Breaker (Unmasked #3)

15. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Striker

M y vision blurs in and out in time with my heartbeat. Blackness invades my mind, then it fades and all I can see is Hunter’s face as we left him to die.

All because of me.

This feels like it’s all my fault. Again.

My head drops forward and I rest it on my forearm slung over my knees, trying to force the image from my mind. Lifting my head, I glance at the door next to me as I stretch my legs, debating going back into Reaper’s room, but I’m not sure if that would help or hurt the situation.

Delilah stopped yelling when she first saw me, but that lasted all of two seconds. It was the tears that made me want to untie her, but Reaper would have my head. She’s still learning. And she has to understand that even if she can’t see it now, everything we do is for a reason.

Fuck. I sound like Fallon. Justifying. But it’s true. She has to learn to obey, to follow every command, or this will never work. It will fall apart the second she doesn’t listen.

As much as I want to leave and get Cora, we aren’t ready. Cora is smart. Cunning. Fragile in so many ways, but strong enough to survive the storm until we can get to her.

She has to.

I’ll never forgive myself if she doesn’t.

Reaper. Just the thought of how he’d unravel sends a slick sensation coiling through my gut. If something happens to her, he’ll fucking go over the edge completely. This entire mission was partly his plan. Fallon only agreed because he knows how ruthless Reaper can be when he wants something. And he wants Rune to pay.

“To think she’s all tied up and we can’t even play with her.”

I glance up from the floor and see Breaker shutting the door to Viper’s room, a grim expression on his face. I hadn’t even noticed him slip past me and go into his room. I really need to sleep.

I shake my head, trying to clear it, and my head swims a little from the movement. I’ve not slept, maybe a few minutes at a time in fits and starts. My eyes sting from lack of sleep, and I rub them, trying to focus. I’ve been stuck in my head. Too lost in memories to give a fuck about much of anything. Too miserable from watching Cora being dragged away to care that we had to abide by Fallon’s orders.

Had to. As if we had no say in the matter.

As if we had no choice.

“We had to send her, you know,” Breaker says like he’s reading my mind. Or maybe he feels as much guilt as I do and is trying to justify why we allowed her to go.

He slides down the wall, sitting next to me, hip to hip, thigh pressed against mine. He’s so much like Viper in some ways. Needing contact with one of us when he’s feeling overwhelmed. Reaper’s always kept us at arm’s length and the three of us have clung to one another all these years. Maybe that’s why I’ve always had this lingering want inside me. We’ve been through hell together and Viper and Breaker are the only ones who know what it feels like to come out alive.

The side of his boot taps mine, and I look over at him. He’s watching my mouth the way he watches Vipers when he doesn’t think anyone’s looking.

I draw my knees up to my chest, rubbing my face again. “Did we?” I ask. His pale blue eyes dart away. He feels guilty too. Good. He should. We all should.

But Father’s orders still stand and we’re expected to abide by them.

I rub my eyes, like I can rub away this deep exhaustion resting in my bones. I’m sick of blindly abiding by his orders. Sick of this life. We’ve had only a handful of missions the last few years, giving us a break, but I can still taste the acidic savagery of each mission on my tongue. Feel that bitter dread of receiving a text with nothing but coordinates and a code word. Red: shoot on sight—my specialty. Yellow: extract and hold. Blue: Gather target and intel. Then later after we arrive, another text with the name and a picture of our target. Then we move in and do as ordered.

Delilah was simple. We had formed a plan that would ensure Rune’s downfall.

We take her and make her ours.

And we did.

Turn her against him.

We did that too.

But now it’s ruined because we’re fucking—

“We’re idiots to have thought we could get away with keeping her.” Breakers’ frustrated words echo in my head. He shifts and the back of his head thunks against the wall. Exhaustion is etched into his features as he stares at the ceiling. “We’re fools to think we could keep them both, like pretty pets.”

You know that’s not what this is. I don’t say it. There’s no need. You can’t observe, track, learn about someone for so long and think of them as just pets.

No.

Not pets.

Our obsession. We sat on rooftops, in cars, followed them down the street—stalking them—keeping track of their whereabouts even when we weren’t around or just one of us was on duty. Most of the time, between jobs, we would all sit and watch. Then we’d take breaks in shifts when we knew they were settled in for the night in case Rune did something that would give us a hint of what he was doing.

If they knew about it.

If she knew.

She was the key to bringing down Rune.

We took notes of their fucking every move to use later on when we needed Delilah’s compliance. What they ate, what perfume they wore, who they dated and how often they went to the doctor. They become the center of everything.

They become ours. Fucking ours . Our everything. Our fuckups. Our hopes. These two women represent everything we’ve always wanted.

Revenge, ruin, fucking peace , and now we have neither of them, Everything is falling apart because of our selfish desires.

Fallon always feared Rune would slip over and take things too far. That’s part of why he took that mission, even when he knew it would fracture their alliance. Little did he know it was his actions that would be the Rune descended into madness.

It wasn’t until years later, after we got an inside source, and we could gather intel on his movements that we learned the details of his actions. How he was funneling money and who he was working with. Who the members were and where they lived. How many times they visited. How many hunts he held in a single year. If it weren’t for our inside source, we’d never have gotten the information or images from the inside.

Now we have it all, and the plan?

Put the one thing we worked so hard to get in danger.

A soft sob slips out from under the bedroom door and my heart cracks a little more. If only we weren’t such selfish bastards. But we always have been. I should know by now to expect less from us all.

“Have you seen Reap?” Breaker asks, pulling me back to reality.

I shake my head, sucking in a breath to focus. My lungs fill with his scent, making my senses rush with awareness. Earthy and fresh, that’s how he smells. Like a spring day with a slight sweet almond aftertaste, hinted with oak and so wholly consuming, I can’t help but think of how he must taste.

“Since he left her here?” Breaker’s brows knit as he looks at me, like he can’t figure out why I’m acting so strangely. Probably a good thing, considering I’m thinking about his cock.

“About an hour ago,” I say, trying to brush the image of Viper sucking him off from my head. “But not since he told me she was tied to his bed and to leave her as he was walking out the door.”

His full lips quirk. “Viper said she tried to run.”

“Found the SUV and the keys,” I tell him.

“We know she’s resourceful and determined.”

“And we know she’d do anything for Cora.”

Breaker sighs. “Let’s hope that’s true, and she cooperates soon.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure how long Cora will last at the hands of Rune and Zane.”

“Fuck,” Breaker mutters, tapping the back of his head against the wall, then stands up with a grunt. He reaches for the door, but I grab his calf, stopping him.

“Mask,” I say, slipping mine over my head on instinct, then remember I don’t have to.

She knows me.

No. She doesn’t know me. She’s seen me. There’s a difference.

Breaker ignores me and pushes the door open.

I hear her scream out a venomous stream of curses, but her words cut off abruptly. When I enter the room behind him, I almost laugh at her expression. Mouth open, eyes moving over his features like she’s trying to see every hard line and smooth curve all at once. I’m so used to seeing him, I forget. Breaker is probably the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, almost feline in his perfection. Far more than even Reaper, and that’s a hard task.

He leans down and grabs her by the back of her neck. Delilah’s eyes flare wide with shock. “You don’t leave,” he growls. “You are ours, Tiny Thing. Remember?”

Her mouth opens again, but this time she exhales, her chest sinking in defeat. “Seriously?”

Breaker glances my way.

“That’s what you look like?” Our Princess squirms, thighs pressing together. “This whole time, you’ve been keeping that face hidden?”

My laughter earns me a smirk from Breaker. Then he leans down, placing a kiss on her forehead, but his voice still has the dominant edge when he says, “Say it. Tell me you won’t try to leave again.”

Delilah nods, her gaze hungrily taking in every feature.

“Say it,” he demands.

“Okay,” she breathes. “My god, I won’t try to leave.”

Her response eases the tension in his shoulders, but he rolls them like he does right before we’re about to move in on a target, and my body goes rigid.

“We had to send her back because of a deal,” Breaker says, “We had no choice.”

“What deal?” Delilah asks the same moment I say, “Not a good time, Breaker.”

She tenses, her muscles straining against the tight restraints, trying to sit upright, but Reaper has her tied so tight she can’t move an inch. We’re going to have to let her go soon before she loses circulation. “A good time for what? Tell me what you mean.”

His shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath.

“Break…” I try to say gently, placing my hand on his shoulder, but I know it comes out like a warning. She’s already upset, upset with us, and this will just send her over the edge. Telling her won’t ease his guilt. It’ll just piss her off even more.

He shrugs me off. “Rune made a deal a with Devin.” When her brows knit, he continues, “To combine the families.”

“He’s marrying her off,” Delilah says, more to herself. I see the moment it all crashes into her. Her gorgeous features contort, mouth pulling into a frown, brows furrowing. “The Devin family. Rune’s marrying her off to Zane to keep the families connected.”

Breaker says nothing and I know better than to say a damn thing.

“You sent my Cora back to marry Zane fucking Devin?” Her scream nearly makes my ears bleed. All shock at seeing Breaker’s face leaves as she writhes, trying to free herself. “You bastard,” she seethes, fury turning her cheeks red. Princess jerks and thrashes against the restraints, her feet kicking out in desperation like a wild animal and I worry she’s going to hurt herself. “You’re all bastards!”

We are. Fucking bastards who vowed to protect Cora then broke it less than twenty-four hours later.

Princess screams, this feral, ungodly sound that rips through me with its intensity, but suddenly, it stops and she stills. Tears roll down her cheeks and I think witnessing this utter heartbreak is far worse punishment than Fallon’s belt or solitary. Worse than anything, I’ve been handed so far.

Breaker kneels by the bed and gently wipes away her tears. She pulls away, but only half-heartedly, her body limp with anguish.

“Why?” Hot tears stream down her cheeks, leaving a trail of salt and sorrow. “Why did you have to send her? What power does he have over you?”

Father, she means. What power does he hold? Funny. I never questioned why we listen to Fallon. He holds power over us because we gave it to him.

Just like he trained us.

Breaker’s eyes close and when they open again, I see that familiar look of determination he gets right before he does something stupid.

Or brave.

He unties the leather bindings around her wrists and rubs them tenderly, helping her sit up, before pulling her into his lap. She’s still sobbing uncontrollably, a mess of limbs and pain in Breaker’s arms. I want to lash out, punch something until my hands are bloody and bruised.

Myself. Right in the face.

We did this. Caused this pain.

She’s absolutely devastated, and I can’t even imagine what Cora must be feeling right now. It’s been hours since Fallon took her, and she’s back in Rune’s clutches by now. God knows what he’s doing to her.

Is he hurting her?

The thought alone makes me want to destroy everything in sight. I’ve been sitting around, feeling sorry for myself while god only knows what our Little Flower’s enduring.

We need to make a plan.

“Tiny Thing,” Breaker’s gentle whisper cuts through the chaotic my panic building my gut. My vision clears and I see she’s straddling him, her slight frame shaking with sobs. He wraps his muscular arms tightly around her, burying his nose in her hair. She clings to him like a lifeline. After a minute Breaker pulls back and cups her cheeks, searching her eyes. “What did I tell you?”

Delilah murmurs something I can’t hear, and she falls apart again.

Breaker has a big heart. He’s loyal to a fault. He loves all of us ferociously, but we don’t get this. This gentleness. We just get Breaker and his snarky remarks and quiet laughter.

He nestles his nose to her, trailing soft kisses to her earlobe. I shouldn’t be getting hard, but I can’t help it. The only time I’ve ever seen him like this was the other night, and I want to see more. As selfish as it is, I want some of it for myself.

He whispers in her ear and her whole body stills. She nods. When his lips land on hers, she arches up, meeting his kiss, parting her lips to let him slip his tongue deeper. I feel like I’m invading on something private, and I take a step back, but his hand latches on to my belt, keeping me in place, letting me, wanting me, to be a part of this tenderness.

When he breaks the kiss, he lets me go, then runs his hand over her long black hair. “Be a good girl, Tiny Thing.”

She nods, more tears slipping free, but she swipes them away, her beautiful features growing softer.

“Promise?”

She licks her lips, nodding. “Promise.”

He places her back on the bed and stands, reaching behind him. The metal rings glint in the light. Now I know why he was in Viper’s room.

Shit. He just calmed her down, and she’s going to be even more pissed. Breaker grabs her wrist and slaps the handcuff around it. She stares at it blankly, then up at him right before he pulls her arm up to the headboard and snaps the other end in place, cuffing her to the bed.

“What are you doing?” she asks, looking over at me like I’m going to help her.

Her expression of shock makes me stifle a chuckle. I shake my head. “Didn’t I warn you what happens to naughty girls who try to run?”

That clouded, sweet, slightly confused look vanishes, and her mouth thins to a straight line, her face contorting with anger. “Assholes.”

His stark, wintery eyes meet mine, and for the first time since I watched Cora get dragged away, I feel a tiny spark of hope. Breaker earned his name for a reason. He may be the youngest out of us, but he’s also far braver in many ways, standing up to Fallon when even Reaper cannot.