Heartless Savage (Angels Halo MC Next Gen 7)

“I told you I didn’t kill him,” Bain muttered in his Irish brogue, his voice laced with annoyance. “The idiot shouldn’t have gotten in my way. I wouldn’t have had to shoot him if he had just let me have you.”

“Shut up!” she snapped, slapping her hands against his chest. “Just shut up.”

With a predatory grin, Bain captured both of her hands and held them behind her back. “We’ve already had this conversation, a chroí. Sheathe those claws before your beloved cousin thinks you don’t want to be here.”

Ciana went still in his arms. I couldn’t see anything except the side of her face, but I could feel her tension, the hate she felt for him. As she turned to face me, she struggled to mask her feelings, but I knew her too well and could tell she wasn’t happy.

“Has he hurt you?” I asked her, keeping my tone neutral so as not to scare her with my simmering rage.

Bain drew himself up, offended by my question. “I would never harm her.”

“Bullshit,” I thought Ciana muttered, but when I looked at her, her face was completely blank. “He hasn’t physically hurt me in any shape or form,” she assured me. “Ryan, I-I’ve decided to stay here. After what happened to Nova…” Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t stop them from falling. “I keep seeing her, Ry. Lying on that table… I can hear Sheena cackling like a hyena as she did those horrible, horrible things. I can’t sleep because of it.”

I understood her being unable to sleep. I hadn’t been able to rest since we’d found them in that cabin. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Nova on that table. The blood, so stark against her pretty white romper. My necklace around her neck…

Bain lovingly wrapped Ciana in his embrace, pressing his lips to her temple and whispering to her that it was okay now. That there was nothing left to fear, and she actually clung to him.

“You want to stay here?” I demanded in disbelief. “Ciana, he’s just as bad as Sheena. He—”

“Ryan, please.” Ciana’s voice quavered as she focused on me. “I want to be here. It’s better for everyone.”

“Who is it better for?” I yelled, losing control of my frustration. I took a step toward her, wanting to grab her and shake some sense into her, but the two guards who had accompanied me each grabbed one of my arms, locking me in place.

“For me,” she said and shuddered. “And for the babies.”

“My babies,” Bain cut in, pride and possession dripping from his voice. There was some other emotion mixed in, but I was too pissed off to give it a name. “Ciana and I will raise our children here. Where they will be safe.”

I tried to shrug off the guards, but they only tightened their holds. “How the fuck do you think any of them will be safe here? Sheena won’t allow anyone I care about to have a moment of peace. She won’t rest until she’s driven me just as crazy as she is.”

“I doubt she will bother you or my Ciana ever again,” Bain said with confidence. Tucking her closer, he gave a nod to someone off to his right, and a man came out of the house, a large box in his hands. It was a simple black hatbox with a red ribbon tied around it. “This is my gift to you, Vitucci. One I hope will give you some of the peace our great-grandmother stole from you. Consider it an olive branch, if you will.”

“I don’t want shit from you,” I snarled. “Let Ciana go. Allow her to come with me, and there won’t be a war.”

“Ryan, please,” Ciana begged. “Take the gift and go home.”

“Not without you.” I couldn’t go back without her. If I walked through that gate alone, blood would be shed.

“You have to.” I frowned at the way her voice broke, but she went on before I could question it. “I’m where I want to be. I-I love Bain. He’s the father of my babies, and we’re going to get married. I know my parents won’t understand, but I hoped you would. Even though Nova…is gone.” Fresh tears spilled down her beautiful face. “You still loved her more than anything or anyone else. Well, that’s how I feel about Bain.”

I tried not to flinch at the sound of Nova’s name, at the memories of loving her for the majority of my life, at the horrific way I’d lost her. I couldn’t think about any of that, not when Ciana was standing in front of me with my enemy at her side. “None of this makes sense, Ciana. For fuck’s sake, how did you even meet him?”

She grimaced. “It’s a long story. But we met while I was on vacation. We fell in love, but there was a huge misunderstanding, and I came home convinced I would never see him again. Then I found out I was pregnant…” She shrugged. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. If I could go back and do it over again, I would have told you everything. But I can’t. Now, all either of us can do is move forward.”

“You knew who he was?” I repeated, a feeling of betrayal hitting me dead center. “Ciana, if you knew who he was, then you knew who he was related to. I’ve told you how much Sheena hates me and our family. You knew what my mother did to me, but the old woman still blamed me for what happened. How could you trust anyone from that family? Fuck, how could you put not only yourself in danger, but Nova?” I’d tried so hard the last five days to hold on, to not give in to the pain of losing the other half of myself. And now to find out that someone I trusted with Nova’s life had been the one to put her in danger… It was too much to take in. “If you had told me they had gotten so close to you, I could have protected you both better. I never would have let Nova out of my sight!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Her sobs only pissed me off more because it hurt to hear her pain. She wasn’t just my cousin. She was one of my closest friends, second only to Nova. I would have given my own life for hers without hesitation, and yet she hadn’t even warned me about the danger she’d lured right to our front door.

“You might as well have handed Nova over to Sheena yourself.”

“Stop,” she pleaded, sagging against Bain as if she had no strength left. “Ryan, I’m sorry. I know I messed up. I can never tell you how sorry I am. I didn’t know how to—”

“You helped them take her from me,” I seethed and saw her flinch as if I’d physically slapped her. “You have no right to cry for her when you’re just as responsible for her death as they are.”

“Enough!” Bain bellowed, holding a sobbing Ciana to him like she was the most precious thing in the world. The sight gave me pause, made me wonder if maybe this man everyone who had ever met him claimed was a heartless monster might actually possess a heart after all. “You will not speak to her like that. She knows she made a mistake. Do not torment her more.”

Seeing how destroyed my cousin was over her own guilt, I forced myself to dig deep, trying to find a way to turn off the hate and anger and bone-crushing agony of Ciana’s betrayal and the loss of Nova. One by one, I turned off my emotions, knowing if I didn’t, I would only end up hurting Ciana more. As much as I hated her for betraying me—betraying Nova—I still loved her. I was her honorary twin, her protector, her friend.