Page 64 of Vengeful

Slade threw himself between us. He twisted his upper body and caught the knife in his shoulder instead of straight in his heart. He let out a grunt of pain and fury.

"Slade!" I shouted. Fucking hell. The expression on his face was one I'd remember until the day I died. Shock, agony and cold, hard anger. His emotions were there and then they were gone, tightly packed into the corner of his mind.

Faster than I've ever seen anyone move, he pulled out his own knife and drove it straight into Zachary's throat.

"Zachary!" Chloe shrieked.

Zachary's eyes widened with surprise. He let out a strangled gurgle before slowly falling to his knees.

Slade tugged the knife clear and let Zachary fall to the ground with a wet thump and spray of mud and water. He stood watching him for a while, the knife held loosely in his hand, his face the cool, calm assassin.

Dangerous, deadly and sexy as hell.

Chloe dropped to her knees beside him, her head bowed over his body. Her shoulders trembled, but she didn't cry. She didn't make a sound.

"Thank you," Dane said. "You saved me having to kill the little prick myself."

"You're welcome," Slade winced and tentatively touched the hilt that stuck out of his shoulder. It looked painful as fuck. A few centimetres to the right and he'd be dead. If not for his lightning fast reflexes, Zachary would have taken him from me. And me from him and my guys. Zachary would have ended up just as dead. I’d forever be grateful Slade wasn't.

Dane pulled his shirt off over his head and wrapped it around the blade to stem the flow of blood. Apparently killing an annoyance was a good way to create a bond.

I stepped over to Chloe and knelt beside her. "I feel like I should say sorry, but he did try to kill me." Sorry, not sorry, might be more appropriate. Zachary brought this on himself.

She sniffed. "It's okay, I understand. For the record, I promise I didn't know he was going to do that. We were supposed to finish the trials and go from there. You know?"

"I do know," I agreed. "This is crazy. It wasn't supposed to go like this." I sucked in a breath, difficult thoughts tumbling around my brain. "I've been thinking."

She turned to me. "I've been thinking too." She shook her head. "This isn't worth it. The killing, the dying. Dad's bullshit. I don't want to be head of the family any more. You can have it. I'm going to walk away and live my life. I won't contest it any time in the future. If you need me to sign anything to say that, I will. Whatever you need."

I stared at her for a moment. I hadn't expected her to say any of that. For a full minute, I considered taking her up on her offer. With Zachary dead and her stepping aside, there was every chance our father would choose me.

A flutter of excitement passed through me.

I shoved it away. I hadn't realised until that moment that I'd already made up my mind. My stubbornness wouldn't let me back down now.

"I was going to say the same thing. I don't want it either. Not if it means making ridiculous sacrifices and going through hell. I feel like I've lost my twin sister because of this and I'd do anything to get you back."

She gaped at me, then threw her arms around me and squeezed me hard. After a moment, I hugged her back.

We stayed like that for at least a few minutes before we pulled apart.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"We finish this thing," I said firmly. "We finish ittogether. If Dad decides to disown both of us, then fuck it. He can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. He can make an heir or whatever. We're done with him. You and me against whatever the world throws at us."

She smiled. "Fuck yeah, I'm in. Let's do this."

Together, we stood and linked arms.

"Does that mean we have to be friends with Dane now?" Parker asked.

"Yes, it does," I told him. "Let's hurry up and finish this so we can get Slade to a hospital." I reached my spare hand out to him and laced my fingers in his. "Are you all right?"

"I won't be playing tennis for a while, but I'll live." He was clearly in pain, but determined to be as badass as ever.

"You play tennis?" Hunter asked him.

Slade smiled. "No, never. If I did, I'm right-handed anyway."

---