Chapter 45 Aiden
Pain was a bitch.
Not the kind of sharp, fleeting pain from a quick hit in a fight. No, this was the deep, gnawing kind, the kind that clawed at my ribs and sent waves of nausea rolling through me. Blood seeped through my shirt, sticking the fabric to my skin as I gritted my teeth.
Zack stood across from me, arms dropped to his sides, looking way too pleased with himself.
“You look like shit,” he observed, smirking.
“No kidding. That will happen when you have to save your girl from not only one deranged maniac, but two. Including one that you thought was your friend.”
Zack’s lip curled. “We were never friends and you know that. I never fit in with your group and you were more than happy to kick me out the second you had a chance.”
I grinned despite the pain, knowing he wasn’t wrong. “Well, after you took your sick little video of me fucking Evie, yeah, I was more than happy to let you go. I only wish that I let you go without the ability to walk.”
“Because you are all weak. When it comes down to it, you’re weak, and that’s why you couldn’t do anything about it.”
“You keep telling yourself that. You do know how this is going to end, right?”
“With Evie understanding why I did this and realizing you are on the losing end.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Yes, because Evie is nothing but understanding and someone who really thinks it through. She is definitely not a shoot first type of girl. For someone in love with Evie, you really never paid attention to her, did you?”
“Of course I paid attention to her.”
I smirked right back. “Then you can appreciate why I call her psycho girl.”
“Both of you, shut up,” Anderson snapped.
He crossed the room in two strides, boots scraping on the floor, and checked the door like he half expected it to burst open.
“You don’t even have Evie, Zack, so before you run your mouth more, maybe we should focus on getting her back—and getting rid of .
. . him.” He spit the last word out like it tasted bad, a disgusted snarl twisting his face.
I pursed my lips, trying to stifle my laugh. “What’s the rush? We’re just three guys, in love with the same woman, hanging out. Luckily for me, I’m the one she doesn’t want to kill. Not today at least.”
“Maybe she doesn’t, but we do,” Jack said. “I don’t particularly need you, and from what I’ve seen the past few weeks, you will only be in my way if I keep you around.”
My lip curled. “So you’ve been the one stalking us?”
“Obviously.”
The slam of a metal door cut through the tension. Jack turned—and hell itself stormed through the room.
Hell itself being the love of my life.
Evie came through the door first, all fire and fury, her eyes locking on me, and I couldn’t help but smile. Rook was right behind her, a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.
But Evie was the only thing I could keep my eyes on.
Something had shifted when Rook found out, some part of me accepting that Evie was my fate no matter what. Nothing would ever come between us.
So really all I had to do forever was fall in love with her again and again.
Not that it would be hard. She raised her knife, heading right toward Jack as the echo of a gunshot rang out. Rook had dropped one of the guards, the man screaming as he fell to the ground.
They had kicked my gun into the corner, but I fought at the ties while everyone else was occupied.
“Really? Again?” Jack muttered, a feral Evie stalking closer.
The last of his bodyguards moved forward, but Evie didn’t hesitate. She lunged—fast and brutal, dodging a swing from the guy as she went straight for Jack.
Rook stepped in, Zack still frozen in shock on the sidelines, the knife he had just plunged into me held high in defense.
Jack barely had time to move, but he caught her wrist, twisting it violently. The knife clattered to the floor, and for half a second, I thought he had her.
But Evie only smiled, baring her teeth like the psycho girl she was. Somehow it didn’t seem to faze her.
Jack yanked her close, his voice low and mocking.
“You think you belong there with them, don’t you?
” he taunted. “Like you’re one of them? But you’re nothing, Evie.
You weren’t born into their world. You were dragged into it like a stray, and you’ve been pretending ever since.
They don’t want you now that they know. You’re not even blood. ”
Evie stilled, her chest rising and falling in sharp bursts.
“What?” I asked, not sure how to take what he was saying. “She’s Rook’s sister.”
“Oh, you didn’t hear? Little Evie Emberson isn’t actually an Emberson. Not blood, at least. Adopted. A poor little mutt her parents died to keep.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Evie said, and my breath hitched. He had already told her this? She was standing there protecting me when she had found this out? “I’ll always be Rook’s sister and the rest of them are my family, blood or not.”
“No, you won’t, mutt. Sure they need you now, they can’t get out alive. You think they are going to feel the same once you are back home? Not a chance. You are a liability, a risk. They don’t want you around unless they are forced into it.”
Evie froze, her eyes going wide, and the fear that she was going to believe him hit me hard.
Jack smirked, knowing he’d struck a nerve. “You’re not one of them. Not an Emberson. Not a real part of their family. You’re a lost little girl playing pretend.”
“No, you aren’t, Evie,” I said, trying to keep my eyes on her as my head spun. “We would die today to keep you. I’m no one. A foster kid with parents who didn’t want me and that has never changed who I was in this pack.”
“But he’s under control. He isn’t causing them problems,” Jack said. “You are. You’re putting them all in danger.”
Evie looked at me, and I knew she had to hear it.
“I love you, Evie. And honestly, the fact that you’re not blood-related to Rook just makes it way harder for him to justify kicking my ass over this,” I said, flashing a grin and hoping she caught the joke.
“And gives him more reason to leave you behind,” Jack said.
A slow, chilling smile spread across Evie’s face. “You talk too much.”
And then she moved.
She yanked her other arm free, twisting fast, and slamming her elbow into Jack’s ribs. He let out a pained grunt, doubling over enough for her to grab the knife from the floor and drive it upward, sinking it deep into his neck.
Jack gasped, his eyes going wide in shock. His hand flew up, gripping her wrist, trying to shove her off, but she twisted the blade, dragging it through muscle and tendon. A garbled, wet sound left his lips as blood gushed over her hand.
Evie yanked the knife free with a vicious jerk, stepping back and letting him fall.
Jack hit the ground hard, mouth opening like he wanted to say something. But no words came—only a wet gurgle, his eyes darting wildly before the light started to fade.
Evie stepped back, slowly moving closer to me while she kept her eyes on Jack, making sure he didn’t get up again.
Fuck.
I really was in love.
I groaned, trying to shift, but pain tore through me, my vision swimming. I knew I had to have a concussion from whatever they hit me with along with a need for stitches from the knife, but it didn’t matter. I could only focus on Evie.
I couldn’t figure out how I happened to become best friends with the perfect woman, but I had. Years ago I had, and I hadn’t wanted to spend one day without her since.
My eyes narrowed again. Evie was at my side now, saying something I couldn’t make out.
“Hang on, Aiden,” she breathed, dropping to her knees and working on the ropes binding me to the chair. Her hands were quick, surprisingly steady.
“Not gonna lie,” I murmured, watching her work. “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re literally about to pass out and you’re worried about me being hot.”
“I can still appreciate the finer things in life.”
“You’re delirious. You might have a concussion.”
“As if a concussion is needed to make me contemplate how perfect you are.”
Her eyes went wide, her body moving, but it was too late. Something slammed into the side of my head this time, my world going black.
I cracked my eyes open to find Rook smacking my face, yelling something I couldn’t quite catch.
I smacked back.
“Wrong fucking Emberson,” I grunted, the pain in my shoulder making it hard to talk.
“Excuse me?” Rook said, offended. “One day with your relationship out in the open and you tell me I’m the wrong one?”
A laugh ripped out of me and collapsed into a cough as pain radiated through my chest. “You’re not exactly the one I hoped to wake up to, and I sure as hell don’t want you to kiss me.”
“That offer was never on the table. Can you get up?”
I blinked, trying to focus. Evie was squared off with Zack across the room—Zack’s lip curled in that same sneer—and my head was still too fuzzy to catch their words.
“Yes,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Evie.”
“Yeah, I’m trying but she wanted to make sure you weren’t dead.”
She glanced back, taking her eyes off Zack for a second, and he took advantage of that, lunging forward and shoving her back. She hit the ground hard, her knife skittering across the floor.
Rook yelled something as he cut away at the ties binding my hands, Evie having only cut through the ones at my feet. He stood, leaving me to get my bearings now that I could move my hands.
The guard he had shot had got back up, his arm wrapping around Rook’s neck before I could warn him.
Evie faced Zack, pushing up onto her elbows as he stalked closer to her.
I wasn’t sure if I could get up without blacking out again, but I was sure as hell going to try.
I lunged, positioning myself between Evie and Zack. I was fucking done with him trying to get to her.
“You should’ve stayed down,” Zack growled, throwing a punch that I barely blocked in time. “This is between me and her.”
“Yeah? You should’ve stayed loyal.”