Mack (King #4)(36)

It was all too fresh in my mind and heart. Hell, the body was still warm.

“Aren’t you a Seer?” I asked. “Don’t you have powers or something? You can bring him back!”

She shook her head. “I gave up my gifts to be with King—a long story, but everything in our world requires a sacrifice. A counterbalance or a trade-off. I traded my abilities for the thing I loved most.” She looked at me with pity. “Our only chance is finding that chalice.”

“How the hell do we do that?” I asked.

She glanced toward the open door leading outside. “I married the man who can find anything.”

“If it’s that easy to find the chalice, then why hasn’t he?”

She gave me a look. “Who said anything about easy? It took the man over three thousand years to find the rock I used to bind his curse.” Someday I’d have to ask her how she happened to be alive. From what I deduced, she knew King and Mack three thousand years ago. But that just didn’t matter right now.

I can’t accept this. I can’t, I thought, looking at Mack’s beautiful face.

“We’ll do everything we can to find the chalice. I promise,” Mia said.

“What about your brother?”

She looked down at the lifeless hand cupped between hers. “Mack once gave me the choice between bringing back King or my brother. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made because I knew how losing Justin destroyed my parents, but I made my choice that day. I chose King. I will always choose him until my last breath. I choose him now. And that man doesn’t know how to live or breathe without his twin—the connection they have is too deep.” She sighed. “Saving Mack is saving the man I love.”

“I love you, Mia,” said a deep, gravelly voice from behind us.

We both swiveled our heads toward King, who stood in the doorway, his fit arms stretching the black fabric of his finely tailored suit. And I had to admit, it wasn’t easy looking at the spitting image of the man I’d just made love to less than a handful of minutes ago. My heart ached for him in a way I’d never be able to articulate.

Mia stood and walked over to King, pushing herself onto her tiptoes to reach his lips. I felt so envious of the two. Come what may, they had each other.

Me?

I had a past I couldn’t remember and my heart lying bled out on the floor in front of me. I didn’t know the man, yet he was everything to me.

“How much?” I said.

I didn’t hear a reply, so I glanced at King and Mia. They looked confused.

I repeated, “How much? How f*cking much to bring him back?”

King frowned at me, clearly insulted. “You think I’d accept money for something like that?”

I shrugged. “All I know about you is that you’ve murdered me without mercy. And according to your wife here, you’re the guy who can find anything.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t even wipe my ass for you.”

“King,” Mia scolded.

“No.” He shot her a stern look. “There’s a reason I’ve kept killing her, and it’s lying on the floor right now. She can burn in hell.”

“I just want Mack back. That’s all,” I argued.

“You can find a deep dark hole to wither and die in. I will get my brother back.”

“I am not going to sit on my ass, waiting and hoping,” I said. “Not when he’s just as important to me as he is to you.”

King had a sinister look in his eyes.

“King, no,” Mia protested. “I know what you’re thinking. But your bartering days are over.”

Okay. What was King thinking? I continued listening.

“Not exactly,” King admitted.

“What?” Mia snapped. “But you told me you were done with running the 10 Club.”

Later, I would learn what the 10 Club was and why Mia seemed so adamant about King not being a part of it. For the moment, however, it was just one more piece of a world I was only beginning to understand.

“Mack was helping me dismantle it,” King said. “Obviously, that’s now put on hold. And I cannot leave it to run itself or someone else will take power. I must remain in charge until I can figure out a new plan.”

“Fuckingshit, King. No,” she barked. “Those people are dangerous.”

“So am I,” he replied.

“We have a baby. We have a life now,” she pleaded.

“Which is why you will return to the safety of our home in Crete while I do what I must to locate the chalice and take care of this hiccup with the 10 Club leadership.” He turned and looked at me. “As for you, I meant what I said. And I will give you five seconds to leave this place before I kill you for the sixth time. Or is it the seventh? I cannot remember.”

Mia’s face turned an angry shade of red. “I won’t let you—”

“No,” I interrupted. “It’s fine. I’ll go if it means I get to see Mack again.”

King growled. “If you so much as breathe my brother’s name again, I will remove your head and place it in a jar. But you won’t die, little Seer. You’ll live—for thousands of years if I wish it—screaming for help. But no one will hear you. Not a soul.” Mia opened her mouth to speak as he turned toward her. “And before you say a word, woman, I will remind you what you did to the man who gutted your brother like a fish.”