26. Willa
Chapter 26
Willa
A s the commotion took place in the living room, Cara looked at me in terror and threw the knife several feet away from us.
The partition was roughly cast aside, and Killian was standing there looking beautiful and worried and exhausted. His green eyes were ringed with lines of fatigue, but they were bright with relief when they landed on me.
“Thank fuck.” He started to walk toward me, but Cara jumped off me and ran to him, throwing herself in his arms.
“Oh my god, thank you, Killian! I was just about to let Willa go so I could help her escape! You saved me!” she squealed as Killian gripped her arms and pulled her away from him. He shot me a baffled look and I returned it with a deadpan shake of my head.
“Cullen!” Killian hollered as he held Cara firmly in his arms.
Cullen appeared and looked down at me with relief. “Yeah?”
“Take her. She was working with Martin.”
Cullen’s brown brows tightened as he stared down menacingly at Cara. “Gladly.”
“No! No, I wasn’t. Tell him, Willa!”
“Are you seriously expecting me to lie on your behalf when you were just about to start stabbing me out of childish, petty jealousy?” I asked incredulously.
Her face tightened with hatred. “See? I was right about you!” She continued to scream as Cullen dragged her out of the loft.
“Oh my god, that bitch is—” Before I could finish my sentence, Killian’s mouth was on mine, his hands digging into my hair. His tongue slid deeply into my mouth, claiming, owning and comforting. His mouth slanted over mine over and over, his teeth taking small biting kisses at my lips as he played and tasted and consumed.
He finally pulled back, his thumb rubbing my swollen bottom lip. “I thought about doing that the whole ride here.”
I shot him a smile. “So, we can kiss now?”
“Definitely.”
I shot him a wobbly grin. “Good. How about you untie me so we can get the hell out of here?”
He quickly complied with my request. Martin hadn’t been as careful as Killian when tying me up, and my wrists were circled with red, irritated rings. Killian took one of my wrists and softly rubbed his thumb across the damaged flesh.
“I’ll take care of that,” he murmured, landing a soft kiss on it.
He sat on the bed and I launched myself into his arms, racking sobs bursting out as the magnitude of my experience started to hit me.
“It’s okay, I’m here,” he said soothingly, rubbing my back and kissing my hair.
“How did you know?”
“Ian tracked your phone and Logan knew this was Martin’s place. There was some other club stuff that made it clear that Martin was our target. He killed Lily.”
I pulled back and stared at him. “I know. He told me. I’m so sorry I yelled and blamed you for killing Lily. I feel like an idiot. Not only did I make a false accusation, but I fell right into Martin’s hands.”
“How could you know?” he asked, stroking my cheek.
I shrugged. I suppose he was right, but I still felt stupid.
“He also killed Mac.” Killian’s voice was still laced with such grief, such regret. I knew that finding Mac’s killer had been important, but it still didn’t erase the void losing Mac had left.
“Do you know why?” I asked, wondering if I was going to have to fill him in.
He nodded. “Martin has always been ambitious, it was one of the reasons Logan hired him. But his ambition got away with him. He was drowning in debt, living way beyond his means. I think that’s why he targeted Cara, thinking she could keep him living in style. He was embezzling money from Logan for a while and was worried Mac would figure him out. He was right to worry, that’s exactly what happened. When Mac figured out the thing with your sister was a con, he dug farther and found her connection to Martin and what he was up to.”
“Did they find the money?”
“Yeah, Logan had been meeting with financial advisors and private investigators since Mac was murdered. They tracked it down to a few specific banks. He just needs to get a hold of the numbers.”
I frowned, remembering what Martin had said. Had Lily told Martin the truth? Was it possible she had actually hidden the journal at our parents’ old house? “I might be able to help with that.”
Killian’s dark eyebrows jumped. “How would you know the numbers?”
I explained Martin's conversation with Lily and how he had insisted I knew where the journal was, that he held the knife to my throat and threatened me to take him to it when they’d arrived.
“Motherfucker,” he muttered and pulled me against him, his arms tight around me, almost too tight.
“Killian,” I gasped.
He loosened his hold and grabbed my chin, pinning me with his intense green gaze. “You fucking scared the shit out of me, sweetheart. I almost went out of my fucking mind when I realized what Martin was up to and that he had you at his place. Fuck.” He pulled me close again and gave me another rib-crushing hug. It was too tight, but it felt too good to tell him to stop.
When he released me, I pushed my hair back and he noticed the small gashes on the side of my throat. He tilted my neck up to examine the small injuries. “What the fuck? That asshole actually cut you?” His features tightened with fury and he hopped off the bed, his fists clenched. “Cullen, where the fuck is Goddard?”
“Killian! Wait!”
He looked back at me, clearly torn. “Baby, I got to go fuck him up.”
“Can you do it later?” I asked in a low, quavery voice. I wasn’t trying to sound pathetic to keep him here. I was pathetic. Pathetic and freaked out and overwhelmed and sad. As much as him beating Martin to a pulp appealed to me, I needed him here.
His gaze softened. “Yes, of course.” He returned to my side and pulled me on his lap. “Sorry, baby.” He landed kisses on the top of my head. “I’m not…I’m not used to relationships. I’ll probably fuck up a lot.”
“Are we in a relationship?” I asked, just going all the way there at the most insane moment.
“Fuck yes, we are. As soon as we get out of here, I’ll make sure you don’t forget it.” He gripped my chin, his other hand creeping down to my ass and giving it a hard squeeze. “Do you understand how much I’m going to punish you for the shit you put me through? Leaving me? Putting yourself in danger? Nearly getting yourself killed?”
“Some of that wasn’t my fault,” I protested, but my face flushed, and unbelievably, heat burst in my core.
His eyes scanned my features. “You like that idea, huh? Well, when you see how I punish, I don’t think you’re going to like it one fucking bit.”
I pressed my lips together to suppress a smile at his harshly worded promise. He’d been scared, worried for my safety and that knowledge sat warmly inside my chest, radiating pleasure and comfort, regardless of his threat.
He got up and helped me stand on shaky legs. “Can you walk?” he asked, and I almost cried at how concerned he looked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I can.”
He slid his arm around my shoulders and walked us toward the exit.
“Why did you guys knock on the door? Why didn’t you break it down?” Their entrance into Martin’s loft was a bit anticlimactic considering his mercenary past.
Killian snorted. “I’m flattered that you think I’m a literal superhero, but I can’t actually walk through steel and brick.”
“What about the windows?”
He frowned down at me. “What? Like flinging myself through a set of glass windows on the seventh floor of a building?”
When he said it like that… “I guess that’s what I was thinking,” I murmured, feeling foolish.
He gave me a squeeze and laughed. “You’ve watched too many Die Hard movies. Easy is best. But to be clear, if that had been our only option, I would have done just that.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”
He leaned his forehead against mine. “I would have done a hell of a lot more than that to get you back.”
“Really?” My voice sounded hoarse, probably due to the golf ball sized lump in it.
“Absolutely.”