Page 7 of Legions

“Thatcher,” King said my name as if he were talking to an enraged pit bull he needed to calm down. Another chuckle vibrated from my chest.

“Go inside, Capri,” my brother’s voice was behind me.

I wanted to tell them it would take more than the three of them—Wells didn’t count—but I held my tongue.

“No, I can handle it. I just needed someone to stop him. I have it, y’all go,” Capri’s firm command only tugged the corners of my lips higher. My sweet angel barking out orders to a bunch of trained killers.

“I just need a name, baby. Just a name,” I told her as I turned back around to see her gaining on me with her short legs making long, purposeful strides. Damn, that was cute.

“So that you can do what, Thatcher? Slice out their tongue,”she snapped. “How I know is not important.”

Impressed by her ability to guess my next action, admiration for the tiny woman I worshipped hummed through me, calming me momentarily.

“What does she know?” King asked behind me.

“Les, Christopher, and that something happened with JB,” Sebastian told him.

That reminder ignited whatever Capri’s actions had soothed.

“Fuck,” King swore.

“Let’s go to the house,” Capri told me, trying to keep my attention.

I shook my head once. “You can tell me who, or I can go inside and force the answer out of everyone I come in contact with until I know.”

She stopped in front of me, placing her hands on her hips. “NO. You won’t. I can’t handle anymore,” Her words sounded like a cry, even though her eyes were dry.

Whoever had told her had broken her in a way that I couldn’t forgive. They had to die. It was the only way to calm the demon inside me. Just like Beauden Redd’s life had been over the moment he touched her.

I saw her arm move and knew she was reaching for me. I couldn’t have her touch me right now. Not when I was no longer in complete control. Jerking away, I started for the stable doors. Sebastian wasn’t going to stop me, and he and I both knew he couldn’t.

My ears tuned to every move, I pulled the gun from my holster and spun around, pointing it at King’s head before he was close enough to grab me.

I heard Capri’s horrified gasp, but I didn’t take my eyes off King.

King’s body stilled as he watched me. We stood there like that as I waited for another one to make a move. The slide of a pistolas it left its holster made me want to curse. The fucker needed to let this go. With a quick movement giving nothing away, I swung my gun around to shoot inches away from the gun my brother had pointed at me. He flinched, but that was it. I’d wanted him to drop the damn thing.

Capri’s scream didn’t help matters. It made my blood roar too loud in my ears. Maybe that was the reason I was too slow, off my focus, so that King could grab my arm and pull my gun down as Storm wrapped his arms around my chest. Sebastian moved then, putting away his gun and coming for me.

A feral roar tore from my chest as I watched Capri running away from me.

• Four •

I triggered the worst parts of him.

Capri

I drove for hours until I had no more tears to cry, and the gas tank was almost empty. I’d left my purse and cell phone behind. He’d have put trackers on more than just my phone. It was why I hadn’t taken my car but Thatcher’s. It was the least likely to have a location detector on it. Deciding to park at the grocery store parking lot and leave his car there was the safest solution.

Before today, I wouldn’t have been scared that Thatcher would hurt someone I loved to get to me. But that had been before he shot at his brother. Accepting that I hadn’t known him, not the way I thought I did, was as painful as leaving him. I didn’t see any other way, and I had tried to come up with something. Any excuse to go back to him. To make all this horror okay.

But there was none.

I left his keys under the driver’s seat and hurried back to the trail behind the store that led to the subdivision beside thechurch. I didn’t know how long King and the others would be able to hold him. He’d come for me when he could. If there was somewhere else to go, I would, but anywhere I went, I put others in danger. The church was the only place I could think of that wouldn’t involve someone else in Thatcher’s wrath.

Stopping once I reached the grass, I slipped off my shoes, pulled out the soles, and found what I was looking for. Popping out the air tags that Thatcher had placed inside them, I tossed the small round tracking devices deep into the woods in the opposite direction. I had never asked him if he had done this to my shoes, but after hearing the guys talk about him putting them in Sebastian’s boots, I’d guessed that mine probably had them too.

Once I was sure there were no other hidden places in my shoes, I put them back on and jogged along the path before I broke into a full run. I didn’t fear for my life when it came to Thatcher. But I knew I needed space—time to think. My heart battling with my head. What was right and what was wrong. Could I be selfish enough to stay with him, knowing that I was endangering innocent people? Those who might touch me on accident or say something to me to set him off.

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