Page 83 of Cruel Love
Elijah’s grin grew wider.“Really? The last time I checked, Legion’srules statedthatone member can’t kill another, or they themselves will be terminated.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. What the hell was Legion?
A chuckle left James, but it was humorless.“The rules do statethat.I’m glad you confirmed your awareness of them. Sadly for you, you broke the rules first.”
The gunshot echoing into the air made me jump out of my skin, and Iclutched James’ arm, relieved when he didn’t shrug me off. His other hand still pointed the gun at Elijah who had collapsed on the floor with blood pouring from a wound in his leg.
“What the fuck, James!”Elijah cried, clutching his leg as if he couldstem the bleeding.“You fucking idiot! You know what you’vejustdone, right? You’re dead! Legion won’t stand for this!”
Ignoring my gasp at hearing Elijah tell James he was going to die,James gently pulled his arm out of my grasp and took several strides toward Elijah, the gun trained on him the entire time.
“I’ve waited a long time to do this, cousin, and you’vejustgiven methe excuse I needed,”James said, cocking the gun again.“You hurt Willow. Or I should say Charlotte Somersby, daughter to Helen and Daniel Somersby, both who were members of Legion.”
Elijah’s eyes widened, and in an instant, his pained cries stopped. Fora tense few seconds, neither James nor Elijah spoke, the two of them locked in a fierce staring competition.
Andthenthe silence was broken by another gunshot ringing out.
Only this time, Elijah didn’t cry out in pain. The bullet hole in themiddle of his head prevented him from making any more noise.
Chapter 29
James
Willow stared at Elijah’s body as I walked back to her, rage swirlingthrough me as I took in the blood on her face.
He’d hurt her.
It didn’t bear thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’tgotten there in time.
A bullet to his head was too lenient. I should have tortured the fuckerfor hurting my wife before I ended his miserable existence. But time was against me.
I’d called a Subitis meeting.
Latin for emergency, Subitis meetings had only been called a handfulof times in the history of Legion, normally when one of the board members had died, and their heir was named as taking their seat.
It was unheard of for a non-board member to call a Subitis meeting,and despite the myriad of messages I’d received from three of the four board members demanding to know why I’d called the meeting, I’d ignored them.
They’d all find out soon enough for the reason I’d caused alarm.
“Mouse, look at me.”I grabbed Willow’s chin and tugged her face tome.“He’s dead. He’ll never hurt you again.”I swiped a streak of blood from her bottom lip, hatingthatshe winced.“I know you have questions, but there is something we need to do urgently. Come with me, and I’ll get Edith to clean you up.”
Her eyes widened.“No,”she said hurriedly.“Edith was working withElijah. He…he paid her to put birth control pills in my food to stop me from getting pregnant. She’s…gone. She left when Elijah came here, and he was going to take me away.”
A fierce burning cascaded through my body, seeping into every porelike lava at learning of Edith’s betrayal.“What?”
She flinched at the venom in my tone.“Elijah said she hated workingfor you, and he paid her a few million dollars to do it.”
It took every ounce of restraint to control the furythatwas desperateto bubble out of me. If it wasn’t for the fact I now had informationthatstopped the looming deadline to get Willow pregnant, I would have hunted down Edith rightthatsecond so she could meet the same fate as Elijah.
“I’ll deal with Edith later. But right now, we need to go.”I took herhand and dragged her along the path leading up to the house, too angry to speak. I needed to calm myself for what was about to happen, if I let my rage dictate my actions,thenI’d fuck everything up.
Cleo and Jackson were waiting on the veranda as I pulled Willowby my side. As soon as they saw us, Jackson’s brows furrowed together in question, whereas Cleo’s gaze was trained on Willow, worry etched on her face.
“What happened?”Jackson said as we reached them.
“Elijah attacked her. He’s dead. Can you call the team in to take careof the body?”I replied, wishing I could kill Elijah all over again.
“Yeah, sure.”Without delay, Jackson stepped away, pulling hisphone out to make a call.
