Page 112 of Alluring Darkness

What the hell is going on here?

I turn back to the guy panting in agony beneath me. “Where is Connor Smith?”

Defiance flares in his eyes as he glares up at me.

Holding his gaze with hard eyes, I twist the knife that is still buried in his shoulder. He cries out in pain. I twist again.

“Not here!” he calls. “He’s not here!”

I keep twisting. “Then where is he?”

Only screams answer me.

“Shelley has him,” another voice blurts out.

I stop twisting the knife and turn towards the source of the voice. One of the people in front of Rico, a girl with loose brown curls and brown eyes, looks back at me.

“She took him in that direction.” She nods towards where I know a cave is located. “Only a few minutes ago.”

“Then why are you attacking us instead of going after them?” Rico asks, nudging her head with his gun.

“Because she paid us a ridiculous amount of money to betray him.” Guilt flickers in her dark eyes. “And to stop anyone trying to follow her too.”

Rico groans and then slides his gaze to me. “She comes from a very wealthy family.”

And Raina poisoned Shelley just a few days ago. This can’t be a coincidence. The tracks from the person who abducted Raina lead here, and now Shelley has taken her brother in that same direction as well. Whatever is going on cannot be good.

Fear stabs through my heart. I have to find Raina. Now.

“Where did she take him?” I grind out.

I already know about the cave because I’ve spent a lot of time training in these woods. But I need to know if she is going to tell me that as well or if this is some kind of elaborate ambush for us.

“There’s a cave a short distance that way,” she says, jerking her chin towards where the cave is located.

I yank my knife out of the guy’s shoulder. He moans in pain while I use his shirt to wipe off the blood. Then I brace my hands on his chest and push to my feet while sliding the knife back into its sheath.

“If you follow, you die,” I announce.

Without even bothering to check if they nod in acknowledgement, I pull a gun from the back of my belt and start in the direction of the cave. The sound of footsteps behind me inform me that my brothers are following as well.

I don’t know what the hell is going on here, or who the guy is who took Raina, but I know one thing for certain.

Whoever they are, they’re going to pay in blood.

45

RAINA

The moment Gabriel has finished speaking those damning words, a strange sense of calm spreads through my body. Without a single shred of hesitation, I raise the gun. And point it at my own head.

Surprise and stunned disbelief, that are mirrored in Connor’s eyes, pulse through me as we blink at each other from across the cave floor.

He has also raised his gun and pointed it at his own head.

An absolutely ridiculous urge to laugh bubbles in my chest. We’re so different, in almost every way, but in this one thing we are completely the same. Apparently, both of us are willing to die for each other without hesitation.

“No,” Gabriel snaps from behind me. My head jerks forward slightly as he shoves his gun harder against the back of my skull. “If you shoot yourself, I’ll just shoot your brother too. Same goes for you, Connor. The only way one of you gets to walk out of here is if you kill the other. So drop your guns from your own temples before I decide to shoot you both.”

---