Chapter 28: Caught in the Crossfire

RORY

His eyes were the kind you didn’t forget. Not because they were warm or beautiful or anything romantic like that—they weren’t. They were cold. Sharp. Focused on me like I was the one thing keeping him alive… or the one thing standing between him and death.

And somehow, I knew if I looked away, he’d be gone.

“Get him to the med room,” Kai ordered again, but there was a flicker in his expression when he saw the stranger’s gaze fixed on me.

Enzo crouched, slipping an arm under the man’s shoulders. The moment his hand brushed the wound, the stranger hissed, his grip shooting out to catch my wrist instead.

It wasn’t a plea. It was a command.

I should’ve pulled away. I should’ve let Enzo drag him off without a second thought. But instead, I bent closer, just enough to hear his voice.

“Help me,” he rasped. His breath was warm against my ear. “Don’t… let them…” His words broke apart on a cough.

And then Enzo’s grip was there, peeling his hand from mine.

“Rory.” Kai’s voice was quiet but full of steel. “Upstairs. Now.”

I went upstairs, but only because I didn’t trust myself not to give away the fact that I’d already decided I wasn’t going to listen.

An hour later, I was back in the med room.

The door wasn’t locked—because they probably thought I wouldn’t dare. They didn’t know how little fear could stop me when curiosity had me by the throat.

Inside, the stranger was lying on the table, shirt cut away, the wound on his side cleaned but still raw. His breathing was shallow, his skin pale.

There was no one else in the room.

I stepped closer.

“What did you mean?” I asked quietly.

His eyes flickered open, slow and deliberate. “They’ll use you,” he whispered. “Same way they used me.”

My heart stuttered. “Who are you?”

He gave a pained little smile. “The one who can get you out.”

Before I could push for more, the door opened.

Jace walked in, and his gaze went straight to me. “Wow,” he said. “You’re really bad at following orders.”

I stepped back from the table. “I was just—”

“Just ignoring Kai,” he finished for me. He didn’t look angry, but there was an edge under the lazy tone.

Jace moved past me, glancing down at the stranger. “You’re awake. That’s inconvenient.”

The man didn’t respond, but his hand twitched again like he was itching to reach for me.

Jace caught it. “No. Whatever you think you’re doing, don’t.”

When I left the med room, I could still feel the weight of both their stares.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the stranger’s face and heard his voice. The promise. The warning. The fact that if he was telling the truth, I’d just walked into a whole new kind of trap.

The next morning, I didn’t go to breakfast. Instead, I waited until I knew the brothers were busy, then slipped back to the med room.

He was still there. Awake this time. Watching the door like he’d been waiting for me.

“You came,” he said.

“You didn’t exactly make it easy to forget you,” I replied.

His smile was faint but real. “You want out.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Don’t you?” I asked.

He nodded once. “I can’t move yet. But when I can, I’ll need help.”

“Why me?”

“Because they trust you just enough to underestimate you,” he said, his voice low. “And because you owe me now.”

I blinked. “Owe you? For what?”

His expression hardened. “For not dying when they had the chance to let me.”

The words hit differently than I expected. Like there was a story behind them I wasn’t ready for.

Before I could respond, footsteps echoed in the hall.

I slipped behind a tall cabinet, holding my breath as the door swung open.

It was Nikolai.

He didn’t even glance around, just went straight to the table. “You should be gone,” he told the stranger. “But someone clearly thinks you’re worth keeping alive.”

“Someone?” the man asked, voice sharper now.

Nikolai leaned down. “Don’t mistake that for mercy.”

And then he left.

When the room was quiet again, I stepped out. “What did he mean?”

The stranger’s gaze was steady on mine. “It means I’ve got friends and enemies in this house… and you can’t tell which is which yet.”

His words followed me out, curling into the corners of my mind like smoke.

Over the next two days, I visited him whenever I could. He never told me his name, but he told me other things. Little pieces. Enough to make me think he’d been here longer than anyone realized. Enough to make me think maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t lying about getting me out.

But then came the third night.

I woke to the sound of something sharp hitting the floor.

Sliding out of bed, I crept toward the hall. The noise came again—a muffled thud this time. I followed it down to the med room.

The door was ajar.

Inside, the stranger was half-sitting, blood seeping fresh through the bandages. He looked worse than before, but his eyes were lit with something fierce.

“They’ll come for me tonight,” he said, his voice a low rasp. “If you want answers, you have to help me now.”

Every instinct told me not to. That this could be a setup. But the part of me that had been caged for too long wanted to see what was on the other side of that choice.

I grabbed the nearest cloth, pressing it to his side. “What do you need me to do?”

He told me. Quick, clipped instructions that made me realize he’d been planning this long before I stepped into the room the first time.

I helped him to his feet, slinging his arm over my shoulder. He was heavier than I expected, but we made it to the service stairwell without being seen.

Almost.

Halfway down, a shadow moved at the bottom of the stairs.

Jace.

His eyes landed on me, then the man. And I saw it—the split second where the easy charm vanished and something harder took its place.

“Rory,” he said softly, like he was trying to coax a skittish animal. “Step away from him.”

The stranger’s grip on me tightened.

And I knew—whoever I chose in the next breath would decide everything.