Page 145 of Lawless Rivals

I hear him. I even understand him. Crowley’s team will be here soon. Harrington’s men are gathering on the drive, and every second I stand here gives Alasdair more to use against me.

But fuck it all.

“Look at you, boy,” Alasdair chuckles. “Bleeding at my gate because a Harrington smiled at you in captivity. Did you think she’d want you? That she’d choose you over her own blood?”

My gaze drills into his.

He’s pushing me to shoot him. To make me the Tallon animal who reacted to a Harrington patriarch. If I give him that, Keira would never forgive me.

I lower the gun by a fraction, not as a surrender, though. More of a choice.

“She got the better of you,” he says. “And at the end of it all, she saw who you really are.”

I wipe blood from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand.

“How about ya let her speak for herself. Keira’s a grown woman, Harrington. Let her decide.”

Fionn sighs, and I look at him.

“Where did ya send her?” I repeat.

He doesn’t answer.

Alasdair’s voice cuts in. “Turn around now, before I have you put down in front of my gates.”

Dane’s hand grips my shoulder from behind. “We need to go.”

The first distant siren threads through the night.

“Run back to Black Heath, Tallon,” Alasdair flicks his wrist. “You lost.”

I glare at the two Harrington men. At Keira’s family.

Alasdair’s mouth holds its smug curve. Fionn stands beside him, suit jacket open, hands sliding into his trouser pockets.

“Time to leave, Tallon,” Fionn warns. “She’s gone.”

Gone.

The word empties something out of me so fast I almost don’t feel the blood running down my chin.

I came here ready to drag her away from them.

I didn’t come ready to find out she’d left without looking back.

My aim slides from Harrington to Fionn.

I step back from the gate.

One pace.

Then another.

I drag the back of my hand across my mouth, smearing blood over my knuckles. The taste of iron sits heavy on my tongue.

Dane says my name from behind me. “Saint.”

I lift the gun again.