Page 52 of Stormhold

“What’s going on here, Mr. Stormhold?” he demanded, lifting his chin at me.

My fists curled, but I simply stared, not saying a word.

The muscle above his lips jumped when I didn’t answer him, but he quickly schooled it off with a fake worried expression. “Look, Mr. Stormhold, I know you’re an important person, but causing a disturbance in my city could be dangerous to my people.” He spoke as if he were actually concerned about the people.

“You shouldn’t interfere,” I warned in a low tone. I was already so fucking mad, and Petra Hagen was choosing the wrong day to fucking test my patience.

I didn’t know if it was the false sense of safety he felt with all the people here, but he jumped in my face. “You can’t tell me that. I’m the fucking mayor of this city…”

I didn’t even let him finish his sentence when I had him by the collar and slammed him against the side of the ambulance.

Fear flashed in his eyes as he struggled for air.

“Don’t. Ever. Talk. To. Me. Like. That,” I gritted out through my teeth, glaring at him.

A whisper of terror hushed through the air at my words.

Just then, Mikhail cut in hurriedly, and I paused, not liking the look on his face one bit. “We found Marcus,” he whispered in my ear. “We must go now. It’s not looking good.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Pushing Petra Hagen away, I warned, “Next time, I won’t be so kind.”

Karl appeared at Petra Hagen’s side and nodded to me. “Go,” he mouthed. “I’ll take care of this.” With that, he put an arm around Petra Hagen, who looked outright terrified and speechless as Karl pulled him away.

Turning to Simon and Eric, I gestured to Bella, whose big brown eyes watched me intently. “Don’t leave her side,” I said. Without wasting another second, I stormed away without looking back and jumped straight into a waiting car with Grayson and Lucien. “Tell me everything,” I demanded, already feeling the tension rising in me at the thought of my brother.

“Timothy got him out of the restaurant under the guise of having a smoke. His men had a car waiting for him two streets over. It appears he took Marcus as leverage. But there was some kind of altercation on Highway 14 just as he was about to exit the city, when the car plummeted through the median. Timothy escaped, but not before…”

“Not before?” I gritted my jaw.

Mikhail’s eyes met mine over the rearview mirror. “He put three bullets in his chest and took the package with him. They just took him to the hospital now.”

“Fuck.” Grayson threw a heavy punch to the back of the car seat.

I swallowed. “Is he going to make it?”

Mikhail shook his head.

Timothy Walters’s plan for us didn’t succeed because of Bella, but the one he had for Marcus did. Guilt crowded my chest, thinking I doubted him.

I hated that, even for a second, I thought that he was the traitor.

Timothy Walters had better mark this day, because this would be the last day he got to breathe.

Thrice. He fucking shot him thrice. His death was going to be three times worse.

Marcus’s ambulance arrived minutes after we made it to the hospital, and the sight of him almost put me to my knees.

“Marcus,” I whispered as I saw them wheeling him in. His cold body lay half hidden underneath the men surrounding him, the pool of blood getting thicker and thicker as it dripped around the gurney. Even his shirt was completely drenched in blood. His face was so pale, his lips so blue, that at that moment, I felt less confident that he would make it.

What the fuck would I tell Mother?

My mind flashed to the same scene of seeing my mother bleeding a long time ago, and my heart started to pick up an unfamiliar beat. I palmed my face, biting through the scream that wanted to rip out of my throat.

I took every possible measure to make sure that history didn’t repeat itself. But what good did all my plans do when all the fucking measures I took turned out to be for nothing?

All for what?