I cut myself off and fall back in the seat, not letting that thought plant itself in my brain. The hardness that was in Oren’s face softens as he looks at me with pity. Loss is all I’ve known in this world, and I’ve only known peace with Malia in my arms. The reality of this messed up cycle repeating itself hits me like a boulder to the chest as it begins to take root.
My chest tightens as the gates open and the car lurches forward up the driveway. I roll down my window, trying to breathe in the fresh air to clear away the fear trying to take hold of my fucked up brain. The car suddenly feels too small, and Oren frowns at me.
“What?” I snap.
“You’re going to have to spill blood, Li,” Oren says while crossing his arms tight against his chest. “This life isn’t a peaceful vacation in the woods.”
“This life was always meant to be mine.”
I swipe a hand down my face as the mansion comes into view.
“It was kept from me.Maliawas kept from me. I’ll drain every motherfucker on this planet to get her back without batting an eye. I’ve already killed for her, and I don’t regret it.”
I smirk when Oren raises an eyebrow.
“May God have mercy on any fuckwit who stands between my girl and me, ’cause I sure as shit won’t.”
Oren smiles at me with all his teeth. “God turned his back on us a long time ago. But He might just peek over His shoulder with the amount of praying Martinez will be doing when Nate gets hold of him.”
My head snaps back and I narrow my glare on him. “Let me make myself very clear. After everything Martinez has taken from me, his head is mine.”
4
Liam
It’sbeenatleastan hour since I arrived at the Olin home. Their personal doctor pokes and prods while she does whatever she deems necessary to let me get on with the hunt. I’ve yet to see The Omen. Oren hasn’t left my side, despite me telling him to fuck off who knows how many times. He looms in the corner of the room, most likely to make sure I don’t do something to hurt myself even more.
“Is he going to live?” The Omen says, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed tight against his chest.
His words are light, but I can see the tension in his eyes. Even so, his relaxed posture lights a fire in my veins. No one is taking this seriously enough for me. We should be ripping through buildings and ripping off heads by now.
“He had already started treatment, so he was ahead of what needed to be done. The concussion was nothing to take lightly, though, and will need to be monitored for a couple weeks,” the doctor tells him.
She introduced herself to me when I got here, ready and waiting for my arrival, but I have no idea if she told me her name. I can’t be fucked to give a damn about making nice with people who can’t help get my girl home.
“Thank you, Delaney. You can go,” The Omen dismisses the doctor and she turns to him and frowns.
“But I haven’t cleared him yet,” she insists.
I snort my response. She’s lucky I’m too dizzy to put up much of a fight or we wouldn’t be having such a smooth checkup. I’d likely be taking sledgehammers to walls if I could stand straight, just to get people moving.
“I have. Leave,” The Omen says while straightening, his voice low in warning, leaving no room for argument.
Delaney, as he called her, raises her chin and puts down the clipboard she’d been holding, beelining out of the room. The Omen watches her leave, shutting the door behind her.
“Nice of you to show up,” I grunt, rubbing the tension from my temples.
“I had calls to make to get people on the lookout. Go through everything with me.”
Blowing out a breath, I drop my hand, meeting the eyes of the man I’ve always thought of as my enemy. My late father’s best friend, my girl’s father… my godfather. The familiarity of his green eyes, his daughter’s eyes, tightens my chest. Worry works its way back through me with the thought that I might never again see those eyes in her face, only in his.
“We were in the woods, then we went our separate ways—“
“Do not leave out any details, Liam,” The Omen interrupts.
I smile at him without mirth, knowing that not glossing over the details might make him change his mind about needing a play-by-play.
“Fine,” I say. “I fucked your daughter into the frozen ground and, when we were both satisfied, Malia went to her makeshift gun range and I went to build us a fire in the cabin. We had been out there a while and it was cold.”