Page 145 of Married to the Devil

My uncle Frank looks to be in his fifties, and my half brother Leo should look my age, but has new lines on his face. There are a few mercenary-looking guys in tactical gear behind them.

Frank opens the car door and leers in at me. “If it isn’t my long-lost niece. Get out of the car.”

The only thing I can do right now is stall. I grip the seat, determined to stay exactly where I am. Someone will come for me, and I’m going to wait for my opening until then.

“Good work,” Frank says as Andrew saunters into view.

“They didn’t suspect a thing. Poor Andrew is probably still on a wild goose chase.” His expression shifts showing someguilt, but it’s gone again before the other men in the group can catch it.

I blink in confusion. His brother. Andrew has a brother. He didn’t say he was a twin, but I guess that’s not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation.

“You’d make this easier on yourself if you cooperate,” my uncle says.

“I have no reason to believe you,” I say.

Frank’s smile is cloyingly fake. “No, but you’ll have fewer bruises in the end. We wouldn’t want you to lose any precious cargo.”

My throat tightens with fear, and I suppress the urge to cover my stomach with a protective hand. Fuck these guys.

“I’d think it would be better for you to kill me,” I say, but my voice is high no matter how casual I try to sound.

“Don’t mistake my intentions. I would.” His eyes are cruel. “But the Council needs its scapegoat. With Stoneheart out of the way, they’ll be able to go through with their plan for Kalos.”

The Council, at least the faction McConnell is a part of, is working with these guys. Fan-fucking-tastic. I don’t know how they mean to get Stoneheart out of the way, but before I can reason about it, Frank sighs and lifts his chin at Not-Andrew.

Not-Andrew isn’t much larger than I am, but he is a lion shifter and stronger. He reaches into the car and grips my arm, pulling. His fingers dig in bruising me.

I attempt to make his job harder by using my legs against the doorway to stay put, but when he pulls back like he’s going to hit my stomach, I flinch away, and he drags me out.

I’m shaking and squint in the sunlight.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Frank asks, rolling his eyes. “We only need you as the bait. It doesn’t have to be a fight.”

My heart falls. That’s how they’re getting at Stoneheart.

“I wouldn’t mind her roughed up. She’s the reason we’ve had to hide in the first place.” Leo speaks for the first time, and his voice has an obnoxious whine.

Frank just shrugs. “You go against a dragon with a shit plan, and shit happens. Lorenzo should have listened to me. Let’s get inside.”

“No!” I yell, and my fear shakes loose enough for me to struggle against Not-Andrew’s hold. I can’t be taken in there.

The men laugh at my struggles, but they cut off when thud sounds near my ear.

Not-Andrew’s grip loosens, and I pull away. He has a knife sticking out of his chest. His shock is gruesome and matches mine and everyone else’s.

“Run!” Fiona shouts from the camouflage of the surrounding trees, and her voice spurs me forward as chaos breaks out behind me. A flare of fire magic from the mercenaries gets thrown. Another man cries out as if he’s hit by something.

I nearly trip over the rocks surrounding the paved road but make a mad dash away from the building. Everything happens so fast. It feels like I’ve run a mile, but the building is still in sight when something catches hold and yanks me backward.

“Got you!” Leo’s breath is rank, and I cry out when he twists my arm behind me. “Looks like I can get my pound of flesh after all.”

He twists the arm cruelly, and I sob.

A roar breaks through the pain, and a shadow blocks out the sun.

The sound is primal and makes me want to drop to the ground to cower even as the relief is quick. I can’t imagine what it sparks in the heart of the enemy.

Stoneheart is here.

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