Page 86 of Violent Skies

“Yeah,” she confirms. “What do I need to do?”

“Listen—” I hiss. “I know who’s doing this.”

“How? Did they tell you something?” she asks. I know she leans closer because I can feel her warm breath on my freezing skin. I shiver gently.

“Koa did.” I force my eyes open and her brown ones are staring back at me, more confused than ever. “This is my punishment. Money and power. He never planned on letting you go.”

“We were married, I would hope not,” she laughs gently. God I love that laugh. “Just sleep for a bit,” she tells me, and her whispers are like static in my ears.

“Cress. It’s K—.”

“You should really listen to him.”

“You aren’t real,” I whisper.

Koa smiles at me, his eyes brighter than ever. His hand flexes around the knife pressed to Birdie’s throat.

“Hi beautiful,” he hums and my heart thuds in my chest in the most traitorous way. He’s exactly the way I remember, every dream, every nightmare. Dressed in well-fitting dark jeans and a muscle-hugging black t-shirt that shows off all his tattoos, all the ones I used to trace with my fingertips while he slept in our bed. His hair is a little longer, the lines around his eyes give away his age, but they watch me with the same passionate excitement that he always carried.

“Very real,” Birdie swallows tightly, and I watch the bead of blood that trickles down her skin.

“No, you’d never put her in danger.” I shake my head in disbelief. He’d never use Birdie like this, ever. No matter how bad he got. But he used Riggs. He used you. I chew the inside of my mouth, trying to make sense of it.

“I needed a way to come in without any of you harming me,” he explains. “Rafe.”

My eyes flick to him standing with his body blocking Murphy, gun pointed past Birdie’s shoulder, at Koa’s chest.

“You’re dead.” The words are choked by his rabid emotions, his hands shake around the butt of the gun.

“I can see how you would think that.” Koa exhales, his eyes moving back to mine. It’s scary watching how his expression hardens and his gaze darkens on Rafe and the others. Then, like the clouds have parted and the sun is out, they’re golden again, soft, warm. Welcoming.

“He ambushed me at the clinic,” Birdie chokes out, but she’s not fighting his grip on her. She’s just as conflicted as the rest of us.

Why does a man we all loved so much feel like the enemy?

“The blood,” I whisper, my fingers itching to reach for Riggs, but I don’t dare. Instead, I hold my breath, completely out of my element in this situation. I might have driven over a man tonight and almost shot another, but that was the adrenaline. I’m exhausted and my heart can’t take much more of this.

He needs it desperately. We got the bullet out, got him closed up, but without the blood he won’t make it through the next few hours. It’s dire, and all this time talking is— “Riggs needs blood or he’s going to die.”

The sound of his name makes him stir on the table and I press my hand to his shoulder to keep him flush against it. We don’t need him going into any more shock than his body already is, and seeing Birdie in her position will cause his heart rate to spike.

Koa shrugs.

My lip trembles. Rafe steps forward as Murphy rises from the spot he was in, working behind the computer. “He knew. He asked me to look for you. He warned me and I thought he was insane,” Murphy whispers in shock.

It’s not that he feels like the enemy. He is.

“Koa,” I choke out and his expression waivers. He’s fighting to stay cold. As cold as the cement floor stained with his brother’s blood not ten feet in front of him. And yet, I can see him. The Koa that I fell in love with, he’s in there. Even if it was a game to them, even if I was a toy or a pawn. Koa loved me too, that much I can feel.

“Where is it?” I ask.

“In the car,” Birdie blurts.

There you are, I think. You let her bring the blood. Whatever man you were is in there. I know it. But like he can hear my thoughts, that softness slips back behind a shield as Koa peers down at her, disappointed. “I raised you better,” he says against the side of her head.

“You raised me exactly like this,” Birdie whispers, kicking her foot back. She catches him in the top of the knee, surging her torso forward as she slips her hands between his arms and clears her throat of the blade just long enough to separate the two of them. She spins on him, pulling out her gun and holds it in his face.

Koa’s smile grows, pride licking at every handsome feature.