Page 75 of Restitution

“No!” Ewan yells and pulls his son against his chest tighter. “No, no, no.” He rocks back and forth, tears soaking his cheeks as he mouths,Please, please, please,constantly. “Wake up, Jason. Wake up. I can’t do this without you.”

My chest hollows at the sight of him pleading with everyone to bring his child back.

“This isn’t how it should be. You can’t die, son. You can’t fucking leave me. Please.Pleasewake up.”

“What happened?” Lu croaks, her eyes swollen with tears. Base is still behind her, holding her, unable to speak as he rubs her shoulders, his jaw clamped shut.

“What happened?” she asks again. “Who did this?” Her wordsare angrier, louder, full of venom. “Who killed my brother?”

Tobias Mitchell’s genetics runs deep in her, and with the dark look on her face, the tension in her jaw and the tone in which she snarls each word, I can see that side of him everyone fears.

Luciella is her father’s daughter. Through and through.

“She…” Aria gulps, tears sliding down her face as she moves closer to her husband, linking her arm around his shoulder so he cries against her. “Bernadette. She tried to shoot Stacey. He threw himself in front of her. He… he saved her,” she says, and I close my eyes as Ewan erupts into a louder cry.

Jason McElroy is a hero. My hero. Everyone’s.

The wound in his head is still leaking profusely – blood is puddling beneath us. Our knees are stained crimson, the smell of copper filling our noses, but no one moves.

“I’ll get Kade. He’s still locked in his room,” Base says in a soft voice. “What do you want me to do?”

“Kill them all,” Ewan snaps, his eyes blazing as they lift to the Russian Scot. “You have power. You have two armies behind you. You want to help? You kill them all. I want that family to burn alive and be wiped from existence.”

“It was my team who stopped one of the cars,” he reports. This is a side of him I’ve never witnessed. Serious. Unsure. “I’ll see what else I can do, but I hold very little power until I’m fully sworn into the empire.” Base stands still, not blinking, his throat working on a swallow. “I’ll speak to my grandfather.”

He looks at Luciella for a second; nods to her as if to ask,Okay? And when she gives him a sad half-smile, he kisses the side of her head, snatches his phone from his pocket and walks back upstairs.

The shooting outside has stopped.

But Barry and his team are still hunting the forest for the final guard who managed to run when they stopped one of the cars. Ewan continues to cry for his son. I look at Aria, wiping under my eyes with my hands.

“What do we do about Kade?” I don’t even recognise my voice. “I don’t think he’ll survive this.”

He should know what’s going on. But I’m not sure if he’ll be able to handle any of it. This could be the very thing that knocks him off course, losing himself forever.

No one answers.

“I’m taking him to the hospital.” Ewan stands and lifts Jason’s body into him, barely struggling under the weight. His cheeks are drenched in tears. “I can’t just sit here.” Ewan settles Jason on the sofa, crouches beside him and rests his hand on his chest. “I need a car.”

When Base comes back in, he’s pale, and I know the call didn’t go well. “I can have you transported to the hospital,” he tells Ewan. He says nothing about the phone call, but he gives Luciella a look that says he’s failed.

“We need to tell Kade,” Aria decides, sniffing, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, smearing more blood. “He should know what’s happening.”

I get to my feet, but I’m unbalanced, and I grab the sideboard. “I’ll get him.”

“I can go to him, if you want?” Base offers.

I shake my head. “I’ll do it.”

24

STACEY

The walk to the room he’s in feels like miles. Every step I take has my heart beating harder, leaving bloody hands on the banister as I ascend the steps. The lodge is huge – but surely he heard the gunshots?

Unless he assumed they were hallucinations.

The corridor is long and narrow, and when I make it to the door, I freeze.