Page 66 of Widow's Walk

“Blackwell—” Harlan tries to cut through the black haze with reason.

I’m in a blind heat when I jump up with an inhuman snarl. “I said now!”

She’s no longer in our sights. Knowing I am helpless to see what they are doing to her, it amplifies my ire, turning it into molten carnage. I’m deranged and black out for the next few moments. My brothers are restraining me before I hulk out entirely in the small space.

I’m no help to her if I can’t keep myself in check, so I inhale through my nose, slow and controlled, trying to wrestle back a sliver of composure.

“You good?” Dane murmurs, and I nod once.

“Gear up,” I say evenly.

We hit the building hard. I don’t hold back, waiting for the immediate danger to be dealt with first. I take the lead at the front of the line.

Gunfire goes off like a goddamn symphony of death. I move like a man possessed. Breaking bones with my hands, taking bullets. But I feel none of it. Nothing but the carnal need to reach her.

I burst through people like obstacles. “Where is she?” I roar at no one in particular. A man points, and I shoot him anyway before pressing on.

“In here, sir,” someone shouts to me, standing at a closed door.

I barge in, and like that, I feel whole again.

The room reeks of chemicals and blood, but none of it registers. Only Sinclair. She’s slumped over, barely holding onto consciousness. I rush to her and drop to my knees. Her head lifts, just barely, eyes glazed over, but she sees me. I cup her precious face and brush strands of her newly darkened hair away from her eyes, revealing the wreckage of the woman I would burn the world for.

“Get me something to cover her with,” I snap loudly, rage coiling inside me.Why the fuck hasn’t someone already done that?“Come here,jané del-am.”The life of my heart. I gather her in my arms, and she’s limp in my embrace. “Where the fuck is something to cover her?” I shout out. Louder and angrier.

“Here you go, sir,” someone says in a winded voice, handing me a large jacket over my shoulder.

I snatch it without looking. “Get the fuck out,” I growl, shielding her from every gaze with my body curled protectively around hers.

I wrap her in the jacket and hold her close. One arm under her knees, the other around her back, pressing her gently to my chest as I stand. Her body folds in with trust and surrender.

I turn with her and pause at the threshold.

“All clear. We can move out,” Harlan says, his eyes drifting down to Sinclair repeatedly.

I follow behind him, flanked on all sides by our men while I carry Sinclair out of hell and into the only safety she has—me.

I look down at Sinclair, so small in my arms. She stirs, eyes fluttering open, unfocused but still defiant. She may be sedated, but Sinclair will always be Sinclair. Even half-gone, she stares up at me like she’s weighing her options.

I lean down, voice low and razor-sharp, I warn, “You fight me, and it’ll be the last thing you fucking do.”

Chapter twenty-nine

Sinclair

Waking up, I expect to be shackled in hell, not resting peacefully in paradise.

My head is pounding, but I can still feel the lushness of the pillow behind my head and the blankets surrounding me as plush as clouds. Everything doused in the emollient scent of the one who ruined me. The vengeful deity that tore through the place, bathed in blood, eyes like hellfire.

The memories of Blackwell coming to save me like he had any right to are fuzzy, and after that, I remember nothing. Between the heavier sedative they injected me with and the adrenal exhaustion, I was pulled under so deep there was nothing.

There’s a pounding in my head like a war drum. Pain blooming behind my eyes as I try to sit up slowly. I feel it when I crinkle my forehead in pain, the stiff bandages. I reach up to tentatively run my fingertips over the coarse fabric covering my forehead.

Oh, right. From bashing my own head in.Worth it.

That’s when everything became distorted. Only fragments of the events happening after that.

Panic sets in as my gaze sweeps the room, the only light coming through the curtains. Where the hell am I? The scent is familiar but alien in every other way.

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