Chapter 29 Kaylor
KAYLOR
My hand moved to the door as a flash of beams bounced behind us, momentarily blinding me in the side mirror. Carson and I whipped around at the same time, nearly bumping heads as our hands flew up to shield our eyes from the glare.
“Shit,” Carson muttered under his breath. His brow wrinkled as a line of fear flickered across his features. “I swear, if your boyfriend beats the shit out of me again—”
A car door slammed, the sound cracking through the night like a gunshot.
Then another. And another.
I barely had time to stash the gun behind my back, tucking it into my pants, before Kreed came at us, storming across the off-beaten path like a force of nature.
His long strides ate up the distance between us in seconds.
He reached the car and tore open my door so violently the hinges groaned in protest. “Get out, little raven,” he snapped.
I’d been expecting him. I just hadn’t been expecting him to be furious. I’d been braced for anger, for shouting, and for the cold fury I’d seen him turn on enemies before.
But this…
The man staring down at me wasn’t angry.
He was unhinged. His eyes blazed dark and wild, pupils blown wide.
His chest heaved with each breath as if he’d been running, his lips pressed tightly together, and I could see the muscles beneath his skin.
Veins stood out on his forearms where his sleeves were rolled up, hands curled into fists at his sides.
This wasn’t the Kreed who held me at night, arms wrapped around me, protecting me. Or the Kreed who kissed me until I was breathless.
This was the Kreed he worked hard to keep hidden. The one he warned me about. The Kreed who left bodies in his wake without blinking.
My lungs stalled, breath catching halfway up my throat. God, have I made the biggest mistake of my life? Why does it look like he’ll never forgive me? I had to make him understand.
Before I opened my mouth, my eyes shifted behind him to Mason and Maddox, who stood at Kreed’s back on either side. Their faces were hard, those infamous Corvo masks slammed into place.
And—
My eyes widened a fraction, shock rippling through me. “Jesse?” I gasped, blinking.
He stood off to the side, half hidden in shadow, and gave me a faint, grim nod.
“What are you doing here?” I stepped out of the car and went toe-to-toe with Kreed. “What is he doing here?”
“You’ve got bigger problems than worrying about Jesse right now,” he replied grimly.
Carson stiffened as he came around the car, his body going rigid. The movement drew Kreed’s gaze. A mistake. I had to stop what would come next. We hadn’t come this far just to fuck it up.
Without a second thought, I put myself directly in front of Kreed’s path, my palms flattening on his chest. He wouldn’t hurt me. But Carson…he’d murder, especially since Kreed believed he betrayed me in the worst way, conspiring with the enemy. Only Carson and I knew the truth.
The tricky part was convincing Kreed that it had been me who told Carson to reach out to Rusty, to make Rusty believe Carson wanted to get Kreed out of the picture for good so my best friend could have me for himself, because Carson was in love with me.
It was a believable scheme, which was what we needed Rusty to believe, because what wouldn’t someone do for love?
“Kreed,” I hissed. “I need you to listen to me. This isn’t what it seems. I promise you.
I need you to trust me. Not him. Me.” I took his chin, pulling his face down toward mine.
He didn’t look at me right away, his eyes not wanting to move away from Carson.
When those dark-silver eyes finally met mine, I spoke again.
“I will explain everything, but we need to finish this first.” My gaze flashed to the cabin so that he would understand.
Rusty was the main focus. Carson could wait.
Kreed’s eyes narrowed, his heart thundering under my palms. “I’m excellent at multitasking, little raven, and when it comes to you, I don’t have the best control over my impulses.”
I didn’t have to ask what those impulses were telling him to do. It was clearly written in the harsh lines of his face. “We’re not here to fight each other.”
His chest went taut beneath my hand, the muscles flexing instinctively. “If you love me, you’ll get in the car with Raine and let me finish this.”
It was a low request, using my feelings for him against me. I chewed on my lip, contemplating while also knowing I couldn’t leave. I just couldn’t. Luckily, a disruption saved me from having to make a choice. Or maybe it wasn’t luck at all.
The cabin door scraped open, wood grinding against wood as Rusty stepped out onto the porch, every burly inch of him backlit by the flickering lantern light.
He moved with the smugness of a man who thought he’d won, chest puffed out, chin tilted up, a slow smile spreading across his face, and a gun fitted into his hand as if it were an extension.
“Well, well,” he drawled, voice dripping with satisfaction.
“Quite a reunion. However, I’m disappointed at such a pathetic turnout. Where’s your crew, ravens?”
Guns were drawn. It all happened so fast. I blinked, and Mason, Maddox, Kreed, and Raine all had a weapon in hand, pointed at Rusty. Kreed shifted his body in front of me. “I could ask you the same,” Kreed barked back.
“It seems like we’re still at an advantage,” Mason added, adjusting his grip with a cocky grin he absolutely did not feel.
Raine’s tone was light, but his eyes were pure ice. “I imagine most of your Vipers have abandoned you by now. I’m honestly surprised they let you live. Or…” He tilted his head. “Are you running from them too?”
I was freaking out inside, my pulse thudding against my ribs, each beat frantic.
Thud. Thud. Thud. The gun pressed against my spine, and I took a greedy gulp of the damp and thick air, smelling of pine needles and moss as Carson moved closer toward me.
He hadn’t meant to draw Rusty’s focus, and I shivered when those black eyes fell on me.
“Don’t fucking look at her,” Kreed snarled.
The night vibrated with tense electricity, and I had no idea who would move first. This wasn’t how the scenario had looked in my head.
A branch snapped, drawing Rusty’s gaze from me. His head tipped, a shadow passing over his features. “Jesse, what have you gotten yourself into?”
Jesse stood behind the twins, posture rigid. “You didn’t leave me much of a choice.”
Rusty’s smile honed into something monstrous. “You have a choice now. Stand with them and die… Or go inside, and I’ll forget your part in this.”
Before Jesse could react, Mason grabbed his arm and yanked him close. The muzzle of Mason’s gun pressed hard against Jesse’s temple. “Flinch,” Mason warned softly, “and I’ll shoot.”
Rusty made a tsking sound. “You could shoot him, but who’s to say I’m alone? These trees provide the perfect coverage for an ambush. One signal from me…” Rusty made a shooting gun motion with his free hand.
“Or,” Raine countered, “you’re a bluffing, desperate lunatic.”
Rusty’s gaze slid back to Kreed, studying him. “Are you willing to take that chance? Willing to sacrifice your brothers…for her?”
The idea that he was willing to lose his son said everything I needed to know about Rusty’s state of mind, of the sort of man he was. “My father would hate you if he could see you. He’d kill you,” I spat.
He wasn’t a man.
He was a monster.
Rusty’s smile evaporated. “All the more reason he had to die.”
A roaring filled my ears, rage, grief, disbelief, mixing into something white-hot and blinding.
My fingers twitched toward my gun, and I shook with the force of wanting to pull it, aim it, and fire it.
End him. If I had been alone, if there had been no chance Kreed or the others could get hurt, I would have pulled the trigger. Inside, I was screaming.
“Jesse,” Rusty commanded again.
Mason’s hand remained steady, the gun still pressed firmly against Jesse’s temple, and only his eyes moved, flicking toward me. Then to Kreed. “I’m right where I need to be.”
“Suit yourself. But before anyone gets trigger-happy…” Rusty’s grin resurfaced, twisted and malicious. “I have a surprise that might change your mind.”
“Fuck, I really hate surprises,” Maddox grumbled under his breath.
Rusty’s smile widened and was so smug that it made me sick.
It made me feel as if I was missing something, that he had an edge, but I couldn’t figure out what or how.
His eyes glittered triumphantly like a man who had just laid his trap and couldn’t wait to watch us fall into it.
“I think you’ll like this one,” he said, angling his body slightly to the side as a figure moved into the doorway.
I peeked around Kreed’s form to see as one of my hands glided behind me. Rusty would expect the Corvos to shoot, but would he expect me to?
Kreed’s frame pulled taut under the fabric, the hoodie shifting as if it struggled to contain the sudden coil of muscle beneath it.
His brothers had their weapons trained on Rusty, barrels gleaming in the beam of headlights.
Even Jesse tensed beside Maddox, his face drawn tight with dread that hollowed out his cheeks.
The forest fell dead silent.
Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
The silhouette filling the doorway took shape, their features coming into the light, the familiar hard jawline, all sharp angles and no softness.
The silver-streaked hair swept back from his forehead.
The dark, tailored coat he wore, buttons gleaming, not a thread out of place, and my stomach plummeted.
Donovan Corvo.
Kreed’s fucking father.
The cold night seeped into my bones as if my body suddenly remembered exactly what he’d taken from me. Breathing felt impossible, my lungs refusing to pull in air until the fringes of my vision blurred.