Page 80 of The Burnt Heart

“Let’s not be hasty.” Harold lifted his hands in surrender. “I can give you whatever you want.”

All I wanted was Adelaide, safe and in my arms again. Harold would stop at nothing to destroy what I craved. But the barrel still shook. Sweat made the trigger slippery, and I clenched my jaw, trying to steady my hold.

“Do it,” Jonah goaded.

Still, I hesitated. I ground my teeth, excavating past the reticence, hoping to be flooded with the desire to kill. Harold’s lip ticked up, the tiny movement mocking. Sweat beaded down my back, making my shirt meld to me. My arms cramped, locked in readiness, but I faltered.

“What the fuck are you doing with that?” Adelaide’s outrage knocked me out of my haze. She and Briar rushed into the room, and I noticed the red marks on her wrists immediately. I tasted fear at the sight of her marred skin. “You don’t know the first thing about weapons.” Logan’s gaze softened at her heated reaction, and we shrugged.

“Jonah taught us. We want to be the ones backing you up.”

She stifled a gasp, whipping her head around to glare at her guard. I knew she would react like this, six years making sure we never had to worry about her world touching us. Six years of protection and we obliterated it. She turned her blistering glare on me, and I knew she was thinking of her mom, searching for an unnatural sheen in my eyes.

“We are not done talking about this.” Her finger prodded Briar, who was the closest.

“I’m a crime lord’s soulmate. It was time to learn what that actually means. I don’t want anything to come between us again,” I justified the madness so easily.

“It’s not a toy,” she hissed.

“Jonah is an excellent teacher.” Adelaide pursed her lips at Jonah. She needed a distraction so, I slammed the safety off and pointed it at the wall, steady now. Plaster exploded as I let off a warning shot.

“Very impressive,” Harold taunted. “Now try aiming for a person.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Adelaide whispered. “Shooting a target is not the same as shooting a person.”

“If this is ever going to work, we need to hold our own. You kept us apart for good reasons, but we are not your mom and we’ll never be able to truly be together if we keep these walls up. Don’t worry about us, siren, we made our decision a long time ago. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you,” Logan added, ignoring Harold’s teasing.

She nodded, blowing out an exhale that was half relief and half shaky terror. This was our world now.

No secrets, no sacrifice.

“You don’t have to do this to keep me. And I’m not done talking about it. Of course, Jonah would meddle. He’s the only one with the stones enough to defy me.” She rolled her eyes, wagging a finger at Jonah, who only shrugged. But his eyes were warm.

“Don’t be too hard on him. He put up a good fight initially,” Briar joked as he laid his hand on her arm. “We wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t our choice.”

Harold crossed his arms, pursing his lips.

“So touching. But you can’t make a lamb a monster. Now that your father is dead, these three will be your downfall. Mark my words.”

Color drained from Adelaide’s face, and she leaned heavily on Briar. I pressed the gun into Logan’s hold and launched my fist into Harold’s face instead. The noise was wet violence, the crunch muffled against my hard knuckles. I barely registered the pain, slamming my fist into his collapsed form, over and over. His weathered skin bloomed under my fury, fissures of blood making my punches jerky. I growled, inhumane. I didn't need to pull the trigger. I would beat this man to death. I could feel it in my marrow.

36

Adelaide

My mind was too fractured to stop the barrage of intrusive visions. They flashed in my mind, and I jerked, as if physically hit. Briar clutched me in his hold.

“Breathe. Please love, breathe,” his voice cracked in my ear. Jesse was a flurry of movement as he beat Harold further into the floor. The older man’s groans were pitiful. My knuckles whitened as I tightened my grip on Briar’s shirt. His arms wrapped around my waist, and I sunk into the soft shelter he provided. My father was dead. I had known it was coming, even as Alessandro dragged me from the room, but the small piece of hope I had fizzled. Grief was a gaping maw, and I teetered on the edge. Logan and Jonah pulled Jesse off Harold, hauling him away as Donato slumped to the ground. I found myself in thecocoon of their embrace. I yanked them into me, breathing their warmth deeply.

“We are going to get out of this,” I whispered, my lips tasting sun on their skin. Salvation. It halted the dark spiral wrapping around my ankle, threatening to drag me under. “And you’re going to take me on every damn date you promised me, got it?” I pressed a hard kiss to each of their lips, the taste of them motivating me.

“We love you,” Jesse murmured against my skin. My fingers tightened before I released them. The lump in my throat forced me to choke out my next words.

“I love you too.”

It was the truth. The admission rolled off my tongue easily, and I breathed out for what felt like the first time in months. I’d never stopped loving them, and I never would. It wasn’t forgiveness, but I needed them too much right now. My father was gone, and I needed them. Jonah touched my shoulder, a soft acknowledgment. We both shared pain in this. He had worked for my father for a long time.

“I’m going to sweep the grounds again. I’ve flushed nearly everyone out.”

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