Page 144 of Mercy & Her Devils

There’s a long moment, when all I can hear is the roar of my blood in my ears, along with the roar of the wind and rain.

Finally, Raylan’s shoulders slump.

“What’s the deal?” He demands.

“You stop searching for us,” Gabriel replies. “In fact, you’re welcome to burn down my beautiful log cabin and put in a false report that you believe Lucifer and his Devils died in the fire. You lie in a lot of your shady reports anyway. You break more laws than I do.”

Raylan flushes. “Outrageous. I will not be lectured by FBI’s most wanted. Why would I help you?”

“Because you’re helping yourself,” Antonio says. “Huh, did you think that our Lucifer was only guessing about your corruption…? He was raised in your home, remember? He has all these badass skills. And me? I’m a badass hacker too. We have enough to bury you. You’d be sent to the Alpha Center for life.”

Raylan pales, but he’s staring at me. “You wouldn’t.”

“You didn’t want me, Dad.” My gaze is flinty. “I suffered in the basement of the Institute. I nearly died. I starved. I thought that I’d be broken and bondless forever. You could have taken me back into the Ace pack with Tom. So, yeah, I would.”

A muscle in Thomas’ cheek twitches.

He’s staring at Raylan even harder than me.

So, he obviously had no idea about any of that.

“I suggest that you let us be ghosts again, laddy.” Kai narrows his eyes at Fletcher. “Or a kick in the balls will be the least of your problems. You broke your bond to try and stop the President finding out how careless you were with certain files. If the Omegas are captured, they’re unlikely to be killed, which means that they can talk as much as they like. If you don’t let us go, then we’ll make sure that the President finds out about the cover up. Your President seems to be the sort of bastard who’d execute someone for that.”

Fletcher desperately turns to Raylan and snatches at his sleeve, but Raylan shoves him away. “We can’t let that happen. Even if we mitigate the worst of what they say, then our packs’ reputations and legacies will be ruined. My mother will—”

“You deserve whatever he does to you,” Raylan snarls. “This is your fault. You were always obsessed with my daughter. I let you match with her out of a mark of respect for your mother. I even sent my son away to make it happen smoothly. I didn’t expect that you’d lose control of her within a year.”

“But that’s the thing,” I say. “I was never something that should have been controlled in the first place.”

“And if your brutal mind is going to all the ways that you can assassinate or kill us, which to be fair, mine would.” Antonio cocks his head. “Remember that we have fail safes that will make our testimony public in the most embarrassing and incriminating ways, if we die. Also, add in some truly nasty witness testimonies about your Institute.”

Are they going to bite?

I hold my breath.

At long last, Raylan rubs his hands up and down his thighs in frustration. “You have a deal. I’ll no longer pursue you and will try to cover your tracks. Neither of us wants the truth exposed. It will only wreck our packs.”

I give a tight smile.

Halfway there.

Yet hope is surging through me.

“I’ll make sure that he keeps to that.” Thomas’ expression is tight.

My guts churn with dread.

I grab Thomas’ arm, dragging him against my side.

We understand each other so well. I’m desperate to invite him to join the Devils.

Gabriel is just as desperate. I can feel it through the bond.

But I don’t want to endanger Thomas.

It’s a game that we’ve played our whole lives.

Gabriel can’t hold himself back. “Tom, stay with us. You’re my best friend, and I know how much Mer misses you. You don’t need to go home with these assholes.”

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