Page 23 of Shattered Jewel
“Kaspian, don’t,” I gasp out. “She didn’t mean to. She’s not in her right mind.”
“Oh, I think I’ve grasped that part of the situation.”
“I’d calmed her down!” I shout. “She wasn’t going to hurt us.”
Kaspian acts like he doesn’t hear me. “Put down the gun, Caroline, or I shoot your daughter.”
My stomach turns to ice, though I hold his stare, ensuring the silent accusation in mine speaks louder than words ever could. “You wouldn’t.”
The Kaspian who stands in front of me is a stranger. This isn’t the man who promised to break me so he could put me back together with feverish, orgasmic care. His face doesn’t burn with that brutal oath, nor does his cold, calculated expression crack the way it did when he pushed into me the first time.
No, I’m looking at the face of a killer. A trained, brutalized assassin who follows orders, not pleas.
“I’m not here to debate, beastie. Your mother is unstable and a threat.”
Mom’s shrill voice pierces the air behind me. “You won’t take my daughter! I won’t let you!”
I raise my hands, palms out, my heart thundering. “Please, both of you, just stop! Kaspian—leave. Why did you even come?”
His heartless expression doesn’t shift. “There was a situation with Cav that led me to believe something might happen to you, too. I tracked you here.”
I bare my teeth once he voices those words. “You were the one who broke in? Who tore through Maverick’s room and put my mother in this state?”
He blinks, his hardened exterior pulling before snapping back. “Wasn’t me.” His finger tightens on the trigger as he looks over my shoulder, and I stiffen. “Last warning, Caroline.”
He’s not going to shoot me. I know this in a place deeper than bone or marrow, surer than a heartbeat.
Sasha inches closer, her hands still raised. “Kaspian, please. She’s not well. We need to get her help, not threaten her.”
At that moment, time slows.
I read the certainty in Kaspian’s eyes that he will shoot Mom and can sense the madness in my mother’s at my back. I feel the weight of the burdens they both carry, the cursed legacies that have driven us to this point.
And I make a choice.
I lunge forward, reaching for Kaspian’s gun. He reacts instantly, twisting away, but my fingers brush the barrel, throwing off his aim. The shot rings out, deafening in the confined space, and I hear Sasha scream.
I whirl around, terrified of what I’ll see. But my mother is unharmed, standing now as she points her gun at Kaspian.
“You missed,” she hisses. “But I won’t.”
“Mom, no!”
Too late.
Chapter 6
Elara
Tempest Callahan and Miguel Rossi stride through the front door of Farrow Estate like they own the place, leather and scruff highlighting their preference for darkness. The Vultures’ presence makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end even though I’m the one who looked up Tempest’s number in the online campus directory and blubbered out my need for incognito medical help.
Kaspian was shot, my mom did it, and I’m desperate not to call the police.
Both men are incredibly handsome, but my attention lands on Rossi and doesn’t move for a good few seconds. Maybe because I’d already dissected Tempest’s good looks when he cornered me in front of an abandoned mine a few weeks ago, and Rossi, former Professor at TFU, is now a whispered myth around campus.
His dark chocolate hair flows back from a sharp, jaded face. The golden undertones in his skin and subtle streaks of white in his hair aren’t enough for the angel to win over the devil. He’s tall, huge, and, according to Tempest, a former surgeon.
My eyes drop to Rossi’s hands. Ones that when spread, could cover my entire face with ease.