Page 62 of Relentless Knight

With every beat of my heart, I mean that. I’ve never met anyone as kind and compassionate and smart and driven as Quinn. She’s everything I would hope to be if I weren’t the broken shell of a human being this world has made me. And I wish I could tell her that. But I don’t know how when the familiarknot of silence rises in my throat, threatening to choke the life from me.

Quinn sniffles and brusquely brushes at the tears sliding down her cheeks. “It would have been nice to have a normal life, the kind of life you and Killian and Daddy envisioned for me. But it’s too late now,” she says with a bitter smile.

And God, it breaks my heart to hear her say that. But it’s not too late. It’s never too late. And if she wants a normal life. I will do everything within my power to give that to her—even if it means I have to let her go. “If you don’t want this life, Quinn, I would never force you into it,” I promise her.

I rasp around the knot in my throat that swells with each agonizing word. But I force them out all the same. Because I never want Quinn to feel trapped—not with me, and definitely not in my world. “You could leave, go live with one of your other brothers—Jamie, Finn, or Henry. They all have normal jobs, normal families, normal lives. You could get a normal job in some hospital across the country. And I swear, I’ll let you be. Because all I want is for you to be happy.”

Quinn’s jade eyes brim with fresh tears, and she looks so utterly miserable, I think she might actually be working up the courage to break up with me. But as her tears spill over once more, she releases a watery laugh. “I didn’t mean it’s too late because I thought you would force me to stay with you,” she chastises. “It’s too late because I love you so desperately, I couldn’t possibly be happy with a normal life if it meant having one without you.”

Her tears flow fast and hard now, but I can’t seem to stop the heady relief from blasting through me and nearly bringing me to my knees.

Cradling the back of her head, I bring my lips crashing down on Quinn’s once more as I kiss her passionately—desperately. Because I’ve never been so grateful in my life. I honestly don’tknow what I would do if Quinn ever chose to quit me. I can’t even remember a time before her that I could go back to. She’s like the sunshine that lights the sky. If she left, I would be a cold, lifeless desert, nothing but an empty husk of a man.

And I pour all of that into my kiss as I hold her like the world is ending.

We’re gasping for air by the time I finally relinquish her lips. Still, I hold her close as our staggered breaths come crashing together in the space between us. “As selfish as it might be, I can’t begin to express how relieved I am to hear you say that,” I growl.

Quinn laughs, the sound soft and warm and inviting. “I think you just did,” she says playfully. And she runs her delicate, talented fingers along my temple, combing stray locks from my eyes.

“I love you,” I murmur, pressing my forehead to hers as I close my eyes.

“I love you too, Lance Knight.”

“I have to go,” I say after a poignant moment of silence.

“I know,” she whispers, and yet her arms tighten around my shoulders. “Just…promise me you’ll come home safely—and you’ll bring Killian and Natasha home alive too.”

“I promise,” I murmur, breathing deep to soak up every last ounce of her I can before I go.

Then I press my lips to hers for one last chaste kiss. And with agonizing deliberation, I release Quinn to rejoin Killian before he comes looking for us.

32

LANCE

I’m honestly shocked and a little amazed by just how well Tatiana’s plan came together. Not that I doubted her strategy—only that we managed to coordinate hundreds of men from two completely different cultures, two completely different worlds of organized crime, and we united them into a terrifying force in just a few short hours.

For months, we’ve been trying to do just that. And now, in the final hour, when the life of the Sokolov princess is on the line, it finally happens. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

But my heart hammers with a fresh sense of purpose and determination when I see the troops falling into formation around us. Together, we create a terrifying battering ram and caravan of death as we head down the quiet neighborhood streets of Bayside.

Lucian Agosti’s wrought iron gates come into view once more.

Only this time, we don’t intend to slip inside unnoticed. We plan on crashing right through the Italian don’s front doors.

“Everyone, brace for impact. We don’t know how many cars it might take to bring those things down.” I scowl at thetempered metal barrier that I suspect is more formidable than it looks.

And while we’re the third SUV in a long line ready to swarm the gates, I have a feeling it’s going to take more than one to achieve entry.

The first pair of armored vehicles hit the barrier with a grating shriek of metal on metal. The earth itself seems to tremble, the rock pillars holding the gate in place shake. And crumbs of debris tumble from the twenty-foot-high facade that surrounds Lucian’s compound.

A second set of vehicles drives straight into the bumpers of the first two, and the gate protests loudly, the hinges popping and snapping as the powerful engines rev at full force.

Then it’s our turn, and I put pedal to the metal at the last second, launching the Escalade forward as I plow into the one before us.

“Hoo-eeeh!” one of Tatiana’s men calls like a battle cry.

And with one last ear-piercing shriek, the left-side gate—our side—folds at the joint before snapping free from the wall completely. Our Escalade jumps forward, suddenly free of its obstacle. The first two SUVs before us barrel down the gravel drive, rocks pinging off the cars around them as they race toward the front door of Lucian’s compound.

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