Chapter 24
“She’s dead.” Rue watched him for any signs that he already knew and was playing them, but the eldest member of the Hart family never gave anything away that he didn’t want to.
Rhys’ lips pursed and his brow furrowed ever so slightly, but then any hint of remorse was gone in a flash, the determination back full force.
“That’s a pity. She will be missed. Grab the keys to the bus.
The fog is lifting and hopefully the smell of fresh meat will keep those things distracted while we make a run for it. ”
“He was your friend,” Rue reminded, none of them moving to follow the orders. They didn’t bother explaining the keys were lost when Darae had gotten eaten either.
Rhys made an exasperated sound. “In situations like this, it’s every man for himself. You were always too soft. I thought perhaps I could teach you after our families joined, but with your mother gone, there’s no longer any need.”
Rue bristled.
“Drop the act,” Ryker stated. “We know you’re the one behind this nightmare.”
Rhys frowned at his son. “What nonsense are you uttering now? Did you not hear me? We need to leave, now. I spent the past two and a half days trapped in a cabin with no food and only a single bottle of water. If the fog hadn’t cleared up, I’d still be there.
I refuse to waste this opportunity while the weather is finally in our favor.
Anything else can be discussed once we’re safely off this gods’ forsaken mountain. ”
It didn’t seem like he was faking it…
Ryker seemed to think so too, because some of his confidence wavered.
“Someone paid to have those monsters made,” Bowie said, joining the conversation when he picked up on their sudden uncertainty. “We all know you’re the one with the most money to burn.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Rhys clicked his tongue. “What possible reason could I have for putting my own flesh and blood in danger?” He waved at Ryker. “Not to mention the fact that all of my friends, people I’ve known longer than you’ve been alive, are now gone as well.”
“We never mentioned the others are dead,” Bowie replied, but it wasn’t a very strong stance.
“You three are the only ones here,” Rhys observed, “and there’s the body of a creature in the dining hall.
I can see it down the hall. It doesn’t take a genius to assume one of those things broke in and killed everyone else.
Rue still being alive makes sense, my son always had a bleeding heart where he was concerned, but you… I’ll admit I’m impressed, Mr. Easton.”
Rue hadn’t been aware that Rhys knew Bowie’s last name. Or even his first name, for that matter.
“Enough of this tantrum,” Rhys continued. “Ryker, get the keys.”
“No. Not until you tell me why you did this.” Even though he clearly had doubts now, Ryker was insistent and stood his ground.
“Rue,” Rhys addressed him, but his eyes were on his son, “since your brother is set on being difficult, grab the keys to the bus and help me get him outside.”
“He isn’t my brother,” Ryker stated.
“Just because his mother is dead doesn’t mean he isn’t still your stepbrother. What, did you hope I would toss him aside and have him removed from the family records so that you could fuck him guilt free?”
Rue flinched, but Ryker glared.
His fingers flexed around the handle of the gun he was still holding.
Rhys didn’t seem to notice.
“I hope you enjoyed whatever sick time you spent together these last few days, because as soon as we’re home, Rue is packing his bags and being sent off planet.
I will not have the two of you fornicating under my roof, bringing dishonor to my name.
Honestly, if one of those things had gotten him, it would have been for the better.
It’s unfortunate that Eulalie is the one who didn’t make it. ”
“You’re suggesting that Rue should have died?” Bowie’s mouth dropped open.
“Perhaps I was wrong,” Rhys surprised them by admitting, until he kept going.
“Disowning him now that I no longer have to placate Eulalie is the better option. He’ll inherit his family’s fortune, but as Mr. Easton has already pointed out, I have more money than the Vadim’s.
With my influence, I can have Rue banished from the planet and you,” he pointed to Ryker, “grounded. If the two of you won’t stay separate, then I’ll be forced to—”
The gunshot was somehow surprising.
It shouldn’t have been.
One second Rhys was threatening them, and the next his eyes were wide and there was a hole directly between his sharp brows.
Ryker had just shot his father.
“What did you—” Rue was shoved to the side by Bowie, who rushed the Black Hart.
He slammed into Ryker, catching him off guard, and the two of them fell to the ground with a heavy thump, almost at the same time as Rhys’ legs finally gave out.
Bowie had a knife, one Rue hadn’t known he was carrying, and drove the five-inch blade straight through Ryker’s stomach. He let go, grabbed the gun from the floor, and moved away, aiming the weapon at the Black Hart.
It happened too quickly to follow.
Rue was stunned for a moment, unable to process what had happened.
One minute, the creature after them was dead and they maybe had a minute to breathe, and then suddenly Rhys was there, using his oldest friend as bear fodder, threatening them.
Now Rhys was also dead, and Ryker—
Ryker struggled to sit up, the knife still protruding from his gut.
His hands shook as he reached for the handle, but he didn’t pull it out, shifting as best he could until he was propped up against the side of the check-in counter, facing Bowie and the barrel of the gun.
There was fury written across his face, but it was the pain that caught Rue’s attention and snapped him out of it.
“Stop!” Bowie pointed the gun at Rue for a split second, just long enough to get him to stand still when he made to go to Ryker.
Rue froze, wishing the gun had stayed on him when his friend turned it back on the Black Hart.
“He killed his dad,” Bowie rushed to explain. “It’s the drug. It’s—”
“I’m not drugged, asshole,” Ryker growled, but it was obvious it took him effort to do so. “I haven’t lost my mind. I did it because he fucking deserved it.”
Had the knife pierced through something vital?
Rue felt panic bubble in his chest and wildly shook his head at his best friend. “You’re wrong. He didn’t do it because of a drug. He did it for me.”
No one knew the type of life Ryker had lived under his father’s thumb, not like Rue did. After days of running for their lives, desperately trying to keep each other safe, of course Ryker would resort to this at the threat of them being torn apart.
Especially since the threat had been very real.
And nonnegotiable.
Rhys was the most powerful person on the entire planet. Even if they managed to make it off this mountain, if he had decided to prevent them from ever seeing one another again, there wouldn’t have been anything either of them could have done to stay together.
If Rue had been the one holding the gun, he honestly couldn’t say with absolute certainty he wouldn’t have shot Rhys as well.
They were all monsters here, really.
“You’re never going to be able to see him for what he truly is so long as he’s around. So
I’m going to help you.” Bowie didn’t even give Rue the chance to reply. He pulled the trigger.
There was a click, but nothing else.
The breath that Rue had held exploded out of him on a whine, the relief not coming fast enough to fully chase away the sheer terror that’d consumed him in that fraction of a second.
Ryker laughed. “It’s empty, moron. Used the last one to take out my old man.”
Bowie made a sound of frustration, turned the weapon in his hold, and then hit Ryker on the head as hard as he could with it.
“Stop!” Rue pushed Bowie, sending him flying, and then dropped down at Ryker’s side.
There was blood at his temple where the skin had torn, an ugly bruise already beginning to form. His head lolled when Rue shook him, and he gave no response. There was a pulse when Rue checked, the only thing keeping him from completely coming apart at the seams and losing his mind.
But the fact that he was unconscious was bad in its own way.
“Wake up!” Rue demanded.
There was still one of those modified creatures left on the other side of those thin wooden doors, and even without a loaded weapon, Bowie had already proven how dangerous he was.
The sound of Bowie’s bark of laughter had him looking over, frowning when he saw that his friend was crying, despite the full belly laugh shaking his entire body.
“It doesn’t matter what that family does to you, you’re always going to choose them,” Bowie mumbled, clearly speaking to himself, though loud enough that Rue could hear every word. “The twins. Rhys. You’ll do anything just for the chance to suck their cocks, won’t you?”
“What?” Rue’s arms tightened around Ryker defensively when Bowie glanced at them.
“It’s their fault you had to leave the first time,” Bowie said more firmly.
“Ryker and Ryder made a fool out of you. Shared you between them. And, what? You’re just going to pretend they didn’t and forgive that piece of shit?
” He motioned at the Black Hart with the gun.
“I did everything I could to make it easier on you. To set it up so it could just happen, but you had to go and ruin it each and every time!”
A river of blood from Rhys’ body reached the end of Ryker’s stretched out leg, pooling around his heel.
If it really wasn’t Rhys behind all of this…then…
No.
Rue refused to believe it. Refused to believe the person standing in front of him now, the one he’d known since high school, was capable of this type of evil.
Bowie, however, must have been tired of hiding, because he didn’t give Rue the chance to create a compelling excuse for him in his mind.