Page 13 of Desperate Victory

Honestly, I’d never understood Liam more. Karagiani had done literal harm to his wife. Had I known he was guilty of that, I’d have sent his head to her as a present instead of hiring the dick to shadow Lainey.

Fuck…

Fresh anger poured through me like a gushing wound, the gash too deep to stitch.

“Just kill me,” Karagiani said, finally. His dead-eyed gaze fixed on Lainey. Blood dripped from a cut on his lip. There was another that had sliced across his right eyebrow.

I wasn’t sure which of us did it, but the blood on my hands suggested it was me. I was more than okay with that.

“The lady told you what she wanted to know,” Bodhi answered. “If you want to die, I suggest you cooperate.”

“Why?” Karagiani dragged his gaze off her and that settled me some. A hand came to rest on my shoulder. The grip was a lot stronger than Lainey’s and the weight a lot steadier.

Adam had my left while Lainey leaned into my right. They were holding me up when I should be cloaking her. The anger spread like a fire through me, eating away at everything in its path.

I’d put this man in her life.

More than once.

Fuck, in the months right after he’d stood witness to the depravity of Emersyn’s uncle, I put him right into Lainey’s orbit.

So many goddamn mistakes.

“Because dying is inevitable,” Bodhi told him, so comfortable with what was to come it should actually terrify me. Cavendish had always seemed more than a little unhinged.

Right now, I liked unhinged.

I was beginning to feel more than a little unhinged myself.

“It’s only how you die that’s on the table,” Milo said. “Fast. Slow. Easy or hard. Death comes for everyone but if you don’t cooperate—we can make it take forever.”

“Then let you heal up and do it again,” Bodhi offered up almost cheerfully, like the idea actually delighted him. “Tell the lady what she wants to know.”

“No.”

One word.

All defiance.

“PPG,” Bodhi said over his shoulder. “This is going to get messy.”

“I’m okay,” she answered in a voice that didn’t quiver. “But thank you for the warning.”

Bodhi twisted to look over his shoulder and he grinned. “You’re welcome.”

I saw the move even as Milo and Rome did, Karagiani tried to lash out with a foot to kick Bodhi. He took no one by surprise. All he got was his leg trapped in Bodhi’s grip followed by a distinctive pop.

A vein throbbed in Karagiani’s forehead but he didn’t give in to a yell. Not this time. The man was still hanging by a broken arm. What was a dislocated knee?

Head canted, Bodhi seemed to be studying Lainey, not that I could tell what the hell was going on behind his eyes. Then again, maybe I could. Karagiani had tried to hurt her.

He was also choosing a bloody and brutal death.

“How badly do you want to know?” Bodhi asked and Lainey let out a slow sigh.

“Badly,” I answered for her. “But she’ll give it up and move on if we let her.”

That earned me a stink eye as she twisted to glare up at me. “I am not that obvious.”