by Bec McMaster
Riley held her breath, and felt the crowd doing the same. Was McClain crazy? All Wade had to do was say one little sentence. Tell the crowd who’d clawed him up, and then this would be turmoil.
Wade eyed the crowd, his black hair tangling over his eyes. With his dark looks and bleak expression, he looked hard and mean. Dried blood crusted his skin, and his shirt was torn in so many places she could see the ripple of his abdomen.
“No,” he said finally. “No more games. Let’s get this over with.”
Riley let out the breath she’d been holding, her heart sinking.
He sounded tired.
* * *
Claws out.
Lucius ignored the hiss of the crowd as he crouched low, trying to turn all his focus to McClain. This was the moment he’d spent eight years trying to get to. Why the hell did he suddenly want it over with?
Exhaustion stained him. McClain looked tired too, though no doubt for different reasons. McClain unsheathed his blade, the wicked ten-inch hunting knife strapped to his thigh, and settled into an aggressive stance. Waiting.
This was the man who’d taken his family away. Luc’s lungs tightened at the thought. For a man who tried not to feel anything, the day before had been a mess of emotion. He’d walked away from Abbie to spare her – or maybe to spare himself. That hurt was an old one, but the news of her loss had torn pieces in him he’d thought he didn’t feel. Guilt had kept him awake for long hours. If he’d been there, he could have saved her.
He could have saved Lily from seeing that.
As much as he wanted to hate the man in front of him, he found there was nothing left in him. Grief had burned him dry, left him hollow. And if he was honest with himself, as he rarely was, a part of him knew exactly whose fault Abbie’s death had been.
If I hadn’t walked away….
Whose fault was it? McClain’s for betraying him? Or his own, for not trusting his wife to love the monster he’d become?
He didn’t like the answer to that.
You never did, the devil on his shoulder whispered. But it was easier to blame someone else.
A long night. A lot of thinking. A lifetime of thinking.
He was tired of it.
“Come on,” McClain snapped, shifting the knife from hand to hand and leaving himself open just enough to invite attack.
Revenge.
A shitty thing to live for….
Lucius stepped forward, moving woodenly. He knew Riley was watching. He could feel her gaze on his skin, drilling into the back of his head. The crowd might as well not have been there, but he was hyper-aware of her. One quick glimpse burned her image into his brain – stiff-bodied, her lips thin, her blonde hair scraped back into a tight ponytail as she stared at him.
And for the first time in a long time, he knew there’d been something to live for. Something other than the mire his life had become.
Too late for that…. It was too late the moment he’d jammed his claws into that kid, and then looked down to realize what he’d done.
Luc’s gaze narrowed on McClain. So he wanted to play defense, did he? Baring his teeth in a smile, Luc stepped forward, wondering how McClain would deal with the settlement’s questions if Luc scratched him.
Sunlight gleamed off the blade and Luc watched it warily, half-hypnotized by the movement.
“Come on,” McClain snarled. “This is the only chance you’ll ever get.”
So be it.
He danced under McClain’s guard, going straight for the throat. McClain’s eyes narrowed, and he swung out of the way, lashing out with the knife. It scored across Luc’s forearm, the pain shooting through him, and yet strangely distant.
He couldn’t seem to keep his mind focused. As he staggered past McClain, blood spattering across the sands, he saw Riley on her feet, her fists clenched at her sides, and her face pale. The crowd roared its pleasure.
Boots shuffled on the sand behind him. Too late, he turned. The knife darted like a stream of silver in the sunlight, straight for his chest. Luc blocked McClain’s wrist, forcing the strike high over his elbow. Curling his other hand into a fist, he followed through with a punch.
McClain’s head snapped back to the collective “ooh” of the crowd. McClain staggered back, gathering his feet, and shaking his head. It was the best chance Luc had, but somehow he lost it. The image of that kid’s shocked face as Luc had slashed his throat flashed through his mind.
Blood trickled from a cut on McClain’s lip. His eyes narrowed and he shifted his grip on the hilt, crouching low. Both of them had drawn blood now.
Luc had dreamed of this fight for years, playing each blow over in his mind, thinking about McClain’s weaknesses and strengths. In his imagination, he’d been brutally focused, waiting only for the right opportunity before he could finally end this. He’d anticipated victory, the chance to stand over McClain’s body with the weight lifted off his shoulders as he smiled. Instead, he felt hollow.
Each movement seemed to come from outside him. He felt as though he was watching as his hand lashed out, claws raking through McClain’s shirt and catching nothing but fabric. Then the knife was in the center of his vision, the razor edge of it kissing his cheek with white fire. There was a chance for it to cut deeper, but Luc rolled his shoulder and threw the other man off him.
They fell apart, breathing hard. McClain had always been good at what he did. Quick, efficient and brutal. He’d approached each hunt with the focus of a man determined to finish his duty. Not once had Luc seen hesitation in his eyes, the way it was now.
And the grim truth. He could have had me then.
McClain stalked forward, the knife held low against his thigh, as if to disguise the movement. They danced around each other, ignoring the scream of the crowd. Then McClain came after him with a brutal swing of the knife.
Wade grabbed his wrist as he melted out of the way, using McClain’s momentum against him. He smashed the other man against the silver-coated fence, face first. McClain flinched, jerking away with the wire-burn imprinted on his face.
The knife was gone. Luc’s claws had somehow retracted. He shoved McClain’s back against the fence and planted a fist in his gut. McClain wilted over the blow, his hands clinging to Luc’s hips.
“You son of a bitch,” Luc snarled. He smashed his knee into McClain’s face, rewarded with a roar of pain and a gush of blood from the man’s nose.
A foot hooked behind his own. McClain’s eyes were hot with fury now, and he jammed an elbow into Luc’s face. The world turned white for a moment, and then he hit the ground hard, McClain on top of him. They rolled, dust stirring up around them as each tried to gain the upper hand.
Light reflected off something at the corner of his vision. The knife. Luc looked down, his hands curled around McClain’s throat as they came to a halt. McClain’s hand shot out, reaching for it... and falling short.
This was it. His chance. Luc’s claws slashed out and he lifted his hand high, gaze locked on McClain’s.
“No!” a little girl screamed.
The word went through him like a spear of ice, freezing time and sound, taking him back years into the past. Luc’s head lifted, as if in a dream, and he looked up through the wire mesh that surrounded the makeshift arena.
A little girl stood in the aisle, her blue eyes shining with tears, her fists clenched in the fabric of her skirts. The light gleamed off her blonde hair, tumbled carelessly over her shoulders. Perhaps nine or ten. Far too young to be there.
God, she looks like her mother.
His heart seized at the thought. He hadn’t seen her since she was two, and yet he knew, with a father’s knowing, that she was his. He’d rocked her to sleep as a baby, picked her up each time she fell, and kissed her bloodied knees.
“Lily,” he whispered.
Her gaze wasn’t on him at all. “Adam,” she mouthed silently, her face twisting with grief.
The word struck him like a punch. What was he doing? He felt his claws ret
ract again, his hand hovering in the air. In that split second, he realized something – Lily had lost her mother, and McClain was the only father she knew. Kill McClain, and she would hate him forever.
Her father died long ago. Let her believe that. Let me give her this, for all the times I’ve never been there.
Movement shifted. Luc looked down as McClain finally grabbed the knife and swung it up toward him. He could have stopped it. There was a moment there where he could have blocked the blow.
And didn’t.
The knife slid into his side with a whisper. The shock of it clenched every muscle in his body as he slumped. He swore, hot blood splashing onto the sand. The world spun as McClain rolled them, grabbing Luc by the throat and lifting the knife again. The crowd roared. Someone screamed. Riley? Maybe... He couldn’t tell. The world was growing hazy, his side a mess of heat and pain.
Then the knife froze. Luc’s gaze jerked to McClain’s, and his gut clenched as he saw the hesitation, the conflict.
“Do it,” he whispered.
The hand at his throat was shaking. “You fucking bastard,” McClain snapped. “You had me. You fucking had me.”
Luc fumbled for McClain’s hand. “Do it,” he snapped. “Then you look after her. You look after them both.”
The crowd was on its feet, chanting for McClain, who looked up, the knife lowering an inch. Luc saw the chance slipping through his fingers. “Don’t,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll come again, you know I will. I’ll make you regret this,” he hissed desperately, mind racing for a reason to force McClain’s hand. “I’ll take Eden.”
The knife lowered. McClain suddenly stabbed it viciously into the sand beside Luc’s head. “No, you won’t,” he said hoarsely, and then staggered to his feet.
The weight of his body was suddenly gone. Luc sucked in a hiss as pain flooded through him. He curled up onto his side, holding the gash between his ribs. Blood wet his fingers, but he could see where it was clotting. Already healing.
“Come back,” he called. Damn you.
“What’s going on?” someone in the crowd yelled. “Kill it, Adam!”
McClain walked away from him.
No! “You fucking coward!” Luc shoved to his knees, watching McClain’s wide back stiffen. In a sudden surge of thwarted rage, he grabbed the knife and wrenched it from the sand.
McClain turned as Luc staggered to his feet. Their eyes met. And McClain opened his arms in a gesture of surrender.
Calling his bluff.
“Here’s your chance,” McClain said quietly. “You either take it now, or you leave, and you don’t come back.”
The crowd fell silent. Luc looked around, his vision a blur. His gaze locked on Riley, who was clinging to Eden’s hand. Those brown eyes met his, silently pleading with him.
“Please don’t,” she whispered, though the sound of it was lost in the growing murmur of the crowd.
He could barely feel the knife in his hand. His fingers were numb. Then they opened, and the dagger hit the sand beside his feet. He looked down, unable to comprehend what was happening. This was everything he’d wanted. Wasn’t it? Panic suddenly choked him. If he couldn’t have this, then what the hell did he have to live for?
A shitty way to live....
He couldn’t breathe all of a sudden. The crowd blurred as he looked up, and he sought instinctively for Lily. She was crying as a man tried to lead her away, struggling to see over her shoulder if McClain was okay. Luc scraped a hand over his face. “Agreed,” he choked out. For Lily’s sake... and for Riley.
He took one last look at them. Riley shut her eyes and sagged back onto her seat in relief, and Lily was almost at the top of the stairs, her panicked gaze on McClain, her fingers clasped around the stranger’s.
Luc didn’t know what it was that set him off, but his gaze locked on the tanned hand gripping his daughter’s, and then jerked toward the stranger’s face. A dark hat shielded his face, like most of the crowd there, and his broad shoulders filled out his black shirt. A machete hung over his shoulder, and as the stranger paused at the top to glance behind him, Luc’s gut fell.
“No!” he screamed, launching himself at the silver mesh fence.
Johnny Colton tipped his hat to him with a slight smile, then disappeared with his daughter.
Thirteen
“DON'T SHOOT!” McClain roared.
Riley looked up in shock as Wade launched himself at the wire fence and scaled it as if the mesh barely touched him.
“What the hell?” Eden murmured.
He wasn’t looking at her. He wasn’t looking at any of them. Instead, he glared with deadly intensity toward the top of the arena behind her.
Riley spun, but there was nothing there. Only hot sunlight, and the last vestiges of the crowd. Her brows lowered as she turned to face him. He was almost to the top. One of McClain’s men stepped forward with his shotgun and smashed the butt into Wade's left hand, then the right. With a snarl, Wade tumbled flat on his back into the arena, dust rising. He rolled to his feet, lip curled in a snarl and his eyes wild, but more of McClain’s men had stepped closer to this side of the fence, ready for him.
In desperation, Wade looked to her. “Colton’s here,” he said. “He’s got Lily.”
Riley sucked in a sharp breath, her fists clenching. “I’ll get her back.” Then she turned and bolted up the stairs, shoving her way through the hysterical crowd.
* * *
“No!”
Luc made a snatch for the fence, but one of McClain’s men warned him back. In frustration, he watched Riley disappear at the top of the steps, his heart sinking into his gut. What the fuck had he done? She was no match for Colton, and if Colton realized that she held some meaning to him....
The heat washed out of his face. Deep inside, something quivered – the beast, threatening to rise up and consume him. He curled over, fingernails digging into his palms as the fury roared through him. Take my woman.... Take my daughter... Kill him... The thoughts were primal and dangerously close to the surface. Heat filled his mouth, his gums, his spine bowing as the monster sought to fight its way free. He pushed back, trying to force it down.
Luc came to on his knees, screaming.
The crowd was silent, even McClain’s men backing away from the fence with paling faces. Luc forced himself to push the beast deep. He couldn’t lose control. The charm helped contain it but sometimes, in emotional moments, he came close to losing himself. Do that, and both Lily and Riley were as good as dead.
“Wade.” McClain’s scuffed boots stepped into his vision, moving slowly. McClain would recognize what was happening to him, knowing enough to be wary.
An enemy. He breathed deep through his nose, feeling the heat slowly dissipate from his gums. Or an ally?
Looking up, he met McClain’s gaze, fingers clenching in the dirt. “He’s got her.” The words came from a hoarse throat. “Colton was here. He took... took Lily. Riley went after them.”
The expression on McClain’s face tightened, and he swore under his breath. “I thought he was dead.”
Luc couldn’t speak. He shook his head wordlessly.
“Close the gates!” McClain bellowed. “Sound the siren. I want the walls manned. We’ve got a warg loose in the city. He’s taken Lily, and I want her back unharmed. Don’t confront him. Just find him and sound the alert!”
A hand came out of nowhere, tanned and marked with calluses. Luc looked up, into hard grey-green eyes.
“Take it,” McClain snapped. “I’m not your fucking enemy. He is. If we don’t work together, then we don’t get Lily back.”
The last of the fury roared through him at the thought. Luc clenched his teeth together, then reached out and gripped McClain’s hand. McClain hauled him to his feet, pressing the knife hilt into his hand. “This time, don’t hesitate.”
* * *
There was a guard outside the arena. Riley snatched his handgun from its carelessly unsnapped holster and darted past, ignoring his c
ry of “Hey!”
Ahead of her, a tall man in dark clothes and a black hat led Lily down the street calmly. He glanced over his shoulder at the cry, coal-black eyes meeting hers before they narrowed. As she blinked, he swept Lily up over his shoulder and bolted between houses.
“Stop!” Riley yelled, leaping after him.
She raced around the corner, directly into his outstretched arm. It hit her high in the chest and she went down hard, struggling to breathe.
“No!” Lily cried out, sinking her small white teeth into his neck.
Riley realized his attention was gone and swung out with her feet, hooking her ankle behind his. His eyes widened on her for a moment before he fell, landing with Lily half on top of him. Thrusting the girl aside, he lashed out with his foot, and Riley barely avoided the blow. She scrambled backward, her back hitting the wall. Then she shoved to her feet and aimed the pistol at him. “Don’t move.”
Grabbing Lily’s hair, Colton yanked her against him, pressing gleaming sharp claws against the little girl’s throat. “I’ll do it,” he said, in a cool, dark voice that sounded almost weary.
Riley froze. “Let her go.”
“Put the gun down.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll tear her throat out.”
Bleak, uncompromising words. Who the hell was this man? Riley swallowed hard, trying to listen for any sign of pursuit. It divided her attention for a split second, and he used it to throw Lily toward her. Riley snatched her finger off the trigger, staggering back under the girl’s weight. Her back hit the wall, and Lily cried out as she fell to the ground.
An arm came out of nowhere, smashing down across Riley’s wrist. The blow numbed her arm, and the pistol flew to the cobbles. Riley didn’t have time to look for it. She ducked as Colton’s fist smashed toward her face, taking a glancing blow across the cheekbone that stunned her. Hell, he moved like lightning. Not even Wade had moved like that. Maybe he could, but it made her realize that he’d never truly tried to hurt her.
