43. Anastasia
My hand tightens on Rhett’s arm with the cold dread that washes over me. I don’t believe I’m seeing things right. Alistair is so arrogantly composed, sauntering in knowing he’s cornered his prey. Then I try to figure out how he found us here, but my thoughts are a racing, terrified mess at being so blindsided.
“You can put down the gun, nephew. We have you completely surrounded.”
Rhett remains defiant, and I’m terrified he could shoot out of blind rage with his whole body as stiff as a rock, straining against it.
“It’s okay,” I whisper, trying to coax him to lower it with my hand sliding across his.
Rhett’s jaw grinds, his eyes turning Alistair to smoke and ash in his mind. But he knows there’s no series of shots that could get us all out alive with the chaos it would erupt. He lowers his gun.
“How did you track us?” Rix seethes.
I imagine Rix would have been diligent in all our movements, ensuring we weren’t followed or caught on surveillance.
I don’t expect the answer to come from anyone but Alistair.
“It’s nothing personal, princess,” Silas says, pushing up from the only lax position in the room I didn’t notice until now. “Just business.”
My whole body slumps with a betrayal that has no right to be as gut-wrenching as this. I was wrong, so terribly wrong, to trust him. Yet above all, I’m not as angry as I am sad for it despite the notorious name he carries.
“Why?” I breathe, not sure if he even hears it.
He slips a hand into his pocket, and I watch as Alistair gives way to him, yields to him. I should have fucking known.
“I don’t like mess, and he came to me with an offer that gives me everything I want.”
“Kenna is detained in the manor for you,” Alistair says.
That surges Rhett forward, and I grip his arm tighter. “You fucking sick bastard,” Rhett snarls at Silas.
Silas’s eyes darken and his jaw sets.
I say venomously, “You claim to be better than them, yet you bought her just like them.”
“I don’t expect an heiress and an amateur vigilante to understand, nor will I waste my breath explaining,” he says coolly.
“Traitorous bastard,” Rhett snaps.
“Only a fool can feel betrayed.” Silas’s eyes slip to me at that, but there’s no emotion in them.
His words repeat in my mind, over and over, as he gives us his back and walks out without a care in the world that he’s left us at the mercy of the vipers.
Only a fool.
“I have something each of you want,” Alistair says. His gaze shifts from me to Rhett. “All you have to do is bring me the body, or just the head, of Jacob Forthson—whom, as I gather, is awaiting you tonight.”
“So Xoid can be the target of his network for his death?” Rix grinds out.
“Be glad I’m not killing your precious sweetheart instead for her collusion with Forthson against me. You thought yourself cunning, Anastasia, but for once, I believe I was wrong about you. You don’t belong in this world, and you should have listened to your father.”
“You’re wrong,” I say, boiling with anger.
Rhett’s phone vibrates. Then mine rings too in the small purse I’m holding. Rhett and I exchange a look as I retrieve my phone, and only then does he too. When I look at the screen, there’s an unknown number, the same as Rhett’s.
Rhett picks up, and the moment he does, his eyes close and his head drops in utter defeat. “Allie,” he says, strained with agony as his grip tightens on the phone. “I’m coming for you, okay?”
Then it’s my turn, and I know who I’m going to hear as I keep my eyes locked on Alistair, who watches me like he’s won.
I bring the phone to my ear when I pick up. It’s silent, but I can hear his breathing. “Liam?” I whisper.
“I’m sorry, Ana. I’m so fucking sorry?—”
My stiff body flinches at the grunt of pain that cuts him off. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay, and I’m going to get you out of this.”
“Don’t come for me. But please, you need to get Allie. Promise me that?”
I want to tell him there’s no way I wouldn’t fight heaven and hell for him, but it’s not what he needs right now.
“I promise.”
He gives a labored breath of relief.
“You have until the end of the night,” Alistair says, and he turns to leave as the line between Liam and me is cut off.
The phone lowers in my hand, but I don’t feel tethered to gravity anymore. “What do we do?” I say vacantly, staring after the ghost of the most wicked man to exist.
“We’re going to go to that fucking party,” Rhett says.
“Killing Jacob was only an option because we had Silas to take his reins before his network came for blood for the death of their leader,” I argue.
“I don’t care anymore. This ends tonight if we have to burn the city to take those bastards down and get to Allie.”
“And Liam,” I say.
Rhett gives a tight nod.
“What are we doing, boss?” Rix asks.
He’s more lethal and focused than I’ve ever seen him before. The rest of the members of Xoid look to him with fear and determination to do whatever he asks.
Rhett checks his all-black watch. “We have an opening to get to.” He turns to me with a storm of conflict. “I want you to go back to the Den until all this is over so badly, but I need you. Jacob is expecting you for this ruse, but you have to promise me you’ll do as I say when I say it.”
I know I can’t promise that. I think he knows it too, as his eyes close for a pause, containing his will to shout at me, fight me, perhaps try to push me into the hands of one of his guys to keep me from going with him.
I grip the edges of his tux, tugging him. “It’s you and me. Don’t go back on that when things get frightening. We’re all fragile under the right impact—you told me that. The right impact is you leaving me behind.”
Rhett wants to disagree. He wants to push me away. But in the end, I’m glad he defies the terror that he’ll lose me just like he did Sarah. When he kisses me fiercely, I believe we can take on the world together.
“You and me, baby.”