Page 11 of Brutal Knight

“Not so fast,” he bites out, pulling me tight to his body so that my chest is crushed against his.

CHAPTER4

Connor

Willow stares up at me with wide eyes, her pupils blown out and overly large. For the space of a few heartbeats, we’re both still, frozen in place.

Then she screams.

Her legs start to kick, her heels hitting the cement floor. I’m surprised enough that I don’t immediately react, but I shift to put my gun away and hold her tighter.

It’s like she isn’t even aware. She’s just struggling, her nails scratching as she tries to pry my arms off. Her screaming isn’t even words. It’s just noise.

I can’t even think at first. I barely feel her fight. She’s so small, so light. I know she can’t get away from me, and she’d never have been able to fight off Victor.

“Shit,” I curse under my breath. I’m not sure what I was prepared for, but it wasn’t this.

Finn, Lachlan, and Jamie are close. I can hear Finn snort, and I know what he’s thinking.Hellcat.

“You’re in for a wild time,” he says. “I can’t even imagine what you’re in for once you get married. You having second thoughts yet?”

Jamie’s on the ground, examining one of Victor’s fallen men. He glances over his shoulder at Finn, his expression clouded. He doesn’t joke about wives, marriage, or women.Ever. Not since he lost his wife.

He’s probably the most sympathetic to Willow’s situation. But I know he can’t take her in, can’t put himself through the pain of caring for someone just to lose them again. He won’t risk it.

I thought about asking him to help her when I first brought her home. But I couldn’t do it. I knew it would be hard for him, and besides that, I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to show my loyalty, my dedication. I wanted to prove that I could do the things that needed to be done for the family.

I just hope it’s worth it.

Lachlan is by Victor, using his gun to gingerly push away sheets as he looks over the body. I look at the bed as I laugh, playing off Finn’s teasing.

But I don’t know how to feel about it.

I know what Willow was about to face. It’s disgusting, what Victor would have done—what men like him do. I’m not sorry we got here in time, and I’m not sorry he’s dead.

But there’s a bitter taste in my mouth about this. About what Finn says.

I know what people will think of her. Of me. They’ll question everything. She was Dmitri’s wife. The remaining Assembly will be suspicious of her. Victor proved that Dmitri’s men will want to use her. And among all that mess, I’ll be trying to lead her back out of the hell she fell into.

She clearly isn’t ready to give up. That makes me hopeful. But I’m sure that Willow hitting and thrashing in my arms is a far cry from getting her clean and ready to handle all the shit that’s looming on the horizon as people come after her for her dead husband’s wealth and power.

Willow is still fighting, but I know the fight will go from her soon. Until then, I don’t want her running or hurting herself. I pull a tie off one of Victor’s fallen men and wrap it around her wrists, secure but careful. I’m not trying to hurt her. I just need her to stop thrashing around.

She really will be my wife.

Just looking at her, in any other circumstance, I might be excited by that prospect. She’s stunning, even now, even after all the shit she’s been through. All her suffering hasn’t marred her the way I might have expected. Her eyes are blue-gray, stormy and powerful despite the way she looks like she couldn’t kill a fly if she tried. Her dark hair is almost black, falling in waves around her face.

I remember what she looked like at her first Assembly event. She was beautiful, her hair flowing long over her shoulders, and her blue dress silky and perfectly fitted. It was the first time since the wedding she’d appeared in public, and I couldn’t help wondering why. I thought maybe she was just nervous. She seemed to stick by Dmitri, something worried in her eyes.

I know what the look in her eyes is now. But at the time, it didn’t seem like anything. All I saw was a beautiful woman, young and full of potential. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t appreciate her from across the room.

Now, I’m not so sure.

Willow betrayed my family. She was doing it for Dmitri, and he was her husband. But she still did it. All the understanding and respect I have for business in the Assembly, in the families, doesn’t change her betrayal.

It wasn’t a simple betrayal, either. Her words made us come to the Assembly with accusations, and then she turned around and denied it all. We fell that much more in the Assembly’s eyes, and then Dmitri lashed out in retaliation. He took Rose, and it was lucky we got there in time.

So Willow isn’t someone I trust. For a while after the incident, I didn’t even like her.

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