Chapter 1
Carter
It’s been a long time since someone has dared try to kill me in my own home.
Even longer since someone has pointed a gun at me and lived to tell the tale.
I can barely hear a damn thing due to the ringing in my ears. I’ve waited for this moment, but this isn’t how I thought it would go.
She loves me, I remind myself. She fucking loves me. I know she does.
Aria’s face is flushed, and her hand trembles as she fights to hold the gun steady.
I take one step toward her and she cocks it. The click fills the room. Whatever remaining semblance of a heart I had shatters in my chest, the small shards shooting waves of pain through my body.
The sick grin on my face wanes even as I struggle to hold it in place, focusing on those gorgeous hazel eyes. Eyes that drew me to her, that begged me for mercy, that made me feel more than I’ve felt in years.
Eyes that fooled me.
“Drop your guns,” Aria demands, her voice shaky but clear and loud regardless. It’s fucking insane that in this moment she strikes me as utterly gorgeous. In her strength, she’s at her most beautiful.
“Drop them!” she calls out more strongly and the gun wavers. It’s obvious she’s never held one before, or at the very least, never fired one.
Yet, she’s pointing it at me. It could go off accidentally, killing me. Would she regret it? I question and feel a strong tug in my chest. A well of emotion threatens to break my composure. Every inch of skin is numb as I stare at the barrel, feeling everything crumble around me.
In front of the enemy.
In front of my brothers.
In front of her.
“Carter?” I hear Jase without seeing him, asking if they’re to listen to her or not.
Two of my brothers, Jase and Declan, are behind me with guns pointed at three men kneeling on the floor. Two of them are her cousins, and the third man is her former lover and friend. The name she prayed to while in the cell, the one name I’m tired of hearing her speak, belongs to him.
All three are men who wanted to kill us only moments ago. Men that Aria is protecting, and willing to kill me to save.
Those fucking shards dig deeper into whatever wound they’ve gouged in my chest.
Swallowing the knot in my throat along with the distress I’m feeling, I answer Jase although I don’t take my gaze from Aria. “Drop them.” Instantly, relief shows on Aria’s face, and she even relaxes her grip on the gun until I add, “But don’t let those fuckers have them. No one holds a gun,” I swallow thickly and add, forcing a smirk to my face, “but Aria.”
The control is still in my demand. They’ll listen to me, everyone who’s worth a damn in this room will… but as time passes, I can feel it slipping away. I can only imagine what her family thinks, but it’s what my brothers are seeing that fucking shreds me. They know I love her.
And now they’re watching her betray all of us.
“Let them go,” Aria commands in a weaker tone, one filled with a plea. Visibly swallowing, she finally breaks my gaze to look at them. Her startled, sharp intake of breath at what she sees destroys me. Her mercy and compassion for them are sickening.
They came to kill me. She fucking knows that.
She might kill me yet.
I loved her. I know I loved her, and that was my first mistake.
Anger rises and rings in my blood. My sanity finally comes back to me, hardening me and reminding me of who I am and everything I’ve worked for.
It’s all going to crumble. All because of her.
I would have done anything for her.
“Let’s go.” I hear Nikolai’s voice, low and riddled with pain. The blood is still bright red from the split on his lip and a bruise has already formed on his face. My knuckles turn white as my fist tightens. All I need is one moment to take out every bit of my aggression on him. I want to break his jaw for daring to speak those words to my Aria.
I’ve never felt rage like I do now as he reaches for her like he can take her away from me.
Because he can.
Because she’s willing.
“Go,” she says, and Aria’s voice is strong as she glances at him. Again, the gun is slack in her grip. She doesn’t seem to notice how loose the gun is in her hands. I could take it; I could chance it. But it would risk putting her in danger, and my gaze falls at the thought.
“Now,” one of her cousins hiss, tugging on Nikolai’s arm. The shirt tightens around his neck as the fabric is pulled. Peeking at him from my periphery, I’m disgusted, as is Nikolai, judging by his expression.