Page 159 of Deacon

I take my pistol out and set it on the table. “Maybe I should just shoot you right now.”

His eyes drag up, and a chill goes down my spine. There’s weariness in them I’ve never seen before. It’s as if, deep down, in the fibers of his body, he’s ready to go out at any moment.

“You can do that,” he sighs. “Just get Freya out. She doesn’t deserve the things Aiden does to her.”

The mood in the room shifts. I glance at Westin, and he’s giving me a faintly disgusted look, like I’m playing with a wounded animal.

“What does Aiden do to her?” I ask.

Bittern shakes his head once. “Makes her cry. I always say, don’t fucking make Frey cry, but all I get for it is the shit beat out of me.”

I get up and take a cigarette from the everything drawer. He leans back in the chair, putting it to his lips with shaking fingers. I snap the lighter, he inhales.

“Does he do anything else?”

Bittern glances up. “If you’re asking if he touches her, he doesn’t,” he says. “He thinks about it, but he doesn’t.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” says Sovereign from the corner.

The corner of Bittern’s mouth turns up, but there’s no humor in his face.

“Nobody hates Aiden more than Aiden,” he says.

I don’t know what that means, but I have bigger concerns. I sink down in the chair beside him. “You say you want to help. What do you want in return?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing. Keep me here, send me back. Either way, I’m dying.”

“The fuck’s wrong with you, other than being a pill addict?” Westin says.

Bittern goes quiet for a second. Then, he takes a drag. “Got fucked up in the mines,” he says. “Nowhere for men to work but the factoryand the mines. Nothing for men to do after but die. Get pills to help you there, if you’re lucky. I’m ready to go.”

The kitchen is dead quiet. I get the feeling Bittern hasn’t spoken this many words in a long time.

“Does Freya know you’re here?” I ask.

“No, I told her I couldn’t help her. But I came anyway.”

“Why?” I press.

“Because if anybody deserves to make it out, it’s Freya,” Bittern says. “If you’re going to save her, I gotta go back and pretend like I wasn’t here. You can’t shoot into that house with her in it. She says she’s pregnant.”

Everyone looks right at me.

“Yeah, not sure, but likely,” I say.

“You know, they got a test for that now,” says Jensen.

I give him a look. “Thanks.”

Bittern clears his throat. “I’m going back,” he says. “I think I can get Freya out, but I can’t get her further than the land where the easement was supposed to go. Don’t have the lungs for it.”

“We can have someone get her there,” Jack says from where he leans against the wall. “I’ll go and Westin can spot me. Unless you wanted to go, Deacon?”

I shake my head. “I want someone to take her as far from that house as possible. There won’t be anybody alive by morning. She doesn’t need to see that.”

Sovereign clears his throat, pushing off the doorway. “Let’s get moving,” he says. “It’s already nine.”

I look at Bittern, studying him. His eyes focus for the first time, and a chill goes down my spine. He might not be her blood, but he is a piece of Freya. He looks at me with her haunted eyes. There’s a deep trauma bond between them.

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