Page 40 of Mine to Keep (Bloody Desires #10)

twenty-six

to the death

When I break through the trees of the clearing I sent Skylar coordinates for, I see him already there, waiting with a blade at his side.

I smirk, keeping my eyes on him while letting my senses fan out. I don’t immediately see anyone, but that doesn’t mean he’s alone. After the shit he pulled with him and Martha fucking jumping me, I don’t put anything past him.

I stop about thirty feet from him, meeting his angry eyes with an almost bored expression.

“You alone?” I ask, feeling like there are more eyes on me than the two acrimonious ones glaring at me.

He scoffs, flicking the knife back and forth between his fingers. “You told me to come alone, right?”

“Yeah, but you and your bitch were a team. Figured that wasn’t something you’d give up.”

My taunt does what I want it to do. He’s unnerved and will operate on pure hate now, disregarding skill. “Watch your fucking mouth!” he shouts, pointing at me with the knife. “Don’t you dare talk about Martha that way!”

I shrug. “Whatever. Look, I’m unarmed. No gun, no knife.” I lift my shirt so he can see. “Let’s square up. No weapons, no bullshit.”

He glares at me, flipping the knife in the air over and over. He could very well throw it at me and this will be over before it began. There is no cover here, which is why I chose the location.

The clearing has trees about fifty yards from where we’re standing, so there’s nowhere to hide, nowhere to run that will give us immediate cover. If he agrees to drop his blade, we’ll be on equal footing.

Skylar flips the handle of the blade, catchingthe tip betweenhis fingers, then flicks his wrist. The knife flies almost soundlessly through the air, its tip sinking deep into a tree in the distance. He raises his shirt and shows me that he’s weapon-free as well.

“Let’s see what you got, Viper,” he snarls.

I smile again, taking slow steps towards him. “You already have. One on one this time, though.”

His eyebrows dip and he limps over to me, favoring his right leg. I smile to myself, finding a weak spot.

When we get within a few feet of each other, Skylar raises his hands in a fighting position. I don’t want to be out here long. I have to get my boys, so I rush at him, throwing a wild haymaker to throw him off his guard and have him leaning on his bum leg.

He anticipates that and twists to the side, shooting a quick jab at my ribs. I eat that and punch him once, twice in the face, making his head kick back.

Skylar snarls and shoves me, knocking me off my feet. He straddles my waist and throws rapid punches at me, dazing me for a moment. I try to thrust up and topple him off me, but he has his weight distributed evenly, so all I can do is guard my face as best as I can.

The sound of a gunshot pings off the ground beside me, barely missing my ear. Skylar stops his assault and glances at a section of the woods. I take that time to jab him in the side, where I spotted his thick bandages when he lifted his shirt.

He cries out in pain and tumbles off me, holding his injured side. Another shot rings out, but from behind me. I don’t waste time looking—I scramble over to Skylar and put my knee against his chest as I jab him with lefts and rights.

Another shot rings out, grazing my calf.

I grit my teeth but continue to try to bash Skylar’s head into the fucking ground.

My hand screams in pain as I hold his head tighter, but I don’t dare let up.

A second shot, then a quick third pings through the air.

I keep my attention on Skylar, working on turning his face into mush.

Before I can throw a hit directly to his nose, he wrenches my wrist quickly, making me cry out and lose my balance, toppling to the ground.

I don’t spend time on the ground, scrambling to my feet and backing up a few paces.

Skylar staggers to his feet, holding on to his bleeding side while panting heavily.

I lean to the side and spit out blood, wiping under my eye at the blood leaking down my cheek.

“I’ll admit,” I say between gasping breaths, “your bitch hit harder. You?—”

Skylar lets out a roar, throwing a flying punch at me, clearing several feet in a single bound.

I block his punch, but his aim was to distract me, not to actually meet his target.

His hand glances off my raised arms, but then he grabs me around the waist and picks me up off my feet, slamming me onto the ground.

He lands three kicks in quick succession into my stomach, and I roll into a ball to protect myself. That only allows him to stomp me on the ribs, and I feel something crack. I cry out, and roll away from him, avoiding another boot to the ribs.

Skylar lets me roll away and looks around, as if searching for someone. He seems distracted, worried even, as he focuses on me, as if he's waiting on something that hasn't happened yet.

He takes a few steps back, dropping down to one knee, breathing heavily as he grits his teeth. He pulls his shirt up and I see that he’s steadily leaking blood.

I stagger to my feet, holding my side as I wince. But I stand up straight and stagger over to him, ready to end this.

Before I can get within a few feet of Skylar, he pulls a serrated blade from inside his boot and swipes at me, catching me on the thigh.

“Fuck,” I grunt, taking a step back as he sweeps the blade in the air again. “You dirty son of a bitch,” I say as I glare at him.

He smiles as he gets to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth. “What’s the matter? Didn’t think I’d have a backup? It’s life or death, Viper. Your death.”

Skylar totters to his feet, holding the knife out in front of him.

We circle each other for a few moments, waiting for the other to make a move.

I see it before Skylar does—a large rock, literally one of the only rocks in the field, right behind his foot. He steps on it and his ankle rolls. He drops down to one knee, his arms flailing.

Even though my ribs are screaming at me and my thigh burns from the deep slice he gave me, I hurry over and drop to my knees behind him. I grab the hand with the knife, twisting his wrist, then burying it in his chest.

Skylar jerks and looks at the knife in disbelief. His slack hand drops from the handle of the blade and I pull the knife out and drive it back into him again, twisting it like I did with his wife.

Leaning down to his ear, I say, “Til death do you part, bitch.”

Skylar takes a ragged breath and looks back at me, his eyes burning with pain, regret, and rage. “You got me…Viper.” Then he blows out a long breath and slumps into my arms.

I let his body fall, then check his pulse. When I don’t feel anything, I collapse beside him, taking several deep breaths.

“Son of a bitch,” I grumble when I touch my ribs, knowing at least two of them are broken. I look down at my thigh and see that I’ll need more stitches there too.

“My boys are going to fucking kill me for this,” I mutter to myself before I heave myself to my feet.

Limping and trying to breathe shallowly, I make my way to the path I took to get to the field, ducking under branches and avoiding roots protruding from the ground. The sun is setting, so no one should see me leave.

I’m not worried about Skylar’s body. The Void can take care of that.

I’m moving so slowly due to the pain that I don’t exit the woods until the sun has fully set.

As I exit the trees, a car is waiting for me, the engine running.

With a wince, I slide into the passenger seat, and look over at Olivia.

She smiles at me, and puts the car in gear, pulling off smoothly. “He fucked you up,” she jokes.

I cough a laugh. “Yeah, he did, but since I’m the one that’s still alive, I win.”

She laughs, shaking her head as she drives us back to the safe house.

“Three men were with him,” she says. “I got ‘em all. It’s been a while since I used long range. Head shots.” She makes pew, pew, pew noises while making finger guns.

I grunt. “I knew he wouldn’t come alone. Glad you made it back in time.”

Olivia got back from New York an hour before I was due to meet Skylar. She flew with my boys to JFK, then gave them a credit card in my name, telling them to rent a car and drive as far away as they could. She’d said she had a feeling I would need someone to watch my back.

Of course, she was right.

I try to get comfortable in the passenger seat, grunting when I move the wrong way, my ribs screaming. “Fuck,” I groan. “I think he broke a rib.”

Olivia hums. “You took some brutal hits. I had half a mind to shoot him in the face when I got rid of his flunkies.”

“All good,” I huff. “I need my boys, Olivia.”

“I know. But you need to let some of this swelling go down before you fly home.”

“One night and that’s it.” I clutch my hands into fists, wincing when my palm starts to bleed more heavily. “I need them.”

Blindly, Olivia reaches into her purse in the backseat. She tosses a burner phone in my lap. “I gave them one and told them not to turn it on until tomorrow morning. Wait until then, and you can meet them wherever they are. But you need to rest up first.”

I look over at her, feeling dizzy. “Who’s the Daddy here?”

She giggles as we pull up to the safe house. “You, always. But sometimes, friends need to take care of friends.”

When she puts the car in park, she rounds the hood and helps me out. I lean heavily on her, but I know she’s got me. She’s still in great shape.

“I’m glad this was my last job,” I tell her when she puts in the code and guides me inside. “I can’t bring this to my boys. They deserve better than me.”

She grins when she sets me on the couch. “Aht aht, we got one more job, remember? We already got paid half.”

I grumble, but my head is spinning and I can’t think right now.

“Pants off,” she says. “Let me clean your leg so I can sew you up. Then you need some sleep. Tomorrow, I can pull some strings to get you checked out for any serious injuries and get someone to take a look at your hand.”

She helps me pull off my pants, and I stretch my leg out and I close my eyes.

I curse and open my eyes when she pats my thigh with an alcohol wipe. She scoffs a laugh. “Oh, chill. You just got your ass beat and a motherfucker just broke your ribs. I think a bit of alcohol is just a drop in the bucket.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

She numbs me up and makes quick work of sewing up the wound, then slapping a bandage over it.

Once she’s cleaned up the rest of my injuries and cleans up all the trash and supplies, she sits beside me on the couch, her hand on my good thigh. “You did good, Knox. You kept your boys safe. You know if he killed you, he would have went after them, too, right?”

I nod, my eyes feeling heavy as my head swims. “I know. Now we gotta…”

“We will,” she says, her voice sounding like it’s far away. “Sleep, Knox. Your boys are waiting for you.”

“Koda,” I say as I lose my battle to stay awake. “My name is Koda.”

Fire licks up my spine as I look down at Patience. She’s smiling, proud of me and my work. But there’s a shadow over her. A shadow that doesn’t belong.

“No!” I shout, covering her body with mine. “You can’t have her. You can’t…”

The shadow reaches its dark hands down, grabbing at my sister. “She’s mine,” The Director growls, snatching her from me.

Behind him are my boys, cowering and huddled together, staring at the shadow with frightened eyes.

“Choose,” The Director says, holding a gun to Patience’s head. “Choose, or I’ll kill them all.”

“I’m already gone,” Patience says, that same serene smile on her face. “Choose them. It’s okay, Koda.”

I try to run to my boys, apologizing to my sister as I hear a shot ring out. But no matter how fast I run, how hard I try, I can’t get away. They drift further and further away, holding their hands out to me.

“Daddy Koda,” they cry. “Daddy Koda!”

“Little one! Baby boy!” I shout as I try to reach them. But I can’t. They’re leaving me. They’re ? —

I wake with a start, crying out at the sharp pain in my ribs. I look around, seeing I’m still on the couch. Sweat drips down my brow and my heart thumps wildly in my chest.

Fuck, I need to get back to them. I need them. They keep the nightmares away. They keep me safe.

I can’t live without my boys.