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Finnan put the weapon up. “Fuck!” He stalked away, only to return a moment later. “I can’t have you as my Warlord anymore. I can’t fuckingtrustyou.”
I nodded.
“From now on, you’re a fucking sentinel. You can do the grunt work until I can trust you again…ifI can trust you again.”
He eyed me like I was dog shit on the bottom of his shoe before stalking off, and I attempted to get upright. With a grunt, I fell backward. From the pain radiating out near my ribcage, I suspected some bones had been broken. Better broken ribs than a bullet through the skull. Deciding to lay still for a moment, I shut my eyes and breathed as shallowly as I could to mitigate against the pain.
TWENTY-SIX
SLOANE
The scentof blood was thick in the air. I knew it was blood before we’d even entered the living room. What we walked into, though, made my stomach clench tight.
Grayson was sprawled on the floor, bloody—broken. One eye was swollen shut. My world came to a halt as I stared at him, wondering how bad the injuries were. Wondering whether he would be able to get back up again. Whether he was still alive.
The deepest chasm opened up inside my chest at that last thought. What if his heart had simply given up, and I never had the chance to tell him how I felt?
“Where the fuck have you been?” Finnan’s question jarred me from my thoughts.
I darted my eyes to Torin then back again. “Aisling King had me.”
“What did that bitch want?”
“She said she wasn’t going to let you break the engagement.”
He stared at me for a moment before eventually saying, “She said that, huh?”
I nodded.
“That’s the reason she kidnapped you? To get you out of the way?”
My eyes strayed in Grayson’s direction until Finnan grabbed me by the upper arm, shaking me. Snarling. “Don’t fucking look at him!”
Stomach clenching tight, I swallowed down on my tight throat. Did he know about us? And if he did, had Grayson already received his punishment? Had he already been killed? No, his finger twitched, his eye flickering open. Our gazes locking. Hope surged.
“Don’t kill him,” I whispered. “Finnan, I’mbeggingyou. Don’t kill him.”
His mouth curved into a sneer that made the back of my neck prickle. “You don’t want me to kill him?” He looked between Grayson and me—Grayson trying to communicate something to me—although what that was, I had no idea. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” Grabbing my chin, he yanked my face back around to his, forcing me to look into his eyes. “What would you do to save his life?”
“Anything.” The word fell from my lips before I’d even given it permission. But as I stared at the malice in Finnan’s eyes, I meant it.
“Anything, huh?” Licking his lips, his heated gaze tracked down my body, touching every intimate part of me. “What about giving yourself to me every night? Would you do that?”
Grayson made a small noise of protest, and I pulled from Finnan’s grip for a second to see the defiance in his blue eyes and a slight shake of his head. He didn’t want to share me, but he needn’t have worried. I had a better plan.
“Look at me!” Finnan barked. “Not him. He’s a fucking disgrace to the clan.”
My heart began to thud violently against my ribs. “What do you mean?”
He threw his head back and laughed. The sound wasn’t joyful. Instead, it was edged with anger. With scorn. “I know all about you two. I know that instead of leaving you alone, he pursued you. I know that you let him touch you. I bet you did it just to screw him over. You knew what would happen to him if he was caught.”
I raised my chin in defiance, unwilling to answer the charges he was bringing against me. Mostly because I was ashamed that I hadn’t had the fucking willpower to say no to him. I wanted Grayson Kent. Roughly. Brutally. Completely. “I can give you something better than his life.”
Finnan’s green eyes darkened to a deep forest leaf at midnight. “And what would be better than killing the man who defiled my fiancée every time my back was turned?”
I gripped the gun still hidden in the front pocket of the hoodie, my fingertips brushing past the barrel to touch the book. “The rat.” Wrapping my palm around the gun, I brought it up and aimed it at the back of Torin’s head. He immediately stiffened.
Every other clan member in the room pulled out their own Glock and trained it on me. My heart knocked more frantically against my ribs in an attempt to get out, but I held my nerve. Meeting each man’s eyes for a second, I reset my attention on the biggest threat.
