Nick’s father’s gold watch was strapped to his wrist.
Euan flinched.
Parker’s reply to Euan’s question was smooth, honeyed. He spoke words that took time for Euan to comprehend, the blood that roared inside his head had stolen most of his faculties. ‘I have something that Matthew wants. He was willing to give me everything in exchange for it.’
The neurons in Euan’s brain fired. They triggered a memory of a conversation only hours before.
‘There are no more easy decisions.’
His eye was back on Knight. ‘What have you done?’
It was Parker who answered. ‘This was the plan all along, McKay. Couldn’t you see? I knew about your house, I knew about Mickey-O’s hotel. Your little blond fuckhole just happened to escape this compound with little more than a scratch? You think I gathered that intel up using the useless animals that drink too much out there? No.’
Knight’s dark eyes were laced with resolve and regret. ‘I’m sorry.’
He was too shocked to fight. Knight took the gun from his fingers and threw it aside. He couldn’t fathom the duplicity … he couldn’t understand how he had done it to Lily …
Euan was now surrounded, outnumbered, but he would be damned if he went down without a fight. When they attempted to secure him, his fists flew. He attacked any that came too close. He was fast, agile, accurate. Adrenaline was his only ally. He’d just broken a nose when Nick’s voice croaked behind him.
‘Euan …’
Momentarily distracted, Knight took the opportunity to jump him. They tumbled to the ground in a pile of thrashing limbs. The big man was one of the few who could beat him, and they both knew it.
‘If you don’t calm your shit down, they’ll kill him,’ Knight hissed in his ear as they grappled on the floor.
‘Fuck you,’ Euan replied with a roar and a well-placed fist.
‘Boys, boys,’ Parker interrupted. ‘That kind of action will be for later.’ His focus moved from Euan to Knight. ‘Tie that man up before I lose my temper.’
The ropes that they used to lash his body were thick. They hogtied him on the floor even as he struggled and pulled against the bonds. He swore profanities, cursed them, roared and grunted when no more words would come.
At a flick of Parker’s fingers, one of his followers wrapped another rope around his throat and lashed it onto the ties that kept his legs bent. It created a chokehold that would tighten as he struggled. Euan’s veins bulged, saliva burst from the corners of his mouth as he fought for breath. He was caught, trapped. Nick called his name.
When he was subdued, Parker turned to Knight. ‘You’ve done a great job.’
Knight’s chest rose and fell with winded breaths. ‘You’ll release the women you took from Nirvana now?’
He should have known it. He should have seen. How else would they have known it all? Only someone close to the head of the pack knew of the bunker. He was a fool. If only Knight had told him. He would have walked through fire to save those that were trapped here. He attempted to speak, but all that came out was garbled words and spit.
The smile that split Parker’s face dimpled his cheek. Euan jerked in his bonds as Parker pulled a gun from his waistband. Knight simply raised his hands.
‘No,’ Parker answered.
Then fired.
Knight had betrayed him, but he had done it for a cause. When all that hard muscle, promise and hope hit the floor, Euan cried out. Nick grunted, thrashed, Euan had no such luxury. He could do nothing except pull against the rope that stole his breath, his senses.
Euan swore vengeance even as he was unable to move, breath, think.
Parker walked towards him with a lithe gracefulness that would rival a panther. Long limbs and smooth movements. He was surrounded by blood, death and he was at home. He reached Euan, knelt, touched the scar that ran from forehead to cheek. Euan recoiled under the contact. Months ago, he had shared his meals with this man, chuckled at his wit, nodded sagely at his ideas for humanity’s future. Meanwhile, Parker had manipulated a desperate male to coerce Euan into leaving Nick behind so he could be brutalised. The thunder in his chest rolled. The lightning in his fingertips zapped. The scars and chronic pain were absent, the loss of his eye irrelevant. He would kill Parker, no matter the cost to his own life.
When the man spoke, it was to himself. ‘I should take out your other eye.’
Euan was lightheaded, the space between one breath and the next dragged out. His neck held no strength. An inarticulate grunt was his reply. The spit that sputtered forth from Euan’s mouth hit Parker in the chin. He removed the thumb from Euan’s face and wiped it from his skin. When he sucked it from his finger, Euan fought the urge to vomit.
Parker’s knife hovered above his single working eye. ‘I’m going to fuck Nick in front of you and I want to hear you scream. I want to hear you beg. Then, I’m going to take this eye and fuck you. If you ask nicely, I might even use the blood to ease my way.’
The blade hovered precariously close to his iris but Euan did not close his eye. He did not cower. Even as the memories flooded in. His body taut on a meat hook as another man used a blade to cut his face. The air around him morphed into wisps of smoke. The pain from his old injuries eclipsed the new. The lack of oxygen was drawing the last of his strength. His fingers were no longer responsive.
Behind Parker, Nick struggled. There was the groan of timber, the creak of rope. He grunted behind his gag.
‘If you don’t shut up, Nicky, I’ll take his eye first.’
With or without the
