Page 92 of Striker

The order we were given.

What we are.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do? Ignore his order?” he asks.

“Yes,” I hiss. I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to calm my thoughts.

A cracked noise, like a sob echoes from just beyond the doorway and Reaper’s gaze snaps in that direction. I march forward, fear of what I’m going to find making me want to puke.

Please…

I step outside the door and she’s there, crumbled on the bottom step, her face in her hands.

She heard everything.

“Princess,” I whisper, moving toward her, but she turns, scrambling to stand. Before I can take another step, she bolts up the stairs.

Dammit.As much as we wanted her to know the truth about her father, seeing it, witnessing her devastation, is so much worse that I could ever have imagined. Cora didn’t spare any details, and I can’t decide if I’m going to vomit or jump in the van and drive hundreds of miles to kill Rune myself.

“Shit,” Viper says behind me. I turn to face him in the doorway, gripping the frame so hard I don’t know how it’s not cracking. “She heard?”

I nod as I move past him to talk to Reaper. My body screams to run after Princess, but we have to figure out what to do about Cora. We have orders to take her back. We already know what will happen once Rune and Zane realize she’s not being returned. Zane’s family will start a war. But the thought of sending her back, of Rune getting his hands on her, and worse, Zane, makes me want to burn them alive.

We aren’t supposed to care about their feelings, but we’re watching them fall apart and it feels like we’re being torn to pieces.

We have orders.

We have this mission. We were so close to having Princess, that I can still taste her. Now this.

And now…

Fuck.

Now the thought of being away from Cora actually makes my chest hurt. Seeing Delilah in pain just makes it all worse.

“We can’t send her,” Viper says from behind me. “You said she’s ours.”

Reaper’s eyes darken. His gaze lifts to Cora clinging to Breaker like he’s a life raft. And I think he is. “She is,” he says,the strain of indecision making his voice thick. “But we also have orders.”

“Fuck orders, Reap. She’sours,” Viper hisses, like he’s reminding Reaper what the single word means.

He doesn’t need to be told.

When we claim something, we never let it go.

“He’s hurting her,” Viper says, voice turning so cold it sends a chill up my spine.

We suspected when we took her that Rune was abusive toward her, but we never once imagined this level of depravity. She was still just a girl, barely even of age, when he first attacked her. Knowing all she’s endured, everything she went through in her childhood, on top of this? I refuse to send her back to that.

“She’s not going,” I tell Reaper. His eyes snap my way, narrowing. I can’t tell them what she confided in me, but I will make it clear I’m not sending her back so she can marry that sack of shit. “I refuse to send a woman back into that.” I point to her. “I refuse to sendher, period.”

Reaper fists his hands, staring at me for a second. I know what I’m asking brings up the past. That day when our lives changed forever. When Reaper decided he would not follow an order. It set into motion an entire series of events that has led us all here. I wonder if he sees the similarities like I do. I bet he does. The consequences of defying that single order have chased him for the last fifteen years. We’ve all suffered so much because of that one decision.

When I think he’s about to argue, he just backs away and nods, eyes moving over to Cora and Breaker. “Then we’ll deal with the consequences.”

I can feel Viper’s relief as if it were a living thing. “Shit,” he breathes out, turning toward Cora. “I was really worried about you for a minute, Reap.”

When Viper sits next to Breaker on the couch, he scoops her up, pulling her into his lap. The second she’s situated, she presses her face to his chest.

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