Page 165 of Breaker

“I believed if I took young boys, and trained them the way I had been, I’d ensure that I had perfect soldiers. But, I made one change. I thought if I gave them love, treated them as my sons, they’d follow me, respect me, love me enough to follow my every command.”

The words leave my mouth before I can think. “Is that what’s wrong with you? Your mommy didn’t love you enough?”

Fallon chuckles. It rolls out of him so stained with darkness it reminds me of Reaper. A cruel smile slices across his face. Then he’s a blur of movement, and pain erupts on my cheek. I stumble back from the impact, my hand flying to my face, eyes watering, nose stinging. Shock making me gasp.

He justhitme.

My angry snarl is muffled by a flurry of noise. Reaper and Striker both explode into movement, animalistic growls rumbling from them as they break their perfect stance and bolt forward.

The line of soldiers to our right march toward them. Reaper punches one, then kicks another, and then his hands are on me, shoving me behind his back.

“You lay another hand on her and I’ll fuckinggutyou,“ Reaper growls. The violence in his words grate though him, moving into my stinging cheek pressed to his back. I fist his shirt, breathing hard, fear making my knees weak.

“Gut me?” Fallon hisses, words snaking from his lips poisoned with rage. “My son threatens me?”

I was raised around violence, but it rarely touched me. Right now, the room pulses with it, and I cling to Reaper letting him put himself between the raging storm and me.

Striker moves in beside him blocking me from Fallon’s view as he brushes a hand over my back like he’s reassuring himself I’m there, safe. I flash on the day they took me. How my father and Clyde created a wall to protect Cora and me from these men and now they’re the ones protecting me.

“There is no need for this,” Striker says, letting me go. He straightens his back, squaring his shoulders. “We have her cooperation. We have it under control.”

“Control?” Fallon’s voice dips low. Deadly. “Fucking her is maintaining control? Breaker leaving and setting this mission into motion, iscontrol?”

Reaper’s hand tightens on my hip, and I move in closer, molding my body to his. The manic rage in Fallon’s voice makes my skin prick with fear.

“And where is Viper?” Fallon asks. “Did yet another of my sons defy an order?”

My heart leaps. I grip Reaper’s shirt, pressing my cheek harder into his back, tears stinging my eyes.

Viper went to her.

Emotions clog my throat. They’re doing exactly as they promised. They promised us we were theirs. That they’d always come for us. Even if they had to send her away, they’d never let her go.

“You’ve lost control of this entire mission,” Fallon says. I can’t see him, but I hear the change in his voice. “Take her.”

Boots thud in unison against the wood floor. Reaper shoves me back, and I stumble, landing on my ass. Just as one of the black-clad soldiers reaches him, Reaper swings, catchinghim in the chin. Next to him, Striker shouts, hooking an arm around another soldier’s neck and slamming him down, but there’s too many soldiers and only two of them.

“Stop!” I scream, as one of the men kick Striker’s feet out from under him and he lands hard on his stomach, arms bent at an odd angle behind his back. One jabs a boot at the back of Reaper’s knee, and he goes down, one soldier gripping one arm, another holding his other, until he’s kneeling.

Fallon stalks forward as I scramble to my feet, but two of the other men grab me under my arms, dragging me until we stop in front of Reaper and Striker.

“Father,” Striker says, voice low, sounding strangely like a plea.

My eyes meet Reaper’s, and I see the stormy chaos swirling in them. See the subtle shake of his head. How his chest heaves and for the first time since I laid eyes on him, he doesn’t look arrogant, or powerful. He isn’t commanding the room and the very air in it.

Fallon is.

I still, no longer fighting, but the two solders keep me between them, their hard grip on my biceps a reminder I’m utterly helpless.

Fallon stalks forward until he’s between us, his body angled so not to block me from their view. He grips Reaper’s jaw. Even from several feet away I see him flinch. “You lost control the second you touched the enemies daughter.”

He releases Reaper, shoving him back as he does. He pins me with a glare. “Loyalty. Courage. Duty. Honor. Discipline.Respect.“ The last words leave him like a hiss. “That’s what I taught my sons. Respect for themselves, for each other. Forme.”

Terror snakes a path down my spine. Fallon steps toward me and I shrink back, but the soldiers on either side keep my locked in place, grips tightening.

“She is quite beautiful,” he says, cupping my jaw. I jerk back, his skin scalding me with his evil.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I snarl, unable to stop myself.

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