Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(40)

No wounds.

No shackles.

Nothing but remorse on his practically adolescent face.

My jaw ground together and something foul crawled into my heart.

He looked at the ground.

Coward.

It was only when he stepped to the side that my heart cried.

Behind him, duct taped to a chair with a rag in her mouth, was the love of my life. I couldn’t see her eyes, they had a bag over her head and the desire to die overwhelmed me.

They trapped an angel in the dark, and it made my heart bleed from a thousand scars.

“Well?” Hyde, with that ugly disfigured face, stood from his chair.

I lifted the front of my shirt and spun slowly.

There would be no fight here, not if she would be free.

“You were always a stupid bastard.” He laughed.

I didn’t dare look at her.

This was no place for the sun.

“Me for her.” I jerked my head toward her shaking frame.

She could hear me.

I could tell by the garbled sounds coming from the hood that she was gagged, but she could hear me.

Hyde seemed unwilling to ruin his perfectly-tailored trap.

“Bucky.” He grunted and one of his lackeys stepped forward. “Take the girl outside.”

I took a step forward and shook my head.

“The kid,” I growled. “The kid takes her.”

The president crossed his heavy arms over his chest and studied me.

My soul had no room for compromise.

He jerked his head toward them, and the man cut her loose from the chair. Glitch reached for the bag on her head and my heart shuttered.

She wouldn’t need to have a memory of this.

“No.” My voice was certain. “Leave it on.”

He nodded, putting her arm around his shoulder.

I knelt to the ground, my arms slack at my sides as Glitch dragged her toward the door.

She screamed something through the gag in her mouth, and I closed me eyes.

I could feel her sunlight on me, and I smiled as Hyde’s fist connected with the side of my face. It almost knocked me over, but again, I kneeled in front of him.

My eyes remained shut.

There was the muffled sound of crying, but all I heard now was her voice in my memories.

“Then let me show you the sun.”

I saw her in my heart, that smile that wore me down shone brightly in my blood as his boot connected with my ribs.

“Show me the sun,” I whispered to her memory.

The vision of her in a yellow sundress danced on the bridge to my soul.

My head jerked backward as Hyde grabbed a fistful of my hair, his knee connecting with the underside of my chin.

“Read to me,” she asked.

“I would read you a thousand books,” I promised her through the blood in my teeth.

I felt the light of her in my mind grow duller.

“I love you,” I vowed to her when I felt his fingers curl under my chin.

She faded into my mind. “I love you, Rhys.”

I hung my head in his hand.

There would be no fight.

The angel goes home tonight.

And I return to the shadows.

I took my last breath and let go.

“What the f*ck?” Hyde hissed, and a shotgun blast shattered the roof above us.

My head fell as he dropped it.

I heard the sound of a gun loading, and then another shotgun blast hit the bar beside me.

My eyes felt heavy with lead from the beating.

“Back away from the kid,” a voice demanded.

I rolled to my back.

Grant stood in the center of the bar with a shotgun in his hands.

“The cops will be here any minute now.” He aimed in their direction. “You can waste your time killing him or you can run.”

The sound of a boot scraping the floorboard near my knee caused Grant to fire another shot into the ceiling.

“I suggest you run.” His voice was low, but I felt like I was hearing him underwater.

As my eyes started to blink shut, I saw red and blue lights skitter across the ceiling.

“Police!”

Men broke into chaos around us, and there were no more shots.

Just a blur, every sound became like the steady hum of an engine in traffic.

Every sound but the sound of her voice.

“Rhys,” she called out to me.

My heart fought against the dark. “Aurora,” I whispered.

I felt hands on my chin, and my eyes desperately tried to stay open.

She was there.

Her angel wings framing that face.

“I love you,” she promised, tears streaming down her face.

I lifted a bloody hand to cup her cheek. “So much it hurts,” I told her.

My nightmare was over.

It would be okay.

Everything was going to be okay.

My soul quit struggling as it went to the light.





Edmonton, Alberta - Edmonton Remand Center



September 2016



HYDE “THE PREZ” MURPHY AND Bradley “Bucky” Prak were arrested just outside The Haunt bar where they were found attempting to flee the scene of a kidnapping. They were both charged for kidnapping and assault. Along with their prior arrest warrants, they were both sentenced to twelve years in prison without the possibility of parole.