Burned Hearts (Burned 3)

“But the snakes…,” I muttered.

I was sure my rapidly beating pulse wasn’t good for my current condition, yet I couldn’t slow it or pull in a full breath. Fear slithered through my veins. This was not a scenario I’d ever anticipated any of us finding ourselves in.

“Kyle, move over there with them,” Tom instructed.

“No!” I cried out. “Leave him out of this! Let him go—please!”

“Shut up, Ari,” Kyle grumbled. “As if I’d walk away.” He joined us and swiftly pushed me backward, behind him, so I had a double layer of protection.

Tears stung my eyes—not just because of the massive scare factor of knowing that ominous red dot was now on my husband’s forehead and that Kyle was in equal danger, but also because I was monumentally pissed off at how Tom had turned on all of us.

“If Vale is dead,” I managed to say, “then who put the snakes on the patio?”

“I don’t know,” Tom told us. “Someone from the society network. I left the gate open while you were all out last night and turned a blind eye.”

“You son of a bitch,” Dane said.

“I had to do as instructed.”

“But there’s no Lux!” I shouted, the anger getting the best of me. “It’s over. It’s all over!”

“No,” Dane reasoned. “Because Tom here has compromised the entire society network by telling them I’m still alive. Right?”

“I haven’t told anyone anything. Only took the directive and said I’d eliminate Ari.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I contended, trying to see around the two brick walls protecting me. “If there’s no hotel, what is the point in continuing this attack on us?”

“It’s the principle of the matter,” Dane explained. “They destroyed the Lux as a last resort. The ultimate statement. But they didn’t get the checkmate they sought, because I’m the one who produced all the evidence for the indictments. That’ll be confirmed for them today, thanks to Tom. And if he doesn’t take my queen in this living, breathing game of chess, he’s a dead man. Aren’t you, Tom?”

“I’m glad you understand. This isn’t what I want,” the security guard said. “But I have to do what’s required of me.”

“Problem is,” Dane countered, “I’m the knight protecting the key component of your strategy—and you’re not getting to her.”

“I don’t want to shoot you, Dane. But have no doubt—I will. In the leg or the shoulder. Whatever it takes to get you out of the way. Kyle, too. Ari’s the mark.”

I swallowed hard, understanding the motivation here was to cripple Dane for his involvement. Not physically, but emotionally. By taking his family out. Right before his very eyes.

I’d had enough exposure to the shady side of the secret society to accept that those who’d crossed the line did so with the full intention of going all the way to get what they wanted. Empires and legacies were at stake. And even those who were simply the soldiers within the network had so much to lose or gain, so much to shelter, that they’d allow themselves to be manipulated—as Tom had—just to get their piece of the pie.

It was sickening. Chillingly frightening. But not exactly a new world order. It was a different kind of gangster warfare—the billionaires’ mafia.

“This isn’t in your nature,” Dane told Tom. “If it were, you would have taken the shot when you had it. But you hesitated, giving me the chance to intervene. So put your weapon down and we’ll work this out. Otherwise … You realize you won’t take another breath if anything happens to Ari and my child.”

His menacing tone made my heart thunder and my insides seize up. I knew how deadly this could get when it came to any threat against me. With our baby involved—and even Kyle—that would make Dane even more determined to win this game. By any means necessary.

“Dane,” I nervously whispered. “This is out of hand again.”

“Actually, it’s all coming together.”

“What?” I couldn’t see around Kyle’s sturdy frame and that frustrated me.

Dane said, “You only get one shot, Tom.”

“You’re not going to be able to stop me, Dane.”

“Be glad.”

I heard Amano’s voice across the room, in the direc