Page 96 of Ravaged Saints

“Out where? What happened?” Bryn grips her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Aspen snaps. “Where the hell were you? Knox and Ryker went looking for you two!”

Bryn glances at Ethan, whose eyes flick between me, Ryker, and Aspen. “We were by the river,” he says, calm as ever, and gestures toward the trees. “Further up, where the flow’s higher. I wanted to show Bryn how beautiful it looks at night.”

I study him, taking in his relaxed stance.

“We didn’t know you’d come looking for us,” Bryn adds, arms still wrapped around Aspen.

Aspen and Bryn collapse into the chairs at the table, their heads bent close. “God, you scared me, Bryn.” Aspen brushes a strand of hair from Bryn’s face.

I lean against the kitchen wall, eyes scanning everyone.

Max steps beside me. “What is it, Reaper?”

“What if we get attacked?” I murmur low, meant only for him.

“We defend ourselves.” Max’s confidence is unwavering.

“And if we can’t? If they take the girls?”

“They won’t.” His grip on my shoulder is firm. “If anyone comes for us, we’ll see them coming. And we’ll be ready.”

I let out a slow breath. “Fuck, I’m tired.”

Aspen and Bryn head downstairs and see them both entering Aspen’s room. I notice the way Ethan watches Bryn as she leaves. They’ve been sleeping in the same room since the girls arrived, but I told her she could have her own, like Aspen, but she refused, saying she felt safer near him.

Fine by me.

Aspen, on the other hand, prefers her space. She’s been decorating her room with dried flowers and trinkets from the basement, and she sleeps alone most nights. Even when one of us fucks her, we always leave before morning. It’s our way of giving her space, but… I don’t think she actually enjoys it.

“Man, I’m sorry,” Ethan says from behind me, and I turn, watching him rub the back of his neck. “I just wanted to do something nice for Bryn.”

I hold his gaze, then nod. “No problem, brother. With the footprints, we thought maybe…” I trail off.

He’s been different lately. More distant, but fuck, I don’t think Ethan would hurt us. He’s not like the rest of us, always following rules, always toeing the line, and we need to remember that. Still, I don’t like how tonight played out.

“We’ll keep an eye on the trail,” I say finally.

Ethan nods, and I clasp his shoulder in a quick, firm grip before heading to my room.

I take my shirt off and toss it onto the chair before sitting on the edge of the bed. Today didn’t end the way I expected. After fucking Aspen, I thought I’d be holding her all night, but instead, I’m sitting here, on fucking edge, with that gnawing feeling in my gut, the same feeling I had over a decade ago on that mission.

Lying down, I rest my head on the pillow, but my mind won’t fucking shut up, and it drags me back to that day. It was supposed to be a simple mission, hit a factory somewhere in Romania, kill everyone inside, and take whatever documents we could find. Roman, our captain, came along, and that should’ve been the first red flag.

We took down the targets, but then we saw a kid, seventeen at most. I ordered all the guns down, but before I could process it, Roman yanked my weapon from my holster and put a bullet right between the kid’s eyes.

“No witnesses,” he said.

I stood there, fucking stunned, not realizing what had just happened.

When we got back, we were called in, and it turned out we’d killed some important man’s son and stolen classified documents that belonged to our allies. During the meeting, we all noticed something: no one mentioned Roman. No one even knew he was there, and our radios had been off the entire time on Roman’s orders.

The mission didn’t exist. We weren’t supposed to exist. So, they discharged us. No pension, no backup. Nothing.

We didn’t rat him out, but it took every ounce of control I had not to go after him and shove a rifle up his fucking ass. He destroyed us—our unit, our careers—and for what? Money.

I inhale deeply, then exhale, trying to keep my control. I haven’t thought about that time in years, but ever since that conversation with Aspen, I can’t get it out of my head. Dante says I blame myself, and of course, I fucking do; it was my unit, and I led them into that mission where they lost everything!

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