by Laken Cane
Roma stood immediately. “I’m going with you.”
“Watch his back, Roma,” Rune said.
Roma patted her slingshot. “I’ll take care of him.”
Jack looked heavenward, then pulled a flask from his jacket.
Rune said nothing. If Ellie had been awake, he’d have yanked the flask from Jack and replaced it with a plate of eggs, but Ellie was sleeping the day away with baby Kader.
“Nothing from Will?” Strad asked. He’d opened the kitchen door and stood staring out into the bright day, his arms folded. He seemed relaxed, but only if you didn’t look too closely. He’d always had a raging energy swirling around him, but since he’d returned from the path, that swirl was different. Full of debris.
He’s the twisted berserker now.
And Rune realized she kept waiting for the twistiness to show up and kick her ass.
“Nope,” Rune answered. “Not a word. Bill said Gavin hasn’t returned yet, either.”
“You know how it’ll go down,” Raze grumbled, cleaning one of his blades. “The bad shit will come at us all at once, the way it always does.”
“Bounty hunter just pulled up,” Strad said.
“What’s her name?” Roma asked Jack. “We can’t keep calling her Bounty Hunter.”
Jack stood, then shrugged into his protective vest. “Belladonna something…Braden, I think Bill said.”
Rune snorted, then glanced at Raze. “Raze, maybe you should go with Jack. Her name alone is…Raze?”
He got to his feet, his face pale. “Flu,” he said, and strode from the kitchen, likely to find a bathroom.
“Ellie will take care of you,” Roma yelled after him. “If you survive until he wakes up.”
“Did you know he was sick?” Rune asked the twins.
They both shook their heads. “He never said a word.”
“He wouldn’t,” Rune murmured, her worried stare on the doorway through which he’d disappeared.
Strad stepped to the side to allow their visitor to enter, and Jack walked toward her, his hand out. “Jack,” he said. “I’ll be trying to get you into Flynn this morning.”
“I don’t believe in trying,” the woman said. “I just get shit done.” She took Jack’s hand. “Belladonna.”
There was silence as everyone in the room eyed the newcomer, nearly all of them frowning. Except for the berserker. His face didn’t change expression—but then, he’d seen her coming. He’d had a minute to look at her.
The woman was big.
Muscles popped in her arms, and her thighs were like bulging tree trunks beneath her tight pants. She had wild hair that was tamed into a thick, strawberry colored ponytail that hung to her hips, and she was probably two inches over six feet tall.
Her eyes were freaky beautiful, light gray and surrounded by thick, dark lashes, her lips full and tilted at the corners as though she might always be right on the edge of smiling.
She was the most physically stunning woman Rune had ever seen.
And Bill was right. She was somehow familiar. They hadn’t met—Rune would have remembered.
But something about her was familiar.
“Wow,” Roma said. “You look like you just got summoned from a comic book.” Then she caught sight of Jack’s rather dazed expression. “Son of a bitch,” she muttered.
Jack cleared his throat. “Let me introduce you to the crew.” He retrieved his hand and gestured at Rune. “This is—”
“Rune Alexander,” Belladonna said, giving Rune a nod. “I thought you’d be bigger.”
Rune didn’t offer the bounty hunter her hand. Belladonna wouldn’t have taken it. “You want some breakfast? Coffee?”
“No, thanks.”
“And this is Strad,” Jack said.
She gave each person a nod as Jack introduced them, but her stare always went back to him. Jack was as much a treat to look at as Belladonna.
“There are two more men in the crew who aren’t here at the moment,” Jack told her. “Will and Raze.”
“Raze ran off to the toilet,” Roma said. “He’s a big gray-eyed redhead, too.”
And it clicked into place. They all traded glances, and then glanced at the doorway through which Raze had fled.
He knew Belladonna. Not only knew her but was related to her. Rune was sure of it. But he didn’t want her to know he was there.
Jack looked at her, and she shook her head, just slightly. He adjusted his eye patch, then strode to the door, Belladonna at his side.
Roma hurried after them.
“Roma,” Rune called.
Jack, hearing something in her voice, stopped before he went out, waiting to see what she wanted.
Rune didn’t know what she wanted, exactly, but it was too soon after Roma’s capture for her to feel secure in letting the girl too far out of her sight. And she really didn’t know—or trust—Belladonna. The woman worked for the fucking Next.
The Next was anti-Other.
And Roma was Other.
Jack understood. “Don’t worry,” he said. And then, he reached out to ruffle Roma’s hair. “We’ll take care of each other.”
Roma punched him in the gut. “Like I’m a dog,” she said, her voice tight. “Or a kid.”
Jack grimaced, caressing his ribs. “Sorry, Roma.”
Belladonna looked on, her eyebrows high. She said nothing. Probably she knew better than to ruffle Roma’s feathers the way Jack had ruffled her hair.
The berserker pulled Rune to him as soon as Jack, Roma, and Belladonna were gone. “Call me if you hear the bones.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Where are you going?”
“I have some things to do, and I want to check on Will.”
Will and the berserker had a strange bromance thing going on after Will had led him from the portal, and Strad worried about Will in a subtly different way than he worried about the rest of the crew.
She kissed him goodbye, resisting the urge to tempt him into her bedroom for an hour or two before he left her.
Because no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, she always had a feeling that if he walked out the door, he wasn’t coming back.
She needed a distraction.
The door had barely closed behind Strad’s back before she turned to Levi and Denim. “Want to go have a talk with Raze?”
“More than just about anything,” Levi said, and laughing, they hurried from the kitchen to see about getting a glimpse into Raze’s mysterious past.
Chapter Eleven
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Raze growled, as they followed him through the house.
“Raze, there is a very large, very beautiful Next bounty hunter Jack and Roma are planning on fucking with today. I’d like to know her.”
“I don’t know her,” he said. “I didn’t even know she’d hired herself out to the Next.”
She and the twins followed him back to the kitchen. He sat down at the kitchen table, and they gathered around him, eyebrows raised.
“She’s your sister,” Levi said. “Isn’t she?”
Raze drummed his fingers on the table. “I left that family when I was seventeen years old. She was twelve. I don’t fucking know her.”
“Why’d you leave?” Denim asked.
“Is any of this your business?” Raze stood and stomped to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of beer, and leaned against the counter top, gulping it down. “She thinks I’m dead. Best she keeps thinking that.”
They continued staring at him, silent.
He grumbled for five minutes, then said, “I’ve watched her over the years. She’s not the helpless little girl I left. She’s dangerous. Jack should be careful. If she gets a hint he and Flynn are messing with her, it won’t be pretty. And she has the Next backing her up.”
“Jack and Roma can handle her,” Rune said, but she was uneasy.
“So,” Levi said. “What’s your real name, Raze?”
Raze glared and refused to answer.
“So?”
Denim held his hands up and widened his eyes. “So nothing.”
“Whatever your real name is,” Rune said, “it doesn’t matter.”
Rune’s phone dinged. “Text from Roma,” she said, squinting at the screen. Then she had to fight back a grin when she read the message.
Jack got her talking about her family. She had a brother, thinks he died. His name was Hercules. Fucking Hercules. Tell him I feel bad for him that his sister got all the looks, brains, and brawn in his family, and all he got was that stupid name. Hahahaha! Hercules!
“Everything good?” Denim asked.
“Yeah,” Rune said. “She’s just checking in.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Raze watching her suspiciously. She didn’t look at him. They might tease him a bit and be nosy as hell, but whatever had happened in his past was likely painful for him.
The door opened and Will walked in, sweaty and bloody.
There was a clatter as the crew jumped up, hands reaching for blades though no one followed the assassin in.
“What the fuck?” Rune asked.
“I’m good,” Will said. “I was drawn to the portal. Something came off it, and we fought.”
“Bones?” Levi asked.
Will shook his head. “Trouble.”
Rune narrowed her eyes. “What kind of trouble?”
He met her gaze unflinchingly. “The kind of trouble you don’t need. What else ever comes off the path?” He shrugged, then took the water Levi handed him. “Trouble from hell.”
“Did you kill it?” Denim folded his arms, his body stiff. There was something in his voice, and it took Rune a few seconds to realize that Lex was on the twins’ minds. Anytime the path was mentioned, a part of them hoped it might bring news of Lex.
Or Lex herself.
He was silent as he drank his water, but finally, he put the bottle down and shook his head. “No. But I knocked it back through the portal. If it returns, I’ll deal with it.” He hesitated. “Where’s Strad?”
“He went looking for you,” Rune told him. “And I get the feeling you’re both keeping something from me.” She walked to him, stood in his space, then waited silently until finally, he lowered his stare to hers. “You don’t want to keep shit from me, Assassin. Not if it’s something I need to know.”
He started to walk away, but she grabbed his wrist, refusing to let him. Something wasn’t quite right. She could feel it.
“What the fuck did you do?” she murmured.
He went as still as a vampire and blanked his eyes. “Trust that I want to keep you safe. I would give my life for you. You’re the only person I’ve ever known who…”
But he couldn’t say it aloud. He couldn’t say that she was the only person who’d ever cared about him. Who wouldn’t sacrifice him. Who wouldn’t trade him to save someone…better.
“Will,” she said gently. “I’m not the only one. You’re one of us. You’re Shiv Crew. We all love you.”
He recoiled, as though her soft words were somehow too painful, too harsh for him to bear. As though they hurt him.
He tore his arm from her grasp and hurried from the kitchen, and no one tried to stop him.
But their pity was huge.
They’d all had hard lives. But Will Blackthorn’s had been incomprehensible. He’d known nothing but pain from the moment of his birth. Those who should’ve taken care of him and loved him had only ever tortured him.
How could he accept love when it had been withheld from him his entire life?
Maybe he couldn’t.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true, and Rune was going to make sure he understood that.
“Raze,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“You up for a trip to Killing Land?”
He grabbed his keys and strode for the door. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.”
“And us?” Levi asked.
“The bones are looming,” Rune told him. “Be ready for those assholes. Call me if they appear before I get back.”
She sent a text to the berserker as she followed Raze from the kitchen. She was a little worried, a lot unsettled, and she didn’t like that he was out there somewhere without her.
What if Will had shoved Strad back into the portal?
But no. He held the berserker in high esteem. He would do anything he could to protect Strad. He wouldn’t hurt him.
“What are you thinking, Rune?” Raze asked, as he sped through the streets of the Moor.
She shook her head. “Remember when you said everything bad that was coming would hit us all at once?”
“Yeah. And something’s not right.”
“Something’s not right,” she agreed.
Her phone buzzed and she held it to her ear, relieved. “Berserker.”
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. You?”
“I’m on my way back. Will called me.”
She hesitated. “I’m heading to the portal with Raze.”
His voice roughened. “Don’t go to Killing Land.”
Her chest began to ache. “Why not?”
He hesitated. Then, “Because you’re mine.”
“Always,” she said, but her eyes pricked with tears. “Berserker. Tell me. Who did Will fight?”
“You know, don’t you?” It wasn’t really a question.
“He’s not one to give up,” she whispered.
She cut the connection and slid the phone back into her pocket, her emotions battering her brain. Her heart. “God,” she said.
“Rune,” Raze said. “What is it?”
She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t keep her bloody tears contained. “He’s back.”
“Who?”
“The cowboy,” she murmured. “Owen has come home.”
Chapter Twelve
Neither she nor Raze spoke again until they reached Killing Land.
Raze was full of pain—he’d lost Lex and every time he thought she might come back to him, he was disappointed.
One by one they trickled back off the path, and maybe he would never give up hoping she’d return. But it was different for Lex. In Skyll, Lex had her sight. She had her freedom.
Freedom, once gained, was impossible to relinquish.
Freedom would trump love, every fucking time.
Wouldn’t it?
Lex was meant for Skyll. The rest of them…
Not so much.
Owen had fought his way home. She could only imagine what he’d gone through to get there.
Then Will the Assassin had shoved him back into the portal. Had forced him back onto the unkind path.
And her fucking heart ached.
It seemed like it took a month to reach Killing Land.
The place was dead.
Rune and Shiv Crew had done as they’d promised and destroyed the land that had become their enemy. It was black and ashy, the houses were gone, and the stench of acrid smoke still hung in the air. Killing Land was a bad place. Now, it was a dead bad place.
But the portal remained.
They couldn’t burn that shit out.
She was glad they hadn’t, because if they’d closed the portal, Owen might have been stuck on the unkind path forever. He might have wandered forever.
Alone, searching…
Might still, now that Will had been waiting for him.
And she couldn’t stand the thought of that.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.
When had she become the one with the heart and Strad the cold one? He’d protected Owen in Skyll, when she would have left him blind and defenseless.
He’s the twisted berserker now.
“Raze,” she yelled, suddenly. “Stop!”
He slammed on the brakes and the truck skidded, whirled, and came within a few inches of smashing into a tree.
She was out of the truck before it stopped, running back toward the th
ing lying in the middle of the road, the thing Raze had nearly run over.
A battered, bloody, dusty cowboy boot.
“It’s his, isn’t it?” Raze asked, kneeling beside her as she crouched by the boot, afraid to touch it.
“Yeah. It’s his.”
“Lot of blood.”
“Fuck. Yes.”
“Rune…”
“I don’t know, Raze. I only know he’s one of us. And I’m not leaving him to the path, or to Will’s fear, or to the berserker’s…”
“Darkness?”
“Yeah. His twisted fucking darkness.” She put her knuckles to her lips, her heart as twisted as Strad’s, just in a different way. “I won’t let the path win.”
Raze gave a quick nod of agreement, then reached out to pluck the boot off the road. “I’ll clean this up. When we find him, you can give it back to him.”
She gave a harsh sob. “We’re Shiv Crew. We don’t desert our people.”
“Fuck no, we don’t.” He stood, then leaned over to wrap his hand around her arm and yank her to her feet. “Let’s go fight the path for Owen Five.”
She wondered if she’d find a cowboy hat, as well.
She didn’t, but fuck it.
She’d buy him a new one.
Raze put the boot in his truck, grabbed some supplies—rope, water, small ax—and they continued on to the portal by foot. It wasn’t far, and it wasn’t an area they could drive to. Rune’s stomach was so tight it hurt. She stopped to take a couple of deep breaths, but she was full of dread and fear and deep-breathing wasn’t going to chase it away.
She might find Owen. She might not find Owen.
Both scenarios were equally terrifying.
“Strad’s afraid of losing you,” Raze murmured, as they neared the portal.
“He isn’t the same.”
“It’ll take some time.”
“Yeah.”
Before the path, Strad would have been right there with them, attempting to save Owen. The berserker and the cowboy had always been uneasy together, but they had an undeniable connection. They’d had a bond.
And they both loved Rune.
Raze cleared his throat. “Will he lose you, Rune?”
They stopped walking and stared at the two trees, unable to see the portal, but feeling it like a weight in their souls.
