Page 188 of Reverie

“Where is mywife,” I grit out, my voice like rough asphalt.

Law just stares at me hard, his face unreadable, and then he hums…and what feels like a hammer slams into the back of my skull.

The rifle falls to the ground, the chest strap slides from my shoulder, and everything spins as pain blooms bright in my head. I’m aware of the sticky warmth running from behind my ear and down the back of my shirt.

Stay awake. Find Winter. Kill them all.

I turn over from my place on the ground and blink several times to zero in on the face above me. Just as it comes into focus, the press of cold metal against my forehead makes me freeze.

“You’ve really fucked up, Brigham.”

Morris Winthrope’s voice doesn’t sound as cultured as it usually would, and I feel a sick sense of pride at his messy hair and the rivulet of blood running down from his temple, pooling in his ear. He must have been caught in the battle Patrick and Keegan are waging above us.

Marcus Law comes closer with his gun pointed at my face, and he stares at me with hard eyes. Anyone can see the deadly intent in them. After spotting my rifle on the floor behind Winthrope and Law, I shift my gaze back to the man who likely will become the next president of the United States.

“I’ve fucked up? What makes you say that, Winthrope?” I say, and he takes one step back while keeping the gun trained on me.

Then he smiles.

“Because I’m so going to enjoy torturing you,” he replies.

My wrist twitches, inching toward the blade at my hip.

“Ah-ah,” he says with atsk.“You won’t want to do that.” I pause again, assessing my situation.

Winthrope has a gun trained on me, but he’s slow and soft, and it will be easy to disarm him and end his life.

Luna’s voice floats through my mind. “Serum or not, there’s no coming back from a headshot.”

Get Winter. Get Winter. Take out this fucker in front of me.

“So what? It’s out with one king and in with the new? If so, sorry about your castle.” My voice is raspy, but I know I have to keep him talking—just for a moment longer.

“You think your father was anywhere good enough? I can see the future. He can’t. Not anymore.”

I try to understand what he’s saying, but Winthrope barks out a loud laugh, his face getting even redder.

“And you, you fucking pussy. All you had to do was follow the plan. But no. You had to go and fuck everything up.” His smile turns gleeful. “But I get to see you suffer, and that almost makes up for it.”

Winthrope nods at Marcus, and Law steps back into the darkness for several heartbeats. He’s gone just long enough for me to get my hand a fraction closer to my knife, but when he returns, I want to start a massacre.

Marcus Law drags Winter, gagged and bound, into the spotlight next to me.

When she falls onto her hip, Marcus casually points his gun at her head, stilling all of my thoughts of throwing my knife into his eye socket.

Oh, fuck.

Winter looks at me with watery eyes, and I struggle to stay still and not pop off and get both of us killed.

There’s Marcus Law with a gun, Morris Winthrope with a gun, and me.

My hands shake as I come up with different scenarios to get her to safety and leave the other men beneath the mansion dead, but the facts that remain are:

I never should have trusted Marcus Law.