Page 152 of Ruthless Savage

She sags with relief, and Rogue lets her go.

“Eriu.” Tears roll down her face. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I swear I didn’t know how far she’d go. I never wanted you to find out because I love you. I wasn’t lying when I said you were the best person I knew.”

I swipe under my lashes. “Is Karen even your real name?”

I don’t know why that’s important in the grand scheme of things, but somehow it is.

She nods. “Yes. She made me become your friend, but I need you to know my feelings became genuine.” She wilts like a flower, slowly dying right in front of me. “I had no choice. Not with her.”

I nod with some form of understanding.

“You’ll never see me again. I promise. Bye, Eriu. Please be happy.”

Her lips quiver into a broken smile, and with a final look she turns and heads toward the exit.

Pop.

A bullet pierces the back of her head and she falls instantly.

“No!” My agonizing scream pierces through the echo of the gunshot as I run for Konstantin, his weapon still pointing in her direction. “No! Why?” I bang my fists on his chest. “Why did you kill her?! Why?!”

He just stares at me and lets me hit him, completely unaffected. “You never leave loose ends, daragaya. That’s how you get killed.”

With my hands quivering, I stare up at him with grief-stricken eyes, and I run for my friend’s dead body and drop to the ground beside her. Laying my cheek on her stomach, I hold her as blood seeps from the hole in her head.

She didn’t deserve this. She deserved more, a mother who loved and protected her, but instead she ended up a casualty in her mother’s war for vengeance.

“Why did you do this? Why couldn’t you talk to me? I could’ve helped you!”

But she doesn’t answer. She can’t say anything else ever again. She’s gone. Just like that.

I don’t know how long I stay there, holding her that way. But I can’t seem to let go.

DEVLIN

The place is no longer filled with people. It’s just Eriu, Karen, and me. She sobs over her dead friend while I want to choke the life out of Konstantin.

He did the right thing. I can’t tell her that, though.

Karen could’ve come after her. Give someone enough rage, enough years to feel it, and they can do anything.

We managed to kill everyone who was at the abandoned sawmill where they kept Eriu. All the Palmer siblings are dead. And anyone left will be wiped out too. This needs to end once and for all.

“Baby, we have to go now.” I lower beside her, and she doesn’t even glance at me, her face hidden against her friend.

“We have to bury her,” she whimpers. “We can’t leave her here.”

“Of course we will. I promise. The guys will take care of her properly once we’re gone, and you can choose the spot, okay?”

She sniffles and nods, finally lifting her head upward. “I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it. I trusted Professor Montgomery. I thought she cared about me. That Karen cared about me.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I missed it too.”

I slip my hand into hers and lift her to a standing position. She stares down at her friend and starts to sob again. But this time, she buries her face in my chest, and I hold her against my own broken heart, hating that she had to endure this much hurt, wishing I could do something about it.

CHAPTER 36

ERIU

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