The Reckless Reign (Book 3, The Culled Crown Series)

Chapter 71

I told myself that this was what we needed to do. That this was what was necessary. Vital. Right now, right now Jax was beyond those glass doors readying his men. They had guns aimed at the backs of those soldiers.

But those soldiers had guns aimed at us and there were more of them than we'd initially thought. At least fifty. Varying weaponry, their expressions a mix of grim satisfaction and shifting anxiety.

With that gun pressed to my skull, the room seemed to still. Caine stood near the back of the ballroom, his hand wrapped in Nadia's hair, his knife pressed to her neck. Cohen was now on his knees, a gun pressed to his head too.

I tasted blood as I was hauled to my feet and shoved from hand to hand. Kai's gaze tracked me as I was passed from one soldier to the next, guns digging into my flesh, knives nicking my skin, until I was thrown onto the floor in font of Caine.

How much time had passed? Enough?

I moved to stand, but just as I'd pushed up from the ground, Caine's boot collided with my head. Pain exploded behind my eyelids and I slumped back onto my hands and knees.  From behind me, Kai made a sound at the back of his throat.

Cohen knelt a few feet away from me. He was looking behind me at his half-brother, his face unreadable. Directly in front of me, Nadia's boots scrapped against the shining tile as she struggled to get away from Caine's knife. The world was a piece of badly woven cloth, quickly unraveling.

I fought for a spark, for any small piece of myself that might catch and burn. Even the voices, always a dull whisper before, were silent now. Waiting. Watching. I tried to reach out, trying to pry that swirling darkness away from where it clung, weak and trembling, against my spine. I needed it. I needed to burn. I needed to be...to be...

Caine's voice broke through the swirling terror in my mind. Speaking to Kai. He was speaking to Kai. Kai—my Kai—who stood just behind me with a gun pointed at his uncle. Ready to shoot. I knew without looking that every soldier in the room had their weapon trained on him. If he shot at Caine, they'd shoot him. He'd die.

Wait, I silently begged. Give Jax time.

Caine said, "You will lower that gun. Now."

Kai's voice was steady. "Let Nadia go."

Caine paused and I lifted myself up onto my hands and knees, peering up at him. Those steely eyes flicked to me, the corner of his mouth twitching up as he crooned, "You'd rather me hold Monroe this close?"

"Let Nadia go."

"Not an answer..." Caine tsked. "But very well, I'd rather have my hands on her anyway. More flies with honey, as they say. You listened best when she was my pet."

A chill raced up my spine at his words and I pushed myself up, spurred onward by the need to get as far from Mirren Caine as I could. I made it to my feet, my legs trembling and my head spinning, just as a guard stepped forward and took Nadia from Caine. She fought him, kicking and spitting and biting at the man, a wild animal determined to get free, but the dig of a knife at her neck was enough to quiet her.

In the seconds their attention was on my friend, I made my move towards Kai. But my body was achingly slow. Too slow. Each movement sluggish from pain. The room spun. My vision seemed to flicker. A sweat slick hand caught my arm from behind and fingers closed in my hair as I was pulled backward until I was flush against Caine's chest.

I must have made some sort of frightened sound, because Caine laughed, the sound of it rumbling through me. My lungs wouldn't full expand. I was panting for air, my body shaking as I tried to steady myself, ground myself. Time. We needed time.