Bound to Cruelty

Emmanuelle sighs heavily and settles in the seat. “You know he wouldn’t want you there. Taking you back is tantamount to killing you, and if that happened, I’d be next on the list of several people.”

I leave the door and face him. “I can take care of myself. Take me back.” I lace my tone with all the years I’ve been practicing at playing bitch queen.

He tilts his head, the look in his eyes asking, Really? “We are going back to your house so we can regroup and figure out a plan. An effective and safe plan to free Michail. I’m sure he’ll be much better off if his friends and allies don’t get murdered in his rescue attempt.”

I throw myself back into the leather, crossing my arms. He rubs at the scratch marks on his hands and wrists, and I don’t feel a single wisp of guilt. He deserved it. Just another man thinking he knows what’s best for me.

We make it to my house in record time. The second the door opens, I’m ready to pop out, find a cab, and go back. But there’s a guard twice Emmanuelle’s size waiting to scoop me up and carry me in the townhouse.

He sets me on the hardwood floor of the foyer, and I shove him back when he releases his hands. “Don’t you dare touch me again.”

Emmanuelle enters behind him and sends his guards outside with a nod. “Stop acting like a child and think for a moment, and no one will have to put their hands on you.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him off again, but he’s right. I’m being too emotional about this. Too attached. It’s an easy way to get killed, or worse, Michail killed.

I head up the stairs, already stripping the stupid dress off my body. Emmanuelle follows but keeps his eyes averted as I enter my room in nothing but my underwear. He waits in the hall while I grab black leather pants, a t-shirt, and a jacket. Not my typical attire, but better than that damn cupcake dress I’d been wearing.

In the bathroom, I mop up my face with a makeup wipe and gather my hair into a messy bun. Again, not typical of my look, but all I need is the mess out of my face for now.

I find Emmanuelle standing in the hallway with his tuxedo jacket over his arm. “We should sit down and think about this.”

No. He can sit and think about this. I’m arming myself, finding back up, and saving my man. And there is not a single person in the world brave enough to challenge me on that title right now. I nudge by him, shoulder checking on the way to the hallway closet, which doubles as my mini arsenal. My sister Julia set it up for when she’s in town on a hunt. She won’t mind one bit if I borrow some of her firepower to take out the usurper to our family seat.

But it’s not about the council anymore. She made it personal when she took Michail. This is about how much of her brains I can blast all over the wall when I get to her.

My phone rings from somewhere, but I ignore it as I strap a knife to my boot and slip my arms into a holster.

Emmanuelle taps on my shoulder with the device and lets it slide over into my palm. It’s an unknown number, so it might be anyone.

I hit the button. “Hello?”

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Kai’s voice is harsh and muffled. A wrathful whisper.

I grit my teeth and dig through a bin of switchblades for my other boot. “Right now, I’m getting ready to storm our event space to get Michail back. Why, what are you doing?”

“Trying to make sure he gets out of there alive. No thanks to you.”

I freeze, my hand on the stock of a sawed-off shotgun. “What do you know? How do you know? It just happened, and you weren’t even there.”

Again, he whispers into the phone, shooting static into my eardrums. “You don’t need to concern yourself with it. I’ve been tracking all of your old council’s movements, and tonight one popped on my radar.”

“Margery?”

“Margery,” he agrees. “But you need to stand down and let me deal with this.”

I don’t bother trying to keep my tone neutral. Not now, it’s too late to go back. “We can’t leave him there. She’s twisted, insane, and I have no idea what she’ll do to him the longer she has him.” I swallow back a wave of nausea. “If she does what I assume she wants, then he won’t make it back to me. He’ll be broken in a way he doesn’t even know yet.”

There’s a long pause, and I remember what others had said about Kai’s own time in captivity. “I know firsthand what she could do to him. Trust me. I won’t let my brother face something like that.”