Chapter 21
CONNOR
Killian glances up at me in the rearview mirror, his piercing blue eyes filled with the same kind of haunting awareness I have that things have completely gone to shit. “How’s she doing?”
I offer him a grim look as a response before immediately returning my focus to Raven cradled in my lap.
Her skin is too pale.
The lips that are always so pink and perfect are now split and bleeding, and I never thought the day would come when I would so badly wish she would open them and argue with me.
The hours and hours it took to hike down the mountain—switching between me carrying her and Killian forcing me to allow him to for short periods—felt more like it took days.
Partially because she never woke once during the half-day hike, but also because the bleeding in some of her various wounds doesn’t seem to want to stop.
That deep one on her side has already bled through the haphazard patch job I did in the cabin. Likely due to how badly she was jostled during the hike despite our best efforts to make it comfortable for her.
But we didn’t have a choice.
A chopper can’t get that high in the mountain, and our attempts to call Tony on the satellite phone once we reached Liam at the homestead have been unsuccessful.
We need to get her into town and have Tony call from there, or drive her to Asheville ourselves like I did with Liam only a few months ago.
Liam turns around in the passenger seat and examines us. “I still can’t get a hold of Tony.” He holds up the satellite phone. “He still isn’t answering. Neither is anyone at the main sheriff’s office number.”
Killian’s jaw hardens. “I don’t like this. Tony always answers.”
Our shared silence holds the weight of all our worry.
Too many things have gone wrong.
And now the one person we’ve always been able to rely on when we need him is nowhere to be found.
Given the warning Raven gave us in the cabin that there were additional men sent by Lorell, the feeling that we might be facing something much bigger than we ever imagined sits squarely on my chest.
I brush my fingers gently over Raven’s cheek, marred by a darkening bruise, a deliberate thin slice from a blade, and dried blood that trickled from the large cut above her eye.
That fucker manhandled her.
Hours of holding her like this, having to look at what that man did to her, has only allowed my fury to fester. It makes me want to hike back up the damn mountain and kill him all over again—only drag it out this time.
A slow, painful death that he deserves for what he did to Raven.
He beat her and cut her…
Did God only knows what else…
And it’s all my fault.
I never should have left her.
I never should have been so arrogant to believe I was the only one who could protect her, to insist that I knew best.
Because I was wrong.
So fucking wrong.
It’s all my fault.
After all the pain I’ve caused her, I wouldn’t blame Raven for never wanting to speak to me again. If she can’t even look me in the eye anymore, I wouldn’t be able to argue for a reason she should.
All the speeches I gave her about keeping her safe. All the promises I made, they were all lies. Ones she had to pay the price for.
“What the fuck?”
The tone of Killian’s voice draws my attention up, and I gaze through the windshield at Main Street.
I hadn’t even realized how close we were to town. I’ve been too wrapped up in watching Raven and making sure she’s still breathing to pay attention to anything outside the truck windows, but now, my focus shifts to the strange scene in front of me.
Normally at this time of day, there would be dozens of people milling around Main Street, enjoying cookies, croissants, and a cup of coffee from the bakery, trickling in and out of the various stores, or just strolling down the quiet sidewalks and sharing smiles with their neighbors.
But right now, Main Street in McBride Mountain looks like a ghost town.
Not a single car on the street.
Not a single person.
“I really don’t like this.” The ominous tone in Liam’s voice matches the feeling in my chest. “Not at all.”
Tony isn’t answering and something’s very wrong here.
We all feel it as we drive slowly down Main, past the bakery and the church, and that’s when I see it…
What the hell?
Killian must spot it at the same time, because he slams on his brakes directly in front of town square.
Liam leans forward slightly, narrowing his gaze on the walkways and grass leading to the town hall building that houses the police station. “Fuck.”
Two bodies lie on the ground, blood spreading out beneath them across the area that hosts the McBride Mountain holiday tree lighting, music concerts, wedding receptions, and is typically so filled with joy and merriment.
Killian throws the truck in park and turns back to me. “Stay here.”
Liam opens his door and steps out, gun in hand, and Killian joins him with his own weapon held tightly in his own.
They both offer me hard looks before they cautiously approach the bodies lying in town square. I continue to scan downtown, searching the streets visible from where we’re parked for any sign of anyone who might be able to shed some light on what the fuck is going on…
But it’s still empty.
A literal ghost town given the looks of the two men on the ground just a few feet away.
Liam bends down over one of the bodies, then says something to Killian, who nods and goes and checks the second, before they both jog back over to the truck.
Killian opens his door, but before he can say anything, Raven stirs in my arms. Her eyes flutter a few times, as if she’s struggling to get her lids to open. A little moan sounds in the back of her throat.
“Raven?” I brush my bloodstained fingertips across her cheek, turning her face toward me more. “Hey.” The emerald green starts to clear as she finally focuses on me. “Welcome back.”
“What…”—her soft brow furrows—“what’s going on?”
Of course, she’s confused.
She’s been blacked out for half a day, and the last time she looked at me, we were sitting on the bed in the cabin and I was begging her to stay awake.
“We’re in McBride Mountain.”
“But…how?”
“I told you I was carrying you down that fucking mountain if I had to.”
Tears well in her eyes, and when they spill out down her temples, I sweep them away, along with some of the dried blood there.
Evidence of what he did to her, of what she suffered.
All because I fucked up.
All because I left her alone and told her she would be safe.
Raven lifts one of her hands up to cup my cheek, and I lean into the touch, but my eyes fall on the gouges on her wrists, at the blood still seeping and oozing from the wounds.
I quickly pull away. Guilt clogs my throat, and I force myself to swallow through it. “We’re getting you to the hospital. We’re going to have Tony radio for a helicopter and see where it is or if it’s faster for us to drive you.”
Killian clears his throat. “I think it’s going to be more complicated than that…”
There’s a warning in his tone, one I rarely hear from my big brother unless something very serious is about to go down.
I tear my gaze from Raven and look to my brothers. “What’s going on?”
Liam glances back at the bodies. “Those two are dead. Each shot several times—very precisely. And given that I’ve never seen them before, I am guessing they’re the other Lorell men Raven warned us were here.”
She tenses in my arms, clinging to my shirt with bloody fingers. Her voice comes out nothing more than a strangled sob. “At least some of them…”
Liam nods. “We don’t know how many there might be.”
“Who shot them?”
Killian scans around us, keeping his eyes out for any threats. “I don’t know, but I am going to bet it was Tony.” His gaze cuts back to me, a muscle in his clenched jaw ticcing. “There’s more blood, on the stairs leading into town hall…”
“Fuck…” My gut tightens, that sense of dread that has become such a familiar, unwelcome part of my life settles over me. “Where is Tony?”
Liam points to the east side of town hall. “I could see his squad car parked over there.”
Raven trembles in my arms. “He should be out here, right? If he shot them?”
I share a look with Killian and Liam.
She’s right. If something went down between Tony and Lorell’s men, he wouldn’t have left them in the middle of town square. At least, not willingly. He would have called in help from some of the surrounding communities or state patrol to help contain the scene immediately.
The chilling reality of what that might mean hits me, and I shudder.
I look to Killian. “What do you want to do?”
His jaw tenses as he keeps scanning town. “We need to figure out what the fuck is going on.” Those icy blue eyes of his cut to town hall. “We need to go in.”
Liam nods his agreement. “We will find Tony, or anyone else who can explain what happened, and while we’re in there, we’ll radio the hospital in Asheville about getting the helicopter here for Raven.”
There isn’t any other option, really.
We don’t have any fucking idea what went down or where Tony is, and without the sheriff, there isn’t anyone here to protect the town or any of the people in it—wherever they are.
I nod my agreement. “Go. I’ll keep an eye out for any trouble out here.”
They close their doors and take off toward town hall, and Raven reaches up again, tipping my face down to her. Tears stream from her eyes now, her split lip quivering as violently as the rest of her in my arms.
“This is all my fault…”
“No.” I shake my head, capturing her hand gently to kiss beneath the cut on her wrist. “It’s not.”
A sob slips from her, and it’s so filled with anguish that I can feel it in my soul.
“I’m the one who wrote the story, knowing full well what I might be bringing down on us.
” She pulls her hand from mine, as if she can’t bear to be touched and her warning against that now feels like years ago instead of only a few weeks.
“This is all my fault. Whatever happened to Tony—”
“Hey”—I take her face between my palms—“we don’t know anything did happen to him. Don’t do that. Don’t think the worst.”