34. Taryn
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
TARYN
For several seconds I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Lila collided with the fence, her fingers clutching the chain-link, teeth snapping. Her eyes were empty, showing no sign of recognition.
All the things that made her who she was had vanished.
Wren whispered behind me, “Oh, Robin.”
I felt as if something inside my chest had split open. As I stepped closer to the fence, Lila snarled.
Her bracelet caught on the fence.
The memory of her laughter filled my mind as she and Avery playfully swung pillows at each other. I remembered her sitting and listening as I vented about Adrian and Lucas. There were nights when she comforted me after I woke in a sweat, haunted by thoughts of Ben’s death.
I’d come all this way to get her. But I was too damn late.
A man laughed somewhere to our right, and Wren and I both turned.
Nash stood near the far end of the pen, with two other men with him.
He gripped a woman's upper arm. She was alive, but barely. Her lip was busted, and she had a black eye. Her arm hung at an odd angle, likely dislocated.
She appeared terrified, her breaths coming in short, panicked gasps.
Nash, the dick, shoved her toward the fence, and rotters slammed into it. The woman screamed, and Nash hauled her back. His friends laughed and cheered him on.
He continued to do this several more times until the rotters in the pen were completely frantic, trying to get their next meal.
My vision narrowed, and I took a step toward Nash before I could stop myself.
“No, Robin!” Wren whispered urgently.
It was too late. Nash had spotted me.
He smiled delightedly. “What do we have here?” He released the woman, and she quickly stumbled away.
I didn’t speak, my eyes darting to Lila as she banged into the fence.
“Wasn’t she a friend of yours?” Nash smirked, his gaze shifting from me to Lila. “I think I remember seeing her at your house.”
I remained quiet, rage having stolen my voice.
Nash laughed. “She’s quite a handful, alive or dead.” He walked toward the pen and tapped the fence with his knife.
Lila threw herself at the sound.
My hands tightened around the knife I held.
“Pretty little thing when she got here.” He made a smacking sound, “Almost good enough to eat.”
Wren’s fingers closed around my sleeve to hold me back.
If it had just been Nash, I would’ve already bashed his skull in, but several enhanced men were standing with him, watching our interaction.
The look in Nash’s eyes grew dark. “She fought hard… for a while.”
Something shifted inside me. I could hear Ben’s voice again, ‘Patience isn’t waiting.’
Nash continued, “Got bit trying to run.”
My pulse pounded in my ears.
He nodded toward Lila. “I’m the one who put her in there.”
This bastard was daring me to attack him. I knew every reason there was not to. I was smarter than this. But I didn’t know how much longer I could resist stabbing the piece of shit.
Wren hissed, “Taryn.”
The shock of her using my actual name drew my attention away from Nash.
“Don’t do it.” Her eyes begged me to listen.
Nash tapped the fence again, drawing my eyes back to him. “I could’ve put her down.” His smile turned ugly. “But it seemed like a waste.”
Lila snapped wildly at the wire.
Patience.
I took a deep breath.
Knowing when not to move.
Fuck that. I moved… crossing the distance before he had time to enjoy the look on my face.
His knife came up, but mine was already there. Steel struck steel with a sharp crack.
Nash’s eyes widened.
“That’s right fucker, I’m stronger than you.” I mumbled, as I knocked his blade aside and drove my shoulder into his chest.
Nash hit the fence hard enough to make the rotters behind it explode into snarls. Fingers clawed through the wire inches from his head.
He wasn’t smiling now.
Nash slashed at me, no skill, just trying to force me back so he could move away from the pen. I twisted away and caught his wrist. One hard turn and the bone popped.
His knife hit the dirt, and Nash screamed.
I dragged my blade across his cheek, and a crimson bloom blossomed in its wake. “That’s for Lila, you son of a bitch.”
I hit him again. He went down, and I followed. Nash scrambled backward through the dirt, clutching his ruined wrist. Terror finally replaced the arrogance in his eyes.
I raised the knife. “And this one’s for Beck, for being such a shit dad.”
A hand closed around my wrist before I could bring it down. I looked up, and one of the men who had been egging Nash on earlier stood over me.
He smiled. “We enjoyed the show, but that’s enough.”
I drove my free fist into his throat, but his head barely moved.
Shit.
He was laughing when he yanked me off Nash and threw me sideways. I hit the dirt and rolled.
Wren was already moving. She jumped onto the second man before he reached me, knife flashing. He caught her arm, and she bit him.
He shouted, “Holy hell!”
“There’s more where that came from!” My crazy friend yelled.
The first enhanced man came at me again, and I met him head-on. My knife flashed across his forearm, my knee into his ribs. I threw elbows and used my teeth. Whatever worked.
But another man joined him, then another.
Nash stayed on the ground, bleeding, watching me with hate in his eyes and a smile on his face.
That piece of shit was happy to see me beaten, even if men stronger than him had to do it.
Caesar came fast.
Two guards followed him around the corner of the warehouse, and Nash began talking before he had even fully reached us.
“I told you the bitch was trouble.” He was still on the ground, one hand clamped around his wrist while blood rand down the side of his face.
Caesar stared at him. “What the fuck happened to you?”
Nash’s eyes found mine. “She happened.”
Caesar looked at the blood covering Nash, then back and forth between us, before a slow smile bloomed on his face. “Your son’s woman did that?”
Nash’s face darkened. “She caught me by surprise.”
One of Caesar's men chuckled. “You got your ass handed to you by a girl.”
Nash snapped his head toward him. “Fuck off, Stuart.”
I smiled because I couldn’t help myself.
Caesar caught it. “You think this is funny?”
I knew I shouldn’t do it, but what’s one more fuck-up among the several I’d made tonight? “A little.”
I heard Wren sigh.
His gaze hardened, but before he could say anything, a man came running from the direction of the garage.
“Caesar.”
He turned. “What?”
The man slowed when he saw me, and his look was slightly awed. “We found Jonah.”
Silence.
I leaned my head back. My night was about to get worse.
Caesar stared at him impatiently. “Well, where is he?”
“In her cage.” The little shit pointed in my direction.
Every eye came back to me.
Wren made a tiny sound beside me.
Don’t do it.
Her lips twitched.
Caesar stepped closer. “What happened to Jonah?”
I shrugged as much as the man holding my arms would let me. “He made a bad decision, and I called him on it.”
The guard continued without being prompted this time. “He was strangled.”
Caesar’s gaze shifted to the leather strap on my wrist. As he reached out, I jerked my arm back. Immediately, a second man joined the first who was holding me, and together they kept me still.
Caesar caught the end of the leather and slowly unwound it. “You killed him with this?”
I stared at him defiantly, “Yep.” I popped the ‘P’.
Wren coughed into her shoulder, and Caesar turned toward her. “You got something to say?”
“Nope.” She popped the ‘P’.
If my stupidity didn’t get us killed, then it looked like hers might.
His attention returned to me. “So not only did you break out, but you also killed one of my best men to do it.”
Screw it, in for a penny, in for a pound. “And two men by the warehouse.”
Wren cleared her throat.
“One of them was her kill,” I corrected, tilting my head toward my crazy friend.
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” she told him, her expression serious.
Caesar’s jaw tightened. “And you attacked Nash.”
I looked at the man in question and smirked at the blood still running down his face, his wrist already swelling. “Yep.”
Nash surged forward, but one of Caesar’s men stopped him.
Watching the man who would’ve annihilated me before the meteor shower, now need protection from me, was becoming one of my favorite things.
Caesar looked between all of us, and for the first time since I’d arrived, his smug king act slipped.
He’d brought me inside thinking he owned the situation.
Now three of his men were dead, Nash looked like I’d thrown him down a flight of stairs, Wren had fooled everyone, and I’d been wandering through his compound with a knife.
His kingdom was vulnerable.
“I’m done.” He stated.
Nash looked at him in confusion. “With what?”
“Both of them. No bitch is worth this kind of trouble.”
My stomach tightened. Fuck. I glanced over at Wren, dreading to see the blame in her eyes. But of course, there was none. Just a look of love and understanding.
Caesar pointed at Wren first. “She played us.”
“Technically, you played yourselves,” Wren smirked.
He backhanded her, and her head snapped sideways.
Everything inside me went cold, and I lunged. The enhanced men holding me barely managed to keep their grip. “Touch her again, you bastard, and I’ll kill you.”
Caesar looked at me. “You could have been my queen.”
“I’d rather have a cactus stuck up my ass.” I growled.
Wren straightened slowly, blood appearing at the corner of her mouth. She looked more irritated than frightened.
That’s my girl.
Caesar studied me for another second, regret clear in his eyes, then waved toward his men. “Take them.”
Nash pushed himself upright. “Give Taryn to me.”
Caesar glanced at him, then at his ruined wrist. “You sure?”
A couple of men laughed, and Nash’s expression turned murderous. “Give her to me,” he repeated through gritted teeth.
Caesar’s brows lifted. “Why should I?”
Nash wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his good hand. “She’s my son’s woman.”
“And?”
He wasn’t getting it, but I was afraid I was.
“I want to see just what he finds so fascinating.” Nash sneered.
My skin crawled.
Caesar laughed. “That’s fucked up, even for me.”
Wren went still beside me.
One of the men behind her flashed a sly grin. “And the crazy bitch?”
Caesar shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”
I glanced at Wren again, but she looked calm…maybe a little too calm. Then I saw her right hand disappear behind her back.
I felt my heart stutter. She still had the radio!
Adrian had been very specific. If we needed them, hold the transmit button. No talking required.
Nash stepped toward me. “Looks like we finally get to spend some quality time together. Don’t be afraid to call me Daddy.”
The surrounding men started hooting and laughing.
I smiled. “You should probably get that wrist looked at first.”
His face twisted.
Good. I wanted all their attention on me.
Somewhere outside that fence, if the radio worked, my men were hearing every word.
And they were coming for me.
For us.