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MAEL

I stood on the crest of a small hill overlooking the property and watched as the fire destroyed everything in its path.

It wasn’t fucking enough.

Screams echoed in the vast space, the fire providing me with enough light to see what was happening as people scrambled to get out of there. Meanwhile, men Leo had hired to watch over here were trying to salvage as much as they could.

I was almost regretful the fire would likely destroy all evidence of the money-laundering scheme the fucker had going on through his security firm.

This factory held most of their equipment, but it also tunneled in most of the money he’d gotten through the skin trade.

Any evidence left behind wouldn’t have been enough to put him away for life because it would be hard to prove where that money had come from in the first place.

So I let it burn.

And I bid my time for when I could bring the fucker down for good.

For now…

He had something I wanted.

Lia’s location.

It had been over a week since she ran away from me.

Over a week of fucking hell and over a week of feeling like…

I clutched my hand over my chest, feeling a sharp pinch of pain there.

A fucking week of feeling like I was burning from the inside out. And I still didn’t fucking know where Briggs had hidden her.

She wasn’t in his home—I’d fucking looked—or in any of the known safe houses he kept for his clients. Which meant there were more houses I didn’t know of… yet.

That was fine.

I was going to make him give her to me, one way or another, by burning everything he held dear, starting with his business.

A sound came from behind me. I didn’t react, already knowing who had followed me up here.

He stood beside me and took in the destruction.

“Don’t you think you’re taking this too far?” Theo asked.

“Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for the fucker,” I said.

“I don’t. You can burn Leo Briggs alive, and I wouldn’t blink, but I worry about what this is doing to you.”

I cracked a small smile. “I’ve killed countless men. Some for personal reasons, most simply because I was paid to. I haven’t lost an ounce of sleep yet. You think this is affecting me?”

“ She is affecting you,” he said quietly.

My hands balled into fists. I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about.

“I know you,” he continued. “I know you better than anyone else in the world. And never have you been like this. Never have you let your emotions lead your decisions. And this fire?” He pointed out to the general area of the flames. “It happened because of your emotions.”

“Wasn’t it you who always said I needed to be more in tune with my emotions?”

A little ironic, coming from my brother. Theo had always been impersonal and reserved, even when we were kids. At times, it felt like there was nothing in this world that could affect him, while I had felt nothing but restlessness.

“Not like this. Not when you’re not talking about it. Not when you’re acting rashly. This is going to get you killed, Mael.”

I shook my head. “Never expected to live long, anyway.”

I felt him tense, but he didn’t say anything.

I let out a small sigh and reached over, squeezing his shoulder. It was all I could give him at this time.

“You know it’s the truth.”

“No,” Theo said, disagreeing with me. “Not with her. She gave you a reason to be cautious.”

“She’s not here,” I replied, the bitterness in my voice unmistakable. I was fucking worried about her being in Briggs’s hands, but fuck if I wasn’t angry with her as well.

So fucking angry.

“She ran from me.”

“Maybe… maybe you went about it the wrong way,” Theo said. “She ran because she was scared of you.”

I shook my head. I didn’t give a damn about that. My actions should have shown her just how incapable I was of hurting her.

Theo let out a small sigh. “I know you’re a little out of practice trying to woo someone, but I don’t think stalking her was it.”

“ Woo ,” I repeated. Despite the burning rage I’d felt ever since I realized she was gone, there was a small amusement over Theo’s words.

I shook my head. “Let’s get out of here before we’re spotted.”

He opened his mouth, probably to say something else, but I shook my head and walked away, leaving all the destruction, the screams, and the fucking misery there.

Burning this place down was supposed to make me feel marginally better. It was supposed to make me feel like I was, at the very least, doing something to get Lia back.

All it did was make me want to kill someone.