Page 90 of Three to Fall

Scythe stopped and stared at him.

Hawk practically growled. “You did not just jinx us by saying this was easy?”

Scythe took a knife from a holder around his ankle, and then a gun from the back of his jeans, while shooting X a dirty look. “Seriously, bro. That’s like, rule number one. You never say it’s too easy. You’re just asking for shit to hit the fan.”

X scoffed, practically waltzing to the exit. “You guys are as bad as my old man. He used to say superstitious crap like that too. It’s rubbish. Nothing is going to happen. We’re in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere surrounded by Jesus lovers. What are they going to do? Pray for my soul? Joke’s on them. I don’t have one.”

Scythe glanced at him warily. “Or they surround the place, guns drawn, trapping us all inside, forcing us to shoot our way out.”

X paused at the doorway, the first one to make it that far, and then ducked to the side. He turned wide eyes on Scythe. “Wait, did you peep? It’s cheating if you knew that because you peeped!”

We all stared at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine! I shouldn’t have said anything! But can we deal with the group of men currently surrounding the building first? THEN you can have your I-told-you-so moment?”

All the guys groaned.

But all I could see was Josiah standing outside the door, dressed all in white, like a ghost in the darkness.

A tremble started in my fingers, but Grayson slid his hand around mine. “This isn’t the same as when you escaped with Hayley Jade and Alice.”

“It feels like it.”

Josiah had always made me feel like I couldn’t hide. Even in the middle of the group I’d brought with me, shrouded by darkness, he knew I was here. I could feel it. His gaze pierced through shadows, furniture, and bodies, straight through my heart.

“I’ll die before he lays so much as a finger on you,” Hayden whispered, stepping in close, his big body moving in front of me and going shoulder to shoulder with Hawk so I was shielded from my husband’s stare.

But I knew if I was ever going to move past this, I had to be the one to face my own demons.

“Kara… My beautiful wife. I know you’re in there. Aren’t you going to come out and say hello to your husband?”

His voice sent shivers down my spine, the painful kind you got when you were cold to the bone and anything touching your skin hurt. They felt too much like his fingers, pressing and prodding cruelly at my skin, holding me down, taking what I didn’t want to give.

“If he says your name one more time, I’m going to cut his fucking tongue out with Scythe’s knife.” Hawk gripped his gun a little tighter. “Then feed it to him.”

But this was my fight. Not his. “Let me through.”

All three men around me stiffened.

None of them moved.

“He has the building surrounded.” Scythe ignored me, quietly checking through small windows that I realized Hawk and Hayden had herded us away from. “I can see at least eight guys.” He flicked something on his gun. “It’s fine. I can take out that many.”

X shook his head. “Nope. I count more like twenty. And those look like semi-automatics.”

“Well, that’s not fucking ideal, then, is it?” Scythe perched on the edge of the desk with a sigh. “Fun wreckers.”

“Kara…” Josiah’s taunts came again. “I’m going to count to three, and if you aren’t out here by then, I cannot be held accountable for what my men might do with the threat you’ve brought to our holy lands.”

Gray turned the knob on the walkie-talkie almost all the way to silent and quietly gave Whip and his team the lowdown on what was going on.

Whip’s deep voice came back, barely audible above the heavy breathing of the people around me. “We’re coming but we lost Ice temporarily and had to go back for him. Stall them. We’re probably fifteen minutes out.”

“One…” Josiah called from outside the building, beginning the countdown he’d threatened.

X cracked his neck. “So as far as I can see, our options right now are, sit here and get shot. Run, and get shot. Shoot them, and…”

“Get shot?” Hayden asked dryly.

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