Page 83 of Like a Hurricane

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, “I’m so, so sorry. But I have to go.”

“No.” she says, over and over, just that one simple two letter word.

“Get up,” I hear Malakai say, whatever argument he was having with his father clearly over now.

I look up at the man who helped kill my father and was about to do the same to me, “Please, if there is a heart in your chest, don’t make her watch.”

“It appears I have another idea, Miss Lauder,” is all he says back. Kenneth seems as shocked as me if his sputtering and half finished sentences were anything to go by.

My brows draw down, “What?”

But I don’t get an answer when all hell breaks loose in a riot of gunfire and glass shattering.

Chapter Forty-two

The letter is a ball in my hand as the boat speeds across the water, the icy wind battering my body, so cold I’m numb but I didn’t have spare thought to think about the pain it was causing. Not when my heart was being ripped from my chest as I recall each word in Arryn’s letter.

She wasn’t leaving me.

She was not leaving like this.

Torin drives as fast as the boat will allow and I called in a favor with one of my contacts, so knew someone was going to be at the docks when we arrived. I was still feeling lethargic from the sedative, but the dose wasn’t high, it’ll wear off soon enough and with the adrenaline pumping furiously through me, the effects of the drug barely register.

But fear was making it hard to breathe.

What if I was too late?

We make it to the mainland and as planned, the car was waiting for us. My guy throws me the keys, but I don’t have time for talking now. My girl needs me.

She fucking needs me.

Torin gets in the passenger seat and the door hasn’t even closed when I floor the pedal and the tires spin on the wet and icy tarmac. The city flies by in a blur of color and noise, but I can’t see anything other than those words on the paper.

You are my fairytale.

It was going to be happily ever after too. Fuck. Fairytales don’t end this way.

“Slow down, Rett,” Torin growls, “If you want to make it there in one damn piece.”

“I can’t,” I choke.

“We’re going to make it, brother,” Torin says gently.

But I’m not so sure.

I fucked up. Malakai and Kenneth Ware were clever, they outsmarted me, and right now they’ve won.

The death marks, the threats, they had more power than I could have ever realized, and I was starting to believe they weren’t who they said they were.

The Lauder Hotel sits like a shining beacon ahead, brightly lit when everything around is so dark. I slam on the brakes, the car squealing across the tarmac as it comes to a stop right in front of the door. My feet hit the concrete but before I can slam through the doors, Torin pulls me back.

“Remember who the fuck you are, Everett,” He orders, “You’ll get yourself killed.”

“She’s in there.”

“And so are they!”

My breath whooshes from me and I look around, noticing how empty it is. There is not a single other person, no guests, or staff. The foyer is a ghost town, the roads around the hotel completely barren.

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