Page 135 of His Greatest Muse

A possessive, furious roar builds in my chest at the reminder of his sick words and declarations. “Yes.”

Dropping my gaze to her rolling lips, I freeze. The shutting of the trunk is muted behind the racing thump in my ears. Our first moment face to face since I let her walk inside the gym alone, and I’m noticing she isn’t how I left her. The two deep, bloody gauges on the tip of her chin running along the underside and over her neck make my stomach roll.

Nail marks. From him. On her skin.

Alarm transforms her expression before she’s attempting to pull her hands free and step back. To hide those scratches from me.

“I took care of it, Noah,” she says.

My brain goes silent, only two words ringing out. One demand.

End him.

Tinsley’s voice fills the night behind me, but I’ve given up control. For the first time in my life, I hand the reins to my darkness and step back, giving it space to wreak havoc.

To do what needs to be done. For her.

Always for her.

50

TINSLEY

I forgot about the scratches.

I didn’t notice if and when they bled. With everything else going on, they seemed insignificant. My first mistake was overlooking them. My second was attempting to hide them from Noah once he locked onto them. All I did was confirm that something was indeed wrong and that he wasn’t imagining it.

I never wanted to get in the way of his revenge, but the glaze that slipped over his eyes just now tells me that he’s fallen down a hole that he’s spent a lifetime avoiding. All because of me.

I’ve had my fun with Cole. I felt that intoxicating surge of power when I crushed his fingers beneath my foot and filled his eyes with pleas that he wasn’t able to speak aloud. My fingers are stained with his blood from when I dipped the blade of his knife into his side, tearing through skin and muscle. It’s crusted beneath my nails, splattered over my clothes.

Noah deserves that same feeling of power and retribution for the wrongs committed against him. But not like this, when he’s half-crazed and acting out of a need to defend me.

In the blink of an eye, he has Cole out of Alec’s arms, dragging him across the gravel surrounding the barn. The field is empty, and we’re alone. So, when Cole starts to splutter apologies that we’ll never accept, Noah allows it. He doesn’t put back in the gag that must have been removed when Alec pulled him out of the trunk.

“You’re not a killer,” Cole gasps, his probably shattered knees scraping against the stones, leaving a trail of blood behind them.

The bleeding from his side has slowed. It no longer soaks his shirt. Someone must have covered it, and that someone wasn’t Noah or me.

“You don’t know me,” Noah snarls, his gaze unwavering.

“I’ve watched you for just as long as I’ve watched Tinsley!”

His stupid, stupid statement has me and Alec both picking up our pace behind them. Noah finds the barn door slightly ajar and shoulders it open wider to drag Cole inside.

When they disappear into the shadows, a knot of anxiety forms in my throat. Alec curses beneath his breath and hurries past me. The gleam of the gun handle he has tucked in the waistband of his jeans causes me to stumble into his back. He whips his head to glare at me before taking in my expression.

Whatever he finds in it has him muttering, “It’s not for you. Relax.”

I struggle to find words as fear begins to grip me. For both Noah and me and the mess we’ve caught ourselves in.

But then Cole screams. I’m forced to set aside my thoughts and worries and follow Alec inside without collecting all the answers I want, focused on finding Noah.

The darkness is heavy inside the barn. It floods every corner, keeping all but the centre hidden from view. Moonlight shines through the small cracks between the wooden planks in the ceiling, illuminating a single metal chair that Cole occupies.

His hands are behind his back, but his legs are free. Once I get close enough to get a good look at his knees, it becomes clear that he couldn’t use his legs to run even if he tried. They’re ripped open, full of gravel and fragments of bone.

“You’ve seen these before,” Noah purrs.

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