Page 80 of Beautiful Liar

Luca and I passed a look. We knew what waited for us in those woods.

The remainder of the drive was met with silence. The next stop we made was a mile outside our destination. Luca pulled the SUV over and we all got out. He met us at the liftgate where he pulled up the cover to reveal guns. Lots of guns.

“How the fuck did you get this through security at the school?”

Luca shrugged. Lips tight.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Fox said.

“You will encounter two on foot and two in lookouts with the best angle to the cabin,” Luca said and pulled out two goggles with wired tracking.

“You tracked them?”

“They wear a tracker, yes. I leave nothing to chance. If you can strike in silence, it would be better, but,” he shrugged. He knew the deal. Sometimes plans were for shit.

He grabbed Tomás who flinched at his touch. “Don’t touch him,” I snapped.

Luca glared. “I will not hurt my brother,” Luca said. “It is forbidden. You fail,” he cocked his head to Tomás, “he dies.”

Tomás swallowed. I cupped his face. “Hey, listen to me. You’re going to be fine.” It was trash words that meant shit. So would the ‘I love you’ that I wanted to say. This wasn’t the time or place for it. I leaned my forehead against his. “Okay, maybe I don’t know if we’re going to make it through this. But I’m going to fucking try my hardest to get back to you.” I lifted my eyes to his. They were so warm brown, trusting. They were soft and home. I pressed my lips to his in a slow kiss quickly feeling his hands wrap around me and deepening the kiss. I missed this.Just us. We weren’t alone, but I didn’t give a fuck. He was all that mattered.

The kiss eased up on its own and he nodded.

“I need you to do the same.” Because I knew he was the martyr. He’d put himself at risk to help someone else. “I need you to promise me on your brother’s life. On Nick, that you will do everything in your power to survive.”

He nodded. “I promise.”

“Remember, I’m coming for you.”

I zip tied his wrists in front of him and shoved a folded blade into his boot. I kissed him again. A kiss full of promises I intended to keep.

Luca cleared his throat. Time to go.

A quick flash of anger lifted through me, and I swung a tight fist at Luca. It connected with the side of his face. The zip of pain up my arm was fucking worth it. His head snapped back at the impact before he slowly turned back to me. I hadn’t made the fucker bleed. Too bad. “That’s for touching him. He’s mine. And if anything happens to him…” I didn’t have to finish that statement.

Luca smirked but the madness remained in his eyes.

It took every ounce of effort in my body to step away from the car. Tomás gave me a small smile that wrenched through my heart. Luca climbed inside with my whole world, and I did nothing but watch as the SUV trailed slowly up the road.

Wren and Fox stood at my side. “Please tell me I didn’t make the biggest mistake of my life,” I whispered.

“We haven’t made enough mistakes yet to quantify this one,” Wren answered.

I turned to him. “That really doesn’t help.”

“No,” Fox added. “But blowing shit up will.”

I smirked. He wasn’t wrong.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Tomás

Luca still wore the face paint, but it didn’t look as creepy as the first time I’d seen him with it. Instead, it seemed like armor. He pulled onto the empty road, leaving Kieran, Fox, and Wren behind.

I filled my lungs with oxygen, still tasting Kieran on my lips. TheI love youburrowed inside my chest. Those words didn’t hold enough weight to convey how I felt for Kieran Brennan. The reason why I had to survive this. For him. For us.

I had to fight for us.

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