking Azrael make any sort of fucking snide comment about it like you do about Jack and Greyson, I’ll fucking kill you,”

I snarled, watching his eyes darken. “I don’t care what you are to me, I won’t put up with it.”

Malachi watched me carefully, unflinching, unwavering, completely used to our anger. “The rules are in place for a reason, Everett. I do wish you would have told me sooner though. I would have done for her what I did for Emily. I actually like her, she’s got a good heart, one that fits your chest well.”

I laughed, too angry to care about the sentiment. “You would have put an Initiate on her street to watch her? The Initiates you’ve been choosing, Malachi, are fucking traitors. All of them. We’ve been killing them left and right all year, I wouldn’t have allowed you to put one outside of her house.”

His eyes dried. “Don’t mistake my kindness right now for softness, Everett. You and your brothers and sisters are supposed to be vetting them thoroughly. It is not I you need to blame for the traitors in our society.”

“Fuck you,”

I spat. “We all knew the Delepski’s were coming after her.”

“And you took your time making the choice that I was kind enough to offer you,”

Malachi replied icily. “I should have known right then and there that something had happened between the two of you, but clearly, giving you boys any lenience has been a grave mistake.”

My eyes widened. “What the fuck,”

I breathed out. How dare he. How dare he blame this on us. On our choices. Did he even understand that we could destroy him if we so chose? It wouldn’t be hard. He trained us. It would take no effort at all to destroy him and put one of us on top of that pyramid. We didn’t need his permission to comply with rules we created. We followed him out of respect, out of loyalty, nothing more.

“In any case,”

he went on as a couple vehicles drove up, “Olivia Rose is your Claim, she is a part of The Family now, which means we treat this as we would if it were for anyone else in our family. We will find her, and the Delepski’s will pay for what they’ve done,”

he explained as the cleaners slid out of one car, a man with a gurney walking away from the other.

“We will save her,”

Malachi assured me as I tracked that vet to our dog. “I swear on my life, we will do whatever it takes to save her.”

“Careful,”

I said, walking towards them as the vet knelt down at Lucy’s head. “She’s my family.”

The vet nodded and slid a needle into her neck. “We’ll do everything we can.”

Lucy’s big blue eyes found mine, terrified and unsure. “You’re a good dog,”

I told her as they lifted her onto the gurney. “You did so good, but you have to keep fighting, Lus. We’re bringing her back. She is coming home.”

If it was the last thing I did, I would bring her home.