Page 52 of Grim’s Delight (The New Protectorate Syndicate #1)

TWENTY-EIGHT

Milo didn’t bother to lecture him on why his plan was a terrible idea. Not because Felix was right, but because they both knew it was no use.

He still couldn’t seem to help himself, though, when he muttered, “They could kill you. They probably will kill you.”

Felix unclipped his gun from its holster and shoved it into the glove box of Milo’s muscle car. They were parked a few blocks away from the Bowan house. There was no back-up and no exit strategy. He would go in unarmed and alone.

“If they do, you’re the head of the family,” he grunted, reaching for the knife strapped to his ankle. “And it’s your responsibility to make sure Dahlia doesn’t destroy herself trying to kill every last Bowan when I’m gone.”

Milo accepted the knife with a bemused grimace. “You really think she’d do that?”

Felix shrugged out of his torn suit jacket and tossed it in the back. “Tonight, she climbed out of a wrecked car and willingly stood in front of a dozen guns without fucking blinking just to make sure I didn’t get shot. Yeah, Milo, I do think she’d do that.”

And he’d go to his grave haunted by the sight of her in that position, with flecks of shattered glass glittering in her hair and her back so straight as she walked right up to Tomas.

He’d never been so in love or so angry with her.

He intended to never put her in that position again, but to make sure of that, he had to get her back — which got a lot fucking harder with her behind enemy lines.

A siege wouldn’t work, and attempting to wait them out wouldn’t either. One put her at risk and the other meant she would start to experience withdrawal. They both would, but he couldn’t care less about what happened to him.

That was precisely why this plan was the only one that could work.

Felix shoved the door open and set one foot on the street. A hand on his shoulder stopped him from throwing himself completely out of the car.

Turning to look back at his cousin, he found Milo’s normally serious expression much more severe.

The lights of the dashboard gleamed blue and green in his one pale eye when he growled, “Don’t fucking die.

I don’t want your job, and I really don’t want to deal with Dahlia if something happens to you. ”

Felix offered him a sharp smile. “Tough shit.”

Shaking off his cousin’s hand, he climbed out of the car and slammed the door. Taking a deep breath of the muggy air, he started walking.

They’d see him coming long before he actually got near the house. The entire block was surveilled and patrols circled in slow-moving cars like great mechanical vultures. So Felix put his hands up and walked slowly, giving them plenty of time to decide to shoot him or not.

There was no fear. No hesitation. No worry that maybe he wasn’t doing the right thing or that he ought to let her go.

If they shot him, they shot him.

They’d have to get him in the head to keep him from reaching the gate, and they’d have to put him down completely to stop him from finding Dahlia, one way or another.

He supposed there should’ve been some worry or reluctance on his part.

After all, he’d worked damn hard to get to where he was.

He’d killed and he’d sacrificed and he’d spilled his own blood to build up the Amauris into something new and better.

He’d even been prepared to give up the woman he loved for the sake of his family.

But he saw how short-sighted that was now. I never would’ve been able to do it, he realized.

Like always, Milo had been right all along.

Felix couldn’t have given her up. He couldn’t now. It wasn’t because she was a blood bride. It was because she was Dahlia. The woman who’d taken one look at him and said, “If you want me, be better.”

It turned out that when push came to shove, he would give everything up for her. His position. His wealth. His life. None of it mattered without her.

He didn’t look down when the first red dot appeared on his chest. Nor when the second, third, or fourth did. Felix kept walking, his gaze locked in an unblinking stare on the tall black gate that blocked the entrance to the Bowan property.

Tomas stood on the other side, his arms crossed and his expression blank. By the time Felix reached him, a swarm of red dots crawled over his chest, neck, and head. Keeping his arms at his shoulders, he addressed the man coolly. “I’m here to see my bride.”

“Really stupid to show your face, Amauri,” Tomas replied.

Felix resisted the urge to reach through the bars and throttle the man. “Really fucking stupid of you to take my bride.”

Tomas raised his perfect eyebrows. “She came willingly.”

“Because you threatened her husband,” he snarled, fingers curling into tight fists. “What was she supposed to do? Let you shoot me?”

The man shrugged. “If she didn’t want to be with you, sure.”

“You really thought I forced her to be with me?” Felix swallowed a bitter taste in his mouth.

It didn’t matter what anyone, let alone the Bowans, thought of him.

All he cared about was his bride. “You don’t know anything about me.

And you know even less about Dahlia if you thought for a second she’d let that happen. ”

“Has she always been so…” Tomas made an all-encompassing sort of gesture.

Felix smirked. “Yeah, she has. Now are you going to let me in or am I going to have to start screaming her name?”

Tomas looked meaningfully down at the mass of glowing red dots on Felix’s chest. “You’re not exactly in a position to make demands, Amauri.”

“Then take me as your prisoner,” he offered. “I don’t give a fuck. Just take me to my bride.”

Tomas lost some of his aloofness. Brows furrowing, he said, “You’ve lost your mind. Just let her?—”

“Go? Never.” Felix took a step closer to the fence. His nose nearly touched the bars when he hissed, “I’ll give you the same deal I gave her. If you really want me to leave her alone, then you’re gonna have to shoot me. Aim for the head, fucker, because killing me is the only way to stop me.”

“You can’t seriously?—”

Whatever inane question Tomas had been about to ask was cut off when the front door to the Bowan house swung open behind him.

Felix’s attention snapped to Dahlia instantly.

His heart stopped and restarted, its speed tripled as she sauntered down the steps and across the courtyard.

The lights that ringed the high wall around the property gave her a golden halo as soft and perfect as the blonde curls on her head.

Her broken heels tapped a quick rhythm on the pavement when she walked down the driveway.

Holes had been torn in her tights and one shoulder of her blazer dress was torn, but she still somehow looked completely in control.

“Dahlia,” he choked out, gripping the bars hard enough to make his knuckles bleach.

“Hi, boogeyman.” Her voice was the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. And the smile she gave him as she got closer? He’d never forget it.

“Guns down. No one points a gun at my daughter. Ever,” Alastair commanded from somewhere behind her. Felix barely spared the old man a glance as she strode up to the gate, her eyes locked with his.

Breathing harshly, he rasped, “Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay,” she murmured just for him. “I promise, I’m okay. And I’m coming home.”

Tomas made a sound of deep confusion. “Dahlia, you can’t go with him. You just got here. You should stay and get to know your family.”

Dahlia turned sharply to give her new cousin a vicious smile Felix was all too familiar with. “Tomas, I know we just met and you seem like a lovely guy, but if you try and tell me what to do one more time, we’re going to have a fucking problem.”

Alastair’s voice carried across the courtyard again. “Let her go, Tomas. It’s fine. We’ve reached a deal.”

He looked like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do, but Tomas waved at the guard station.

Felix’s heart jumped into his throat as the gate vibrated under his hands and began to pull to one side. As it slowly opened, Dahlia turned to her new cousin and gestured for him to come closer.

He saw it coming long before Tomas did, but the poor guy really didn’t know Dahlia, so he couldn’t exactly blame him.

The punch was lightning fast, mean, and deadly in its accuracy. Blood gushed from Tomas’s nose as his head snapped back. Felix grinned at the crunch of bone and cartilage, his cock twitching with keen interest behind his fly.

“Fuck!” The man wheezed, his hands immediately clutching his mangled nose as he stooped over in pain. Going by the way Dahlia flexed her fingers, it was a devastating suckerpunch.

In a terrifyingly calm voice, she told him, “Now we’re even. But if you ever point a gun at my husband again, I’ll cut it off instead of breaking it. Clear?”

Tomas pressed his sleeve to his nose and nodded once, a gleam of respect making it through the pain in his eyes. In a nasally, muffled voice, he said, “Welcome to the family, I guess.”

Dahlia patted his shoulder. “Thanks. You owe me a car. Make it red.”

She waved at Alastair and his anchor standing in the doorway of their home before tossing her hair over her shoulder and waltzing through the gate, her long legs flashing in her crimson tights and sky-high stilettos.

If Felix thought she was devastating before, it was nothing compared to how she looked to him now.

Snatching her to his chest, he swooped down on her with a ferocious kiss. “I fucking love you,” he gasped, reverent and needy against the welcoming warmth of her mouth.

Her smile curved against his lips. “I love you, too. Now can we go home? We’ve got work to do.”