Page 20 of Savage Reign

I looked around the run-down place, feeling my lips pulling back in a sneer from disgust.

“What, is this not to your taste, princess?” Killian asked from where he sat on his bed, already getting settled in. “Might I remind you we’ve stayed in places worse than this?”

Fuck, I didn’t need a reminder. I might have been younger than my brothers back then when we were forced to flee Chicago, but I remembered everything. All those restless nights, all the crappy places we had to stay at until we could find a way into Las Vegas, and even then, our uncle wasn’t an easy man to reach.

Fionn Tiernan was one of the most feared men in Las Vegas in his prime. He had taken over the Las Vegas scene by storm, and it was mostly because the paranoid bastard was as ruthless as he was careful.

He didn’t trust anyone, not even his wife, who was nothing more than a trophy in his arms until he decided she’d gotten too old, and he killed her and married a newer, younger version of her. But there was no one he mistrusted more than his older brother, Declan Tiernan, our dad. Not that I blamed the fucker.

If Fionn was considered paranoid and ruthless, then our dad was downright fucking psychotic and probably played a huge role in why our uncle was the way he was.

Us, being Declan Tiernan’s children didn’t help one bit. It wasn’t like we were welcomed to Las Vegas with open arms.

I shook away the memory.

“I don’t fucking care about the state of this shitty motel room. I can fucking sleep under a bridge. But I’m pretty sure Mila’s room is the exact replica of this room and is probably just as fucking shitty.”

That shut Killian up.

Jesus, but this motel was probably worse than the one she stayed in back in New Orleans.

My fists clenched as I took in the room once more, resisting the urge to fucking break everything in it. Mila should be treated like a princess. She deserved nothing less than the best things money could buy, and once I got her back in my arms, that would always be the fucking case for her.

The only thing stopping me was knowing Mila might hear, and either she’d try to investigate the noise, or it would scare her for the rest of the night, and she might leave the place.

Not that she would be able to escape me now that I’ve found her, but that was more an inconvenience that I didn’t want.

I pushed away from the wall I had been leaning on.

“I’m gonna catch a quick shower,” I muttered. I closed the door behind me, not waiting for his reply. I turned on the shower and, while waiting for it to warm, took in myself in the mirror.

I cupped my jaw, feeling the beard that had grown out from the week and my tired eyes. I hadn’t fucking slept much since she left. There had been times in the business that required us to stay up for days, hell, weeks on end, only getting a few hours of shut-eye here and there, and I hadn’t felt this drained.

What would Mila think once she got a look at me? I shut my eyes. It wasn’t like I had paid any attention to my looks, but for the first time, I wondered if I looked too… much. Too savage, toounhuman.

Fuck me, but her leaving really fucked me up.

Without another thought, I threw off my clothes and hopped into the shower, shutting out the world, even for a little while.

8

MILA

I wokeup with a start and looked around my room.

Dawn had barely hit, and the sky was still covered in a dark tinge of blue. The curtains in my room opened a peek, and there was a stillness in the space that scared me.

I didn’t know why that was, but I could feel my heart pounding in fear. Something inside me said to get out of bed and do… something, anything, but it just felt safer on the bed.

I shivered and pulled the covers over my shoulders.

What had woken me up?

I looked around again, but nothing seemed to be amiss in the room. Everything was exactly where I had left it.

Still… the feeling that something was off persisted.

I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep now. I had never been a good sleeper anyway. I stayed in bed for a few hours after that. By the time I could bring myself to crawl out of bed, the morning sun was up, and I felt like shit.

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