Page 161 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
“Killian, no!” She tugs at my shoulder, trying to loosen my grip on him. “If you kill him, he won’t be able to tell us where Niall is.”
Niall?
Another emotional blow slams into my heart.
She named him after Dad?
My hold loosens slightly.
After everything I put her through, everything she suffered up here, she still chose that name for our son.
Our baby.
Visions of her belly growing with him and of the agony she must have endured without any medical care during her delivery choke me the same way I am the man responsible.
She’s right.
If I kill him now, we might not ever find Niall.
I slowly ease my grip on his throat, only enough for him to breathe. He gasps, sucking in ragged breaths of air, but I shift my axe up against his jugular, pinning him down while threatening him with my blade instead.
“Where the fuck is my son?”
Earl’s glare widens. “He’s my son. Mine. You hear me?”
I press the blade into his skin, watching the trickle of blood drip down his neck, and lean in close, snarling in his face. “I will cut you apart piece by fucking piece until you tell me where he is.”
The asshole shakes his head. “No. He’s mine.” His eyes shoot up over my shoulder to Willow. “I always knew you were a whore. I let you take one son from me. I’m not going to let you take another.”
He’s rambling again.
Not making any sense.
“I should have killed you as soon as you came back.”
The day he found her with the truck on the mountain…
I urge the blade deeper. “Where is he?”
Earl starts trembling beneath me, and I tighten the grip on his throat, cutting off his airway again as I ease the blade along the edge of his face to where his ear connects near his cheek, then pressing in. “I won’t do this nice and easy. Do you understand me?”
He screams, or at least tries to, but there isn’t enough air in his lungs as I start to sever his ear.
Rushed footsteps sound up the trail, and Tony comes into view along with several others from the search party.
“Killian, stop.”
He’s the sheriff.
The law.
It should mean something when he gives me an order, but this is the man who ruined my life, who ruined Willow’s, who took my son, and I’m not about to let him get away with it.
Connor rushes over to Tony. “Send them up the trail. Look for the cabin. Willow had a baby. He’s up here somewhere.”
“What?” Tony’s gaze shoots to us, and his shoulders slump in resignation.
He knows he won’t be able to stop me now, that there’s no fucking chance.
