Chapter 51
I’LL NEVER LEAVE YOU
Killian
Pain detonated through my back and tore out of my chest as the bullet ripped through me.
I moved anyway.
Instinct took over. I grabbed the gun and fired.
Stan dropped with a dull thud seconds before my knees gave out, the world tilting as I hit the hard, grimy concrete.
Lexi’s face came into view above me, her sky-blue eyes darkening with fear.
“Killian!” Her hands pressed against my chest, slick with blood as tears spilled down her cheeks. “We have to call an ambulance.”
“No.” I caught her wrist. “You can’t be tied to this. Get out of here.”
I jerked my chin toward Stan’s body, blood pooling beneath him, distorting what was left of his face.
Lexi shook her head, those silky auburn locks whipping around her like fire. “I’m not leaving you here to die.”
“I’m not dying,” I bit out. “Clean shot. In my back and out my chest.”
A lie.
I had no idea what damage the bullet had done, or if it was even out.
Footsteps echoed through the space, and seconds later, two shadows broke through the darkness.
I blinked hard, forcing my vision to clear just as Slate dropped to his knees beside me. A string of curses tore from him the second he saw the blood soaking my chest—and coating Lexi’s hands.
“Holy fuck, Kill! What happened?” Slate yanked his shirt over his head and pressed it to my wound. His gaze dipped to the blood puddling beneath me.
“I knew the day would come when this bastard pissed off the wrong person.” The dim light flooding in through gaps in the boarded-up windows shone on Declan’s copper hair as he nudged Stan’s dead body. “I didn’t think it would be his perfect stepson.”
I managed to weakly flip off the Arcane member. “Where the fuck have you been?”
He turned to show the blood running down his temple. “Someone—possibly a traitor in Arcane—tipped off your stepfather, and the asshole attacked me.”
“When you didn’t call us to report back, we knew something was wrong,” Slate said, keeping his shirt firmly against my chest. “I found Declan unconscious in an alley behind the warehouse.”
“If someone doesn’t call a fucking ambulance, I will,” Lexi gritted out. “In case you two haven’t noticed, Killian was shot, and he’s bleeding out. He needs medical attention now.”
A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. Red was so adorable when she got bossy. I could just eat her up like a big bad wolf.
“What are you smiling about, Kill!” Lexi’s nostrils flared, and she would have smacked me if I wasn’t dying. I was honestly surprised she didn’t anyway.
“We can help cover this up. For a price.” Declan’s faint Scottish accent made each word sweeter, a little more alluring.
Women fell for his charm hand over fist, and that lyrical lilt even lulled men.
That was why he was so good at making deals.
“Give Arcane control of the video, and the Lords and the Ascended will never find out the truth. I’ll make sure your girl stays far away from this. ”
The original arrangement was for Arcane to leak it to the public. Now, to clean up a murder, Declan wanted complete control of the video. They could release it, sit on it until the opportune moment, or even sell it to one of our rivals.
“No.” My jaw clenched against Lexi’s and Slate’s protests. I refused to put her fate in their hands.
Now that Stan was dead, there was no reason for anyone to ever see that video. I’d rather die.
Hands so warm they burned my cheeks—or maybe I was just that cold—angled my head to meet a smoldering gaze.
“Send him the video, Kill. Please.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I can’t lose you to death or prison. I’d pay any price.”
“She’s a smart girl, Killian.” Declan leaned against a concrete pillar, a devilish smile curling his lips. “Give me this secret, and I’ll have a team here within minutes to clean this up and rush you to the hospital.”
No way in fucking hell. “This could eventually put you in danger, Red. I can’t sell this secret.”
“I’ve got a secret for you.”
A slew of curses blazed through my mind at the familiar voice. When I attempted to move, Slate shoved me back down, pain ricocheting through my body.
What the hell was he doing back in Copper Cove?
“Micah?” Lexi didn’t leave my side, but her muscles twitched as if her instincts propelled her to him. “Where have you been?”
He gave her a charming smile, and fuck, if I didn’t want to throttle him. “I had some business to take care of.” His attention swiveled to me, the softness in his expression evaporating. “Did you really think I’d stay gone forever?”
“You should have, Preston,” I snarled. “Bass put a target on your back.”
He gave a lazy shrug. “Now, he’ll have one too.”
He lifted his phone and tapped the screen to play a recording of a sobbing girl.
“You k-killed her. You killed Alicia.” Her voice reverberated through the empty, hollow space.
“Shut up, whore, or you’ll end up dead like your friend.”
That was definitely Bass.
Lexi’s head whipped in my direction as the puzzle pieces fit together. “That’s from the night of the masquerade party.”
“Bass didn’t know that Alicia’s friend, Torri, recorded the incident.
She wanted to release a sex tape with the infamous Sebastian Davenport, but things didn’t go as planned.
” Micah shoved his phone back into his pocket and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“While I was in hiding, I managed to do a lot of digging. You’re not the only one with connections, Killian. ”
Micah had balls of steel and was way more ruthless than I’d thought. That also meant he was capable of killing Lexi if he had to. I made the right choice in sending the fucker away. It wasn’t only because he had eyes for my girl.
“I was planning to use this as blackmail to find out what happened to my friend, Susanna, but protecting Lexi is more important.”
Great. Now the prick would be her knight in shining armor.
Micah flashed a cold, humorless smile at Slate and me. “Since I’m doing this for you, perhaps you can help me find out what happened to my friend.”
Slate nodded. “Yeah, sure. Just make the damn deal and get Killian to a hospital.” Worry lines deepened across his face as he noticed how much blood surrounded the concrete beneath me. I was swimming in it.
And I was fucking cold. So cold.
Even I knew that was a bad sign.
The warehouse dimmed as Declan and Micah shook hands, and my lids grew heavy. A shiver wriggled over my spine.
A warm hand wrapped around mine, squeezing it.
“No! Killian, stay with me.” The panic in Lexi’s voice had my chest aching more than the gunshot wound. “Don’t leave me again. Please.” That last word broke.
And it broke my heart.
“I’ll never leave you,” I muttered and tried to reach for her. “I promise.”
But the darkness grew, and she slipped out of my grasp. Or I’d slipped from hers.
Time passed while I was in and out of consciousness, everything either a blur or just black. When my brain finally floated to the surface, I had trouble piecing reality back together.
What the hell was that incessant beeping, and why did it feel like my chest had been ripped open and I’d been fed through a meat grinder?
More importantly, where the fuck was Red?
I’d promised her I wouldn’t leave, and here I was in the dark without her. Had something happened to her?
The last thing I remembered was making a deal with Declan, thanks to that prick Neophyte Micah Preston.
Did he take my Red away? Did he swoop in and save her from me?
No. He didn’t get to save her. My soul already belonged to her, so it was only fair I had hers.
My eyelids snapped open to a white room. There were tubes, wires, and fucking noises that grated on my eardrums. People in masks and gloves fussed over me, doing things to my chest. They were there, and then they were gone.
More pain. More tubes. More blood.
But no Lexi.
I bolted up and staggered off the bed. Someone shouted, but I paid them no attention. When I tried to stand, the tubes on my arm pulled me back, so I yanked them out, blood spurting across my pale flesh.
A man in a white coat rushed toward me and attempted to force me back onto the bed.
Fuck that.
I punched him, pain exploding through my body with the movement. Instead of succumbing to it, though, I stormed to the left on shaky legs. Another guy, bigger this time, came at me, but I shoved him against the wall, my fingers wrapping around his throat.
“Lexi,” I snarled, baring my teeth like a predator. “Where the fuck is Lexi?”
He coughed and tried to break my grip, his fingers slipping over mine.
“Lexi.” The need to find her seared my veins like liquid fire. “Lexi? Where. Is. Lexi?”
“Killian!”
That sweet voice penetrated the crimson haze bleeding around me, and I turned as my beautiful Red sprinted into the room. Her face was panicked as she pulled me away from the man, and I latched onto her.
“There you are, baby,” I whispered, burying my face in the crook of her neck. “I didn’t leave you. Did someone steal you?”
“I’m here, Kill.” She ran her fingers through my hair. “No one took me away.”
If I could melt into her and disappear, I would.
She cursed. “You’re burning up. You need to get back in bed.”
“Only if you come with me.”
A commotion of hospital staff unfolded in the room as Lexi led me back to the bed, but a gruff, dangerous voice sliced through it.
“Let her stay, and don’t even think about shooting him with that tranquilizer, or you’ll all be fired.”
I peered over Lexi’s shoulder to find Gage glaring daggers at a nurse clutching a needle as he scurried out of the room. When my friend’s gaze met mine, his lips twitched into a smile before he vanished out the door.
“You have to let someone put your IV back in.” Lexi climbed into the bed, breathing a sigh of relief when I settled in next to her.
My arm flopped onto the mattress, blood leaking out of it. “Fine. Just stay with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”