Chapter 27
CEZAR
Watching her leave hurt. All the intimacy we shared the night before, all our pain, felt like it meant nothing to her. Maybe she was scared. Hell, I was scared. But not of her. I feared losing her to someone who had no right to take her.
She talked to me, never telling me the whole story. I’d done the same.
I didn’t want that to be the reason we never saw each other again. With her walking into danger and things left unresolved between us, all I could think about was what if… and that would be it. No chance to make amends.
I knew where she was going. At this point, she had to know I tracked her, watched her, hovered in every shadow she stepped into. She knew the kind of information I had access to. The ties knotted into my family’s rotten branches.
I stuffed whatever gear I could find into a bag, then realized halfway out the door that I had forgotten the vest. Whatever. At least I remembered the guns. And maybe I borrowed some other things from their weapons room.
I had no idea how fast I drove. I just knew I got there in record time. The sound of gunfire pierced the air, and my heart sank. I needed to find Lina.
Sneaking through the buildings, I could easily distinguish her men from the scum surrounding them.
One of the things I grabbed from the vault was a machine gun.
It had been a long time since I’d used one, though I still remembered the feel of it.
The moment my finger hit the trigger, a hail of bullets rained down.
The recoil crashed into my arms, and the adrenaline surged like a drug.
I kept the barrel high so none of her people caught a stray round.
The distraction worked. Her men shifted position and regained ground.
What I didn’t think through was the part where every gunner on the fucking property now had me in their sights.
No one could see exactly where I stood, and the mask only added to the mystery.
Perfect time to wreak fucking havoc. In all black, I shot out from the trees and killed the first bastards who came at me.
I reveled in this. As I got closer to her men, I wondered if they would recognize my mask as one of their own. Probably not, so I needed to be cautious. I wasn’t about to die before ensuring Lina’s safety.
Then I saw her—and for a moment, the battlefield disappeared. God, she was breathtaking. Power and grace paired with death. The way she moved, the way she commanded, the way she killed without hesitation. She owned the fight, and she owned me.
And I owned her.
I sprinted toward her, dodging bursts of gunfire and killing anyone stupid enough to stand in my way. Her attention was locked on the enemy lines while I closed the distance between us.
I’d been staring at her for too long because neither Dorin nor I caught the two shooters zeroing in on them. Dorin reacted first, shoving Lina out of the way with enough force to send her into the dirt, hands barely cushioning the impact.
Her men scrambled to drag her out of the firing zone while Dorin and a few others attempted to return fire. The field was madness, bodies everywhere, groups scattered and outnumbered. Those two assholes kept advancing with terrifying precision.
As I closed in, I shot one of the men aiming for Dorin, but the other fired again, and a sharp, tearing pain ripped through my chest. I still managed to reach Dorin first, and a few of their subordinates rushed in right after.
Before my mask could slip, we dove behind a slab of metal for cover. With the speed I was moving and the force of the tackle, it made sense that Dorin ended up under me, pinned against the ground as bullets hammered above us.
Lina’s scream pierced through the commotion—a sound filled with agony that could’ve woken the dead. Why was she screaming? Who had been hurt? And why was Dorin staring at me like that? For a second, I entertained the idea of messing with him.
My arms faltered from holding my weight, and a sudden wave of weakness rolled through me. Voices fogged together in the noise, but Lina’s kept getting louder and more frantic.
A crooked grin tugged at my mouth when my gaze met Dorin’s. I expected annoyance. Maybe disappointment. Instead, I saw fear.
He flinched as droplets of blood splattered onto his cheek, staining his skin.
“Cezar—fuck, Cezar…” Dorin’s voice faltered, his eyes wide.
My vision blurred around the edges. Dorin, overcoming his shock, moved himself to anchor me as I collapsed. Now I was the one lying on the ground with him over me.
“Just hold on, Cezar. Grab me something to stop the bleeding!” he screamed at one of the men.
Amidst my rapid blinking, I saw her—Lina—dropping to her knees beside me. More of her people appeared, finally stepping out of wherever the hell they’d been hiding. Smart. She’d been funneling them into one spot. I probably just fucked the whole thing up.
I really am a worthless piece of shit.
Lina cried out, “Cezar, no, fuck, please, no! Dorin, do something, please! Listen to me, can you hear me?” She grabbed my hand, and I attempted to squeeze hers back, but it didn’t work.
“It can’t end like this,” she cried. “Dorin, you have to save him. Please. Cezar, I’m so sorry.”
She kissed me. I fought to kiss her back, but all I felt was a crushing weight in my chest.
Unable to make out much of what Dorin was saying, but judging by Petal’s distress, I must have been shot. All that mattered was her safety. In barely a whisper, with her face close to mine, I managed, “Tell me, my Petal, that I took it like a good boy.”
And then everything went dark.