26. Layla

26

LAYLA

Nothing else exists except for Kaden's frenzy. I'm certain he can't feel my weight on his lap any longer.

The air I'm sharing with him sizzles with neon hate, years of torment and agony threatening to explode out of his body.

Morelli's flat gray stare holds Kaden's, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he savors the anguish etched into every line of Kaden's face.

"That's right," Morelli says, talking slow as if to savor every syllable. "I buried her myself."

Very carefully, Kaden nudges me aside. I don't take my eyes off him when I shift off his lap.

As soon as I'm clear, an unnatural roar tears from Kaden's throat and he lunges, a blade in each hand like talons ready to rip Morelli's throat out.

But Morelli's men are faster, appearing out of obscurity and slamming Kaden back against the wall, their guns pressed to his head.

I scream, the sound bursting from my chest, but no one so much as glances my way. I'm nothing, insignificant in their final showdown.

Kaden's neck bulges with tendons, his eyes wild and filled with a madness worse than what he possessed when mutilating Dawson.

"I will kill you," he seethes, his words a blood oath.

Despite Morelli's too-lean frame and gaunt cheeks, his suit drapes over him like armor. He exudes victory, reveling in the agony he's inflicting upon his nemesis.

"To think I believe you a mere fly to swat all those years ago," Morelli muses while Kaden spits hatred. "Little did I know how successful I would be in forging the ultimate thorn in my side. You've been after me for some time, Mr. Black. Does it feel good to face me now? With your woman stripped and bleeding, your daughter long gone, and my men's guns at your temple?" Morelli scans the floor, noting the bits and pieces of Dawson with a slight nose wrinkle. "I see you lost your temper."

A strangled cry leaves me when one of Morelli's men yanks me to a stand by my hair.

"Bring her to me," Morelli commands.

My scalp burns as I'm dragged forward. Morelli's man drags me to the center of the room, my bare feet slipping in the slick of Dawson's blood. He positions me in front of Morelli like a human shield, one arm locked around my neck.

My pulse thuds in my ears and each breath saws at my lungs. Fresh tears sting my eyes, but I blink them back in refusal.

Kaden follows it all, straining against the two men holding him against a server tower. A maelstrom of emotions swirl in his cutlass blue depths. Anguish, fury, and beneath it all, terror.

Terror for me .

"Let her go," Kaden says between his clenched teeth.

Morelli's answering laugh is devoid of humor. "You hurt one of mine. It's only fair I do the same to one of yours."

I can barely breathe, my lungs constricting as if Morelli's man is squeezing my very organs. But I can't look away from Kaden. If I do, I'll shatter.

Kaden's lashes flicker even as a vein pulses from his forehead as he struggles. A silent communication passes between us in that split second. Apology and a promise. A reminder from him to remember his vow to me. His oath that he will get me out of this, no matter the cost.

But how?

He's outnumbered, outgunned. Trapped.

Just like his daughter was. Buried by Morelli's own hands. My stomach clenches, a violent upheaval threatening to erupt.

Morelli's expensive shoes splash through the carnage as he inches closer behind me. He reaches out a hand, trailing a finger down my cheek, his touch like ice against my flushed skin.

I jerk my head away, but the arm around my neck holds firm.

"Spirited. I can see why you like her, Kaden."

I feel more than see Morelli giving me the once-over, lingering on my private areas.

"Though her current state leaves something to be desired."

Despite the paralyzing fear, I hiss through gritted teeth, "Go to hell."

"Oh, my dear. We're already there." His chuckle cascades across my shoulders like hundreds of spiderlings exploding out of their nest. "And I'm the devil himself."

I swallow against the pressure around my throat and pour every ounce of contempt into my voice when I respond, "Then Kaden promised me your horns as my trophy. "

A sickening sound draws my attention in time to watch Kaden wrench free of the men holding him, moving faster than I thought humanly possible. The guns at his head go off but somehow miss, bullets sparking off the server towers in a shower of metal and plastic.

Kaden's twin blades flash as he slices through the first man's neck, a crimson arc spraying the wall. He pivots, burying his other knife to the hilt in the second man's eye socket with a precise squelch.

The arm around my neck turns into a vise, cutting off my air and jerking me back. Spots dance in my vision.

Morelli barks an order, and suddenly, more of his men flood in, piling onto Kaden.

But Kaden is an unleashed beast whose family is threatened, slashing and tearing with savage ferocity, his face a rictus of primal rage. Men fall in pieces, their screams cut short as Kaden slings their blood around, and I fully accept that I'm in shock when I compare the scene to an assassin breaking into an art room and getting into the paint.

I'm seeing so much violence. It's not stopping. It keeps coming, relentless and determined to break me until there's nothing left but a hollow shell for Kaden to weep over.

"Enough!" Morelli bellows.

Cold steel presses against my temple and I still, whimpering.

Kaden freezes. His blades drip gore as he catches his breath, his gaze locking onto the gun barrel digging into my temple, Morelli's fingers clenched white around the grip.

"Drop the weapons, Mr. Black," Morelli commands, his voice oil-slick with triumph. "Or I'll add her brains into your corpse soup."

A muscle in Kaden's jaw ticks, a war raging behind his visceral stare. The urge to rip Morelli to pieces versus his desperate need to protect me. To not lose another loved one to this monster.

"Kaden," I rasp, his name barely squeezing out. I can't breathe. I'm trembling so violently my teeth chatter. "Don't..."

But Kaden's already loosening his grip, letting the knives clatter to the blood-slicked floor. He raises his hands in surrender, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

Morelli's lips curl in a vicious smile. "Good dog."

Yet there is no submission in Kaden's stare as he regards Morelli. "Where is she? Where did you bury my daughter?"

Morelli's triumphant laugh grates against my eardrums, each guffaw laced with sadistic glee. "Where, you ask? Why, in the very place you least expect. The one location you'd never think to look because it's too close to home. Though I did enjoy all those baubles you left on the bodies you collected over the years. And the creativity in your kills. Death by licorice. That was a good one. And I can't disregard those cheap, cutesy timepieces you'd leave behind, similar to the ones Cassandra loved to wear, am I right? That alone is my final gift to you, Mr. Black. I noticed your vengeful clues, I realized who the Scythe truly was, and I relished the day I could confront and then end you myself. Your obsession with me was truly flattering."

Kaden's lips twist into a humorless smile. "Enjoy it while you can, Morelli. We both know you're a dead man walking. The cancer eating away at your insides, turning you into a shriveled husk. I can smell it on you, the stench of decay. You reek of desperation, clinging to your last shreds of power. But in the end, you're nothing more than a rotting shell, a tragic parody of the man you once were."

Morelli's papery skin stretches taut over his skull as he snarls. "My health is no concern of yours."

Kaden coughs, a wet and ragged sound that sends alarm bells in my head warning me that he's injured, but he keeps his attention on Morelli. "But it is. Because I want to know exactly how long I have to make you suffer before you take your last breath."

Fury contorts Morelli's features into something inhuman. His finger twitches on the trigger and I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing for the bullet to tear through my skull.

But the bang never comes.

In a blur of motion, Kaden snatches a gun from the limp hand of one of Morelli's fallen men and shoots with deadly precision. The bullet ruffles the hair at my temples and buries itself in the forehead of the henchman holding me hostage.

The pressure around my neck vanishes as the man crumples, his body spasming. I stumble forward, gasping for air, my vision swimming. Kaden is there in an instant, his arm encircling my waist, holding me upright.

He kisses my temple, then murmurs, "Just stay with me, Wraithling. You're almost out of this."

I nod weakly, clinging to him as he turns to face Morelli, shielding me with his body. Morelli's face is twisted with outrage, his gun still trained on us. But there's a flicker of distress in his cold gray eyes now, a realization that he may have underestimated Kaden.

"I'm not one to torture the terminally ill," Kaden says. "But for you, I'll make an exception."

Kaden squeezes my arm, and too late, I realize it's a symbol of farewell before he's on Morelli in a whirlwind of savage fury that doesn't care whether it lives or dies.

His fists thump against Morelli's gaunt face, the sound of fracturing bone and loosening muscle filling the room. Morelli staggers back, his face a pulpy mess, but Kaden is relentless. He grabs Morelli by the lapels of his suit and slams him against the wall, the impact rattling the shelves .

"Where is she?" Kaden roars. "Where's my daughter's body?"

Morelli's lips pull back in a bloody grin, his teeth stained crimson. "You'll never find it."

Morelli's expensive suit is now a tattered mess, soaked through with his own blood. But still, he laughs, a gurgling, choking sound that makes me shudder.

"You ... can't ... win..." Morelli gasps out between bloody coughs. "I've already ... won..."

Kaden's hands wrap around Morelli's throat, squeezing with all his strength. Morelli's eyes protrude, his face turning a mottled purple as he claws at Kaden's iron grip. But Kaden doesn't relent, his eyes rabid with a decade's worth of a grudge.

"This is for Cassie," Kaden growls, his voice unrecognizable. "For every day you stole from her. For every nightmare you gave me. For every piece of my soul I sold off to get to you."

With a sickening crunch, Morelli's neck snaps under Kaden's hold, his knees buckling and his body sliding to the floor in a heap.

I make an audible gasp, then I'm reaching forward, as if my arms could get me to Kaden faster than my legs, when a deafening crack splits the air.

Kaden's body jerks. He stumbles back, then turns, his hand clutching a spot near his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers. He goes for his holster with his injured arm, trying to raise his weapon, but his fingers won't respond. The gun clatters to the floor as he staggers, his left hand instinctively pressing against the wound that made it through a gap in his protective gear.

He falls to his knees.

" Kaden! " I scream, sprinting toward him.

His face pales and he sways to the side. I get there in time to catch him and gently lay him down, my tears mixing with his blood. "Kaden, no, please…"

My heart is in ruins as I cradle Kaden's head in my lap, my fingers stroking his sweat-damp hair. His breathing is labored, each inhale a wet rattle that sends iced-over vines of dread into my stomach.

"Stay with me," I whisper, my voice cracking.

His eyelids flutter open, revealing those captivating blue eyes I've come to cherish, now glazed. "Wraithling…"

His hand, slick with his own blood, reaches up to cup my cheek. I lean into his touch, uncaring of the wet streaks he leaves on my skin.

"Shh, don't try to talk." I attempt a watery smile. "Save your strength. I'm going to get you out of here, get you patched up."

A ghost of a smile flickers across his lips. "Always the optimist."

"One of us has to be."

Kaden's thumb strokes my cheek. "I'm sorry I … couldn't keep my promise."

"Don't say that." I shake my head vehemently, refusing to accept the finality in his tone. "You're going to be okay. Keep pressure on it. We'll get you help. We'll?—"

My conviction dissolves into a sob, the enormity of the situation starting to close in on me.

I glance around frantically, searching for something, anything to stem the flow of blood. But there's nothing except carnage… and the person who fired the gun.

The acrid scent of gunpowder stings my nostrils.

That shot, it didn't come from Morelli.

It came from behind me.

I dive for Kaden's fallen weapon, my fingers closing around the grip. The cool metal slides against my sweaty palms as I raise it, aiming at the columns of servers, some sparking with broken wires, others blinking frantic green lights. The overhead emergency lights cast an unearthly red over this entire hellscape, and I can't pinpoint a thing.

I whip the gun to the left, then to the right, my arms trembling as I hold them stiff.

Casual footsteps echo straight ahead. I grip the gun tighter, my gaze darting through the spaces between the servers. My breaths shorten.

A figure steps out of the shadows, the dim light glinting off the barrel of a pistol. Slender fingers wrap around the grip, wisps of smoke curling from the muzzle. Their silhouette becomes clearer as they step directly under an overhead light, and she takes stock of Morelli's lifeless body.

She.

A woman.

She's tall and lithe, her stride relaxed yet predatory, and dressed in tactical gear not unlike Kaden's, her dark hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. She gives a quick survey of Morelli's corpse with pursed, disappointed lips, then turns to me.

My arms begin to ache from holding the gun steady, but I don't dare lower it.

"Who are you?" I demand, my voice shaking despite my efforts to keep it level.

The woman stops a few feet away, her head tilting as she regards me with an eerie calm. Her face is angular, all sharp cheekbones and a pointed chin, her features strangely familiar, yet I've never seen her before.

"Layla Verona," she says, her voice a smooth alto. "The innocent little coder caught up in the big, bad world."

I flinch at the use of my name, my finger tightening on the trigger. "How do you know who I am?"

Her lips curve into a smile devoid of warmth. "I know everything about you. Just like I know everything about him."

She nods toward Kaden, who shifts in my lap, groaning in pain as he tries to lift his head. His gaze locks onto the woman, and a tattered sound escapes his lips. "Cassie?"

The name slams into me, the gun nearly slipping from my grasp. "What?"

Kaden struggles to prop himself up, his face ashen. I try to hold him still, terrified he'll bleed out faster if he moves, but he's determined.

"Cassandra?" he asks again in a wet whisper.

My head spins as I look between them, the pieces refusing to click into place. This can't be right. Kaden must be hallucinating. It's impossible...

Cassie's grin widens, but there's no joy in it. "Hey, Dad. It's been a long time."

"Cassie … how?" Kaden grits out between labored breaths. "Morelli said…"

"That he buried me?" Cassie finishes, a harsh laugh escaping her. "Oh, he did. In a coffin, with nothing but the dark and the sounds of my own screams for company."

I stop breathing, horror seizing my lungs at the image she creates in my head. Kaden's face drains of what little color it had left, his lips parting in a silent cry of anguish.

Cassie continues, her voice flat, detached. "He kept me in that box for days, letting me scream myself hoarse, letting me shit and piss myself, the hunger and thirst gnawing at my insides until I thought I would go mad. And just when I was on the brink, when I thought death would be a mercy, he dug me up."

Kaden makes a strangled sound.

Cassie begins to pace, her movements languid, almost hypnotic. The gun dangles loosely from her fingers. "He broke me, piece by piece, day after day. The beatings, the starvation, the isolation. He would leave me in that dark hole for weeks, until I forgot what sunlight looked like, until my own name felt foreign on my tongue. And then, when I was nothing more than an empty doll, he would bring me out. Clean me up, dress me in pretty clothes. Parade me around like a prized pet."

I swallow and blink back tears. I can't even begin to imagine the hell she endured. Kaden's threadbare breaths fill the space between her words, each inhale a painful reminder of his fading strength.

Cassie stops in front of us, then lowers until she's resting on her haunches. "Do you know what it's like, Dad, to have every shred of your identity stripped away? To be dismembered and put back together as something unrecognizable? No, of course you don't. You were too busy playing the vengeful assassin, leaving your little trinkets on the bodies you dropped, never once considering that I might still be alive. That I needed you."

Kaden shakes his head weakly, tears clearing a path through the blood on his face. "I searched everywhere for you. I never stopped looking for you. Never stopped hoping…"

A mirthless laugh escapes her. "He molded me. Reshaped me into his perfect little soldier. His Mafia princess. He taught me to kill, to torture, to revel in the agony of our enemies. But that's not the worst part, Daddy. He buried me half a mile away from you. Next to the lighthouse. There were times you would've walked right on top of me."

My mouth goes dry. The lighthouse. My lighthouse. All those weeks Kaden spent searching, hunting for clues, and she was right there, suffering unimaginable horrors so close to home.

Kaden's anguished moan rips me apart. " No …"

His voice breaks off into a wet cough, more blood bubbling past his lips. I press my hand against his wound, my own tears blurring my vision.

Cassie watches him struggle with cold indifference.

"Cassie, we need to get him to a hospital," I say.

She tilts her head at me. "Considering I'm the one who shot him, I'm going to go with a no ."

"Why?" I demand. "How could you do this to a man who spent a decade searching for you, dead or alive? Your father changed his life, he gave up everything, to try to find you. He became a killer. Look around you. Look . All this carnage was for you. He tears people apart for you . Help him. Help him!"

By the time I'm finished, I'm screaming at her.

Cassie's emotionless gaze flickers from Kaden's labored breaths to my desperate, tear-streaked face. She leans in closer, keeping me in her sights with an intensity that makes me want to shrink back. But I force myself to meet her stare head-on, clenching my teeth hard.

"Who are you to him?" she asks.

I take a shuddering breath, choosing my words carefully. "I'm … I'm his partner. His friend. His…"

"Is he your savior?" Cassie asks sweetly. "When your world fell apart, when you were thrust into this nightmare that you couldn't wake up from, was he there? Did he protect you, shelter you, even when you fought him every step of the way?"

I feel all the blood leaving my face.

Cassie offers a triumphant smile at my physical reaction. "Exactly."

She's right. Kaden saved me, protected me. The realization that it should've been her twists something inside me.

Kaden's breathing grows more labored. Blood seeps through my fingers as I press against his wound. His skin pales, taking on a grayish tint.

"Please," I beg. "He's dying. "

Cassie's eyes narrow. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small vial filled with clear liquid, as well as a flip-phone. "This is the antidote to the poison coating the bullet. And my men can call an ambulance. Without either, I give him about ten more minutes."

Poison? My heart races. "Give it to him!"

"Not so fast," Cassie says. She holds up the vial, examining it in the poor light. "I want something in return."

"Anything," I say without hesitation.

Kaden's hand weakly grasps my arm. "No, Layla, don't."

I ignore him, focusing on Cassie. "What do you want?"

Her lips pull into a hapless smile. "I want you to feel what I felt. To know what it's like to have your identity stripped away. I want you to come with me."

The thought of going anywhere with Cassie makes my chest constrict, dread overriding any other thought. But I look down at Kaden, at the life draining from his eyes, and I know I have no choice.

"If you agree, Kaden lives. If not..." Cassie shrugs. "Well, at least you'll be together in death."

Kaden coughs. "No. I won't let you."

"Okay," I whisper. "I'll do it."

Cassie gives an approving nod. She tosses me the vial. I catch it and quickly uncork it, lifting Kaden's head to pour the liquid into his mouth.

It's not that I trust what she says. The vial she gave me could kill Kaden faster, for all I know. But I've run out of options.

"Good girl," Cassie says, standing. She pulls out her phone, tapping the screen. "My men will be here in one minute to collect you both. Don't try anything stupid."

I hold on tight to Kaden, already grieving.

His eyes flutter closed, but they open again and find mine.

"Why?" he croaks.

I brush a strand of hair from his forehead, leaving a smear of blood, then lean down, my tears falling onto his pallid face. "You saved me. Now it's my turn."

A lump of emotion burns my throat. I keep my focus on Kaden, memorizing every line and plane of his face, the exact shade of blue in his eyes, the way his hair curls at his nape. I want to sear him into my memory, to carry it with me into the void that awaits.

"I love you," I whisper.

Kaden's glazed eyes clear enough for me to catch the shock, wonder, and despair in their depths. "Layla…"

I press my forehead to his, savoring the connection. "I know."

Cassie watches our exchange behind the cold mask of her features. Her clipped stride toward us makes me raise my head.

"Time's up, Layla. On your feet."

I press a fierce kiss to Kaden's lips. "Hold on."

"I'll find my way back to you," he says hoarsely against my mouth. "Both of you."

My breath hitches as Cassie's men flood into the room, their boots scraping and pounding. They surround us, their weapons trained on Kaden and me.

Kaden's hold on my arm suddenly digs into my flesh with an adrenaline-induced desperation that borders on painful.

"Layla, don't go." His voice scrapes against his throat. "She'll destroy you."

Cassie's men advance, reaching for me, ready to drag me away. I cling to Kaden, my fingers twisting in his shirt, desperate for one last moment.

But Cassie nods to the men and they seize my arms, hauling me to my feet with a force that makes my bones ache .

I cry out, scrabbling to keep my grip on Kaden. "Please! Just let me stay with him until help comes!"

Kaden lunges for me, his hand outstretched, but he crashes to the floor, his blood smearing across the concrete.

"No!" The word slices his throat, a howl of agony and rage. "Layla!"

"I'm sorry," I sob to him, my voice hitching. "I'm so sorry."

I scream his name, thrashing in my captors' hold as they drag me backward, away from him. The distance between us yawns wider with each step, an unbridgeable chasm.

Cassie watches our struggle with a twisted smile, her eyes glittering with a perverse satisfaction.

She turns to Kaden, her head tilting in a mockery of sympathy. "Don't worry, Daddy. Your new girlfriend and I are going to have so much fun getting to know each other."

The last thing I see before they wrench me around the corner is Kaden's face, contorted in anguish, his hand still reaching for me as he mouths my name.

And then he's gone, and I'm being dragged through the shadows and into a nightmare that I won't be able to control.