Page 151 of Ruthless Savage

“No!” Karen runs toward her mother’s dead body lying on the ground. “Mom! No!” she shrieks. “Mom!”

There’s a sudden pang in my chest from her heavy wails. No matter how terrible she was, that’s still her mom.

The whole thing hasn’t really hit me. Karen and my professor were mother and daughter. How did I not see any of it? But Karen never mentioned much about her family. Now I see why.

“Devlin!” I call to him while he throws the nephew on the ground.

The man holds out his hands in front of his face, breaths hitched. But nothing will stop a bullet.

Devlin shoots him once in the head, and my chin trembles. He just killed someone. Right in front of me.

I pinch my eyes shut, muttering and whimpering to myself as I cry.

“I’ve got you, lass. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Devlin.

He cuts the zip ties from my wrists, and my arms jump around him. And when he holds me, when I feel his intense breaths, that’s when everything in me cracks like a dam. Feeling his heartbeats next to mine, his hold around me tightening, my body sags.

I’m safe. He’s safe.

We’re okay.

“I thought I’d lost you.” His own emotions wreck through him. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

My hands grip his shirt in tight fists.

“Let’s get you out of here.” He lifts me in the air and gathers me in his arms, cradling me.

When I look around, I see familiar faces: Gio, my sister, some of the Messinas. They’re all here. They all came for me.

But someone else is here too. Someone I didn’t expect to see. My stomach churns.

The last time I saw him, I was on stage losing my virginity.

“Hello, daragaya. I see you’re in one piece, and what a relief that is.” His mouth tips up.

Konstantin.

They all must’ve killed the men downstairs, the ones working for the professor. I look for Karen, not seeing her at first, until I find Rogue holding her by the arm.

“What do you wanna do with her?” he asks Devlin.

“Kill her.”

“What?!” Spasms wrack my muscles until it seems like my bones will snap, and I force him to put me down. “No! You can’t!”

“Please,” Karen cries. “Please, I swear I won’t say anything. I’ll disappear. I—I’ll get out of the country. Just don’t kill me!”

“Devlin.” I grab his arm and give him a stern look. “Don’t do it! You can’t!”

“Mo stoirín, she hurt you. I can’t let her live.” His finger brushes across my lips.

“You have to,” I plead. “You have to do this for me, or we have no future. I won’t forgive you for this.”

His eyes slowly close, and he inhales a long breath.

“Fine. But if we catch wind of you here again…” he tells her. “You’re dead.”

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