Chapter 10 Callum
CALLUM
Istare at her as her words still ring in me, all that history, all that blood, all that madness.
I look at the scar burned into her forearm. At the blood dried on her knees. At the way her shoulders shake with silent tears. At the emptiness in her voice when she called herself worthless.
Christ.
She looks so empty, so stripped down she barely resembles a person. If she really had nothing to do with killing my father, if she's just another one of Cormac's victims caught up in his war, then what the hell am I supposed to do with that?
And I should feel rage. Instead, looking at her now, I feel something closer to pity, and I hate that. No innocent woman should feel like this. Should look this hollow. This broken.
"Please," she says in a low tone, lifting her head again just enough to gaze at me. "Please just tell me what you're going to do with me."
My jaw tightens.
I need to verify things, cross-reference her story against the intel we've pulled, against what Matei's men might tell me when I ask, because I sure as hell am. I just need time to think without her sitting here staring at me with those goddamn eyes.
And I don't like that she keeps asking.
I stand abruptly. This interrogation is over for now.
"Tommy."
The door opens immediately. He steps inside, shoulders squared, waiting for orders.
I glance at the girl, Zaria, whose head is staring down at the floor.
"We'll keep her here," I say. "But you can cut the bindings off for now."
Her head snaps up, and I meet her eyes.
"Try anything," I add, "and you'll be back in ties until I'm done with you. Understood?"
"I won't," she says quickly, her voice cracking. "I promise."
I scoff because a promise from Cormac Donoghue's daughter means so fucking much.
"And no food or lights until I verify things," I say flatly.
Her face goes pale.
"Don't leave me here in the dark," she says. "Please."
I ignore her and turn toward the door.
"Please."
I shake my head. "You don't get to make requests," I say over my shoulder.
My hand reaches the door and a sound behind me makes every instinct ignite.
A sudden commotion. A sharp grunt. The scrape of the chair.
I spin around just in time to see Zaria lunge at Tommy's back.
He's bent over, holding the knife he'd just used to cut her bindings, and she slams into him with a feral snarl. Her fingers claw up his sleeve, his vest, then she rips his sidearm free from the holster.
"Son of a bitch!" Tommy shouts, twisting, but she's already got his gun.
I pivot, reaching for my weapon, expecting her to aim at him or at me, but instead she does the unthinkable.
She swings the gun up and jams the barrel against her own temple. Her hand is shaking so badly the gun taps against her skin.
"DON'T PUT ME IN THE DARK!" she screams so loud it's almost deafening.
I don't think. I just move, instinct taking over.
I run at her fast and swing my arm, chopping her wrist sideways.
BANG.
The gun fires and the ceiling explodes with dust and plaster raining down as I tackle her, driving her to the floor, pinning her wrists above her head. I wrestle the gun out of her hands and toss it aside.
She screams as she fights me, but it's not to escape or even attack me.
She fights to get the gun back, to press it against her skull again.
"Let me go," she sobs, thrashing beneath me. "Let me, please, just let me..."
"What the fuck are you doing?" I yell, my weight holding her down as she twists like a trapped animal.
"I can't, I can't be in the dark." Her voice breaks into a wail. "Please don't leave me in the dark, please..."
Her eyes look different. It's as if she’s not here.
She’s somewhere else, some forest, some ritual, some fire, some punishment that lives behind her every thought.
She's not an assassin or spy or some plant from Shadowharbor.
She's a broken animal.
She wasn’t trying to kill me or escape. She was trying to finish what her father began.
And keeping her in this basement is useless. She'll either die of stress or try this again, and next time, I might not be fast enough.
Her sobs are wrecking her, her whole body shaking so hard I can feel it through my body where I'm pinning her down. She's whispering now, the words tumbling out too fast to follow.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
I pin her harder to keep her from hurting herself, and through gritted teeth I bark, "Get her up!"
Tommy scrambles back in, wide-eyed, shaken, but he grabs her by the arms and hauls her upright as I stand.
"Take her to the East Wing. Have the room stripped of anything sharp. Lock her in."
"Boss..."
"Do it," I snap. "And tell no one she's there."
Tommy nods and drags her out of the room. Zaria limps along without speaking.
I watch as they leave, and I stand there, staring at the ceiling where the bullet hole is, my pulse hitting fast. I've never dealt with anyone like this.
Sure, I've ended men who were stoic when it was their time, but volunteering to do it themselves? No, never.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I pull it out.
Declan.
I stare at the screen, my thumb hovering over the answer button.
If I tell him now, he'll demand I kill her. He'll want her blood for what Cormac did to our father. For what the Morrígan did to Keira, and I wouldn't blame him.
But Zaria knows too much.
The nurse. Brother George. Shadowharbor's endgame. The meeting. The systematic dismantling of everything we've built.
Zaria knows all of it. She's the only living person who does other than the man who wants us dead.
She's the key to unraveling the Morrígan, and she tried to die in my basement because she thought it was mercy.
I let the call go to voicemail and I know that in this, it's the first big decision I've made as the newly minted head of this family.
I need to know how Cormac operates. What his rituals mean. What his next steps are.
How deep Shadowharbor’s infiltration goes.
Which leaves me with only one option.
Zaria stays hidden.
My secret and my responsibility.
Not because I give a shit about her and not because I think she’s innocent.
But because she's going to give me the answers I want.
And no one fucking dies in my house unless I say so, and I don’t say so.
Not yet. Not her.