Page 165 of Savage Roses

I could’ve let Stitches cover Delphine, but that’s what they wanted.

Theywantto separate us.

There’s no other reason for him to break off from the main crew when he’s one of Lucius’s most trusted guys. He went in the opposite direction to draw Delphine away, counting on my hatred for Lucius to blind me. For it to keep me occupied and distracted as Delphine surely followed him.

Lucius likely counted on the same, which is what he was waiting for.

They’re setting a trap.

That knowledge only spurs me on. My arms and legs pump harder. My feet pound against the ground. I make it to the end of the hall.

A scream travels high-pitched and panicked from what sounds like the stairwell. I turn a sharp left and push myself to reach the door leading to the stairwell in half the strides it’d normally take. Wrenching the door open, I throw myself into the stairwell with my gun drawn.

If this piece of shit dares lay another fuckingfingeron her, much less a hand—

The thought cuts off there on a beat of pure rage.

Nothing has ever been more important to me than my revenge against Lucius. It was my life’s mission. The only thing I lived for. The only purpose of my life.

That’s why they thought I’d choose the same today; I’d opt to go after Lucius rather than follow Delphine.

But that’s where they’re wrong.

I love Delphine more than I hate Lucius.

A concept none of them, Lucius most of all, understands. He’s never loved anybody. He’s never cared for another human being to such a degree he’d do anything for them. It’s the opposite for him—he’s cared about himself and himself only to such a degree, he’d do anything to prosper.

I promised Delphine we would kill the man who hurt her. Today, I’m going to keep that promise.Evenifit means sacrificing the revenge against Lucius I’ve worked toward for twenty years.

I leap down several flights of stairs ’til I hear them.

What sounds like the cold echo of Cesar’s laughter. But I don’t hear Delphine.

Shoving open the door on that floor, rage consumes me. White-hot fury that flares through my body and takes me to a place that isn’t even human. Instinct takes control. Pure, maddening, animalistic instinct where I’m a rabid beast snapping forward with teeth bared and a feral growl tearing from my throat.

Homicidal tunnel vision.

Cesar and Delphine are locked into a battle. He’s managed to entrap her within his arms, though she fights like hell to free herself. She’s been giving him hell since going after him. That much is clear by the blood spots under his nostrils and the bloody grin he gives me as he tightens his hold around her and attempts to choke her out.

I charge at him, forgoing my gun altogether, and opting for my hands.

My hands that will beat the shit out of him. I collide with them.

Delphine’s knocked down. Cesar sails backward, my good fist balled in the front of his shirt. We crash into the wall. Cesar tries to break my hold. I don’t let him. I draw back my broken fist and introduce it to his face.

Over and over again.

’Til my knuckles bleed and ache. ’Til my hand’s broken again from breaking his face.

I take him down to the ground with my Balisong knife now in my grasp. Cesar sputters up blood and manages to grip my wrist. He drives a knee into my ribs.

It becomes a tussle. Him trying to throw me off him. Me showing him I will slaughter every part of him.

I jam the blade of my knife into his cheek. The scream he lets out is the personification of pain—it’s weak and desperate, almost childlike in how he sounds boyish, crying out for his mother, or anyone who can help.

There’s no help coming.

I withdraw the knife and then lodge it into his eye, blinding him. An even more anguished shriek leaves him. His body twists and jerks in an onslaught of unbearable pain.