Page 38 of A Game of Survival

“I don’t agree with…”

“He must be respectful, Lucille,” I cut her off.

“He’s just a child,”

“So was I.” I grunt.

Lucille gasps like I’ve just knocked the air from her lungs and it’s all I have in me to move back from her body leaving her gaping at me.

“Linc,” she whispers softly, holding her hand out to reach for me but I turn away.

“We have business. Come on,” I order, pointing my chin in the direction of Silas’s bedroom as I continue walking, expecting her to follow.

“He looks worse than he is OK? The doc has cleared him, he just needs to recover.” I turn my head to warn Lucille with my hand on the handle of the door. Lucille frowns, her worried eyes flicking between my own.

“What? Who is it Linc? What happened?” Her voice barely registers as it cracks with worry.

I open the door slowly, ushering her inside, waiting for the realization of whose room we're in to register. The last time she was in here she destroyed the place after Silas locked her in. It holds much less furniture now due to it all having to be replaced but as soon as she sees Silas on the bed, Lucille runs to the bed immediately, mithering over his body and I can tell by the smug expression on his face that he’s fucking loving it.

“Silas. What. What happened?” She whispers, feathering her fingers over his wrapped torso.

Silas catches her hands in his, making them look so tiny and fragile against his bear like paws. “La mia luce,” he hushes her, pressing her fingers to his lips to kiss them. “I am fine, just a little nick.”

Lucille's eyes grow wide as she pulls her head back “Did this happen when you rescued Teddy? Did Ronan do this to you?” She asks standing up from the bed and pacing the few small steps between the bed and the chair I sat on last night, that I’m not perched on again.

“Sit down, Love.” I insist as I see the guilt already eating its way through her. The next part of this is going to be harder than I thought. Lucille ignores my suggestion and continues her back and forth while Silas furrows his brows, biting down his pain as he sits on the edge of the bed. I narrow my eyes at him with warning not to overdo it, but he stands anyway against my advice. Idiot. As soon as he stands he roars out, cradling his arm against his chest, and both Lucille and I lunge forward to catch him.

“You fucking idiot,” I curse as I take the weight of his body, lowering him back onto the bed.

“I will stop walking if you get back into bed,” Lucille offers gently, giving him a half lipped smile but he shakes his head in refusal.

“No. That’s enough now. Lucille, you need to sit down. There’s something we need to say,” Silas barks, sounding more like the boss than he has in days. Lucille freezes momentarily before silently backing up until her legs hit the bed and she sits down with her hands in her lap, picking her thumbnails to quell her anxiety. I pull up the chair and take my place catching Silas’s gaze and nodding for him to take the lead on this one.

Silas pulls her hands into his own. “La mia luce… it’s Cole,” he begins as she cracks her head to look at him at the mention of Cole’s name.

“Teddy,” she mouths, her voice just barely above a whisper.

Silas nods his head, answering her unasked question. “He helped us to get Teddy out.” There was a long pause and as I looked into Silas’ face, I knew that he was still struggling with the fact that Ronan now had Cole and would undoubtedly be releasing a world of pain on to him for double crossing him like he had. In our world, you could die for less. But I don’t for a second doubt that Ronan will drag out his punishment for as long as he can to teach Cole a lesson for what he’s done.

“It was too late for us to help Cole and get Teddy out safely at the same time.” I explain, receiving a grateful nod from Silas. “We almost didn’t all make it out either. We had to leave him behind.” I add through gritted teeth.

Lucille’s face has paled a ghastly white. “We have to get him back,” she chokes looking into my eyes, pleading with me in that language we seem to have established between each other.

“We will, Love. We will.” I sigh, wishing for it to be as true as I’d like. Even if we do get him out, we have no idea what state he’ll be in.

Before any of us can manage another word, loud banging comes from the front of the house.

“What the fuck?” Silas grunts, hauling himself up once again.

“What’s going on?” Lucille asks, jumping to her feet “I need to get to Teddy.” She gasps, running from the room

“Lucille, wait!” I shout sprinting after her as the bangs continue and a muffled shout can be heard in the distance.

We find the boys entranced in their game, obviously undisturbed by the noise.

“Stay here and don’t let them out of your sight.” I order, unholstering my gun as I stalk from the room.

Silas meets me in the hallway with his own gun drawn and ready as we stalk the corridor towards the front of the house. I can’t ignore the way Silas leans his body against the wall for support, but right now I know better than to berate him. As we round the corner to the front entryway, Max appears on the other side of the room, gun pointing toward the front door.

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