Chapter Twelve
XADEN
My men have swept every hospital, emergency center, and clinic within a hundred miles, trying to locate Masen.
Andrade confirmed what I already assumed earlier, Steven Kellar died in Somerset General in the early hours.
He lasted six hours post-warehouse. They couldn't list the cause of death as anything other than multiple catastrophic injuries because there was no single adequate word for the sum of what I left him with.
I feel nothing about this that requires examining.
Three down.
We know Meekan is dead, the fact that we can't locate his body means nothing to me. I just need confirmation that Masen the cocksucking cunt is dead. I need to hear someone say the words.
In this life, you never assume anything without proof.
My mind is a pit of darkness these days—a vortex that sucks you in and digs its claws so deep you can't escape. I can't think clearly. Can't focus on anything except the crushing weight of self-loathing and disgust.
I had all three Kellars at my mercy.
Ready to wipe their existence from the face of the earth and finally be free of them all.
I held the blade to her throat, ready to end it. To claim the flawless victory I'm owed.
But my mind and my body were at war. One wanted her dead. The other couldn't do it.
I fucking hesitated.
That's something I've never done before. Not once. I don't even have to think about killing—it comes as naturally as breathing. Muscle memory.
“Boss?”
I look up from the blank screen of my laptop and see Andrade standing in the doorway.
“What is it?” My tone is cold and clipped. Andrade doesn't cower or shy away, that's why he was promoted. Much like Caspian, he can handle my anger and still get the job done.
“We need to head back to your apartment.”
My brows furrow. We came back to my father's house four days ago because the apartment in town, that Cas and I share, was too small. After the men scoped this place out and confirmed it wasn't being watched, we moved.
The Feds may have busted the warehouse and saved the fairy, but something's off. They haven't made a move against me or frozen any of my assets.
“Why?” That single word carries a warning, this motherfucker better make his point quick or I'm going to unleash my fury on his ass.
He stands tall and meets my gaze with a stony expression. “The apartment has been... vandalized, sir.”
Fury consumes me like wildfire. “Find me the cunt who did it. I want their fucking lips—”
“We already have, boss.”
Something in his tone makes me hold back from biting his head off for interrupting. The way his eyes flicker sends an uneasy feeling unraveling inside me.
I dare him with a look to confirm my suspicion about who the fuck targeted my home.
Andrade swallows, squares his shoulders, and blanks his face of all emotion as he meets my glare.
“We have footage of her leaving the—”
“Get the men.” The roar tears from my throat, primal and devastating. “We're going after my fucking fairy so I can rip her lips off with my bare hands.”
I ignore the calls of my men telling me to stay back while they clear the building.
If that bitch wants me dead, it's going to take more than a fucking cheap shot.
My front door hangs off its hinges. I grit my teeth to temper the rage boiling in my veins.
No one—not one single person—has ever dared to do something so brazen.
I walk further into the apartment and head straight for my bedroom. The room she stayed in hasn't been disturbed. Neither has the bathroom. But Caspian's room is completely trashed.
I glare at the sight of my closed door.
Carved into the wood is a message meant for me.
Tink.
I want to claw the fucking name from the door with my bare nails. I manage to refrain and kick it open instead, not giving a fuck about the damage.
I step into the room and stop in the entryway, taking in the sight of complete destruction.
Red paint is splattered over the walls like arterial spray. My dresser is smashed to pieces. She even trashed my wardrobe, clothes ripped from hangers, strewn across the floor.
But what captures my focus is the bed.
The sheets are no longer black—they're white.
There's an outline of a body drawn on them in black marker, red paint sprayed around it with a perfect red dot in the center of its forehead.
Execution-style.
Looks like the fairy found her backbone.
A smirk begins to tug at the corner of my mouth, but it vanishes instantly when I see the picture stuck to the wall above my bed.
The blood drains from my face.
The air is ripped from my lungs as I cross the room to get a closer look.
The instant it registers what the fuck it is, everything inside me turns to ice.
The noise of my men tramping through my home becomes white noise. I hear nothing but the blood pumping violently in my ears, my heartbeat thundering like war drums.
I reach out and rip the image off the wall.
Stare at it.
I have no thoughts. No feelings aside from... I don't even fucking know what this is.
Shock? Terror? Something too big and too devastating to name?
I flip it over and read the handwritten note on the back.
You vowed to hang my lips above your bed.
I thought this image of our baby fit better.
I'm coming for you, Devlin.
Tink.
I turn it over again and stare down at the ultrasound image.
The baby doesn't even look like a baby, just a tiny blob, a bean-shaped shadow with the faintest suggestion of something that might be a heartbeat.
Our baby.
The reality of it slams into me like a freight train.
“Fuck!” The roar tears from somewhere deep and primal.
I shove the picture in my pocket just as Cas rushes into the room with two guys behind him.
I don't give any of them a chance to ask questions. “Find the bitch.”
“On it,” Fredrick says, then rushes out with Thomas behind him, leaving me and Cas alone.
“She's changed,” Cas utters as he walks around the room, assessing the damage she's caused.
I snap my head toward him and narrow my eyes dangerously. “You think you know her?”
Cas pauses and faces me, and the dark look in his eyes feeds the beast inside me that longs for the blood of my enemies.
“I've known Toren Kellar for years, and she isn't the type of girl to do shit like this.”
I scoff. “This was her—”
“I know!” he snaps, cutting me off. “Two years ago, she would never have thought of doing something like this. But I guess a lot has changed her.”
The words hang between us like a gauntlet thrown down.
Something feels off about him. He's acting different, and him jumping to her defense is pissing me the fuck off.
“You thinking about running back to your bestie, Vought?” My tone is pure malice and wrath.
Caspian's face hardens, his eyes burning with outrage and something that looks dangerously close to hurt.
“You want to get something off your chest, Devlin? Then let's hit the fucking ring. But you are not going to stand there and question my fucking loyalty to you!”
His roar is primal and raw.
“I'm here, Xaden!” He beats his fist against his chest. “I'll never be Neave or Miles.”
I go completely still at the mention of my boys.
“Don't,” I warn, my voice deadly quiet.
“I'm here, X. Standing right fucking here with you, brother.
Ready to cut down the only people who ever gave me a home.
I have nothing to give or offer anyone except my loyalty, and I gave that to you.
I fucked up, but I'm trying to make this shit right by being here, by your side, proving to you daily that I'm someone you can count on.”
“How'd you fuck up?” I push, needing to know.
He throws his hands in the air in frustration. “Is that all you got out of what I just said?”
I cross to him and don't stop until we're chest to chest, so close I can see the desperation swimming in his eyes.
“Don't ever betray me, Cas,” I say, barely above a whisper.
“I'm here proving to you that I am loyal to you.”
Before I can answer, my phone rings in my pocket. I pull it out and frown at the blocked caller.
I should let it ring out.
But I don't.
“You must have a death wish if you're calling this number,” I answer, my voice deadly calm.
“Not quite.”
The sound of her voice has my spine stiffening and my jaw locking so hard my teeth ache.
“Tink,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
“Devlin.” The husky lilt of her voice has my beast beating his fists against his chest, and the fact that my cock twitches in my pants just from hearing her voice pisses me off.
“Did you enjoy redecorating my home?”
“I thought it fitting since you redecorated my life.”
“Not the same thing,” I hiss. Cas stands beside me, listening intently.
“Isn't it?”
“When I catch you, I'm going to tear your pathetic wings off so you can never fly again. Then I'm going to take my time with you.”
“Tell me more, baby,” she taunts.
Hearing her call me baby makes my hackles rise and something darker stir inside me.
When Andrade appears in the doorway, Cas motions for him to start tracing the call. He rushes out to grab his equipment.
“I'll make it slow so you can feel everything,” I promise, my voice dropping to something dark and dangerous.
She lets out a moan that travels straight to my cock. I force myself to remain focused.
“When you can't take it anymore and think I'll grant you mercy, I won't.”
“To teach is to learn. To learn is to excel. To excel is to thrive. To thrive is to live.”
She says that stupid phrase that means nothing to me, yet I know it means everything to her.
“I'm thriving, Devlin. And I have such big plans for you.”
I chuckle, but there's no humor in it, just a cold dark promise.
Andrade rushes into the room, sets his laptop on the edge of the bed, plugs a cord into it, then tosses me the other end to plug into my phone so he can start the trace.
“Someone woke up and chose violence today, didn't they, Tink?” I taunt, stalling for time.
“Hmm, you bring out the worst in me.”
“I could say the same for you.” I'm rambling now, needing to keep her talking. “You must feel so brave with your Denver Kings by your side. But here's something to hang onto, Tink. They won't be able to save you from me.”
“Who said I wanted to be saved?” she fires back, and I can hear the smile in her voice. “I gave you chance after chance to take my rotten soul and you didn't. Now I finally see the real world without rose-colored glasses. I see the monsters, and I see the devil inside you.”
I can't fight the smirk breaking free.
“You can tell your man to stop tracing the call.”
I tense and dart my gaze to Cas. He reads the look in my eyes and rushes out to warn the others we're being watched.
“Why should I?”
“Because I'm at your house. Come get me, Devlin.” Her voice drops to something taunting and dangerous. “If you catch me, I might even tell you where my brother is hiding.”
She ends the call just as Andrade gives me the thumbs up.
“She's at the mansion,” he breathes out in a rush.
A visceral, furious growl erupts from me, laced with something that might be respect if I wasn't so fucking angry.
“I know. The bitch used this as a diversion!”
And as I storm out of the apartment, the ultrasound image burns like fire in my pocket.
A constant reminder of the life growing inside her.
A reminder that Toren Kellar isn't the broken girl I thought I destroyed.
She's something far more dangerous.
And she's coming for me.