Page 68 of Tempted to Rebel

“He can’t go in alone!Please, Rebel!”

My brother is a professional. He can handle himself. But when Celia says please…

There’s only so much I can do to resist.

With a hiss, I run a hand through my hair and tug on the ends. Her presence in my life makes these kind of situations much more complicated than they used to be. “Baby, listen to me. I’ll go inside with Ruin, but you have to promise to stick by my side the entire time. We aresilent.We arequick.And for the love of God, don’t fucking scream, no matter what happens.”

But Celia is determined. Her jaw is set and her eyes are steely, reminding me of why Rage fell in love with her at first sight. Once she’s in the zone, she’s fucking unshakeable.

I reach inside the car and grab the gun I planted inside of her glovebox. She’s checking our surroundings while she waits for us to follow Ruin inside the boutique, butfuck.

I love this woman too goddamn much to let her go in there unarmed, and I only have one gun.

Before she can react, I grab the handcuffs I stashed beneath the passenger seat and clip them around one of her wrists, cinching the cuff while I drag the other one to the passenger side door. I hook it onto the inside handle of the door and lift her up, setting her down on the seat as carefully and quickly as Ican. Then, I place the gun in her free hand and wrap her fingers around the grip, making sure she’s holding on before I let go.

Her eyes are blown so wide with disbelief that I can’t bear look at her.

“Rebel, wait—” She tries to grab me, but her arm snags on the cuffs. “Don’t do this without me.”

Slamming the door shut, I yell, “fuck! Lock the doors!”

“What’s going on?” Rage’s voice roars from inside the car. Celia must have dropped the phone in the floorboard. “Talk to me, dammit!”

Instead of answering, she stares directly at me, her stone cold gaze piercing my heart. It bleeds all over the pavement with each step I take away from her. “Hurry up, Rage,” I growl, “because if I die without seeing our kid, I’m haunting your ass for eternity!”

Celia doesn’t speak to me again, but it’s for the best. If she had said pleaseand begged me to stay with her, there’s no way I’d ever have walked away.

But I’ll never forgive myself if my little brother dies and misses out on his happy ending. That’s what Celia is for us—the happy ending we never thought we’d find. He’s the one who deserves it the most.

Over my dead fucking body is he losing it on my watch.

As I walk to the shop’s front door, I catch a whiff of gasoline. My body reacts on instinct, recoiling from the smell. “What the hell?” I spot a shimmering liquid trailing through the shop, splattered across the walls and all over the floor.Shit.Ruin’s sense of smell isn’t what it used to be. He might not have noticed before he went inside.

I yank open the front door and call out my brother’s name. “Ruin! Get the fuck out of here! Something’s not right!” I watch through Celia’s office window as my brother enters the room, and something over his head sparks bright orange.

“Oh, fu?—”

A flash of light and searing heat kicks me back, glass shattering all around me. I land on my back on the sidewalk, the air punching from my lungs. When I breathe in, all I taste are chemical fumes.

I jump up to my feet and the first thing I see is Celia’s face obscured in flame. They dance across the windshield, reflecting the damage behind my back. Embers cascade all around us, turning to ash as they sweep the ground. I swivel back around to face the burning building and lunge forward to find my brother, knowing that he’s trapped inside, knowing that I can still get to him, knowing that there’s no possible way our dad finally succeeded in taking him out.

I won’t fucking let him.