Page 84 of Beautiful Liar

Maybe more.

Definitely more.

I turned to Fox. “But why the fuck did you blow the window? You could’ve used the front door.”

“No comms to communicate with tweedled dee and tweedled dum and Fox had explosives,” Kieran answered.

Fox shrugged. “What?” Fox said. “I told you I had it covered.” He turned to Luca. “What are we going to do with him?”

“Let him go,” I found myself saying.

“Tomás, he’s wired to protect Alessandro.”

As soon as Kieran said Alessandro’s name, Luca snarledat him. A dog. That’s what Alessandro called him. A dog. And at the moment, that’s what Luca looked like. A dog defending his master.

Without thinking, I crouched next to Luca. Fox pressed the barrel of the gun to the side of his head. “Don’t fucking touch him,” he growled.

Kieran had his own gun trained on him too.

I ran my hand along Fox’s muddied boots. “What the fuck are you doing?”

I didn’t answer. I slathered the mud on Luca’s face. “What’s your name?” I asked him. Luca’s breathing deepened. A shadow crossed his eyes. His body stiffened. “Come on, Luca. This is you. This is the real you.” The version that helped us had been the painted Luca. I hoped I wasn’t wrong, and he wasn’t just psycho. “What’s your name?” After a few seconds his eyes met mine. They were a confusing array of gold, brown, and amber.

“Death,” he whispered. I tried to help him up, but his body melted into the floor. His eyes moved to someone over my shoulder, and he smirked. The mud cracking against his face. “Beautiful Death,” he whispered just as he closed his eyes.

I got to my feet. The world around me sluggish, the smoke thicker than it should be. I blinked slowly. Kieran’s hand fell from my waist, and he fell. Fox followed. Wren stood in front of me wearing a gas mask. My knees buckled but he caught me.

“I’m sorry,” Wren said. “Tell them I’m sorry.”

It’s the last I heard when I knocked the fuck out.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kieran

I blinked open my eyes, stretching the moment before the pain in my head pushed through into consciousness with me. Tor helped me sit up. I took in the fucking mess. It was already light outside. The cabin had no window, no roof, and a bedroom in the kitchen.

“What the fuck?” I grumbled. My throat dry. I hacked up a lung. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

Tomás was sitting on the floor, his back against a part of the wall, Fox beside him. “What the fuck?” My brain couldn’t get any other words out at the moment. I knocked the ringing out of my head and stumbled to my feet. My training superseding everything else.

Leave no trace.

I took in the scene again. Yeah, not happening. Fucking Fox. “You,” I said pointing at the general vicinity where I saw both of them. “No more explosives for you,” I made a cutting gesture in front of myself.

He shrugged.

A few of my people were missing and I was damn sure Tor and Rumor had not been with us. “Wren called,” Tor said. “Told us to come get you out of here. He’s gone, Kieran. And he took Alessandro with him.”

“He said sorry.” Tomás said from his spot on the floor.

“Sorry? Fucking sorry?” I wanted to upend something, but the pain was too much. “And where the fuck is Luca?”

No one could answer. This was all kinds of fucked up.

“Sit down with your wingmen. We need to get you hydrated. And next time…” Tor bit his lip. “You know what, forget it.”

I sat down next to Tomás as Rumor walked in with afucking tub and started wiring us to saline. Because of my diabetes, he checked my blood and added extra juice to mine. The trembling eased and my head started to clear.

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