Page 23 of KAI Tortured

“Kai! You fucker!” I finally break the silence and pull back, looking into his eyes, but what I see is unresolved anger, hurt, and love simmering under the surface.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m an idiot.”

I laugh. “What for? For saving our lives?”

“For… For Maisy. Taking her away when I shouldn’t have. If I hadn’t done that–”

Logan finishes his sentence. “Then you’d be dead by now. Don’t tell me that’s the reason you haven’t come to see us?”

Kai shrugs and regards Logan, then me. “I fucked up big time. I started a chain of events that led to you nearly dying.” He sighs. “And when I saw you lying in a pool of blood…” His eyes gloss over and he wraps one arm tightly around me and the other around Logan. “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself had something happened to you.”

I smirk. “It’d take a lot more bullets to kill us, right? Come on, let’s get inside. We got a lot to talk about.”

Logan’s arm is over Kai’s shoulder as they follow me to the couch. “Those Slavs signed their death warrants a long time ago,” Kai mutters.

“Actually, it was a Vitali hitman gone rogue that shot at us,” Logan admits uncomfortably.

Kai stops and turns to him. “A Vitali??”

“In the heat of the moment, I… I hired him to kill Maisy. That’s why it was important we find you. He was gonna kill anyone in his way.”

“Wait, you hired an assassin, even though I specifically told you not to hurt Maisy?” Kai’s fingers curl into fists as he learns this new information.

“I knew I made a mistake the moment I gave her name, Kai. But it was too late.” Logan has been feeling apprehensive about this conversation.

Kai rakes his fingers through his long blond hair and blinks fast, like he’s trying to process this new information. In an instant, fury rages through his nostrils and, without warning, he swings his fist at Logan hoping to knock him out. Luckily, I manage to block him but he doesn’t stop. We end up wrestling next to Logan, who doesn’t do anything but stands next to us, looking guilty.

“Let me crush him! Orion, let me go! I want to break his face. If Maisy had stayed with me she would have been safe! None of this would have happened!”

“Kai, calm down!” I hiss as I grapple with him.

“Don’t you get it? Nobody knew where she was. I was gonna take her away from here…For fuck’s sake, O-Ryon! Let-me-go!” The anger sparks out of him.

“Kai, if you hadn’t taken her, something else would have happened for sure. Maybe Maisy would have been killed, who knows? But it’s done now. It’s over!” I growl. When you put things in perspective, people tend to see better. And there it is, Kai slows down, and backs off.

“If it makes you feel better, hit me. I can take it.” Logan wants to atone for his grave mistake.

“No! For fuck’s sake! Nobody’s gonna be hitting anybody!” I let go of Kai and fix my messy hair, although as a precaution I’m still standing between them. “Kai, all of us were dealing with stuff we didn’t know how to deal with. And for that, we paid the price. Logan and I nearly died, Maisy got taken and you, you were hiding for months behind your guilt.”

Kai’s nostrils are still flared, and his brows knitted together. “So the Slavs didn’t kill twenty men in your house that night? It was a Vitali?”

“Lukash, the Vitali hitman, got paid a million dollars to deliver Maisy alive to the Slav HQ. It was the Slavs that did that.” I retort.

Kai’s eyes glint with revenge as he regards me, and then Logan.

“Fucking greedy bastard!” he says through gritted teeth.

“I wouldn’t worry about him, he got what he deserved.” Logan mutters darkly.

“His wife, too.” I add.

Seeing that Kai’s hormones have settled down, Logan pulls a bottle of whiskey from the drinks cabinet. We’ve emptied quite a few since I’ve been staying here. Poor Uncle Jon; he’s tasked with replenishing our stock and because of it, he’s been busting our asses. We shouldn’t drink while recuperating from surgery, but fuck that. While we’re up here in the penthouse and planning the dominion of New York, I’ll drink as much as I want. We ain’t got a drink problem. We got a Slav problem.

Kai settles onto the couch and I take a seat next to him. Logan passes around the glasses and fills them to the brim with a steady pour. He leaves the bottle on the coffee table and sits on the other side of Kai.

“To… us.”

I raise my glass and down it in one. They do the same.

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