Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
kaius
The hollow click of the empty chamber echoed in the silence between us, louder than thunder.
Acelynn froze, waiting for the end that would never come.
I’d never loaded the gun in the first place.
With a sharp curse, I tore the barrel away from her temple and shoved it back into my waistband.
My chest heaved with rage I didn’t know how to direct—at her, at myself, at the fucked-up world that had landed us here.
“Have you lost your damn mind?” I roared, my voice cracking through the quiet.
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t even blink. Those icy eyes locked on mine like she’d already made peace with death, like I hadn’t just offered her a second chance at breathing.
Acelynn lashed out, palm landing its blow on my cheek.
My head snapped sideways from the force of it, the sting sinking bone deep.
Before I could recover, she was on me, fists hammering against my chest. Blow after blow, all the fury, heartbreak, and grief she had buried clawed its way out of her.
Her sobs tore through me worse than her fists. Raw, jagged, and full of the kind of pain you don’t recover from. I let her hit me, let her rage pour out until I couldn’t take it anymore. My hands shot forward, catching both her wrists in an iron grip.
“Enough,” I growled, yanking her against me.
She didn’t fight me this time. Her body crumpled, collapsing into mine like she was finally too tired to keep carrying the weight of it all. I pressed my face into the crown of her head, breathing her in, holding her like I could shield her from the past, from the truth, from me.
“Let it out, kitten,” I murmured, softer now. My voice vibrated against her hairline, my lips tracing over her skin like a prayer I didn’t deserve to say.
I don’t know how long we stood in that spot as Acelynn released all her pent-up emotions from a lifetime worth of lies.
She may not know the full extent of them, but there was a part of her soul that was tired of being in the dark.
Acelynn was finally feeling everything she had repressed.
And I was honored to be the man to hold her through it all.
My lips traced her hairline again as her sobs bled out into broken hiccups, her breathing evening out against my chest.
Her voice was hoarse when it finally came. “I have to leave Lovelen, don’t I?”
The right answer was yes. The good answer. The one that a King of the Knights should give, to protect the club, to protect what was mine. But the truth? The truth was, I wanted to chain her here forever, consequences be damned.
“Yes.” The word left me flat, void of all the emotion clawing inside my chest. “But not until you find what you lost for me.”
She pulled away, slow, deliberate. My arms ached from the loss.
Watching her walk toward the door felt like someone was dragging barbed wire through my ribcage.
I knew down to the marrow of my bones I’d never hold her again.
Never find someone who would fill this gaping wound, this hole she tore through my heart, and is leaving me with.
I knew this would change me, making me just as cold and heartless as my fucking father.
“You will be the bargaining chip that is used to get my sister back. Logan wants you. We all know this, and I will be ready to hand-deliver you to him when he calls.”
The color in Acelynn’s face drained, but it had to be done. I had to make her never want to return to this bar. Make her hate me. I stepped forward, hand latching around her throat and squeezing just enough that a squeak left her lips.
I smirked. “And if you manage to slip your way out of this one, I don’t want to ever see your fucking face in my town again. You are officially out of cards, Emersyn Spade.”
She paused at the doorway, one hand braced against the frame. Her head dipped, just enough for me to see the tremble in her shoulders. When she finally spoke, her voice cracked. “Will you answer one question for me before I leave, Kaius?”
“Anything.”
Her eyes found mine, broken and fierce all at once. “Why would you agree to marry someone you had never met? For all you knew, I could’ve been a raging bitch. Or worse, not your type.”
The corner of my mouth twitched despite myself. “You are definitely neither of those things.”
A dark chuckle slipped past my throat before I let the truth bleed out. “We did meet, Acelynn. Once.”
Her brows furrowed, confusion flickering through her grief.
“You were maybe eight. I was thirteen. It was at a club meeting at your family’s home.
” My voice drifted, memories surfacing like ghosts.
“I’d been begging my old man to let me sit in on a meeting, and he finally caved.
But really? All it amounted to was me and your brother getting tossed out of the room so our fathers could talk behind closed doors. ”
A faint shadow of a smile tugged at my lips, though it never reached my eyes.
“But I remembered you. Even back then. You had this stubborn little fire in your eyes that reminded me of every trouble I wanted to start but couldn’t because my dad would have my ass scrubbing the bar floor with a toothbrush if he caught me. I couldn’t forget that night.”
I let the words hang there, heavy and unspoken.
Because the truth was simple. I hadn’t just agreed to the marriage for business, for power, for some twisted idea of her safety.
I’d agreed because deep down, I remembered the girl with fire in her eyes, and I’d been a fucking fool to think I could ever burn her out of my system.
The whizz of a football cut past my ear, close enough to clip the side of my head.
Alec had overthrown the ball again by a mile.
I rolled my eyes, biting back a curse. He couldn’t throw straight to save his damn life.
With a sigh, I started jogging after it, only to stop short when a small hand lifted the football toward me.
“You are supposed to catch it when he throws it,” she quipped at me.
I just stared down at her in wonder. Her blonde hair was now pushed back in a plastic headband that was similar to the tweed skirt she had on.
A matching jacket hung open, revealing a white blouse underneath.
But what really caught my attention were her bright blue eyes.
They matched Alec and his mother’s, but there was something about hers that seemed to stand out.
Maybe it was the mischievous glint that shone brightly for me, but I knew that I would never forget them.
“Emersyn,” Alec’s scolding voice called out behind us. “You know you aren’t allowed to be out of your room when the clubs are here.”
“You’re not the boss of me, Alec,” she snapped at him, shooting him a fiery glare.
Alec shoved past me and towered over his younger sibling.
Emersyn lifted her chin in defiance, challenging him to do something.
I had to hold back a laugh as I watched the interaction.
This girl would make a brilliant club president.
Too bad for the fact that only men were ever patched into the clubs. Misogynistic bastards.
“Go in the house now,” Alec growled at her, his hand coming down to lightly shove her shoulder in that direction. She scoffed at him, which only angered the boy. “Now, Emersyn.”
Emersyn threw down the football, and it bounced a few times before landing directly in front of my feet.
She crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground against her older brother.
He reached out this time with two hands and shoved her.
The girl stumbled backward but didn’t fall over.
I opened my mouth to say something, but the crack of Alec’s nose rang out over my words.
Emersyn was shaking out her hand as Alec clutched his face in pain.
She turned her gaze to me, shrugging lightly before making her way back into the house.
“I don’t remember that,” Acelynn whispered, voice so faint I almost thought she was speaking to herself.
Her lashes were wet, eyes downcast as though she were afraid of what she might see if she looked too closely at me.
“Why don’t I remember anything from my childhood that doesn’t include Alec being a great older brother? ”
The question hit like a knife in the ribs. I dragged my tongue across my lips, searching for words I wasn’t sure she wanted to hear.
I murmured finally, my voice low, steady—like I could soften the truth if I kept it calm. “It could be your brain protecting you from reliving the trauma that occurred when you were young.”
Her brows pinched together, deep lines creasing the delicate space between them. She was clawing through the fog of her past, desperate for scraps of memory, but every time she reached too far, I could see the pain strike her.
“You said…interactions?” she asked, tentative, like a girl testing the ice of a frozen lake. I only nodded once. Her gaze drifted somewhere past me, inward, chasing shadows. Then, suddenly, like a spark catching dry kindling, her eyes lit. “The laundry chute.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at my lips. Of course she’d remember that.
The one moment carved into both our childhoods.
A memory I’d kept buried in the quiet corners of my mind.
I gave her the smallest nod, confirmation without words.
For a long heartbeat, she just looked at me.
Really looked, like she was peeling back the years of heavy armor piece by piece.
Her eyes, glazed with unshed tears, held mine with a weight that was almost unbearable.
“I’ll be your bargaining chip to get Astoria back since I am currently out of cards to play.” Acelynn’s words were a mere whisper. She held my gaze. “Logan is predictable. He will come for me sooner or later. Wait for my call, then try not to get killed when saving your sister.”
Then, slowly, Acelynn stepped back. Her hand found the door, pushing it open, the night air spilling in around her like an escape she wasn’t sure she wanted to take.
I wanted to stop her. Wanted to drag her back into my arms and lock the door behind us.
But my boots stayed planted, heavy with the truth of what I had done, what she had done.
And how it was about to destroy us both.