Page 4 of Piece You Saved

“Aden started firing. It was…loud.”

I grind to a halt.

Keep going. When you stop, it’s too hard—too painful to start up again.

“I didn’t think it would be so loud,” I whisper to myself before I shake my head and continue. “But I remembered what he’d told me to do, so I lifted my gun. I took a breath and—”

A tear splashes on my cheek.

Guess I had more in me after all. Who knew?

I dash it away with the back of my hand, hoping no one will see. Pointless, really, when Dariel is looking right at me. Kade lowers his mouth to my hair again. He must know it as well.

“And?” Dariel prompts, as if we’re going through a grocery list. A stale, boring list of needed pantry items we have to check off one by one. As if he doesn’t care. Hedoescare. Maybe more than I do.

“The world exploded,” I whisper.

The past rushes toward me, smacking me hard in the face.

“There was another wolf. I don’t know who it was. He came through the door first.” I smile grimly as I twist my icy fingers together, trying to keep them busy. “I hoped Aden’s gun could cut a wolf in two. It was big enough. But it didn’t. I think the first wolf was dead by the time he broke the door open.”

“And the second?” Kade fists a hand in my hair and tucks me into his chest. Whether it’s for my comfort or his, I don’t know, but I lean into him, trying to absorb more of his strength. “Rylan?”

“Aden had fallen. Just like me. I think pieces of the door hit us.” I blink, and then I’m back in the attic, watching Aden scrabble for the gun as a wolf flew toward him. “I thought I was going to watch Rylan rip out his throat like—” I choke back the rest of my words.

Like Nathan did to Simon Trevor.

Simon was one of those rare finds a girl struggles to believe exists. A genuine good guy. Someone who didn’t help me because he wanted something in return. But because he could. So he did. And paid for it with his life.

Clearing my throat, I try again. “I think he wanted Aden to suffer as much as he wanted to make me suffer. He slashed Aden’s chest open and then he leaped out of the attic window.”

But not before he whispered the eight words right into my ear that will haunt me forever.

“You belong to no one but me, Saige.”

Dariel blinks. “He didn’t take you.”

I shake my head. “Like I said, he likes to punish people.”

Dariel cocks his head, his eyes sharpening. “You know how he intends to do that.”

I do.

“He’s going to make me watch as he kills you one at a time.”

I remember something I don’t know how I could have forgotten until now. Like how Kade, Aden, and Dariel got me away from Rylan after he kidnapped me.

“He has all the reason in the world to want to punish me, but why does it feel like he wants to punish you as well?” I ask.

Kade’s body stiffens at the same moment Dariel’s emerald-green eyes sharpen with wolflike intensity.

My heart spikes.

“Dariel?” Kade is already moving me to my chair as he springs to his feet and swings his body toward the waiting room door.

And that’s when I hear it. Crisp footsteps clip down the hallway toward us. Who would have thought such an innocent thing could sound so menacing?

“I know.” As Dariel peels himself from the wall, the tack loses its fight with gravity. The poster flutters to the floor as he moves to stand beside Kade, just feet from the open doorway.

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