Page 66 of Broken Discipline
He pulled me to my feet, his jaw twitching with anxiety. He kissed every inch of my face, then a sternness came over him.
“Tell me everything,” he demanded.
I told him about shopping, the shooting, the car chase, and Edith. Finn ran a hand over his head, his jaw hanging loose.
“It’s not just her,” he said. “She’s working with others. Probably people from the Syndicate. They staged a minor attack on the Compound to distract me and Chip, like the other day, but this time, they had another decoy at the mall. There were twice the usual contracts today, so my other employees were working doubles. They did this to take me away from you.”
My lips hung open. Dizziness filled my head. Finn disappeared to the bathroom, then came back with a first aid kit. He wrapped my fingertip, then dialed someone on the phone, murmuring to them. Then he hung up. He rubbed his eyes like they were irritated, an exasperated sigh expelling from his chest, then he guided me forward.
“‘Like the other day’?” I asked. “There have beentwoattacks on the Compound?”
“We need to go,” Finn said, ignoring my question. He kept a hand around my neck, guiding me to his car. In his SUV, his eyes fixated on the road but he kept a firm hand on the back of my neck like he didn’t want to let me go, like he would never allow himself to do that again. Tension vibrated through him, puffing his shoulders, grinding his teeth. Like he was mad at what had happened.
Like he was angry with himself.
Once we were at the Carter Compound parking area, he turned to me, his jaw set. His beard scruffy. His eyes gray, solemn, and as hard as ice.
His eyes were supposed to be blue. What had happened to his eyes?
“Next time, you never, ever drive in a car chase with Tank. She’s unreliable, and trying to jump over the off-ramp like that is idiotic at best.”
“She’s all I had!” I said, raising my voice.
“You could’ve taken one of the SUVs.”
“It’s my car, Finn!”
I kept my lips closed, and Finn gritted his teeth, his eyes boring into me like hot white stars.
“I should burn the fucking thing,” he said. “At least, knowwhereyou’re going. Driving without direction like that? You’ll make mistakes. You need to have an emergency destination. A plan of action.”
My jaw dropped. “I survived, didn’t I?”
“What you did was risky, Ramona.” He rubbed his forehead, emotion pouring from him, tensing his muscles, squeezing through his bloodshot eyes. But his voice was calm, still measured, like these warnings were his last defense. “You survived that stunt because Tank is a literal tank. But they were still able to capture you. Next time, drive to the Carter Care Facility. We’re trained in this. We can take care of it from there.”
The Carter Care Facility. He said it like I could rely on him or his workers. But I wasn’t convinced.
“What if you’re not there?” I asked. “What if they know that I’m going to the Carter Care Facility, and they already have an attack planned?”
“Then I’ll deal with it,” he said, his tone even, his gray eyes narrowed. “This is my job, Ramona. And the only thing that matters to me in this fucked up world is protecting my family. And so fucking help me, if I failagain,I will burn this world down and there will be no one left in it.”
I blinked at him, tears coming to my eyes. “I don’t understand,” I whispered. “When did you fail?”
He cracked his neck, a numb expression rippling through his exterior, but his raw emotions still shined through his gray eyes. Eyes that I knew from a long, long time ago. Eyes that reminded me of home. Comfort. Safety.
“What happened to your eyes?” I asked.
“The contacts were irritating me,” he said. Then he straightened his shoulders, his full attention on me. “I promised you that I wouldalwaystake care of you, Kylie,” he said. “I failed before, but I amnotgoing to fail again. I’m not going anywhere.”
He grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me close to him. The scent of burnt coffee beans mixed with sweat and musk swirled around me, sending me spiraling back to Oakmont, back before I was pregnant. When I was still Kylie. The sunlight silhouetted Finn’s face, and for a moment, I imagined a younger man, with a clean-shaven face. No tattoos of a griffin, but a bare, shaved chest. Skinny, but toned arms and legs, muscle and bone—not the barrel of strength and bulk before me. But those two men shared those same haunting, light gray eyes. Eyes that could tear apart your soul and build you up again.
He had always been there, until he wasn’t.
“Hyde,” I whispered. “You came back.”
CHAPTER 17
five years earlier
