Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy #3)

His words slam into me harder than the bullet in my shoulder, and my stomach twists. “All of it? You . . .” I blink, barely able to see through my tears.

His face creases with pain that mirrors my own as the door opens and the nurse returns.

“Do you want me to leave?” she asks, picking up on the tense silence in the room.

“No. Take her back,” Lachlan says. “I’m sure her family is worrying every second she’s out of their sight.”

I open my mouth to say something. Anything. But he’s not Lachlan anymore. He’s Mount.

My lips slam shut, but then I decide f*ck it. If this is the last time I ever get to see him, I’m going to tell him exactly what I think and feel.

“I’m not done here. We’re not done here.”

He meets my gaze. “I decide when we’re done.”

My mouth drops open as words so similar to those he spoke that night in his dining room—the first night I left claw marks on his back—fall from his lips.

I turn my head and look over my shoulder at the nurse. My body twinges, pain fighting through the drugs. “Get out.”

“Ms. Kilgore—”

“Get. The. f*ck. Out.”

The nurse shuffles back and the door closes once more.

I turn and look at my husband. “We are not over. Do you understand me? I took vows, and I meant every single word of them.”

His face shifts from the hard mask to twisted confusion. “Are you trying to say I didn’t?”

“You want to undo all of this? End it?”

He jams a hand into his hair as he stares down at me, looking completely destroyed.

“Jesus f*cking Christ, Keira. That’s not what I meant but, f*ck, it should be. If I had a single shred of decency in my soul, I would take everything back, all the way to the first time I touched you.” He sounds like he’s forcing the words from his throat. “But even if I had that power, I wouldn’t take any of it back. Not a single goddamned second. If that makes me the most selfish motherf*cker on this planet, then so be it.”

“Then what the hell did you mean?” My tears fall harder now. Partly because nothing makes sense right now, but most of all, because I can’t stand to see that tortured expression on his face.

“That I would turn back time to save you even a single moment of pain. Take us back to when we were eating cake and dancing. To before you almost f*cking died because of me.”

Guilt underpins every single word, and I hate it. This isn’t his fault. I refuse to let him shoulder this burden.

“You didn’t pull that trigger. She did.”

“But I should’ve stopped it. I should’ve known.”

I reach out to touch his arm, drawing strength from him, desperate to take his pain like he wants to take mine. “I know you’re superhuman, but even you can’t know everything.”

The muscles in his jaw tense as he leans down to cup my cheek. “I said I’d keep you safe, and I didn’t. That’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”

I turn my face into his hand and press a kiss to his palm. “As long as you live with me for the rest of your life, we’ll deal with it together.”

“Keira—” My name sounds like a prayer torn from his lips.

“I just need to know one thing.”

“What?” he asks, cupping my face like he never wants to let it go.

“Am I safe now?”

He nods. “Yes. Completely. I’ve taken care of everything.”

I want to ask a dozen more questions, but like he said—not now. So I settle for the most important one.

“And what happens when they discharge me?”

Lachlan’s eyes narrow, his gaze intensifying. “You come home to me. Where you belong.”





Keira





My discharge papers have been signed. After seven full days in the hospital, I should be rushing out the door, but I’m not.

“Honey, are you sure?” Mom squeezes my shoulder as my wheelchair halts at the door of a private room. A private room I’m willing to bet anything is being paid for by my husband.

“I know you never liked Mags, but—”

Her grip stiffens. “It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, honey. It was that I didn’t want to take a chance that you’d be pulled down her path.”

I swallow at her words. How can I ever tell my mother that I’m standing at the end of a path that is infinitely more dangerous than the one Magnolia has taken? I’m the queen of a sinful empire, and I plan to spend the rest of my life beside its king.

I especially can’t tell her that Magnolia is totally responsible for putting me in that position, and that there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

With the hand that’s not strapped to my side in a sling, I reach up and cover hers before looking up at her. “I love you, Mom. Thank you for everything.”

“I love you too, honey.”

“Now, I need a few minutes alone with Mags. I . . . I have a few things I have to say to her, and I need some space.”

She releases my shoulder and steps away. “Okay. I’ll be right outside, and Dad is getting everything else in order.”

The aide wheels me into the room and parks my chair beside Magnolia’s bed, then retreats, shutting the door behind her.

Magnolia’s dark hair is wrapped in gauze that covers her entire head. No one would tell me anything about her condition except that she’s being monitored and provided the best possible care. She hasn’t woken up, and they don’t know if she ever will.

I extend my free hand and clutch her limp one. “Magnolia Marie Maison, this is so like you.” I sniffle back tears. “Gotta cause all the drama to get the attention and leave the rest of us in suspense, wondering what’s going on.”

The beeping of the monitors is the only response to my poor attempt at humor.

I squeeze her fingers. “Mags, please. You have to wake up. You’re a fighter. You’re the toughest woman I know, and you will not let this beat you. Do you understand me? I refuse to let you give up.”

The beeping of the monitor stays steady, no indication at all that she hears a single word. But I know there’s research out there about people in comas being able to hear what’s said around them while they’re unconscious. I’m hoping like hell my best friend can hear me now, because if I don’t hold on to that belief, I’ll end up sobbing at her bedside.

That might happen anyway, though.

I lift Magnolia’s hand to my cheek. “Listen to me, woman. You are not leaving the world like this. You don’t go quietly. They’ll have to tear you off this earth kicking and screaming. Do you hear me? That’s who you are. Don’t you dare let me down. I need you to wake up. I have things to say to you, and I need to know that you can hear them.”

The answering silence triggers another torrent of tears.

“I know you did what you thought was right for me. That you always do what you think is right for me. I don’t care about your other motives, because you gave me a gift I can never repay. I should’ve thanked you when I had the chance.”

Her pulse beats through her wrist and her chest rises and falls, but that’s it.