Page 40 of King of the Dawn

“You love her,” she said, her voice soft. “Like I love Alastair.”

“Don’t fucking compare it to Green,” I said, still unreasonably angry at my son-in-law, even under these circumstances. “Are you watching the location?”

“Yes, they haven’t left. They’re still in the building.”

“Good girl.” I got in the car and started the engine.

“Stay on the phone with me, Dad, until we get her,” my daughter begged.

What man would deny a plea from his child like that? No man should ever hear that tone in their kid’s voice, and feel unmoved. Whether she was a toddler, afraid of a monster under the bed, or a grown ass, MMA champion afraid of losing her second mother.

“Of course, Juju-bean.”

I drove like a bat out of hell. Most of it was in silence, just listening to my daughter breathe, knowing that if I could hear that soft intake of breath, then the babies in her belly would be fine. That he hadn’t gotten her. The only unknown was Evie herself. My Queen of the Night.

Her knight was on his way.

God help him if he was still alive, because the slow death I had planned for him would make the torturers of the Spanish Inquisition feel queasy with disgust.

The room was so deathly silent. So still, like a graveyard. The chill under my skin made me want to claw at my own flesh. There was no way that she was gone. No. Not when I had prepared myself. Not when I had decided to keep her after all. Not when happiness was right in my grasp.

But there they were. He lay on top of her, his eyes closed, his fingers and face pale as the cement.

But she wasn’t. She was covered in blood. Red and deep as the roses in her greenhouse.

“Evie…” My mouth hung open in pain that threatened to leap from my body and tear me limb from limb. “Eve!”

I screamed her name and rushed to her side. I pulled Brock off of her, his body limp and heavy as he rolled. His head lolled to the side, his mouth open. I saw the cause of death in an instant. A gardening knife, in the fifth intercostal space. Exactly where I had shown her when she had tried to stab me. God, that felt like a lifetime ago.

My life had two important events. They were moments that would impact my life until my dying day. Things that changed my purpose for an eternity: The day Rose became my daughter. Then, the day Eve became my wife.

Now, my bride was on her back, covered in blood, a knife in her stomach.

“Check for a pulse, Dad!” Rose’s voice was commanding, as she looked down at me, her brows furrowed.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. What if there was none? I couldn’t… if I didn’t know, then she could still be alive.

Rose must have felt sympathy for me. She got on her knees, her jeans getting covered in blood. Was it hers? What it Brock's? I didn’t know. She placed two fingers on Eve’s throat, and waited.

“She’s alive,” she said under her breath. Then she took off her jacket, and wrapped it around the knife wound. “Put pressure on it. I’m calling an ambulance.”

I did as I was told. Too stunned, and silent to think of anything. My own child had to be in charge now.

I heard her talking on the phone, her accent harsh and sharp. Then there were the red and blue flashing lights.

“Dad,” Rose said, grabbing my face. “They have to get her on a gurney.”

She pried my hands off of my wife, as other hands appeared. Some man in a white uniform was taking her away on a stretcher, and I growled.

“That’s his wife!” Rose finally said, as she pushed me into the back of the ambulance. “Dad? Dad? They have to work on her. So just hold her hand, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, squeezing Evie’s pale, cold hand in my own. I brought it to my lips and tasted the coppery blood. Still, I kissed it. Her palm, where she had swiped a blade, was still scarred from our wedding.

I vaguely heard a paramedic say that “the other one” was still breathing. The other one?

“I’m calling Yuliya.” My daughter was holding her belly as she placed a phone to her ear. She winced, as if something hurt her, then gently rubbed her growing belly. I knew that I should go to her. I needed more hands. I needed another fucking brain. I needed one mind on my wife, and another on my daughter, but there wasn’t room for both without panic overtaking me.

I made a plea to God. A God I wasn’t even sure I believed.

---