Page 80 of Silent Fire (Sin & Steel #6)

“ Mi alma ,” he whispered, the words seeming to resonate straight into Noel’s bones.

“My heart.” He sealed their mouths together in a scorching kiss, deep and soul-shaking in its intensity.

When they finally broke apart, Tomas rested their foreheads together, eyes shining with unshed emotion.

“With everything I am, for as long as I breathe. You’re my forever, carino . Te amo , Noel.”

For the first time he could remember, Noel drifted off to sleep without a trace of fear lingering in the back of his mind. He had his wolf to stand sentry, his shelter from the storm.

Tomas held him through the night, keeping the nightmares at bay. In his arms, the horrors of Noel’s past faded into insignificance. Only peace remained, a fragile yet unbreakable thing.

This was home. This was everything.

* * * *

A week later, Tomas was outside tuning his bike when Diablo approached. The big man’s expression was grim, jaw set in a hard line.

“Got a lead on that pendejo Brian,” Diablo rumbled, folding his thick arms across his chest.

Tomas stilled, knuckles tightening on the wrench. His beasts stirred, hackles raised and claws itching for vengeance.

“Where?” The word emerged as more growl than speech.

Diablo’s lip curled. “Holed up at his new boyfriend’s place across town. The cabrón’s been shacking up while hunting your mate.”

White-hot fury skewered Tomas. The wrench slipped from his hand, a clang of metal on concrete. That sick fuck had been coming after Noel, his sweet little flower, while playing house with some other poor bastard.

“I’m gonna separate the hijo de puta from his miserable existence,” Tomas snarled. He straightened, shoulders rolling as his wolf writhed and strained against its chains. “No more games, no more running. It ends tonight.”

“We end this fucker once and for all.” Diablo clapped him on the shoulder.

Tomas strode toward the bar, intent on grabbing his keys and weapon.

Noel was safely tucked away with the other mates at Macey’s house, gossiping and bonding over cookies or some other silly shit Tomas didn’t understand.

Suero and Cesar were there to watch over them.

So was Miguel, who was probably painting her house and cleaning out her gutters.

A faint smile tugged at his lips despite the fury burning deep in his bones.

He was so goddamn grateful Noel had found a place to belong, had finally begun putting down roots after years of trauma and loneliness.

His little flower deserved to bloom, unfurling those gorgeous petals in the sunshine without fear of being trampled.

And Tomas would burn the entire fucking world to make sure of it. Brian’s existence was a blight, a cancer that needed excising before it could metastasize and poison everything Tomas held dear.

A flicker of guilt twisted in his gut. He should be there, basking in Noel’s happiness and making new memories. Not out here, preparing to bring more violence into their lives. But he smothered the ember of doubt. This was for Noel, to ensure that his ex could never threaten or harm him again.

With a low growl, he beckoned Santiago over from where he stood at the bar. Tomas glanced at Matias, who was serving a customer. He gave a single nod, his alpha telling him to go get the son of a bitch.

Santiago sauntered toward Tomas, stopping for a second to say something to Luca, then joined them at the door. “What’s up?”

“Found him,” Tomas said, jaw tight.

“Then we ride,” Santiago said with a roll of his shoulders. “We take my truck so no one hears our bikes.” His mouth curved in a wolfish grin. “Plus, we’ll have transportation for his body once you’re done with him.”

Diablo chuckled, and Tomas wanted to do the same, but all he could see was his mate lying in that hospital bed. “Let’s go. Antes de que pierda la poca cordura que me queda .”

The three strode out into the night, letting the door slam shut behind them with cold finality.

The drive passed in a blur of neon and shadow, Tomas staring down at his phone, at the picture he’d taken of him and Noel sitting at the bar, both grinning like two idiots completely in love.

A brilliant smile curved those pretty lips, crinkling the corners of Noel’s eyes.

Tomas drank in the sight like a man dying of thirst, committing every detail to memory.

When they finally pulled up outside the nondescript suburban house, Tomas felt his beasts surge forward, but not so close he shifted. His vision sharpened, and every sense heightened. Smells were stronger, his hearing sharper. Inside, a TV was on, and someone sighed as the refrigerator kicked on.

He led the way up the front walk, the synchronized steps soundless.

Diablo said, low enough for only them to hear, “The kill is yours, but you’ve gotta at least me bust the door down. I love when a motherfucker pisses his pants at the sight of me.”

Tomas frowned at him. “No way.”

“You got to kill that hyena outside the warehouse,” Diablo quietly argued.

“Man’s gotta point.” Santiago smirked. “He needs to be a part of this, even if it’s a teeny tiny roll.”

Diablo scowled at Santiago.

Tomas rolled his eyes as he shook his head then gestured at the door. “Be my guest, crybaby.” Then his eyes narrowed. “That’s all you’re going to do besides watch my back. We clear?”

“As a crystal ball.” Diablo winked.

The brother wasn’t right in the head. Tomas and Santiago stepped aside, scanning the neighborhood.

With one vicious kick, the front door crashed inward, wood splintering under Diablo’s massive weight.

“Happy?” Tomas asked.

Diablo let out a dark laugh, gesturing for Tomas to enter. “Only when my pajarito blushes.”

Tomas felt the same way about his little flower’s smile. The reminder of how Brian had tried to snuff out such a beautiful soul caused Tomas’s fury to drill through him once more. Both beasts were straining at their cages as Tomas stepped inside, the Salvador enforcers flanking him.

Brian was quickly digging through a drawer on the end table, then whirled around, eyes going wide.

The pistol in his hand swung up instinctively, but Tomas was already moving.

Not this time. He crossed the distance in a blur, knocking the gun aside with a brutal backhand.

Bones crunched beneath the force of the blow, but Tomas felt no satisfaction.

Not yet. Not until Brian lay dead at his feet.

Looming over the sniveling worm, Tomas inhaled the scent of Brian’s panic—sour sweat and bitter adrenaline.

The man’s lips worked soundlessly, brown gaze darting between the three intruders.

He was as tall as Tomas, thickly built, which would’ve made any strike he’d given Noel three times as painful.

“Wh-what do you want?” Brian finally gasped out with a shrill voice. “Money? I’ll give you anything, just don’t—”

“Don’t what?” Tomas tilted his head, letting the full force of his rage bleed into his expression. “Don’t abuse someone weaker? Don’t avenge the suffering you put my mate through?”

Brian flinched, shrinking back. “Your m-mate? What the fuck are you talking about, you sick freaks?”

“Noel.” Tomas dropped the word like a gavel of shifter justice. “The beautiful man whose life you tried to destroy.” He leaned closer, baring elongated canines. “You put a bullet in mi elegido .”

“And shot you in the back,” Diablo said from where he was leaning his shoulder into the wall, hands crossed in front of him. His gaze swung to Brian. “ Disfrutaré viendo como la vida sangra de tus ojos.”

“Noel?” Brian rose from his crouched position, his laughter quiet but stretched with smug amusement. “That little bitch? He got exactly what was coming to him. That ungrateful whore belongs to me .”

Before he could process the movement, Tomas’s fist slammed into Brian’s face with a sickening crunch of cartilage. Blood sprayed in a wide arc as the bastard crumpled, wailing in agony.

“Every time I close my eyes, I see what you did. You think I’ll let that go?” Tomas snarled.

“I’m sorry.” Brian pinched his nose, trying to stem the bleeding.

Seeing the blood coating Brian’s mouth gave Tomas flashes of yanking Noel off the bed when Tomas realized he’d been shot. He’d paced the waiting room for hours, feeling like he was dying as Noel underwent surgery to repair the damage caused by Brian’s bullet.

Tomas’s breaths were uneven, hands twitching. “I don’t want an apology,” he said in a low voice. “I want to hear your last fucking breath.” He reached down and yanked Brian to his feet then pinned him with a forearm across his throat.

Leaning in, Tomas let his lycanthrope take control of his features until his face was no longer human. With a vicious snarl, he sank his claws in and tore out Brian’s black heart.

No one would ever threaten his little flower again. Noel was safe, untouchable, because Tomas would gladly wade through an ocean of viscera to keep him that way.

Dropping the useless organ to the floor, he turned and strode from the house without a backward glance.

In the distance, a dog barked. Sprinklers hissed to life in a mockery of the violence he’d just wrought. But Tomas felt no remorse, only a bone-deep sense of satisfaction.

His mate was finally free of his tormentor’s shadow.

No more running. No more fear.

Now, they could begin building the life they were meant to share.

THE END

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