Page 51 of Pain

I stayed here and Tinker died. Or I went back to him and Tinker lived.

My call. My decision. My sacrifice.

And I already knew what I was going to do. Because Gemini had already been shot because of me, and the entire club was in danger as long as I stayed here. Tinker was one of Knight’s best friends. One of his inner circle.

I couldn’t risk him.

I looked down, trying to figure out whether I was willing to do this, and realized that I was. I’d gotten away from Devil once. I could do it again. And this time, he wouldn’t find it so easy to manipulate me. Maybe he’d even decide he didn’t like having me around, anymore, and would just let me go.

It was a flimsy argument, and I knew I was wrong to think he’d let me go.

But like I said, I wasn’t willing to risk Tinker.

I looked back up, met Knight’s eyes, and tried to communicate to him how much this hurt me—and why I was going to do it anyhow.

“Deal,” I said firmly. “Let me talk to Tinker.”

Devil snorted, but I could hear the triumph in it, and a moment later, we heard heavy, hoarse breathing.

“Don’t... come... Saraya,” he groaned, his voice slow and full of pain.

I recognized that sound. That was the sound of someone who’d been ‘interrogated’ for information. They were torturing him. Hurting him as much as they could, either for information or just to prove they could.

Or because Devil just liked hurting people that much.

“He’s not in good shape, Saraya,” Devil said, his voice hard and cold enough to cut stone now. He was finished trying to play nice. Finished acting like he might be gentle with me or like he’d ever been worried about me. Now all I could hear was his belief that he owned me and could do whatever he liked with me.

Including force me to come back to him.

Though now that it came down to it, I wondered whether I’d ever really believed I would escape for good. Hadn’t I been thinking of my time with the Banshees as a short-term deal? Hadn’t I been withholding a part of me from them, just waiting for the moment when Devil would come and reclaim me?

I had. I just hadn’t wanted to think about it.

“What do you want, Devil?” I asked again.

“You at my doorstep, begging me to take you back,” he replied. “Before midnight. Or Tinker here dies. And it won’t be pretty.”

CHAPTER 23

KNIGHT

I ended the call and grabbed her arm. “What the fuck are you doing?”

To my surprise, she jerked herself away from me. “I’m doing what any decent person would do, Knight. I’m turning myself in before another one of your guys gets hurt.”

Emotion rushed through me, followed very quickly by adrenaline, and I grabbed her again. “Like hell you are,” I growled. I’d only just discovered this girl, and the things she did to my body. I’d literally just realized that she could be—and maybe was—my perfect match.

And there was absolutely no way I was letting her go, particularly if it meant sending her back to Devil. And no, because I can hear you thinking it, that doesn’t have anything to do with ‘fucking Devil’s girl,’ like Mandy thought. I didn’t care about making a fool of him in that way. I didn’t care about stealing from him or trying to show that I was better than he was.

I’d seen what he’d done to her, and I’d seen how it had scarred her. I’d felt her jerk in my arms when I pinned her hands down that first night, and I’d seen how much it had taken for her to force herself to trust me that first day. I knew the walls she must have built in her mind to protect herself, and how tough she’d had to be to survive what he’d done to her, and there was absolutely no way I was going to let her go back to that.

No matter what her reasoning was.

“I’m not letting you go back there,” I told her roughly. “Not after what he did to you. You know it’s only going to be worse if you go back.”

She elevated her chin and stared at me, her eyes hard as ice. “And what are you going to do about it? You going to tell me what I can and can’t do now, Knight? Because I didn’t really think that was your style.”

I turned her and shoved her against the wall of the club, needing her in one place and needing to have control of her, if only for a moment. “I’m not. Letting. You. Go,” I repeated. “He’ll kill you, Saraya, and I’m not willing to take that risk.”