Page 4 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
What would it be like to command that kind of respect?
Morello climbed into the backseat of the Mercedes, and Frankie closed the door.
“Don’t make me regret this, Mount, because I will fucking bury you alive if you betray me or mine.”
“Understood, sir. You won’t regret it.”
“Good.”
Frankie climbed in and fired up the busted car that saved my life. Somewhere along the bumpy ride to wherever the hell we were going, I silently passed out from the pain.
Keira
Present day
Pain slices through me as I regain consciousness. The car door flies open, and gravity sends me tilting to the side. Strong arms stop my fall.
“I got you. Open your eyes, hellion. Open your fucking eyes for me. Goddammit, I’m not going to lose you now.”
That voice. Deep. Dark. Rough. It was the voice of the devil, but not anymore. Now it’s the voice of the man I was furious I wasn’t going to be allowed to keep after we returned to New Orleans.
My eyelids flicker open, and I feel like there’s a dent where my skull smacked the window as we hurtled around the corner and plowed through a lamppost. A headache pounds relentlessly in my temple. When I meet the familiar dark gaze, his dread morphs into relief. The burning heat in those eyes used to send tremors of fear shuddering through me, but now it gives me strength.
“Thank fucking Christ.” His forehead touches mine lightly, and I breathe in his woodsy citrus scent.
“You think you’re going to get rid of me that easily?” My words come out weak and slurred, with none of the confidence I intended. I try to sit up, but pain stabs into my right side. “Dammit, that hurts. What happened?”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re gonna be fine. I swear to you on my life that you will be fine.”
The way he says it, with absolute conviction underlying every word, I believe him.
I drop my gaze from his and take in the blood covering my shirt and the shards of glass everywhere. “Oh shit.”
His big hand grips my chin and brings my attention back up to his eyes, but not before I see the red staining his clothes as well.
“Oh God. We need help.”
“We’re going to be fine. Understand me? You need to hold it together. Can you do that?”
I nod as my skull threatens to crack from the thumping. Bile rises in my throat.
“Block out the pain, Keira. You can do it.”
I take a shallow breath and shudder. “I can do it,” I say, no clue if I’m lying or not.
“Good girl.” He rips off his suit jacket and presses it against my side. “Hold this tight, like your fucking life depends on it. You got me?”
When Lachlan Mount says to do something like your life depends on it, it actually might. I remember the dread I saw in his eyes only moments before.
“Am I dying?” Instead of sadness, anger rushes in. I’m not ready. I’m not done with this world. I’m not done with this man.
“You are not fucking dying. I won’t allow it.” His words are backed by steely determination and raw tenacity.
“Okay.” I press the jacket tighter against the source of the pain in my right side as he slides an arm around my back.
“We’re getting the fuck out of here. My people are on their way. Hold tight.”
I give him another nod, stars bursting in my vision with every movement as Lachlan lifts me out of the car, staying low and rounding the rear of it to pause between the crumpled front end and the building it crashed into. He stumbles with a grunt, and the sound of his suffering spears into me worse than my own.
