Page 121 of Brutal King

“Your what?” I seethe. “Your captive? Your pawn? Your?—”

“The mother of my child. Or she will be soon, anyway.”

“Oh my, God.” Carina gasps.

The world goes red. I no longer give a fuck if he dies. I throw myself on him, my hands instantly wrapping around his neck.

“Luca!” Carina tries to pull me off him, but I refuse to let him go.

Gideon’s face starts turning purple. He grabs my wrists and squeezes until the pain forces me to release him long enough for him to headbutt me. I see stars, but still don’t let him go.

It takes Hansen and one of his men to get me off Gideon. He sucks in big gulps of air as Carina checks him over.

Then, as if I’m the asshole in the room, she glares at me. “You could have killed him!”

“Did you not hear what he said? He got my sister—” I can’t even finish the sentence. I try to pounce again, but I’m held back.

“She wants to stay with me, Luca. She loves me.”

“The hell she does!”

“It’s true. And I… I fucking love her enough to come here and beg for your help.” He clenches his teeth as he waves Carina’s hands away. Then, to my utter shock, he pushes himself off the couch and limps toward me and drops to his knees. “I’ll doanything. I’ll give you whatever you want. Please, please, help me save her.”

31

SCARLET

“Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen to the birds in the distance. Feel the breeze on your face. Imagine it’s taking with it all of your worries. No one can hurt you here. We don’t allow cell phones,” Heather, my healer says when my phone buzzes. “Only nature.”

“Sorry.” It buzzes again. “I’ll just turn it off.” I get up and tiptoe to my bag, as if that will make the interruption less intrusive.

She watches me with obvious annoyance as I grab my cell phone and go to turn it off, but stop when I glance at the screen.

There are only two people in the world who have this number. Gunn and Gideon. And it isn’t my boyfriend that texted me.

Unknown number: 843 I’m calling in that favor.

Shit. It’s Gideon, of that I’m sure. My hands begin to shake. It’s too soon. I’m not ready.

“Tamberleigh?” Heather calls to me. “Everything all right?”

Biting my lower lip as I consider pretending the text didn’t come through, I stand there, completely immobile. Finally, because really there was never a choice, I say, “I have to go.”

“But we just started!”

“I’ll make it up later.” I gather my things and leave the health center.

I hop on my bike and take the road that leads up the mountain. I’m at the condo in less than fifteen minutes.

“Gunn!” I call out when I burst through the door.

He emerges from the bathroom, dripping wet and naked, his firearm aimed right at me. “Jesus Christ, woman. You scared the fuck out of me. What are you doing back so early?”

After taking a second to appreciate what is mine, —because how the fuck did I get so lucky?— I show him my phone. “Gideon texted me.”

Gunn snatches it from my hand. “Mother fucker. We just got out of there!”

“I have to call him.” I snag a throw blanket from the couch and toss it to him.

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