Page 98 of Ruthless Reign

Aodhán really was lucky I didn’t bring my gun into his house instead of the tire iron.

But…he also saved my life.

And whatever he did tonight—I had a feeling it could mean the difference between surviving this war and suffocating slowly under Séamas’ boot.

Kaleb cleared his throat. “So, it goes without saying that I don’t trust this guy further than I can throw him.” He leaned down, resting his elbow on his knees. “But I know that that shit—” He pointed to Aodhán, and I knew he meant the scars he now lay on. “Can really fuck you up. And that’s a whole other level. Not to play devil’s advocate here because frankly, Vixen, I want you all to myself, but I can see why this guy told Séamas about you. I can see why he shot me.”

“Because he’s a coward?”

Kaleb shook his head. “No. He doesn’t strike me as a coward. He strikes me as a loyal son. It’s been lashed into him—that loyalty. Like those fucked up religious fanatics that flog themselves for their sins against god. Séamas is the god of the Sons. They’re willing to die on his cross. Just like he’s taught them.”

He sighed.

“I don’t think Aodhán’s a coward at all. As much as I’d like to say he is. But I think escaping Séamas and breaking free of what looked like years of conditioning to choose something for himself—that takes bravery.”

My chest ached.

“How could a father do that to his son?”

For all Gregory Hart’s faults, I could truly say that I never worried he might raise a hand to me. Not ever. And everything he did and said, he did because he thought it was what was best for me, whether or not he was wrong. It made me feel like a total dick for continuing to ignore his messages all this time since I found out about Damien.

I shook my head, scattering the thoughts that weren’t a help to anyone or anything right now.

“Aodhán’s still a murderer, Kaleb.”

“We all are. And even though I’ll never forgive him for what he did at Gilligan’s Finch, he did it to save your life. So how the fuck am I supposed to hate him for that?”

I dropped my head into my hands, groaning. I’d been asking myself the same question, but I was the one who had to wear that guilt like leaden weights on my shoulders. The Kents—even though I didn’t know them—were dead so that I could live.

Even if I didn’t light that fuse myself, I still felt the stain on my soul from each life ripped from this earth.

“You should go talk to Hardin,” Kaleb said and his touch on my knee made me realize how cold I was. How the chill swept through my body as if it were hollowed out.

I wrapped my arms around my half naked torso, shivering. “What do I even say?”

“Tell him the truth, Vixen. But first, you need to accept it yourself. You like this guy. You have for a while by the sounds of it.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. “I know nothing will happen between you if Hardin and I aren’t cool with it. I know. You don’t even have to say it. But the way I see it, one more skilled gunman willing to take a bullet for you can’t be a bad thing.”

I clamped my mouth shut because I didn’t know what the hell to say. I did like Aodhán, but did I like him that way? My gaze fell onto his face. I’d cleaned away the blood and closed the worst of the cuts with butterfly closures like the ones I was able to finally remove this morning.

His dirty blonde hair, even darkened by smoke and filled with some kind of debris—the way it fell over his forehead…

How his green eyes seemed to hold a thousand thoughts and emotions and nothing at all in the span of the same breath.

The cut of his jaw. His cheekbones.

There was no denying he was handsome, but it was more than just that. It’d been more than just that since that very first night when I got into his car after leaving this house.

Just because it would be easier if it weren’t true didn’t mean it wasn’t.

“I’ll stay with him,” Kaleb offered.

I nodded, more to myself than to him, rising from the chair on unsteady feet. Fuck, I was exhausted. My body felt waterlogged and heavy. My head spun.

When was the last time I ate?

I couldn’t remember.

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