“You could have told me,” Jordan raged.
Killian shook his head. “If anyone came to me and told me they were going to use Catherine in that way, I would have killed them before I allowed it. You would have never let it happen.”
No, he wouldn’t have.
Jordan was smart enough to admit that to himself. He would have run with her. He would have hidden with her. He would have never allowed her past to touch her in this way if he had been forewarned.
“I could kill you for not coming to me, Killian,” he rasped as he pushed closer, feeling that need for violence ripping through him. “And I wouldn’t feel any guilt. I wouldn’t feel a moment’s fucking regret. Do you know that?”
“Jordan…” Killian spoke softly, warningly.
“My fucking woman,” he snarled, the fury snapping through his mind. “She was mine and you knew she was mine.”
Killian’s brow arched, some gleam of unholy amusement in them searing the fury only growing inside Jordan now.
“You weren’t claiming her,” Killian reminded him. “You let her go. Maybe, if she was your woman, you should have given a man a clue so he’d know how to proceed.”
“I told you and every other man that came around her to stay the fuck away. I warned, I threatened, and when I had to I intimidated, so don’t fucking tell me I didn’t claim her.”
“You never said you loved her,” Killian pointed out.
Jordan’s lips parted, the stunned at the accusation that came from Killian’s lips.
God, he did love her, he realized. There was no fucking illusion, there were no attempts to deny it any longer. He’d stopped denying it the second his brain had processed the information that Tehya had been taken.
“I shouldn’t have had to say shit,” Jordan snapped. “By God, you should have known.”
“And perhaps you should have said something.”
Jordan froze.
His gaze jerked to Killian’s and found smug satisfaction quirking at his lips. An amusement tinged with a haunted pain, a memory of what he himself had lost.
He turned slowly.
The shoulder of her dress was ripped. It was dirty, streaked with dirt and smoke, tattered at the edges. She was barefoot, her stockings shredded, and her hair was in disarray around her shoulders.
And still, she was the most gorgeous creature he’d ever laid his eyes on.
“Perhaps someone should have enlightened me when I started making a fool of myself denying it,” he told her softly.
Her face was tear-stained, pale, and her gaze was still bright with unshed tears and pain.
Moving to her, he reached up, his thumb smoothing across the tears only to find others taking their place.
“Jordan,” she whispered, her lips trembling as he slowly pulled her into his arms, a wave of agony sweeping over him at the thought he could have lost her.
“I hav
e you, baby.” His arms tightened around her. “Right here, I have you.”
“It hurts.” Her breathing hitched as her hands suddenly clutched at his back. “Don’t let me go. Please. Please don’t let me go.”
Let her go? He’d tear his own heart out of his chest before he even considered such a villainous act.
“Come on, baby.” He picked her up and carried her to the waiting car that Nik had driven in. “Let’s go home.”
Where he could hold her. Where he could hopefully help ease just a small part of the horror she was feeling.