Page 143 of Mercy & Her Devils

He prowls past Kai to Fletcher, glaring down at the man who tormented him. “You experimented on me. Stole my daughter. Made the woman who I love suffer. You did all of that because I was a Brok. An Omega who you saw as nothing but a mouse in a cage. But I’m a fucking lion.”

Then he pulls back his foot and kicks Fletcher so hard in the balls that every man winces.

Fletcher howls.

Lark smiles, before strolling back to me. “I’m good now.”

“You’re all crazy.” Raylan swallows, and the knife nicks his throat. “Two out of control, feral Omegas, a renegade Scottish Alpha, a psychopathic Beta, and…you.” His voice trembles with fury, as he scowls at Gabriel. “I took you into my home, ungrateful bastard. I knew that your father was right to send you away to that military academy. You were soft. Weak. Always crying after his discipline. But then you ran away from the SEALS too, didn’t you? Do you know what the military will do to someone like you, when they get hold of you?”

Gabriel’s lips thin, before he points his gun at Raylan. “On your knees.”

Antonio kicks Raylan’s knees out from underneath him, only moving his sharp blade just in time for it not to slice his neck open.

Raylan grunts, falling forward and catching himself with his hands.

I stare in shock.

I never thought that I’d see Dad on his knees.

It feels wrong.

I can see by the way that Gabriel is casting looks at Thomas and me, however, that this is an offering for us both, as much as something that he needs for himself.

He catches Thomas’ eye.

For a moment, the two Alphas look at each other, and there’s a lot held within that look.

Gabriel appears to see what he needs to because he turns away from Raylan toward Thomas. “Was he telling the truth earlier about there being a dozen men and they’re all at the front or in the house itself? There won’t be any nasty surprises for us?”

“Don’t tell him,” Raylan snarls.

“We could simply kill you,” Kai points out.

“Then my men would kill you.”

“This has gone too far.” Fletcher drags himself up painfully to kneel as well. “Just tell them, Thomas.”

“It was the truth,” Thomas replies. “Except, he didn’t want to risk bringing his own men, so he had Fletcher bring some of his guards from the Institute.”

Just as we’d hoped.

I try not to let the excitement show on my face.

“Good,” Gabriel says, briskly. “Then that means you’re keeping this mission quiet. You only brought loyal but corrupt Institute men. I imagine that you were worried about what Mercy would say. You know, what secrets she’d let slip.” Fletcher reddens. Bingo. “That leaves no one manning the home fort, of course. Still, that makes this next part easier. We can make a deal.”

“I don’t make deals with terrorists,” Raylan instantly replies.

“Then that’s lucky because we’re not terrorists.” Antonio toys with his knife. “Criminals, but not terrorists.”

Lark presses closer to me, and we exchange a glance.

This is the moment that things could go wrong.

I know these two men, our enemies, better than anybody. They’re predictable in their own ways.

But they’re both cornered.

Sometimes, being cornered makes people lash out in unexpected ways.

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