Page 51 of Jagged Souls

Bury her.

Be the parent I’ll never get to be.

A tear streaks from the side of my eye.

As much as I love him, I can’t help but hate him for that.

You better come save me, you fucking neanderthal.

Because if I have to do it myself...

I’m never going to forgive you.

Twelve

HIM

My bedroom door slams open just as I’ve finished talking to Katie Wilks. She runs our extortion operations, targeting politicians, billionaires, lobbyists, anyone and everyone in power from all over the world. She’ll know whose arm to twist to get every government agency in America to crack down on the Death Hunt without digging further into our own crimes. While the wolves are distracted by the police, we’ll go after Micha.

I jerk my head up as I stand, expecting it to be Khalid in my bedroom. He made a soul doll of my wife a few minutes ago and has been watching and hearing everything that’s been happening to her. I tried to order him to let me listen in, but he refused, so I have been imagining the worst ever since.

“Is she –” I start before I clock it’s Dayne.

His eyes cold with fury, he lunges for me, but with a burst of speed, I tackle him into the hall. If he’s going to beat the shit out of me, I don’t want him damaging the room. All of Micha’s things are in here, our memories. And Bambi sits on my bedside table. Although she’s protected by magic, if he even gets close to harming her, I don’t give a shit if he’s Micha’s best friend or not. I’ll kill him.

As we hit the ground, he elbows me in the face. My head cracks to the side, and he uses the momentum to roll me under him. Kneeling between my legs, he tries to punch me in the jaw, but I raise my left arm to block him at the same time I throw my right fist into his liver.

He falls forward from the pain, but he takes that as an opportunity to headbutt me in the face. Stars explode in my vision, followed by a sharp pain as his teeth scrape across my cheek. He would’ve torn a chunk out rather than just damaged my flesh if I hadn’t managed to shove him back. Godsdamn, the fucker fights dirty. The fact he isn’t using his magic, though, tells me he doesn’t want me dead… Yet.

But as much as he deserves to kick the shit out of me, and as much as I want to let him punish me for my sins, I don’t have time for this. I have a dozen people I need to call and a hundred arms to break until I get my fucking wife back.

So I shove my elbow into his throat, pushing him back to free up space to move my legs. Swinging out from under him, I stand, grab the back of his head, and then knee him hard in the face.

He falls back, and I jump into the air, having expected him to try to kick at my legs. I twist horizontally and land beside him. He arches back to jump to his feet, and my eyes narrow at how fast he’s recovered. He isn’t a healer; that knock should have kept him down.

“Wait,” I order. Despite his grievances, I am still his Boss. There is a moment, when Dayne lands on his feet and looks at me, that I don’t think he’s going to listen, but then he stills. The rage in his eyes doesn’t die, but it is controlled. Family brawls aren’t punishable; disobeying a direct order is.

“I know it’s my fault she’s gone,” I say.

“We could have had a chance if she didn’t have to keep going for that stupid wand,” he growls.

I have seen how fast Antonio can move, but Micha’s fire could’ve actually saved her. It eats magic, and it can burn through a werewolf’s natural resistance to spells. She could have had time to get to the safe room in the basement if she hadn’t had to run upstairs first for her wand. Or she could have stood outside it, standing behind a line of fire Antonio couldn’t cross.

“I know,” I say, feeling that guilt harder than anything he could ever pack into a fist. “But right now we need to focus on saving her.”

“Which I could’ve done already if you hadn’t removed my fucking tracker.”

“We know where she is.” Roughly, but when we go in, I can lead us directly to her.

“How?”

I think about lying and just telling him Khalid made a soul doll of her, but my paranoia is what got her into this mess. I didn’t trust my brothers enough to tell them we had bonded, so Talon thought she’d be an easy patsy. I didn’t trust her when I tortured her for Khalid’s whereabouts. And I didn’t trust any of my men to watch her while we went after Antonio. It’s about time I trusted someone other than the reaper. If Micha trusts him, then so will I.

Breathing out slowly, I say, “We’ve bonded.”

“You sonofabitch. You’re not happy enough just ruining one of her lives? You have to ruin them all? So what the fuck are we still doing here?”

I start to tell him the plan when I sense Khalid hurrying down the hall. I turn just as he reaches us. The look on his face makes my stomach drop. “What is it?”