Page 33 of Pucking Possessive (Kings of Castlebrook #2)

CALLUM

W e move fast.

The second the shot rings out, chaos ripples across the clearing, but I’ve got one priority.

Lilac.

She’s in my arms before the echo even fades, her body tense and trembling, her breathing all wrong. I don’t stop to look back. I don’t stop to check who’s down.

I already know.

Adam’s body is crumpled in the grass, blood pooling too fast beneath him, but I can’t focus on that now. I can’t afford to. Not when she’s going into shock right here in my arms.

“Come on, bambi,” I murmur, voice low and steady as I press her head to my chest, trying to block her view. “I got you. I got you, baby.”

The others are moving too. Hayden and Tristan each have their girls in their arms, flanking me like a tight unit as we veer off toward the tree line.

There's an old trail near the edge of the property that winds down to the bottom side of where we parked, and the cover up ahead is thick enough to give us time to regroup.

Lilac’s fingernails dig into my shoulder. She’s not crying, not yet. She’s just breathing like she can’t catch up, like the air is burning her lungs.

“He’s dead,” she whispers. “Callum… Adam is dead.”

My grip tightens. “I know, baby.”

I don’t lie to her to make her feel better in the moment because I have a feeling that this night is only going to get worse before it gets better.

I stop behind the thickest trunk I can find and shift her weight, pressing her back to my chest so I can wrap my arms around her tighter, keeping her upright as her knees start to give.

“He was awful to you,” I murmur into her hair. “He didn’t protect you. He used you. But I know that doesn’t make this hurt any less.”

She nods, barely. Like the movement costs her everything.

“I didn’t want him dead,” she says. “I just wanted him to leave me alone. I wanted him to stop ganging up on me with our parents.”

“I know, baby. He can’t hurt you anymore. No one can,” I whisper because I need her to believe me. After tonight, no one causes her any more pain. We’re done with all of this.

I can feel my girl trembling, like she’s vibrating under my skin. Every shaky inhale slices into me. I’d do anything, ruin anyone, to take this pain off her shoulders, to go back and stop all of this before it started.

“Do you think it was Vincent?” she whispers. “If my parents set all of that up the night we came here. Maybe Adam wasn’t in on the whole plan. Maybe…”

I don’t answer right away. My jaw tightens. Because yeah, it could’ve been. Or it could’ve been someone working for him. Or someone else entirely.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I’m going to find out.”

I run my hand through her hair, long slow passes, whispering whatever quiet things I can think of…

sweet nothings I don’t even remember forming in my head before they’re pouring out of my mouth.

Just sound and breath and comfort. My chest feels like it’s caving in.

Like someone’s got their hand around my heart and they’re squeezing, punishing me for letting her be hurt this way.

Hayden is the first to speak when everyone makes it up to behind the vehicles. “We need to leave. It’s too risky to try to get up to the house.” He’s pushing Madi toward the car, and I know he’s worried about her.

“If we leave now,” Ramsey snaps, appearing beside us like fucking Beetlejuice, “whoever’s behind this shit is going to follow you back to Castlebrook. And now my fucking face is attached to all of it.”

Lilac takes a deep, ragged breath and lifts her chin.

“We end this tonight,” she says. Her voice is frayed but strong. “I’m tired of looking over my shoulder every time I step outside.”

“Same,” Madison and Winter echo behind her, nodding their heads.

“I have an idea,” Hayden chimes in.

Tristan groans. “I need to be sedated if we’re letting Lockwood take over the plan.”

Hayden ignores him, holding up a can of lighter fluid. “We want them to come to us, right? So we can see where they are and how many of them there are. We douse the outside of the mansion and pick them off when they come running out.”

My jaw tightens.

“How do you suggest we do that without getting shot?” I bark. My nerves are fraying, and the idea of Lilac anywhere near this shit show makes my skin crawl. “We shouldn’t have brought the girls.”

Winter speaks up sharply. “And if you left us home, you’d be worried the entire time that someone had gotten to us. This was the only way.”

She’s right, and we all know it, but it doesn’t mean I like it.

Hayden nods. “Tristan stays with Ramsey’s car and the girls.

If shit goes sideways, you leave with them and we’re on our own.

” I think Hayden can see my apprehension because he says, “You know he’ll do right by them if it came to it.

” I know what he’s talking about. I heard about what he did when they were attacked at the bonfire.

They were up against the wall with no options and one of the men were demanding that he hand Winter over to him.

Hayden told me that Tristan grabbed her by the neck and said he’d snap it before he’d let them take her.

Hayden also said he thought he’d really do it.

Not that it’s a great option, but being tortured by men she didn’t know was worse.

I don’t like any of this. Not one bit. But I shut my mouth and listen.

“Ramsey and Callum toss the gas and lighter fluid. Quick, controlled, then backtrack.”

Madison doesn’t speak up, but the way she’s clinging to Hayden’s arm says plenty. Her eyes are locked on his face like she’s memorizing him, just in case. And I know that look. Because Lilac’s doing the same thing to me.

She wraps her arms around me and I pull her into me, holding her tight as I lift her chin.

“It’s going to be fine,” I say softly. “You believe me, right?”

She nods, tears swimming in her eyes. “I believe you.”

I kiss her once, quick and firm, before stepping back.

But we don’t even get a chance to move on with the plan because we hear tires screaming against the road.

A black Bentley barrels down the lane toward us, and I react without thinking. My arm shoots out, dragging Lilac out of the way just before I fire through the windshield.

“That’s Professor Whittaker! I recognize him from photos I saw when we were researching the place. He just looks older,” Lilac exclaims just as the shot hits him. The car jerks violently, veering off-course and slams head-on into the side of Hayden’s SUV.

Metal crunches. Glass explodes. I get Lilac clear, but the fender clips my shoulder, sending me flying.

I slam into the side panel with a sickening crack. That’s going to fucking hurt tomorrow.

I hear Lilac scream and she falls, rolling down the slight embankment and off the road.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I blink through the fog, pain ricocheting through my shoulder, but all I see is her.

Lilac.

In the goddamn dirt.

And Hayden is reaching for her.

“Don’t fucking touch my wife,” I snap, louder than I mean to, dragging myself upright and stumbling toward her.

She’s not my wife. Our engagement was fake.

For her, maybe.

But the word rolls off my tongue like it belongs there. Like it’s never not been true. Because she will be my wife. Not one day. Not eventually.

Soon.

I scoop her up into my arms, cradling her against my chest. No one else gets to hold her. I’d have to be dead before I let someone else carry her.

Her arms curl around my neck, fingers twisting into my shirt like she needs to make sure I’m still here.

Her cheek is already red and swelling, and the sight makes something inside me snap. I shove the rage down, try to focus, try to stay steady. The danger isn’t gone yet. We don’t know who else might show up. We don’t know anything.

Hayden and Tristan creep toward the wreckage with their guns drawn.

“How the fuck do you have a Bentley and live in a shithole like this place?” Hayden, always asking the important questions.

“He’s the only one in the vehicle,” Tristan calls out. “He has a gun in his lap. Could have been the one who shot Fairbanks.”

I nod, leaning down to kiss Lilac’s temple. She’s shaking. Her breathing’s all off again.

I whisper something soft against her hair, something just for her. And when I feel her nod against my chest, I force myself to set her down next to Madison and Winter.

“Stay right here,” I murmur, cupping her face, pressing a kiss to her lips. “You don’t move unless Tristan tells you to. Got it?”

She nods again, and I don’t look away from my girl until Tristan moves to her side.

I have to put my trust into him, that he’ll keep the girls safe.

I watch him help the girls into Ramsey’s vehicle and only then do I turn back to the wrecked car, because we’re not done yet.

The old man couldn’t have pulled this off himself.

I approach carefully, gun still raised, but something shifts in the trees behind me. Just a whisper of movement, leaves rustling where they shouldn't be.

I spin, gun trained on the treeline. Something bright flashes between a couple of tree trunks. It's white, not an animal, definitely a person.

I shoot low, aimed not to kill because I want fucking answers.

A high-pitched scream cuts through the trees, followed by hysterical wailing.

“What the fuck?” Hayden mutters, eyes narrowing. He gets there before I do, dragging a small crumpled figure out from behind the underbrush. There’s blood, a lot of it, staining one of the guy’s pants legs.

Danny.