Page 98 of Savage Hearts

“Don’t mention that bitch’s name,” he said menacingly.

“You know I can find her,” I replied quietly.

She would die if she randomly ran into us on the street because I probably wouldn’t be able to contain myself if she were placed in front of me right now. Yet Killian had dictated that he didn’t want anyone to look for her. I didn’t know if it was because he still had some lingering affection—a soft spot—for the bitch, or if it was something else entirely.

We’d killed men for less, yet this one was off-limits?

We were far from the powerless teenagers we had once been. We were powerful men. Most of the men who had done us wrong were dead, had suffered horrible deaths, but we left Lilliana alone at Killian’s insistence.

I didn’t know why.

It wouldn’t take long for us to find the bitch.

He shook his head. “Just leave it alone.”

“Why?”

“Silas.”

I shook my head and stepped closer to him. I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You need to find a way to heal from this, brother. Even when she’s no longer in our life, you’re still letting her affect you.”

He shrugged me off. I didn’t take offense.

I caught my own reflection in his dark shades.

“She no longer matters.”

I laughed. “It’s true, but her ghost still lingers around, doesn’t it?”

“Whatever. I’m going back in. Are you coming?”

I shook my head. “Nah. I’m taking the rest of the day off. I’ll be back tonight for the final run-through before we distribute the goods.”

I didn’t need to tell him where I was going. Judging by the curl of his lips, he already knew, and I wondered if there would ever be a time when he could look past all that had happened with Lilliana. If he could forgive himself, when Maverick and I had never held him responsible in the first place.

If it wasn’t for the respect I had for my brother, I would have hunted the bitch down.

I didn’t make a habit of killing women.

Women usually didn’t play any role in our world, but there had been a few exceptions, and Lilliana was the mother lode.

I climbed in the car and drove off, watching Killian’s reflection in the rearview mirror until I turned and he disappeared from view.

The house wasquiet when I came in.

Rachel was probably out shopping, and I didn’t know what Mila did with her time when we weren’t home.

I searched upstairs for her, and when I found her room empty, a small panic started to set in. She had to still be on the property. We would have known if she’d escaped, considering there were guards all over the place.

Some of them greeted me as I passed them on my way to the backyard, and I came to a stop when I finally found her in a hidden garden.

She was reading a book—so immersed in the story, she didn’t even hear me approach.

I used this moment to take her in. For one moment, she didn’t have her guard up. Her expression was free of worry, and free of the cynicisms she tried to hold onto.

She looked younger than she was, though she wasn’t very old at twenty-four, her eyes told anyone who was paying close enough attention that she had seen a lot of shit.

I didn’t doubt it, and I didn’t like it one bit.

---