“Cara?” I call, peering into the dim hallway and raising the handgun to chest height.
No guards. No Cara. No Archer. What the fuck!?
“Cara?” I call again, taking a step into the house. Then another. Just as I reach for the hall light switch, the sound of wood scraping tile catches my ear to the left, towards the lounge and every nerve in my body bounces to life, sticky heat sweeping down my spine.
“Cara!”
Two steps towards the lounge and something solid wacks me over the back of the head. Pain explodes through my skull, sharp and loud for a few incredible seconds, and a familiar scream cuts through my thoughts.
Cara is my last thought as darkness envelopes me and the floor rises to meet me.
31
KILLIAN
Warmth wakes me. Sticky and uncomfortable on the side of my head. Warmth that grows into a tender throb on my left temple and unable to stop it, a low groan slips past my lips.
What… the fuck….
Sensation trickles to me slowly and after a beat, moving my head slightly alerts me to the fluff tickling my cheek.
There’s no fluff in the hall.
It clicks a second later than I’m face down on the rug in the lounge and pain blooms louder with every second that I’m awake. Someone hit me. Attacked me in my own home.
Cara!
The thought of my wife pulls me sharply from my grogginess and I bolt upright, which I instantly regret when my head swims and my stomach clenches with slight nausea. The lounge is no longer cloaked in darkness, illuminated by lamps and as the milkiness melts from my vision, the first anomaly is Cara.
She’s in front of me, a few feet away seated on one of the hardwood chairs from the study we never use. My lips part, anger sparking inside my chest as I attempt to form words when Blair catches my eye. She’s tied up right next to my wife and in the same predicament.
Only Blair’s clearly been crying fordaysjudging by the swollen red flush of her face and the color bleeding from her lips. Tears cling to Cara’s lashes, her eyes wide and fearful, and the cause? Multiple men stationed in my living room armed with assault rifles. Men that aren’t mine. Her ankles are bound to the chair legs and her arms pulled behind her, likely also bound judging by the taughtness of her shoulders and the jut of her collar bone. The sight of her, scared but strong draws me right back to when she was held captive by the Russians.
I had sworn such a thing wouldneverhappen again.
I’ve failed her.
“What—” The word catches in my throat, drawing up an aggressive cough that sends pain pulsing through my skull and as I climb to my feet, I gingerly touch my fingertips to my temple. They come away sticky and warm, coated in crimson.
Fuck.
My apparent awake state does nothing to sway the stoic statues around the living room and I straighten up, wary of any movement triggering some rule or law I know nothing about. Cara watches me like a hawk, her eyes shining as she pointedly glances past me to the other side of the couch.
I follow her gaze and my heart seizes in my chest for a moment. Archer lies unconscious not far from me, his right arm stained deep crimson from a bullet wound I can see in his shirt. His face is bloody and bruised from an attack and his left arm rests at an awkward angle, pulled crooked to where his wrists are bound with tape.
He took a bullet, and more to try and save my wife.
I’m going to kill them. Every fucking one of them.
I turn back to Cara as liquid rage feeds through my limbs, tensing every muscle to rock in my body. When our gazes meet, I try and pour as much love and reassurance into the look as I can, and while Cara gives me a small, subtle nod, Blair sobs suddenly and pulls my focus to a revelation.
Blair isalive. She’s alive and she’s here?
The question forms but Cara, bold as ever, offers up the answer before I can ask it.
“She’s alive,” Cara bites out bitterly, sarcasm dripping through her words. Her words send a jolt of fear through me in case words could be taken as disobedience but none of the guards in the room react. The terror in my heart calms just slightly at the sound of her voice.
“How?” I bark out and Blair sobs, her head tipping forward as her shoulders tremble.