Page 46 of Back In the Shadows

My gaze narrowed on his. “You’re a bold son of a bitch, aren’t you? You think you can rattle me with this bullshit about Sebastian?”

“Nope. It’s just the truth. I’ve known you both since college, so I’m a good man to have on your side. We’ve tiptoed around you, afraid if we told you it could push you or him into madness. We weren’t willing to risk it, but the moment Ella went missing, it changed the game. She’s back now, and I’m trusting that she’s going to be okay. That means, we have work to do, and you need to get your head in the game as soon as you know she’s alive and going to make it through this shit.”

My tortured soul absorbed his words. A heavy silence fell between us as we settled in for what I assumed would be a very long wait.

Hours tickedby as I stared at the second hand on the large clock that hung on the wall in the emergency room. Finally, a female voice grabbed my attention.

“Sir? We have an update on your wife,” a petite, dark-haired woman said as she approached me.

Ryan and I turned to her at the same time. “And you are?” I needed to know if I was talking to a doctor or someone that had secondhand information.

“I’m Dr. Neely. I operated on your wife.” She took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping.

My legs trembled as I witnessed her body language. It wasn’t good. Jesus fucking Christ.

I struggled to form the words, my tongue thick and heavy in my mouth.

“Is she alive?”

22

DEATH

“Sweet was the shepherd's call, but sweeter still the midnight whispers that promised to unmake innocence.” ~ Anonymous

The doctor shoved her hands in her white coat pockets, her expression grim and tight with sadness.

“I’m so sorry, but your wife didn’t make it.”

At that moment, the devil knocked on my door and the second we stared each other down, the son of a bitch ran. Hell, hath no fury like Death scorned. I shook my head, refusing to believe what she’d said. “No.”

I moved back, my heart pounding so fucking hard my skull rattled.

“How?” Ryan stepped forward.

The doctor gave him a tight-lipped smile. “I can’t discuss the details if you’re not family.”

I growled out a response for him. “He’s her brother, now answer his question.”

“I’m so sorry. Her heart stopped. Whatever trauma she’d gone through was just too much.” She reached out to touch my arm, and I jerked away. A tsunami of grief and rage floodedmy body, contorting my stomach into a twisted mass of knots. With a primal scream, I unleashed the caged beast, picked up a chair, and hurled it with all my might into the center of the room. Chaos erupted as people scattered and shrieked, but I was consumed by a grief-fueled frenzy as I continued to grab and throw chair after chair until the emergency room was torn apart in a violent show.

“Stop!” Ryan attempted to calm me, but it was too late. There was no returning from the darkness that had completely claimed every part of me. Two security guards ran toward me, and I threw them off and sent them sprawling across the floor.

Ryan stepped between me and additional chairs as everyone turned coward and hid the best they could. “Goddammit, get the fuck out of here before you’re arrested!”

I blinked at him as if he was only a figment of my imagination.

“The kids still need you. Alaric and Verity are waiting for you at home. Don’t do this, man. If they arrest you …”

He didn’t need to say anything else, somewhere inside my mind I heard Sebastian’s words.Get the fuck out now!I stilled, taken off guard with the voice. It seemed familiar, as if it were my own thoughts. A sharp pain split through my skull, and I grabbed my head, dropping to my knees. A man’s voice with an Australian accent broke through my agony.I’m here.Shit, it was back, and my sanity was teetering, barely hanging on a thread. I’d heard him before but shoved it into the corner of my mind. I hadn’t ever told anyone, but I’d thought I was losing my mind when it had appeared. Then, I’d learned to tune it out. It hadn’t happened often, so it had been easy to ignore it. But now …

“Shit. Not now. Sebastian, not fucking now,” Ryan said between gritted teeth.

“Sir, you’re under arrest for …”

I couldn’t make out the words as my breath halted in my lungs, the room in and out of focus.

Ryan stepped between us. “No. I’ve got this. You need to back up. Here’s my badge. This man is under my protection. You need to back the hell up.”

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