Page 45 of Kept to Kill
She sat up and put herself to rights, touching her lips, which were swollen from his kisses. Her unfocused eyes weren’t on him, and he wanted them to be more than anything in that moment. He turned away from her and strode to Mal.
‘We need to talk,’ he barked, striding from the room and not bothering to check if Mal was following.
He barged into their chamber down the hall, finding Bastian sitting up in the bed as if waiting for them.
‘No one touches her,’ he announced without preamble, making his voice loud enough that he knew she’d be able to hear through the wall in the next room as well.
‘What are you talking about?’ Bastian drawled, making Quin want to break his nose.
‘Lily. No one touches her. Even though we can, we don’t. Understand?’
‘No,’ Mal bit out from behind him and he turned.
‘No, you don’t understand?’
Mal threw one of his knives at the wall, embedding it almost to the hilt with the force of it. ‘No, Brother.’ He smiled that mad grin of his that made his enemies wither under his gaze. ‘You bound her. She’s ours.Mine.’
And then he was gone.
‘Fuck!’ Quin swore.
Bastian was on his feet and making for the door when Quin stopped him.
‘You’ll never find him if he doesn’t want to be found, Brother.’
‘We can’t just let him go.’ Bastian tapped the side of his head. ‘He’s not right. You know he’s not.’
‘Aye, I know. It makes him one of the best in the Army.’
‘He’ll hurt her. He’llenjoyit.’
Quin sat down heavily and didn’t answer. Mal had never gone against his orders before. He wanted Lily badly. How far would he go to have her? Mal dealt in pain. That was all he knew.
‘We shouldn’t have bound her. Undo it!’
‘It’s not as simple as that, you fool! If we were at the camp, then perhaps, but I can’t just wave my hand for it to be so. This was your idea. If Mal hurts her, be it on your head.’
The larger man pulled him from the chair by his tunic and shook him. ‘You were going to do it anyway. Do you think I haven’t seen how you look at her? You bound her for yourself, Quin, not for the protection of the unit.’
Quin butted him in the head and Bastian let him go with a grunt, staggering away and sitting hard on the bed.
‘I did it so that she wouldn’t accidentally murder us with a power she can’t begin to control, you selfish cunt! It was only a matter of time. Her not being able to kill only you was hardly the solution,’ he hissed.
‘And I wanted to ensure Mal couldn’t kill her whenever it entered his head to do so,’ Bastian fired back. ‘How was I to know he wanted her? Fuck!’
‘You couldn’t have foreseen, just as I didn’t,’ Quin muttered. ‘He rarely visits the pleasure tents. His urges are always satisfied … elsewhere.’
Quin took off his tunic and threw it at one of the chairs. ‘You should check to see if she’s in need of anything. If you can keep your hands off her, stay with her tonight. From now on, she’s never to be without one of us.’
Bastian nodded, leaving their room without a word, but he was gone for just a moment before he rushed back in.
‘She’s gone.’
Chapter 9
Lily
The fortress loomed high on the hill in front of her, many of the wide stone steps that led up broken and cracked. She shivered as she stared up at the burned-out shell. It still dominated the landscape here, even like this. It must have been a grand place once.
