Keep Me (Broken Heroes 3)

“Tell me who the fucking traitor is and I might kill you with a bullet to the head instead of leaving you to my men to finish off.”

The guy doesn’t seem to care about what I’ve said, and I can’t contain my anger over his silence a second longer. Pulling my fist back, I uppercut him, sending him swaying backward on his chair. Then I cross the space between us and press my foot to his throat.

“I have no fucking patience for your games. I am not my father and I will fucking crush your windpipe without thought if you do not tell me what I want to fucking hear,” I roar, pressing more firmly against his throat.

The fucker smiles through bloody teeth, a gurgle fills his throat, and I relish in the sound. I want to kill him so badly it’s all I can see or feel, but I rein in the need, telling myself soon, so very soon. I pull away, letting air enter his lungs.

“Of course, you’re not like your father,” he wheezes. “He’d never let some girl run away with his heart.”

I grind my teeth together. Of course, he knows about Mouse. He was sent here by my father.

“Tell me what you know,” I grit out, pulling my gun from my holster.

The man’s face darkens. “It is her. The girl you care for so much. The one who’s run away with your heart. She is your traitor… she was our insider… she is the reason we know about your son. She is the one who opened the door for me so I could come inside without anyone knowing.”

The world around me stops. Everything stands still. My heart cramps inside my chest. I can’t breathe… I can’t see. Everything around me darkens for a moment. I feel like I’ve fallen off the deep end and into dark stormy waters.

For I moment, I can’t feel anything. I’m completely numb. This can’t be real. He is lying. There is no way… A million images fill my mind, floating around my head like puzzle pieces I’m desperately trying to connect.

Could it be true? Could I have been so stupid, so careless? I did find her at my father’s house… Is it possible she’s been playing me this whole time? Waiting for me to let her inside my heart. The guards said they saw her downstairs just before… Why didn’t she scream? My men told me they only heard the nanny scream for help. Mouse never called out for help. She never did anything…

I want to take the gun in my hands and place it to my own head. I want to shoot myself because hurting her will be just like hurting myself.

I shake my head. No, no, not Mouse…

The numbness starts to fade… Then, like a tidal wave, everything comes crashing into me at once. Betrayal, hurt, and an unbelievable anger. A deep fiery rage burns through my veins. It consumes every inch of me.

I place the barrel of my gun to the man’s head and pull the trigger. His brains splatter across the wall and floor behind him, his eyes going vacant with death in an instant. I feel nothing… nothing at all.

I turn to Aston. “Go and get the girl. Bring her to me here.” I squeeze my eyes closed, wishing this was nothing more than a nightmare. Wishing I didn’t have to snuff the light out of her. Everything I’ve done in the last month was to protect her… to protect our future, and then she does this.

She betrays me just like the last woman in my life, Q’s mother and my own mother the time before that… She’s nothing. Nothing but a fucking hole for me to use and that’s if I even want her by the time I get done with her.

I snarl, hearing her voice enter the corridor… she’s fragile, so fucking breakable, and I’m going to enjoy breaking her… making her feel the same pain I do right at this very moment.

My little mouse has finally been caught in a trap… and this one she won’t have anyone to help her escape from.

She steps into the room, her face white as a ghost. Her steps are timid and scared. Her hand comes up to her mouth as if she is trying not to puke taking in the scene presented to her.

“Xan—”

“Shut up!” I cut her off. She takes a step backward and looks up at me, her eyes impossibly wide. “I fucking trusted you… I fucking trusted you with my son. Everything I did the last month for you. I found your sister. Paid five million fucking dollars for you so that you wouldn’t get raped and taken by some bastard, and the whole fucking time, you were playing me?”

She starts shaking her head as if she’s going to say no but I’m already on her. My hand wraps around her small fragile throat. I feel her knees buckle, her body thrashing in my hold. I kick her feet out from underneath her and push her to the floor with my hand still at her throat.