And just like a hyena, I was sure he was the kinda animal that ate all the way through the bones of his victims.
“I’m here to have a little chat or should I say, facilitate one,” he continued, claspin’ his hands behind his back like a businessman at a meetin’. “You see, the Staff Sergeant doesn’t take kindly to you harbourin’ his wife.”
“She’s stayin’ with us of her own volition.”
“Then why isn’t she here tonight?”
“She has Alzheimer’s,” Lion stepped up to growl. “It wasn’t a good day for her.”
“Not a good day, not a good day…hmm. Well, I think it’s safe to say it won’t be a good day for you lot if you don’t come with me and have that little chat.”
“Like hell,” Bat snapped from behind Javier.
“Really, gentlemen, it’s obvious I’ve caught you at a real disadvantage.” Javier gestured widely to the dozens of his men holdin’ the party up at gunpoint. “I don’t think you have much of a choice in the matter. Let’s not ruin this joyous day with bloodshed, hmm?”
My mind raced, tryin’ to find a solution to the problem. No, not a solution, nothin’ so cut and dry. I had to think the way Machiavelli would, like a fox to outwit the trap and a lion to scare the hyenas circlin’ my pack.
And I knew what to do like Satan himself had sent the serpent to whisper in my ear.
I jerked my chin up at Javier. “Fine. You wanna talk, we’ll talk, but you leave now and I’ll meet you at a neutral location.”
“What’s to say you don’t show up?” he asked, clickin’ his tongue like I was some naughty boy. “No, I think I’ll escort you there myself, but I have no problem with you picking the spot.”
“He’s not going alone,” Cress said, stepping around me and beside me. “I’m going with him.”
“Like hell you are,” I muttered, tuggin’ her into me and leanin’ down to press my forehead to the side of her head. “Babe, can’t think straight when you’re in danger. Don’t ask me to take you.”
“I’m your Queen,” she protested. “I belong where you go.”
“We each got our own battles to fight here. Need you to stay back and be strong, keep everyone calm like you do. Can you do that for me? Be strong until I get back?”
Only, I had this weight in my stomach, some heavy with hooks sunk deep in the walls of my gut, that I might not get back at all.
Cress seemed to sense my anxiety and turned fully into me, ignorin’ the goons and the villains to focus her fuckin’ gorgeous brown graze on me. She cupped my face, traced my cheekbones with her thumbs, and breathed in deep and shaky, just to smell me.
“I love you,” she said fiercely, eyes brimmin’ with diamond tears. “I meant what I said, I would fall from grace a thousand times over if it meant living in sin and beauty with you. Need you to get back to me, okay, honey? I need you to live, so don’t do anything crazy, okay? Nothing gallant or brave. This isn’t a storybook, and you don’t need to be some valiant king who sacrificed himself for his country, okay?”
When I didn’t say anythin’, too busy memorizin’ every single inch of her face, she shook me, voice sharp as a threatening knife at my throat as she repeated, “Okay?!”
“Okay, babe, okay,” I soothed.
Then I drowned the lie with a kiss like a tidal wave, a kiss to crush her fears and replace them with the power of all the love I felt for her. I poured it between her lips, hopin’ it would sow some eternal seed in her hear that would bloom forever no matter what.
“Love you, Cress,” I mumbled against her lips. “Love you enough to tear the world apart for my girl with the whiskey eyes.”
“Promise me you’re coming back,” she urged as I pulled away. “Promise me, King. Swear it to me, or I won’t let you go without me.”
I tucked a long curl behind her ear and gave her my cocky grin. “I swear it, babe. We’ll have our honeymoon in Alaska if it’s the last thing I do. Now let me go, yeah?”
“Okay,” she whispered, hands tremblin’ as she let go.
“Bone of my bone,” I reminded her as I stepped toward Javier. “Of me, meant for me.”
“Bone of my bone,” she echoed, and then I turned my back on her because I couldn’t stand to watch her cry.
“Touching,” Javier said with a slow clap. “Really touching.”
“It’s our fuckin’ wedding day,” I bit out. “And you’re forcin’ me to leave my wife behind.”
“She could come,” he said slyly.
“He’s not goin’ alone,” Nova called out, pushin’ against a thug to step forward only to be hit over the head with the butt of a gun so he crumpled to the ground.