Fearless (Broken Love, #5)(16)

Dash lifted Willow, who looked barely awake, in his arms and started for the stairs. “Guys,” Sheldon started, looking pained. “What are we going to do if she did it?”

They all turned to face me for an answer, but all I felt was an overbearing constriction in my chest.

What was I going to do?





Chapter Four


LAKE

SEVEN MONTHS AGO



I wanted this motherfucker dead. I gripped the wooden handle until my hand ached and willed my feet forward. He watched me with a taunting leer as I approached his bedside. It wasn’t until I was near him that I raised the knife from under my shirt.

Quick and clean and it would be over.

His eyes lost the mocking glint at the sight of the knife.

I felt powerful and doomed all at once. Powerful for doing what needed to be done and doomed because the cost would be my soul.

Once I took his life, there would be no turning back, but it had to be done. I had a love to protect.

“Think about what you’ll be giving up.” He sneered.

“No, Mitch. I’m thinking about what I intend to keep.” I blinked hard to clear my vision of tears and lifted the knife to strike. I aimed for his heart and struck, but I didn’t hear his cry of pain or see his blood escape. My knife never even pierced his flesh.

Mitch didn’t die.

“Lake, what the fuck, girl?”

Shit. Shit. Shit!

I quickly recovered and snatched my arm out of Q’s grip and faced him. “What the hell are you doing here?” This was bad. Real bad. He would tell Keiran I was here and what I almost did.

“I could ask you the same, so I will. What the hell did I just catch you doing? You’re a killer now?”

“I learned from the best.”

“You learned nothing, and the fact that you’re this stupid place tells me you don’t even have a clue.”

“Then tell me, Q. What am I not getting?” I had almost forgotten Mitch was in the room, but I could feel him watching us.

“Keiran is fucked up. I’m fucked up. Do you want to be fucked up, too?”

“It’s just one man, and Keiran isn’t fucked up. Not anymore.”

“If you really believed that then why are you here?”

“Because if I don’t kill him, I’ll lose Keiran forever.” I choked before I could complete the admission, but it didn’t matter because I felt the threat of it all the same.

Q’s eyes flashed with sympathy as he swept a stray hair behind my ear. If Keiran were here, he’d probably break his hand despite the innocence of the act. “This was stupid, girl. Keiran has killed, but he’s no professional. It would be hard for even him to pull this off and you’re about to kill a man in broad daylight with more than enough people in this facility to catch you.”

I felt the weight of his words on my shoulders and slumped against him. “What am I supposed to do? He can’t live.”

“I agree.”

I felt a chill run down my spine at the change in his tone and looked up. I had expected him to argue but in his eyes, I only saw murder. But then he blinked and the haze cleared. He pulled me across the room until I was standing in the far corner.

“But this isn’t your kill.”

My stomach turned at the thought of leaving Mitch alive. I couldn’t accept this. Q pulled his shirt over his head and wrapped it around his hand. His thin undershirt had lifted, uncovering his stomach when he stretched. I tried not to gawk at the brief glimpse of his physique, but Q was seriously cut into sharp, hard planes. I didn’t feel lust, but I did feel girlish admiration for his male form.

“I need to get rid of any prints.”

“If I may interject—” Mitch spoke for the first time since Q had shown up.

“You don’t have an opinion, bitch. You’re dead.” The room felt like I had climbed twenty-nine thousand feet up to the death zone. I couldn’t breathe, but the sound of my name brought me back to life again.

“Lake,” Q growled. He gripped me by my arms and shook me. “You need to get out of here. Now,” he added when I didn’t move.

“Me? What about you?”

“I’ll take care of everything.”

“What about Keiran?” It was a struggle to maintain eye contact, but I managed. His stare was invasive and cold.

“What about him?”

“Are you going to tell him a—about this?”

I could see the internal struggle as his eyes shifted. I was asking him to lie to his best friend. It wouldn’t be easy to convince him but he had to know Keiran finding out about this would be bad for everyone.

“I’m an accomplice to your lie now. The last thing I want to do is make an enemy out of him. He saved my life.”

God, I felt like such an asshole. I had tainted their friendship and created an invisible rift between them.

“You need to go. Don’t make me say it again.”

He nudged me to the door, but I couldn’t convince my feet to move. I took one last look at Mitch, who stared right back and winked.

“Okay,” I whispered.



*



PRESENT



I asked to make a phone call, knowing I needed a lawyer and fast, but was answered with an angry glare. That had been twelve hours ago and still no phone call. Today was Sunday so I knew I wouldn’t be before a court until tomorrow, which meant another night in this place. I had already been interrogated twice. The second round had been a string of angry threats and accusations.