Page 80 of Citadel

Somehow that’s what it’s come down to.

Cole is risking his life too.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I believed he was nothing more than my past. Now he’s doing this for me.

And the funny thing is I’d never doubt his willingness and ability to save me even if it puts his own body in danger. He’s proven that over and over again. The very first time I saw him, he told me to run instead of turning me over to his traveling companions, who would have used me until there was nothing left.

Just a couple of hours ago, he asked if I was his. His to carry.

I’ve been his from the very beginning, but I never really knew if he could be mine.

We reach the outskirts of the camp before I expect to. Cole pulls me down into position behind some thick foliage, jarring me from my fraught reflections.

“They’re not asleep,” I say, squinting as I peer down the hill. “There’s two sitting by the fire.”

We were expecting the campfire to have died down by now and the two not on guard to be sleeping in the tent. But I can clearly see two figures hanging out while two others must be on guard.

“Those aren’t the same guys,” Cole mutters. He nods toward the right. “There’s a second tent. Someone new has come.”

“Shit.” I exhale the one word with my breath. “How many?”

“Don’t know. At least four could fit in that second tent, plus the two by the fire. They could have even stationed more guards.”

“What should we do?”

He shakes his head. Doesn’t speak for a minute. “No choice. We can’t wait. They’ll reach that hotel tomorrow. We’ll just go ah—” He breaks off the word abruptly, his body clenching up so tensely I can feel the vibes from six inches away.

“What’s the matter?”

He’s peering down into the circle of light cast by the campfire. His eyes are narrowed into slits, and his jaw is working. He’s focused on one of the men lounging by the fire.

“Cole, what?”

“That’s my brother.”

It takes a minute for me to process the words. What they signify. The reality that his brother is with the guys who kidnapped Breanna and who knows how many other women. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah. It’s him. It’s Mark.”

“So what should we—?”

There’re only a few seconds of a pause. “We have no choice,” he grits out again in a harder tone than he used earlier. “This is our only chance. We do it.”

I’m about to argue—or at least ask more questions—but Cole has stood up. He’s walking away from me. He turns to say curtly before he disappears into the night, “Try not to kill him.”

* * *

I can’t see Cole after he gets a few feet away, but I know what he’s doing. Following the plan. He’ll find the guard closest to us, come up behind him, and kill him before the man can let off a warning or make a sound. I’m not sure how he’ll do it. Maybe break his neck. Or slice his carotid artery. Once he takes care of the first guard, he’ll move around to the other side of the camp and kill the other.

I wait the few minutes I know it will take, holding my breath unconsciously until I run out of air and inhale roughly. I try to get a better glimpse of the man Cole indicated as his brother, but my vision isn’t good enough to see details. He’s just a dark shape silhouetted by the fire.

That’s all he’s ever been to me, but he’s more than that to Cole.

His brother. The person he loves more than anyone else in the world.

It’s on this thought that something happens that’s not supposed to. There’s a gunshot. It wouldn’t be Cole, so it must be the guard. Maybe he managed to get a shot off as he died.

However it happens, it alerts the others. The two guys at the fire jump up and grab their weapons. They start shooting in the direction the shot came from—toward Cole—so I leap into action.

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