Page 15 of Resolve
He pokes my forehead, and I frown, rubbing that spot. “No. It showed us more of what he’s capable of. How he fights.”
“And?” Aiden questions.
Jack shrugs nonchalantly. “Attacking him head-on with power may not be the way to win against him, but I still think her gift can do it.”
“How?” I demand, incredulous. “I’ve never been able to pierce through Kell’s gift.”
“Charles’s gift is an imitation. It’s imperfect. There’s a weakness to it if we can find it.”
“Jack. I threw everything I had at him.Everything.I can’t beat him.”
He smiles, tucking my hair behind one ear. “Don’t give up, little one. He wins the second you do.”
Fuck. He’s right. But I’m not sure what more I can do against him that I didn’t already try.
Aiden looks between me and Jack, probably reading my uncertainty. “We’ll consider that as a possibility, but we need other plans to try against him—”
The door to the Loft slams open. “Where is she?!” Kellan bellows, charging inside and immediately looking around. The second he sees me, he storms over, lifting my thighs around his waist and crushing me in a kiss. I throw my arms around him, a soft sigh falling from my lips now that we’re all together again.
“Get out of the kitchen, Kell!” Dane snaps. “Before you break something or bump one of us into the stove.”
He carries me with him to the living room, pressing me back against the wall. Kell grabs my hair and pulls my head to the side, baring my neck to him before he pinches the skin between his teeth. I release a startled shout at the sudden burst of pain before he’s sucking it away.
“Kell, what the—”
“You scared the fuck outta me, beautiful,” he growls into my neck. “I didn’t want to believe anything that bastard said, but seeing him after you’d been fighting... there was a split second when I thought it. When I thought you’d died. And my heart almost gave out right then and there.” His chest heaves as if he’d run up here, but the elevator’s the only way to the Loft. “And then when I saw you lying unconscious in that puddle...”
I grab his face with both hands. “It’s okay. I’m right here. I’m okay.”
He yanks me into another bruising kiss that rattles my bones and has me seeing stars. “Kell,” I gasp for air before his lips are on mineagain.
“Let her breathe, for fuck’s sake!” Dane yells. “She’s still recovering!”
Kellan smacks his hand against the wall over my head and finally withdraws, his shoulders shaking as he catches his breath. He sets me down, and I lean into him as oxygen refills my lungs, and I wait for strength to return to my legs. He wipes a hand over his face and then strokes a thumb along my cheekbone. “Sorry, beautiful. You alright?”
“Yeah.”
“Explain,” Aiden demands from the kitchen, and Jack does, updating him on my near-death experience with Charles and how I’d almost drowned. Like him. By the time he’s finished, I’ve returned to my coffee and taken a seat at the dining table with it. Kell leans against the back of the living room couch, and Dane is plating the last of the French toast.
Aiden lifts his hand, opening and then fisting it. “I need more metal.”
Dane nods. “The usual source for your titanium is apparently dealing with some other issues right now that have wiped out their stockpile. I’ve been calling around to see who else has anything in stock to buy whatever we can get.”
“That has Charles written all over it.” Kellan crosses his arms. “But it’s old news. Now that he thinks you’re dead, we’ll have to get it from somewhere further away and he wouldn’t suspect.”
“Have the other attacks on the Guild stopped at least?” I ask, realization sinking in that we might actually have an advantage now. He thinks Aiden and I are both dead. We may as well be invisible to him, so long as we don’t do anything to draw his attention.
“Cibrina’s been keeping up the ruse that you’re both missing with a search party that, of course, turned up nothing,” Dane explains while taking a seat at the table. “Detective Unger won’t be able to try taking Aiden down for Thorne’s murder with no Aiden, so we should be getting a break from him. We’re waiting on the results of the tax audit, and the offshore account is still frozen.”
Kellan points his fork at Dane after swallowing a mouthful. “The shit articles about the Guild were taken down, and there haven’t been any reported attacks on Guild members at jobs or while they’re out.”
Dane scoffs. “Yeah, well, the damage has already been done. Our job options are lower than they’ve ever been.”
“Let the PR company deal with that now,” Aiden reasons. “What else? Charles threatened to take the Guild after my death, so I’m surprised we’re all sitting here right now.”
“Oh, he came here right after his fight with Rae. He was looking for me and trying to convince the members to flip their loyalty to GE.”
Aiden thumbs the rim of his mug. “I imagine that didn’t go to his liking.”
