Chapter 216

Chapter 216
~Torin~

Everything inside me locked instantly. Sound dropped out, thought disappeared. There was only Marlowe.

The team flooded in fast at my back with weapons drawn, but I barely registered any of it because all I could see was Marlowe. Standing twenty feet away, alive.

The relief hit so brutally my knees almost buckled beneath it, then I saw Brian.

The bastard staggered sideways near the table, gun still clutched in his hand while Marlowe shoved against his arm trying to force the barrel away from both of them.

Rage detonated instantly inside my chest. “Get away from her!” I roared as I charged forward.

Brian’s head snapped toward me, panic and fury twisting together across his face while the gun jerked upward again too fast.

I hit him before he could fully raise it. My shoulder slammed into his chest hard enough both of us crashed sideways into the table, metal screeching violently across the floor while the gun fired again somewhere between us. Concrete exploded near my head.

I grabbed Brian by the throat instantly and drove him backward into the wall hard enough the entire thing shook from the impact.

“You touched her,” I snarled, my voice sounding less human than I recognized.

Brian clawed at my wrist while trying to bring the gun back up between us, but rage made me faster tonight. Stronger too.

I slammed his arm against the wall once, twice. The  third impact finally snapped the gun free from his grip. It clattered uselessly across the concrete.

Then I hit him; hard. His head snapped sideways from the punch while blood sprayed across the floor beside us.

“Torin!” Marlowe’s voice cracked through the room sharply.

I barely heard it as Brian’s obsession, his watching her, planning this crashed together inside my skull until violence became the only thing left.

I hit him again, and again.

Brian tried fighting back once, catching my jaw hard enough stars burst briefly across my vision, but I barely felt it before I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and drove my fist straight into his ribs hard enough breath exploded out of him violently.

“You think this is love?” I roared as I shoved him hard into the concrete pillar beside us. “You think locking her in a cage makes you the good guy?”

Brian coughed harshly, blood streaking from his mouth now while hatred flashed across his face.

“You ruin everything you touch,” he spat.

His words hit because somewhere deep down, part of me always feared it was true, but not tonight. Tonight he didn’t get to weaponize that fear against me. Not after putting his hands on her.

I lunged for him again before he could move, but suddenly arms locked around my chest from behind.

“Torin!” Burdock barked sharply while Rook grabbed my shoulder. “Enough!”

No, not enough. Not even fucking close.

Brian slid down the wall roughly while trying to breathe through blood and pain, one hand pressed against his ribs as he looked past me toward Marlowe standing near the far wall, and somehow the bastard still looked at her like he was protecting her. That made me crazier than the gun did.

“She was safer with me,” Brian rasped.

Marlowe stared at him in disbelief, tears streaking down her face while fury burned brighter behind them now. “You terrified me,” she whispered shakily.

Brian’s expression actually faltered at that.

“She’ll never be safe with you,” he muttered weakly while looking back toward me.

I ripped free from Burdock’s grip instantly, crossing the distance between us before anybody could stop me again. Brian barely got halfway upright before I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him back against the wall.

“You don’t get to say her name anymore,” I growled directly into his face. “You lost that right the second you dragged her into this place.”

Brian laughed then. He was broken, bloody, but still laughing.

“She loves you enough to die for you,” he muttered. “That should scare the hell out of you.”

It did…that was the problem. My grip tightened harder while fury and fear tangled viciously together inside my chest because the bastard wasn’t completely wrong. Loving me was dangerous. Tonight proved it better than anything else ever could. But Marlowe still chose me, and somehow that terrified me almost as much as losing her would have.

Sirens suddenly echoed faintly outside the warehouse. The police. FBI too probably.

The sound finally cut through enough of the violence inside me for reality to start clawing back in piece by piece.

Rook stepped closer. “Torin,” he muttered quietly. “It’s done.”

I stared at Brian another long second before finally shoving him away hard enough he collapsed back onto the concrete floor, then immediately turned toward Marlowe.

She stood trembling near the wall, hair a mess, eyes red from crying while bruises already darkened faintly along one wrist where Brian grabbed her earlier. The sight gutted me instantly. Everything violent inside me collapsed sideways all at once.

“Marlowe,” I breathed roughly.

She looked at me for one long second, then crossed the room so fast she practically crashed into my chest.

I caught her immediately, arms locking around her hard enough to hurt while she buried her face against my neck and broke apart completely, and for the first time since she disappeared…I could finally breathe again.