Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)(74)

“I know,” I murmured.

“And what I said.” Kai’s one hand rested on my hip, his other cupped my check. “Fuck, I needed you to live and the best way was for you to give in to them. I didn’t know when… or if I could get to you.”

Kai never experienced love or trust, but I had. No matter what he’d said to me that day, no matter how crushed and angry I was that he walked away, I knew Kai and why he’d said it.

I went dead inside and trusted he’d come back. I gave them what they needed to see, a girl lost and broken with no hope, and I quietly got stronger.

“You never gave up.”

He said it as if he couldn’t yet believe that I was in front of him.

“I never gave up on us.”

I saw the conflict on his face as he looked down at my hand resting on his chest. His heartbeat was steady and rhythmic like it always was. It was the comfort I needed because no matter how I felt about Kai, he would always carry in him a darkness that scared me. But when I touched him, felt his heart beat, it reminded me that he was real, that this man whether I wanted it or not, was inside me. A part of me. We were tied together.

I heard a loud yowl come from the back of the SUV and he stood up straight, bringing me with him. We both looked over and saw the vehicle lurch side to side. Tyler went flying backwards and landed on his butt on the ground several feet from the back.

Through the tinted windows, I saw Deck inside the vehicle kneeling on the back seat, his arm curved around Connor’s throat as he continued thrashing trying to break free. He was Georgie’s brother, the man they’d been using my father’s drug on, the man who took me from Kai’s house.

“What are they doing to him?”

“They started placing GPS chips in recruits, operatives, whoever they wanted to track or make certain never escaped them. When Chess was able to contact Tristan, she told him about them and their vulnerabilities. Tristan had someone develop a device to pinpoint its location in the body.”

“There are lots of machines that do that, aren’t there?”

“Yes. But not ones that won’t set them off.”

“What do you mean?”

He kissed me lightly on the mouth. My lips were dry and cracked and the sensitive flesh hurt even with his gentleness. “I promise you’ll be fine.”

“He’s going to scan me?”

Tristan walked toward us, his long strides eating up the ground. He nodded to Kai. “Found it. Bridge of his foot.” He held a small black box in his hand and it had a little green light flashing on the front edge. “Ready?”

Kai nodded and moved to the side.

“Just going to run this device over your body, okay?”

“I’m not going to blow up?”

Tristan chuckled. Kai didn’t.

“Go for it,” I said.

Tristan crouched then started at my feet then up my leg and down the other one. The machine started beeping and flashing red when he reached the right side of my pelvis. Tristan placed the machine on the hood of the car and reached for the bottom of my shirt to pull it up.

Kai’s hand latched onto his wrist. “I’ll do it.”

Tristan shook his head, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. He let me go then tossed a wad of gauze, a roll of medical tape and a bottle of disinfectant on the hood next to me. “Damage it while removing and both of you will blow up into a million little pieces of flesh.”

“Fuck.” I stopped breathing.

Kai ignored me and took out his knife. “Then we blow to pieces. No one is touching her with a f*ckin’ blade except me.”

“Kai?” Fear skidded into me. I had a ticking time bomb under my skin?

Tristan shrugged and walked away.

“Don’t move,” Kai ordered as he pressed me back onto the hood of the car. “I’d like to have a chance at sinking between your thighs again, braveheart.”

“Jesus, Kai.”

And then I saw his easy-going grin and a wave of comfort seeped into me. He poured the disinfectant over the blade of his knife then I leaned back on the hood and he lifted my shirt. His fingers palpated the right side of my pelvis. I’d never noticed anything there, but then again, I’d been more concerned about my next drink of water than any tiny, unusual lump I may have.

“Here.” He pinched my skin an inch away from my hip bone. He raised his head and looked at me. “Try and refrain from moving and killing us both.”

I raised my brows. “Maybe you should ask someone who knows how to handle a knife.”

He chuckled and I sighed as the familiar sound washed over me. He lowered the blade and sliced into my skin. I bit the inside of my cheeks as Kai carefully stretched my skin apart with his fingers then the tip of his knife sank into my flesh.

I didn’t watch, but felt a slight pop when the microchip came free. “Got it.” He held up his blade, the tiny device sitting on the flat edge of it.

I pushed down my shirt and sat up. “Now what?”

“Tyler and Josh will take them on a little ride. Should keep any Vault operatives busy for a few days. Then they’ll destroy them.”

Deck approached us and nodded to me. “Good to see you’re okay, London.” I doubted that. Our last encounter, I’d been Raven and I’d held a gun on Georgie’s friend Emily. He took the microchip from Kai and walked back to the SUV.