23. Rage
Chapter 23
Rage
Sweeping Celia off of her feet is impossible with my brother in the way. “Take Ted,” I tell Rebel, grinding my teeth, “and go away. ”
He rears his head back like I’ve slapped him. “Why the hell would I do that?” He throws his hand out to gesture at the unconscious man lying on the ballroom floor. “I’m not dragging his ass anywhere. He fainted; he should live with the humiliation.” Other guests for the gala pass us by, a few looking concerned at Ted’s sorry state.
We didn’t even touch him; he fainted on his own the minute we reached the bar.
“What a dumbass,” Rebel continues, sighing. “Let’s just leave him.”
“Not on the floor.” As much as I hate to admit it, Ted used to be important to Celia. We won’t win any favors by treating him like garbage—even if he is fucking trash. I remove my jacket, drape it over the back of an armchair, and snap my fingers. “Help me lift him.”
The two of us work together to set Ted on an armchair and make it look natural, like he passed out from drinking too much. I grab the first drink that passes by on a server’s tray and set it down on the table beside him, the little red beach umbrella sticking out over the rim making him look even more ridiculous.
Well. Not my problem.
Rebel grabs the fruity, frozen cocktail and swallows a mouthful, then snickers as he tucks the umbrella behind Ted’s ear. “Nighty-night, bitch.”
We’re on our way back to our table when Ruin’s voice cuts back into our comms. They have a large connection radius, so we weren’t worried about anyone going out-of-bounds, but somehow, Ruin has managed to test the limits of modern technology.
“Get the doctor.”
I push past a meandering couple and scan the area for Ruin, not finding him, but seeing Thanatos hover at the far end of the dining platform. He’s watching Celia talk with Charlotte, but he’s simultaneously pulling out his cell phone to call Wren Sakovia, the doctor who agreed to work overtime to cover our asses tonight.
I have a feeling that he’s looking out for Celia more than my brothers and me, but I won’t complain about having another person in our corner.
“What’s going on?” I take one more look around the backyard, but there aren’t as many people lingering outside in the cold. Most guests are cozied up with their money and their egos indoors.
“I’ll meet you at the side entrance,” Thanatos tells Ruin, meeting my eyes from twenty feet away. “Rage, watch her.” After one last, lingering glance at Celia, Than steps back and quickly returns indoors to meet our younger brother at the designated location.
Grabbing Rebel’s forearm, I pull him forward. “C’mon. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
Rebel tugs his arm free. “Wasn’t planning on it,” he grumbles, jostling me with his elbow. “Quit pulling me around.” Sighing, he rubs the side of his neck, wiping away some of the makeup covering his tattoos. It clings to his shirtsleeve, but he doesn’t notice. “What do you think he’s found?”
“Don’t know,” I answer honestly. We miss Celia’s entire conversation with Charlotte, but I’m sure that sharing stories about Ted’s shrimp dick wasn’t very entertaining. Once we’re seated at the table, Charlotte looks over her shoulder for her missing husband. “Oh, where’s Ted?”
“He’s sitting by the fire pit,” Rebel answers, nodding toward Ted’s silhouette across the lawn. “Said he wasn’t hungry.”
Charlotte’s face pinches, and she huffs as she pushes out her seat. “I swear,” she mumbles, grabbing her purse. “He takes one look at his ex and can’t stand being civil.” Giving us a tight-lipped smile, she excuses herself and makes a beeline for her husband.
“What did you do?” Celia hisses, jabbing my thigh with her sharp fingernail. “I didn’t tell you to hurt him!”
“Relax,” Rebel drawls, rolling his eyes. “He’s the one doing all the damage. The bastard fainted. Can you believe it? A grown man fainting?”
I can, actually, believe it. I’ve seen dozens of men piss themselves—granted, they’re usually tied to an interrogation chair, but still. They pass out all the time.
We can hear both Ruin and Thanatos talking in our ear, the two of them discussing exactly who it is that needs medical attention— Sara .
The missing college girl.
I look away from Rebel so that he doesn’t give anything away. He may be flirtatious and chatty and good with people, but he does not lie well when he’s not on the job. It’s like a switch in his brain for effectiveness turns off the minute he takes a bow and walks off stage.
He needs to get better at lying, or he’ll ruin every future surprise I have in store for Celia and our child.
Rebel changes the conversation, steering us away from Ted entirely. “I think one of those shows is about to start,” he says, looking away from Celia to nod toward the venue. That’s likely true, given how the events for the evening are scheduled to begin every hour, on the hour. “Let’s go watch.”
“Where did Thanatos go?” Celia asks, ignoring Rebel’s suggestion completely. “He was standing right there, and then all of a sudden, he looked at me and…” Her eyebrows furrow together. “Ran off.”
Thankfully, our dinner arrives, two plates of medium-rare ribeyes paired with potatoes and broccoli and a salmon entrée completed with asparagus and rice. Rebel shoves a forkful of steaming potatoes into his mouth while I unwrap Celia’s napkin and place it in her lap.
“Maybe he had to pee,” Rebel muses, carving into his steak. “ Really badly.”
Celia frowns, first at Rebel, then at me. “Stop lying to me. I know that something is wrong.”
“I’m not lying,” Rebel replies, his ears turning pink. Fuck me. He will never be able to lie to Celia for as long as he lives.
She scowls at my brother before turning to face me. “My earbud isn’t working. What did you do?”
Unlike Thanatos, I don’t have my phone to disconnect any of our units from the system. For this part, I don’t have to lie. “I didn’t do anything.” I hand Celia her fork. “Eat your salmon.”
At least she takes a bite of her meal. “Tell me where Thanatos and Ruin are.”
“They’re heading back to the car,” I say, trying to be honest without tipping her off.
She nibbles on a piece of asparagus. “Why?”
“Let me find out. Please eat your dinner.” I unravel my own silverware and force myself to eat, hoping that she will follow suit. It’s easy for Rebel; he’s halfway through his plate and stealing the leftover piece of bread from Charlotte’s, but my stomach clenches at the thought of Ruin finding Sara.
Where the fuck has she been hiding all this time?
Celia chews slowly, her eyes constantly roaming the lawn. I caught a flicker of movement in my peripheral as Ruin carried Sara to the side doors, but he’s long gone by now, meaning that we’re safe from Celia finding out that Sara is here.
If she does, there will be no stopping her from rushing to the girl’s side, and acting emotionally will only make us vulnerable. We need to think clearly to process this information and decide our next steps. Let Dr. Sakovia take care of Sara; she’ll be… fine might be a bit of a stretch, but she’ll be in good hands.
I catch some of the conversation between Ruin and one of the doctors, including a brief summary of Sara’s physical state and where Ruin found her… and then, silence.
Thanatos says something, but the reception crackles, making it impossible to understand. The range of our comms must be reaching its limit from one end of the venue to the other. Rebel notices, too, cutting a slice off of his steak more slowly than before as the two of us listen intently for any change.
Then, all of a sudden, Ruin starts to speak.
Our brother isn’t talkative. He’d rather smoke a joint on the rooftop than engage in meaningful conversation, so his silence isn’t altogether alarming. It’s moments like this when he does speak—not to us, but to someone else—that sounds the alarm.
Something isn’t right.
“You got old,” he deadpans, his voice crackling in my ear. “I wish you hadn’t.”
What a strange thing to say.
The oddities continue as Ruin keeps talking, like he can’t shut the fuck up. “You also gained weight. Thirty pounds. You’re not balding, but you’ve gone gray. That limp in your right leg—is that new? No, you’re overcompensating. Must be a few years old.”
Our brother has never been good at conversation, but this is bizarre. I stand quickly and look for him, but he’s not anywhere within eyesight. “Ruin,” I rumble, “where are you?”
“It’s cold out here,” he replies, laughing. He actually laughs. “I left my jacket inside. You look pretty warm. You must have been out here a while.”
Outside. He’s outside.
Rebel joins me in looking for Ruin, except he’s jogging the perimeter, scanning the lawn, then the closest side of the building. Celia taps her earpiece, then lets out a frustrated sigh. “Turn it back on!” she snaps, jumping up and latching onto my arm. “Rage!”
“I can’t.” I swallow my frustration. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Celia stomps her foot. “Fuck your sorry. You’re a man who gets results, so get me results. Turn it back on.”
Fuck, I love this woman.
Sweeping her hair behind her ear, I gently remove her earpiece. Speaking into mine, I call for Thanatos. “Hey, turn Celia’s comms back on.” Acting on faith, I replace her unit with mine so that she can hear everyone’s conversation, leaving me in the dark.
Her eyes widen as she listens to Ruin’s awkward chatter. “Who is he talking to?”
“If I had to guess, he’s talking to our dad. Or to us. Likely both.”
Rebel makes a run for the trees, so I grab Celia’s hand and make to follow. “Let’s go.” She takes her first few steps, and the click of her heels gives me pause. “Can you run in those?”
She kicks them off, daring to go barefoot. Upon seeing the skepticism on my face, she rolls her eyes and shoves past me. “C’mon! He’s—he’s cutting out.”
They’re moving further out of range.
We run across the lawn behind Rebel, my brother reaching the forest before us. He says something that I can’t hear without my comms, then turns right. “He wants us to split up,” Celia says from behind me. “We can go left.” Just as we reach the trees, she stops and holds her hand to her ear. Her face scrunches as she listens closely. “Wait. I think I hear a car starting. They’re on the road? A dirt road. It’s bumpy. Ruin says that his truck is ugly.” She smiles for a split second before she turns left and sprints. “They road is this way!”
I know that she’s going toward the main street we took to the gala, but it’s paved. If they’re on a dirt road, it’s not at the front of the building. It’s somewhere in the back or to the side, hidden in the woods.
We have to be right next to the road. I glance up the mountain, looking for red taillights and finding none.
“He’s cutting out!” Celia slows down until she comes to a stop and places both of her hands on a tree. Picking up her feet, she grimaces as she brushes them off. “They’re getting too far away.”
Why would my brother willingly leave with the man who’s been trying to kill him for the past fifteen years? Why wouldn’t he kill him as soon as he saw him?
My gaze drifts from the incline in front of me to my future wife as she runs through the underbrush, her dress snagging on fallen tree limbs, her gait slowing as she struggles to make it to the road. Following her and making faster progress than she is tugs a thread of guilt inside of my heart. She isn’t built for the wilderness. A woman like Celia should be sipping on a champagne flute as fireworks light up the night sky behind her, illuminating the sparkle in her eyes.
I quickly scoop her up off the ground and cradle her in my arms. If she had been out here instead of Ruin, if our father had seen her and taken her, I would never have forgiven myself or my brothers for letting it happen. I know that Ruin would feel the same, blaming himself more than anything.
Our father has always wanted to get rid of Ruin, and Celia is collateral damage.
She closes her eyes and concentrates on what she’s hearing. “Rebel is going to keep looking behind us. Thanatos is saying something about…” She pinches her bottom lip between her teeth. “Going up the mountain.”
What she doesn’t say is that Ruin is still talking to us, but I have no doubt that he is. We just can’t hear him anymore. I take Celia’s hand and give it a gentle squeeze. “He’ll be okay. We’ll find him.”
Celia holds her breath for a long moment, then exhales heavily. “He left without saying anything. Why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he fight back?” What few beads remain sewed into Celia’s dress sparkle in the moonlight, a reminder of how beautiful she looked beneath the lavender spotlights an hour ago… and how my youngest brother couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
In a typical scenario, Ruin would have never left with our father. He would have fought tooth and nail to kill the bastard on the spot, not caring for the damage to his own body as long as he completed the job. He would have died if it meant destroying that man.
But he would also die to keep Celia safe.
I tilt my head back and stare at the moon, the circle around it cinching tighter. A hangman’s noose. An omen.
Someone is going to die tonight.