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Silas nudges Levi up the stairs, and I move to her, taking her face in my hands. “What I’m about to do? I don’t want that to be how you see me. Elon either. There are tactics Anex taught us that you don’t know about and that’s a good thing.”

“I’m not afraid of you, Rex.”

She should be. After all the things I did to her. The pain I allowed her to suffer at my hands and my father’s. “Please go. Don’t fight with me on this.”

“You don’t even have to do this—you can wait for the agents to get back. Let them do their job.” She looks past me to Elon. “I don’t want you to lose yourself in all of this again—either of you.”

“We won’t.” I shake my head and rub my thumbs along her cheeks. “But you know we’re the only ones that can stop him, Little Lamb. We can’t trust the Feds to do what really needs to be done.”

She nods and I press a kiss to her forehead. Her hands squeeze mine. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

She goes on her own, heading up the stairs. I wait until I hear the door snap close before I pull the gun from where I’d tucked it in the back of my pants and face Erik.

“I should put a bullet through your head for how you treated me back in Serendee.”

“You were Fallen. The dregs of our community. You deserved worse.” He scoffs. “I held back on your pathetic, traitorous, ass because your father held out hope that maybe you could be redeemed.”

Crack!

Elon beats me to the punch, slamming his fist into Erik’s jaw before I even have a chance to swing. He winces, shaking out his knuckles, but the smug grin on Elon’s mouth tells me it was worth it. “Shut the fuck up, asshole. You only got to that position because we were Banished. You gained from the bullshit, trumped-up charges Anex threw at us. Otherwise, you would have been a low-level lacky for the rest of your pathetic life.”

I step forward, towering over him. “You think he won’t turn on you the way he turned on us? Because he will. He’s loyal to no one.”

“You fucked up,” he says, eyes shifting to Elon, then back to me. “Putting your carnal needs above your duty to Serendee. You betrayed your father, Rex. You still are by hiding out with his woman and working with the government.”

“She’s mine!” I lean forward, grabbing him by the collar. “And who do you think ordered us to do everything? For Elon to sleep with Imogene? For Silas to train her to become a proficient lover? To escalate her Corrections? Who invited her to the women’s group and required her to write down the collateral that exposed us? It was a fucking set up, Erik, from the very beginning. It was a way to remove obstacles. To get me to kneel. To force Elon and Levi out because of his insecurities. To control Silas in order to increase his wealth.” I release him, thrusting him back so hard the chair skids. “You think he won’t do the same to you? You’re not even blood.”

The smug intention in his eye wavers, flickering for a moment, but then snaps back in place. “You’re the one that betrayed him with all your accusations and blasphemy. You started this, Rex.”

There’s only one accusation that means anything to me and I’m not afraid to say it out loud. “He killed my mother. I don’t know how, but he did it, and one day I’ll prove it.”

He snorts, holding my gaze. “Even if you do, you’ll never find him.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to be the one to tell me.” I whip out the gun and press the nozzle to his head. “Where is he hiding? What are his plans?”

He lifts his chin defiantly, making the barrel dig deeper into his temple. “Do it. I don’t give a fuck. But understand that this doesn’t end with me. He’ll send another. And another.” He grins, teeth a pale pink from his bloody mouth. “His followers are wide and strong.”

“His followers are in jail or scattered like the wind,” Elon says, arms crossed over his chest. “You’re delusional, Erik.”

“You think so? Not everyone is a traitor like you.” He looks around the cabin. “This is your life now. Running until he catches you and gets her back.”

I let his words sink in. “You weren’t shooting at her.”

“Fuck no. I was shooting at him,” looks at Elon. If it hurts my friend’s feelings that my father wanted him killed, he doesn’t let on. “Your father wants his property back. The smartest thing for you to do is to give her to me and let me go before anyone else gets hurt.”

There’s not a chance in the world Anex lets us go even if he has her.

“She’ll never be his Mate,” Elon says.

“Oh, he knows that, and he no longer wants her for a spiritual wife. He wants her to pay. To punish her. To make her beg and scream for mercy.” He laughs, enjoying this. “He has plans for your Little lamb. Dirty and depraved things that’ll make her wish I’d put a bullet in her head.”

“Shut up,” Elon roars, foot kicking out and flipping over an end table.

Erik doesn’t heed, continuing, “He’s already got it lined up. The house. The dungeon. The cameras.” He smirks, although it’s mangled from his puffy lip. “And if you’re lucky you’ll survive long enough to wat—”

He doesn’t get the last word out before I shove the gun in my pants to free up my hands, wrapping them around his throat. My fingers squeeze tight enough to make his eyes flutter shut, his body jerking from the lack of air.