Page 120 of Ravaged Devotion

That was easy for a Black Hart.

But Ryker was severely injured. At serious risk of dying.

A fight meant wasting time and risking Bowie getting away long enough to kill him for real before any of them could stop him.

Bowie pulled a set of keys from his front pocket and held them up. “Cosima drove a red hovercar. It’s parked right outside. Get in, Rue. Leave with me.”

“Or what?” he asked. “Going to let those creatures eat me too?”

“You were never supposed to find out about my involvement,” Bowie sounded sad.

“Wow.”

“Try to understand. I’ve done too much to get here. Lenore…She wasn’t the only friend I lost along the way. At least take comfort in knowing if you do die, I’ll follow. There’s no point in living with this massive guilt if you’re dead too and I’m all alone.”

The fact he was openly admitting he’d rather watch Rue die than allow him to get away was daunting, but somehow not as much as the first part of that revelation.

“What other friend?” Bowie hadn’t gotten along with Penn or the others any more than Rue had. He couldn’t mean them. Was he talking about Rue’s mother? That also seemed unlikely. But that really only left— “Adams.”

They’d been told that Adams had died in an accident, but rumor had spread that Ryker was responsible. That he’d done it out of hatred toward Rue. He’d never believed that, and there wasn’t any evidence to back those claims up, but it’d never even occurred to him to question how they’d started in the first place.

“Tell me you didn’t murder Adams,” Rue said. Lenore had been an accident? Okay. He didn’t forgive him and it didn’t make it right, but he could at least see how the accident had occurred. But Adams?

He’d died in a car crash.

“I had to,” Bowie whispered.

“No.” Shit.

“He overheard Eulalie and I talking about the plan. I couldn’t let him live.”

“My mom knew?”

“It was her idea to spread the rumor that Ryker was responsible. She wanted him to feel even a sliver of what you had to go through with all those accusations against you.”

“I did leave Ryder and Uriel to fend for themselves that day,” Rue reminded. “Ryker had nothing to do with Adams. He—”

“Screwed him on Cor Night to get to you,” Bowie growled. “You cried the whole way home. Funny how you seem to have forgotten all the shit he put you through.”

This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

It was just wasting time.

Rue weighed his options. He could try fighting with him, maybe get the knife before Bowie could shove him aside and stab Ryker again. Or, he could lure Bowie away and give Ellery a chance to save him.

The man his mom had apparently seriously wronged.

As hard as it was to choose to leave him, Rue knew Ryker’s best chance at survival was with the other Black Hart.

“Okay,” he tried to sound certain when he spoke. “I’ll go with you, but only if you walk ahead.”

“No way.”

“Go to the door then. I’ll follow. But I’m not letting you hurt Ryker again. That’s nonnegotiable. I’d rather stay here and die with him than allow you to end his life.”

Bowie considered, probably figuring Ryker would die here on his own without medical attention anyway, and nodded once. “All right.”

Rue eased away from Ryker, keeping Bowie in his sights as his friend moved across the lobby.