Page 91 of The Villain

I yanked his jacket to the side, the towels underneath soaked with blood.Oh my god.This whole time, the whole drive, he risked himself to get me back here safely. My eyes burned as tears instantly collected in the corners, spilling down my cheeks as I grabbed the first piece of clothing from my bag and pressed it over the wound.

Pressure.

It needed pressure.

Shouts and curses echoed around me as Ty and then another man I could now recognize as Dare’s older brother, Harmon, appeared.

“Let’s get him to his cabin,” Ty rumbled. “I don’t think Rorik will want to move him again.”

“I’ve got his shoulders,” Harm said as Ty moved to his feet.

“Careful. He was shot—” I swallowed the rest of the words, feeling like a fool as I swiped tears from my cheeks.Of course, they knew he was shot. He was covered in blood. Passed out.

“Athena.” Rob’s voice jarred me, and I turned to the woman I’d already relied on for so much these last few weeks…and reached for her support once more.

Our eyes met, and she realized I could see her.

“You know,” she said softly.

I nodded, and a fresh round of tears spilled free. I knew who he was. I knew Darius was both the man who’d saved my life and the boy who’d broken my heart.And I needed to know why.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured as her arms came around me, and though I didn’t have siblings, I knew this was what the hugof a sister felt like. Solid and steady as I shook with unshed sobs.

“I’m okay,” I insisted, refusing to break down now. Later, once I knew Dare would be okay, I could cry and crumble and do whatever else my body needed. Right now, I needed to be strong for him.

“Let’s get some water?—”

“No.” I shook my head, already following Ty and Harm and forcing Rob to follow me. “I can’t leave him. Not until I know he’s okay.”

We walked behind them, the maze of the compound blurring behind the heavy thump of my pulse.He had to be okay.He had to.When we reached the long hallway, time slowed, recognition scratching in the back of my mind. All the doors looked the same, but behind the one they opened, there was a stairwell that had the same number of steps as the one to the safe house.

And at the top, we entered a space my mind had already mapped out—a blueprint of steps marking out the bed and the bathroom and the hall and the kitchen. Seeing the place I’d stayed in for the last several weeks shaded in details, but it couldn’t color over the truth.

“His cabin…” I breathed out the words as they carefully laid Darius on the bed.

When I turned to Rob, she held my eyes and then let her chin dip in slow confirmation.His cabin was my safe house.

All this time, he’d given me his home.His bed. His protection. And now, I was afraid his life.

“Rorik’s here,” Harm announced and moved around us to go get the doctor while Ty grabbed towels from the bathroom.

In the commotion, I found a straight path to Darius’s side, kneeling on the floor next to the bed and taking his hand in mine.Likehe’d done for me.

“He’ll be okay,” Rob assured me, her hand gently finding my shoulder.

My throat was too tight to respond. My chest too tight for my heart to beat. My lungs too tight for me to breathe. Pain and sadness and fear consumed me, but it was anger that held me in a chokehold.

Anger that he’d hurt me again. Anger that he’d lied by omission. Anger that he’d cared for me so fervently and tenderly. Anger that he saved my life without concern for his own. Anger that he’d made me ache and burn for him. For his touch. His kiss.For more.And anger that made me want to forgive him for everything if he’d just be okay.

Darius Keyes had to survive this because I wasn’t done being furious with him yet.

Chapter Eighteen

Dare

Damn, that fucking hurt.

“There he is.” The low drone of Rhys’s hurdy-gurdy seeped into my ears.

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