15. Tempest #2
Evan turns his head toward him. "This isn't the time."
"I'm asking you."
"And I'm telling you it isn't—"
"Was she?"
There's enough in that one question to tell me this conversation started long before we came through the door, and judging by the way Evan is looking at Lilah, she's spent however long she's been trapped in here making Marcus question everything his brother has told him.
"You know what happened," Evan says.
Marcus holds his gaze. "I know what you told me."
Evan's face changes and his attention shifts completely away from me. Whatever control he's been clinging to is starting to slip as he looks at his brother.
"After everything I've done for you," he says. "After fucking everything, you're going to do this now?"
Marcus looks at Lilah, his gaze moving over the bruises on her face before dropping to her wrists, and when he looks back at Evan, whatever uncertainty was there before seems to have settled into something else.
"Yeah," he says. "After everything."
Evan moves so quickly I almost miss it. His arm swings, aiming the gun toward Marcus as Marcus steps forward, but Marcus catches his arm and knocks it upward.
The shot explodes through the room.
Lilah screams as the bullet goes into the ceiling. Ghost moves toward Evan and Rogue goes for Marcus, but I don't give a fuck about either of them anymore because the gun isn't pointed at her.
For the first time since I walked through that door, there's nothing between me and Lilah. I don’t hesitate. I drop in front of her and reach for the ropes around her wrists, but my hands are shaking so fucking badly I can't get hold of the knot.
"Kai," she says, her voice a little scratchy.
"I've got you." I try again and my fingers slip. Fuck.
"Kai."
"I'm fine."
"Your hands are shaking."
"I know, baby."
I finally get my fingers beneath the rope and pull, trying not to think about how raw the skin underneath it is, how long she's been sitting here with this cutting into her.
"I've got you," I say again, quieter this time. "Just keep talking to me."
"I knew you'd come."
My throat tightens. "Always."
The first knot gives, and I carefully pull the rope away from her wrist. Jesus Christ. The skin underneath is fucking torn.
I close my eyes for half a second, because if I keep looking at what he did to her, I'm going to turn around and finish him myself.
Her fingers touch my cheek. I open my eyes. "Don't," she whispers.
"Don't what?"
"Go somewhere else."
Fuck.
I turn my face into her palm and kiss it. "I'm right here." Her fingers shake against my skin, and I move to the other wrist. "Tell me where you're hurt."
"My face."
"I can see that."
"My shoulder and my ribs hurt a little."
"A little?"
She gives me the smallest smile. "Maybe more than a little."
"What else?"
"Everything aches."
My jaw clenches, but I keep working at the rope.
Behind me, I can hear Ghost shouting at someone, boots moving across the floor, and Savage telling somebody to get the fuck down. I don't turn around because whatever happens to Evan Calloway now has nothing to do with me.
Lilah does.
The second rope comes free, and I move down to her ankles, getting those restraints off her as quickly as I can without hurting her.
"There." I sit back and look at her. She's free, finally fucking free. "Can you stand?"
"Yeah."
She puts her hands on the arms of the chair and pushes herself up.
Her knees buckle before she's even properly upright, but I catch her, one arm going around her waist and the other behind her back.
"I've got you."
Her hands grab the front of my cut, and then she breaks. The first sob tears out of her so hard her whole body folds into mine, and I pull her against my chest, careful of her shoulder even though every part of me wants to hold her so fucking tight nothing will ever get near her again.
"I've got you, baby."
She buries her face against me and cries. She fucking sobs. Her hands twist into my cut, and her entire body shakes against mine, and I feel my own eyes burn as I press my face into her hair.
"It's okay," I murmur. "You don't have to hold it together anymore."
"I knew you'd come."
I swallow past the lump in my throat. "I was always coming."
"I knew you'd find me."
That one fucking gets me. I close my eyes and hold her tighter. "I'll always find you."
Her arms go around my neck, and I shift us both down to the floor because I don't trust her legs, and I don't want her trying to use them.
She ends up half in my lap, still clutching my cut.
I don't give a fuck who's watching. I kiss her hair, her forehead, the side of her face that isn't bruised, anywhere I can reach without hurting her.
"I'm sorry."
Her head comes up. "What?" she sniffles.
"I left you there."
Her expression changes immediately. "Kai—"
"I should've been there."
"No."
"I told you I'd keep you safe and I fucking left you."
"For less than an hour."
"Long enough."
She grabs my face with both hands; it hurts her. I see it in the way she winces when she lifts her arm, but she doesn't let go. "Look at me."
I do.
"You came back."
"Not fast enough."
"You found me." My throat closes, and she presses her forehead carefully against mine. "You found me, Kai."
I can't answer her, not without fucking losing it.
So I put my arms around her again and hold her while the room carries on behind us.
I don't give a fuck. Whatever Ghost and the brothers are doing with Evan can wait.
For the first time since I realized she was gone, I have Lilah back in my arms, and I'm not fucking letting her go.
She's calming down. The sobs aren't tearing through her anymore, but every now and then another one catches her and her fingers tighten in my cut.
I keep one arm around her and use my other hand to check what I can without moving her too much. There's dried blood in her hair near her temple, and when my fingers move carefully over the back of her head, she doesn't flinch. Her shoulder is different. The second I touch it, she tenses.
"That hurt?"
"A little."
I look down at her. "We've already established your version of a little is bullshit."
A small laugh escapes her. Fuck, that sound. I press my mouth to her hair and hold it there for a second.
Behind us, my brother talk, and I hear boots move across the room, but nobody comes near us.
Lilah lifts her head. "Is it over?"
I look at her. There's fear behind the question, and I realize she isn't asking whether we're done in this house, she's asking if Evan can ever come for her again.
I glance over my shoulder for the first time, and Ghost catches my eye, giving me one nod, but that's all I need.
I turn back to her. "Yeah, baby. It's over." Her eyes close and her whole body seems to sag against mine. "He's not coming after you again."
"Okay."
I pull her closer, and she stays like that for a while, her cheek against my chest, my hand moving slowly over her hair while her breathing settles.
Then she says my name. "Kai."
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
My hand stops. For a second, I'm sure I've heard her wrong. She lifts her head and looks at me.
"What did you say?"
Her eyes fill again, but this time she smiles. "I love you."
Jesus fucking Christ.
I stare at her, this woman sitting half in my lap with a split lip, bruises covering her face, and dried blood in her hair, and she's looking at me like she hasn't just knocked the fucking air out of my lungs.
"I should've told you this morning," she says. "I almost did."
"You did?"
She nods. "Then you left and everything happened, and I kept thinking about all the things I hadn't said."
My chest tightens. "Lilah."
"I don't want to leave things unsaid anymore." Her hand comes up and rests against my jaw. "I love you, Kai."
I turn my face and kiss her palm. "Fuck, baby."
She laughs softly. "That's all I get?"
"No."
I look at her, and for once, I don't have to think about the words, don't have to work out what I'm supposed to say or whether it's too soon, because somewhere between her driving me fucking insane over a game of rummy and waking up with her wrapped around me this morning, it happened.
"I fucking love you too." Her face crumples. "Don't cry."
"I'm not."
"You definitely fucking are."
"So are you."
I blink and feel the wetness on my cheek. Fuck. "Yeah, well, I've had a shit day."
She laughs through her tears and I pull her closer, pressing my forehead carefully against hers.
"I love you," I tell her again. "So fucking much."
"I love you too."
I kiss her, careful of her split lip, and she holds my face while I do it. When I pull back, she doesn't let go. There's something in her expression now, something that wasn't there a second ago.
"What?"
She hesitates. "Kai, there's something else."
My stomach tightens. "What?"
"Evan heard us."
I frown. "What do you mean?"
"The apartment was bugged."
Every muscle in my body goes rigid. I didn’t want her to have that knowledge, not yet.
"He had Marcus put something in there about a week ago. He was listening to us in my apartment."
"Where?"
"I don't know. Evan just told me Marcus put it there."
"Did he say what he heard?"
Her eyes drop and I understand. This morning. Last night. Every fucking thing.
My jaw locks. That motherfucker.
"Kai." I look at her. "Don't."
I breathe through my nose and force the anger back down because she doesn't need it right now. I knew he had ears in the apartment, but I didn’t realize how much he was privy to.
"I'll call Rogue. Nobody goes back in there until he's gone through every fucking inch of it."
"Okay."
"And when he says it's clean, I'll check it again."
That gets the smallest smile from her. "You know you won't know what you're looking for."
"Don't ruin it."
Her smile grows. There she fucking is. I brush my thumb carefully beneath the bruising on her cheek.
"Let's get you checked out, then I'm taking you home."
She looks at me for a long moment. "Home sounds good."
Yeah, it fucking does.