Page 156 of Scars Run Deep

I wasn’t leaving him at all.

We were in this together.

He’d made that clear to me the other night.

Finally, he had.

I wasn’t gonna lose that now it had finally happened.

I wasn’t gonna lose him.

Jonah: Not leaving you.

Asher: We can’t all fall. You need to endure.

I growled and stuffed my phone back in my suit jacket pocket. There was no point responding, he’d just keep pushing for me to follow his orders. His fucking suicidal orders. Nobody could win an argument with him, so there was no point trying.

I just had to find Kill and we’d then fight our way back to Asher and get the fuck out.

Jesus, he was gonna flip his shit when he found out the house was compromised and that Aurora was obviously in danger now.

I rushed down the back corridors of the sub-level, just outside where the auction was being held. It was like a fucking labyrinth, even though I’d mapped the place out mentally when I’d been doing recon earlier.

I made another turn, then voices reached me.

I followed the sounds that were coming from underneath one set of stairs.

“Are you kidding me, Mom? This is why you reacted weirdly when I mentioned Aurora earlier?”

“Yes. Carlyle’s daughter is marked, Kill.”

“Marked for what? For… for death?”

“Worse. Your father’s errand was to retrieve a doll at Hexwood House.”

“Fuck, I need to go. I have to—”

“You can’t. You interfere with this and they’ll hurt you.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

“You don’t understand, they’ll destroy you. Everything about you. Everything that makes you who you are, all the goodness still left in you, all the hope.”

“Mom, I won’t just leave her to—”

“You need to come with me.”

“What? Where?”

“A safe haven. I’ve made arrangements, we need to leave now.”

“How the hell are you—”

“There are things you don’t know. About me. About the bigger picture. Things your father and Carson don’t know either. But there’s no time. We need to go immediately.”

I heard a struggle, more footsteps and voices over there, and I bolted forward, only to be brought to a jarring halt as my old man stepped into my path.

Fuck! Kill! What was happening?

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