Page 129 of Torment Me Knot
“Back up,” I say.
He takes two steps back and keeps his eyes on me the whole way.
Wallace hasn't moved. He watches the gun in my hand with his head angled slightly, reading it, reading me, and then his gaze slides past me to Sera.
“You came all this way,” he says, not to me, “for an alpha who walked out on you.”
“Don't.” I keep the gun level. “Don't talk about her.”
“She left,” Wallace says. “Voluntarily. While you were sleeping, if I'm not mistaken.”
“She made a mistake and she's allowed to.” I don't look at Sera. I keep my eyes on Wallace. “She's coming home now.”
Sera pulls a breath in sharp beside me and lets it out slow.
“How touching.” Wallace takes a step toward us and I raise the gun. “You won't shoot me, omega.”
My hands are shaking but I keep the gun steady.
“Try me,” I say.
Wallace reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a gun. The beta lunges for Sera. I pivot and fire.
The sound is enormous and close and my ears ring white with it. Wallace staggers back two steps, mouth open. Blood blooms across his shoulder. “You fucking bitch. How dare you!”
He levels his gun at me.
A roar booms through the tunnel. I turn as Kev launches off the platform, crossing the gap between us before I've processed that he's moving. He hits Wallace at full speed and drives him against the tunnel wall, his head cracking back.
Kev grabs Wallace's wrist and slams it against the wall. The gun drops. Wallace throws an elbow. Kev takes it in the jaw and keeps moving. He drives Wallace back against the wall with a forearm across his throat, all his weight behind it. Wallace claws at Kev's arm, face going red. Kev slams an elbow into his temple.
Wallace drops.
The modified beta who went for Sera is face down. She is standing over him with her boot on his neck and blood on her knuckles, holding her ruined left hand against her chest, breathing hard through her nose. She leans down and helps a groggy Ezra to his feet.
Behind us, the SWAT team pours through the archway engaging in the fight. Boots on tile, the clatter and shout of it reaching me. There are too many of them for Wallace's guards to fight, and they are quickly subdued.
Levi and Aubrey jump off the platform and run to us. Kev straightens where he's bent over Wallace and then he is crossing to us.
“Espie. Are you okay?” He takes my face in both hands when I nod, his thumbs pressing into my cheeks, and he looks at me hard. Then he turns his attention to Sera.
He reaches for her, his hands moving over the bandage on her left hand, the bruising along her jaw, her wrists where the cuffs bit in, his hands skimming over every place she's hurt. “You shouldn't have left. You should never have felt like you had to.”
Sera goes very still under his hands. She looks down, away from his face, and two spots of color rise in her cheeks. “Kev—”
“Don't you ever do it again, do you hear me? Never again.” He cups her face the same way I did, tilts it up, makes her look at him.
“He had people everywhere. He knew where we lived. He had—” she says.
“I know what he had.” I cross to her. “We knew the risks. We came anyway.”
The corner of her mouth pulls tight and she shuts it down fast.
“You should have stayed safe. You and Aubrey, you should have—”
“Stop.” My hands go to her face, careful of the bruising on her jaw. Her skin is cold. “Stop telling us where we should have been. We were exactly where we were supposed to be.”
“Espie—”
