“It is now if you want to live to see another second,” Bullet snarls, lifting his gun and pointing it at Silver. “I will kill you, and your star witnesses along with it. I’ll make sure to make it look like you were killed in the fight. Then, I’m going to sic them on you, and anyone connected to you.” He nods at Glitch and Simba, who both nod and turn their hard glares on Silver. “And whatever they don’t finish, I’m sure my Old Lady can finish off.”
Sirens fill the air. Looks like our time is up.
“We’ll handle this,” Simba offers. He looks at Savage, who nods his agreement. “You all go handle whatever shit you have going on.”
“One second,” Rose suddenly says, stilling our movements. She walks over to Nikolai and slams her foot into his balls, making him groan and keel forward, gagging. Then she moves to Cryos, who is still lying on the ground. No one stops her. The pain in her eyes has my chest tightening. To Rose, we’re all her children. She’s lost four sons today, and now to find out anotherone betrayed them and was complicit in their deaths, I don’t know if she’ll ever truly recover from that.
I won’t blame her if she can’t.
She stands over Cryos, her face cold and completely detached. It’s a look that none of us ever wants to see her looking at us with. I look at Cryos, and I think this is hitting him more than the punch to the face that Bullet delivered. He looks broken. Defeated. I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for him.
“I’m terribly disappointed in you, Sean,” Rose tells him simply, using his legal name. Cryos jerks at that, but he doesn’t answer. “In all the times that you and I spoke, you never once seemed like you were struggling with anything. You acted like we could love you, trust you. I welcomed you into my home. Into my life. I treated you like I did my own son.”
The tightness of her voice has Cryos flinching again.
“I’ve been hoping for the day you’d grow out of your whore phase and find someone you love. Give me more grandbabies to raise. Clearly, I was wrong in thinking that you valued the time with us as much as I did. That you loved us.”
Her words are sharp. Biting.
“Maybe some day I might find it in my heart to forgive you, but right now, I want to forget you exist. When we clean out that space you used to fuck over the men who put their lives on the line for you, I’m going to do it without a single tear. With no emotion. Because you don’t deserve that. Not from them, and most certainly not from me.”
A lone tear falls down Cryos’s cheek, and agony covers his face when she turns her back on him. A final blow. Shutting him out forever.
“And when you go back to wherever is better than here, you’re going to realize how empty it all is. How empty you are. Maybe then you’ll realize just how much you’ve lost.” Then shewalks to Bullet, taking his hand tightly in hers and leaning into him, never once turning to look at Cryos again.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
AVERY
Sometimes you have to walk through the fire to realize just what you can handle, how strong you can be.
What the hellis going on out there? What was with all the shouting and everything outside the door? Theo is like a freaking wall, unmoving from his place in front of the door, gun in his hand and ready to fly up as soon as the door opens. Isla and Sawyer are sitting on the floor, quietly playing with a pack of cards they found on the small shelf in the corner. There are a couple of other things on it, but most of it is for younger children, which isn’t interesting to them.
Still, I can feel the tension radiating off them, even as I continue to pace.
“Would you freaking stop pacing?” Isla suddenly snaps. “You’re shuffling your feet, and if they screech one more time on the floor, I’m going to find a way to cut your feet off.”
I stop and turn to glare at her. “We really need to have a serious conversation about how bloodthirsty you’re getting. I don’t want the cops showing up at our door because of you running your mouth and freaking people out.”
Isla rolls her eyes. “Yeah, well, considering the last few months, what did you expect to happen? It’s not like every day you get to say that you’ve been kidnapped by Russians, then stay with a motorcycle club and around all these big, bad bikers? Well, the good ones. Those other assholes can crawl into a hole and die for all I care.”
“Isla!”
She holds my glare, unrepentant. “Tell me you’re not thinking the same thing? I mean, they hurt you, they’re working with the Russians, and?—”
“Wait just a fucking minute,” I interrupt, hands going to my hips. “How the hell do you know all of that? You weren’t around for any of those conversations.”
Isla shrugs. “You hear things, and people around here forget that we’re around sometimes. But for the last part, I heard Rose say something to Thea about the Misfits being traitors and working with the Russians when they were coming down here earlier. You know, before those jokers showed up and we got shoved in here and the door locked.” She glares at Theo’s back. “Which isn’t fair. Why do they get to stay out there, and we’re in here? Maybe I wanted to get in a few shots on the bad guys, too.”
“Because Thea is a trained Special Forces member and can handle herself,” I reply. “And Rose…well, Rose is Rose, and I don’t think anyone, or anything, could get her to stand down. We’re not trained to do shit and we’d just be in the way.”
Isla gives me a dubious look. “So, what, you wouldn’t be out there right now if you could and make sure that Hulk is okay?”
“That’s different,” I defend.
“What’s the deal with him anyway?” Sawyer asks, changing the topic. I have a feeling that’s on purpose. Not only to get my mind off whatever is happening out there, but to stop Isla and I from losing our shit at each other. We’re far too alike sometimes. “After this is all done, is he moving in?”
“We don’t have room for him,” Isla whines. “Between you and wannabe bad boy over here, I barely get any time in the bathroom in the mornings as it is. Add in Hulk, and I might as well shower in the street with the homeless guys down the block. At least there I’d get some kind of water.”
