Page 47 of Before the Fall
Cason and Kane look at me, but Ryker can’t take his attention away from Kaia. I wait for him to say something, but he never turns around.
“Ryker? You coming?” Cason asks.
He lowers his head to kiss Kaia before standing up. “Yeah. It’s time to take care of my brother.”
“What about Kaia?” I ask, knowing how hard it is for him to leave her now. I don’t think I’d be able to walk away from Tia if things were reversed.
Ryker smiles and looks down at his wife on the sofa. “She’s the one who told me to go. Lily and Sophie are here. They’ll take care of her while we’re gone.”
“Go get Tia, Ryker,” Kaia says in a soft voice. “I’m fine. I love you.”
“I love you, and I swear I’m going to make this up to you, baby,” he says, his voice full of regret.
She shakes her head and smiles up at him. “Just rescue her and give him what he has coming, Ryker. I’ll be here when you get back.”
I look over at Cason and Kane and see their concerned expressions as she says that. I know just what they’re thinking. There’s a chance we won’t come back. Just like always in our world, at any moment it can be the last time we see the ones we love when a job like this comes around.
Ryker kisses her again, and I hear him whisper to her, “I’m so sorry, baby. This would have never happened if I didn’t drag my feet. I swear I’m going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
“Just come back to me and Maxim.”
When he finishes, he stands up and looks over at me. “Let’s go. We need to get Tia back and kill that motherfucker.”
It’s taken far too long, but finally, Ryker sees what has to be done. Good. I just hope he understands I want the first shot at Victor. I know what he did to Kaia, but that son of a bitch has it coming in spades from me after all he’s put Tia and me through.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kaia
I watch Ryker and the rest of the men head out to go to Victor’s with a knot forming in the pit of my stomach. Dear God, I hope Tia is okay. I saw the way he looked at her like she was just what he’d like to enjoy, knowing it would hurt Jaxon more than any gunshot wound.
Even as I can picture the way he eyed her up like some kind of snack, I’m forced to acknowledge how much all of this hurts Ryker. That’s his brother he has to kill today. He’s avoided facing the truth about Victor for as long as possible, but that all changed when he took me.
I think that’s what he wanted too. Victor wants everything to come to a head because he thinks he’s going to come out of this on top. I can only hope he’s gravely disappointed.
Lily and Sophie talk in low tones nearby as I lie here on the sofa in Ryker’s office, but I can hear what they’re saying. Lily knows firsthand what Victor is like when he decides to take what’s not his. I’ll never forget how shaken she was after he kept her hostage and took away little Lukas. She wouldn’t leave that child’s side for months afterward, afraid if she did that Victor would find a way to steal him away.
“She’s going to be okay,” I say loud enough for them to hear.
They both turn to look at me and then come over to sit in the chairs nearby. Worry is etched into their faces, and even though they try to mask it with smiles, I know better.
“How are you feeling? Do you need anything right now?” Sophie asks.
I shake my head. “No. I guess I need to get up and take a bath, but that can wait. For now, I want to sit with you guys and…”
My sentence trails off, unfinished because I don’t want to speak the words I was thinking. Hope our men are okay. Of course, they’re okay. I know what they do for a living. They may have softened in their approach to the business in the past year or so, but being happy and having children has that effect on a man.
That won’t matter when they meet up with Victor today. He stepped over the line when he took Tia and me. He broke an unspoken rule, and now he’ll pay. He ceased to be Ryker’s brother the moment he kidnapped me.
Lily reaches over and gently touches my hand resting on my stomach. “They’re going to be fine. Cason may not have ever wanted this day to come, but he’s told me over and over that when it did, he’d be ready. I know Ryker and Kane are too.”
“And Jaxon has been chomping at the bit to take care of Victor for ages,” Sophie adds. “I know we don’t want to see them have to do this, but he’s out of control. Kane told me he’s known for a while something would bring this whole situation to a head. I just don’t think he expected it to be Victor taking you and Tia. That was ballsy even for him.”
The only Varens by birth among us, Sophie has always seemed stronger than Lily and me. More than once, she’s mentioned to me in quiet moments that she’s never feared her uncle being taken out. He’s never actually done anything to her, but she grew up hearing what kind of man he was from her father, a man who refuses to even be in the same room with Victor.
He’s become an outlaw to his own kin. It didn’t have to be like this, but the time has come. He must die. Today.
“Jaxon was right the whole time,” I say in a low voice.