22. Amal
AMAL
“She isn’t going anywhere near them.” Jet’s hand disappears beneath his jacket heading toward his weapon. He looks pissed as hell as he begins to rise.
Severin reaches over to stop him. “Sit.”
"She isn’t part of this,” he grits out.
“She became a part of it the minute she decided to steal that watch. Now focus,” Severin says. “I’m counting three. How many behind me?”
“Two.”
“Probably more in the lobby.”
“Fuck. Malcom should have stopped them. Warned us.”
“I see why he didn’t,” Severin says and I follow his gaze through the arch of the restaurant’s entrance to see Malcom wedged between two men. “Pick up your fork and knife.”
“What?” I ask.
“Pick up your utensils and start eating. Both of you,” Severin orders, doing the same.
My heart races. I swear every single person in this restaurant grows quiet. Even if they don’t know what’s happening, they feel the tension around them and it’s like they’re all holding their breath. Waiting to see what will happen next.
“They’re not taking her,” Jet says flatly.
Severin sips his coffee which must be cold now. He looks relaxed. It’s the opposite of how he sounds.
“I don’t think that’s up to us anymore.”
“They’re the ones who sent the men last night, aren’t they?” I ask.
“How much does she know?” Sev asks Jet, not looking at me.
“Nothing. She knows nothing,” he hisses through his teeth, his words as much a warning to me as a response to Severin. “They’re not taking her.”
“You don’t think straight, Jet. Not when it comes to her.”
I look from Severin to Jet. Jet looks like he’s going to murder his brother.
“Jet,” I start, but don’t get to finish because it’s like I’m not even there.
“She’s my wife,” Jet enunciates every syllable. “I vowed to protect her.” He rises to his feet and leans toward Severin. “I will put every one of those men in the ground before I let them touch her,” he hisses through his teeth.
My stomach tenses, heartbeat hitching. He means it. He means every word. The restaurant is full of people and I need to diffuse this before people get hurt.
I stand. “I’ll go. It’s fine. You’ll be with me, Jet.”
Severin gets up, too. He shifts his gaze to me, eyes narrowed, and I know what he’s thinking, and I get it. Jet is his priority. I’m a stranger. No, I’m worse than a stranger. I’m the daughter of the man who nearly killed his brother and right now he’s risking everything for me.
“You won’t let anything happen to me,” I tell Jet, wrapping my hand around his, afraid if I don’t, he’s going to go for his gun and do something really stupid. Because I don’t doubt for a second that he wouldn’t do exactly as he said and I think Severin knows it.
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You have no idea what we’re dealing with. And I’m sorry I got you into this mess.”
“I think it was me who got you into this mess,” I say.
“Well, this is all very touching, but I suggest we get going,” Severin says, buttoning his jacket and gesturing subtly at two more men who appear beneath the arch that connects the dining room to the lobby.
Behind them, someone is carrying our bags to the exit.
Malcom, too, is getting antsy, wanting to fight. I can see it in his stance.
Jet sees too and his hand slides toward his holstered gun. Severin lays a hand on his shoulder.
“Think, brother. This isn’t some rival family you’ve dealt with for Cassian. Even if you kill every one of these low-ranking thugs, there will be more and the offense you cause will be repaid in kind. If you cross this line—”
“So you expect me to simply tuck tail and obey?” Jet asks.
Severin’s teeth clench. “If you cross this line, you know where you’ll end up. Where we all may end up. That includes your wife.”
I shudder at his words. The tone in which they’re delivered.
But I know how dangerous this is. In the four years since my father’s death, I’ve been well aware of the world that awaits me outside Cassian’s protection, but this?
Now? With these men? It’s a different level.
I feel it in my bones. And I’m scared. Scared for all of us.
“You think you know what they’re capable of, but you don’t. Not really. And I’ll tell you, it’s worse than you think. Than you can imagine,” Severin says and that quiets Jet. The two of them know something I don’t. An old secret. “Please, brother.”
Jet’s eyebrows furrow, his forehead wrinkling. He glances at me. He’s thinking. A few moments later, his fingers tighten around mine.
“She stays with me. No one touches her. No one talks to her. Hell, no one so much as looks at her.”
“Or what? You’ll shoot the whole place down? Be reasonable,” Sev says, but Jet isn’t reasonable, not when it comes to me. I close my fingers a little tighter around his because I’m not reasonable either, not when it comes to him.
“If anything happens to me, you protect her,” Jet says. “I need your word that you’ll do that. Same way you would have me. If you could have. With your own life if need be.”
Same way you would have me. If you could have.
Jet’s words hit their mark. Severin flinches.
The history between the brothers is more than the blood in their veins.
Jet’s eyes are locked on his brother. The secret they share is dark.
I see it in Severin’s face. In that slight flinch.
Something happened. Something Severin was unable to protect his little brother from.
And now, Jet is using that as a weapon to keep me safe.
“You have my word. I will protect her same as I would you. Now let’s go because I have a feeling they’re getting close to dropping the pretense of courtesy.”
Jet’s jaw clenches so hard I feel it in my teeth. He turns to look at me. Rage and violence and possession war in his eyes but Severin is right. This isn’t a choice.
“If they touch you, if any one of them lays a finger on you,” he says through his teeth, leaning so close only I hear him, his breath warm and soft, the only gentle thing in this room. “I’ll burn that island to the ground with every last one of them on it.”