Tempted Hero by Ella Miles

Beckett

“Three,”Corsi says, and chaos erupts.

Men start shooting like we’re in the middle of a battlefield and everyone is the enemy. The smart ones take off toward the woods, toward cover.

I scan across the fire and see Ri running into the woods.

Wise.

But it pisses me off. I want to watch her fight and get shot.

Except, she’s one of the best fighters. She won’t get shot, not without a fight. Knowing her, she’s about to climb a tree and rain down bullets on all of us. I don’t know what that little act was before, pretending she’d never held a gun before, but I’m curious to find out.

I run along the edge of the forest, careful to avoid stray bullets as I follow Ri into the forest.

She’s fast and has a head start on me, even though the thick brush is a pain in the ass to run through. But I stay no more than thirty feet behind her—my gun tingling for me to use it in my hand.

Seeing a shadow on my left, I only look long enough to ensure it isn’t Caius before shooting him in the gut. The man falls with a loud groan.

I won’t shoot to kill, but I’m not going to make it easy for any of the men to survive their wounds either.

What are you going to do when you catch Ri?

I don’t know.

Am I following her to keep her safe?My heart aches so fucking bad thinking about her. About what could have been. About how fooled I was.

Do I want to shoot her, kill her?This would be the perfect place. No one would see that I was the one who shot her. It would be clean and tidy, even if it would ignite an all-out war over Corsi’s power.

Ri falls to the ground as a bullet whizzes past, and my breath is knocked out of me.

No!

But a second later, she’s back on her feet, and I let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, I’m not ready for her to die yet, or I want to be the one to pull the trigger.

I run after her but notice one large difference. She no longer has a gun.

Why?

In fact, I didn’t see her fire it once. That’s not the fighter I know.

She stops suddenly, leaning against a tree, trying to catch her breath, and probably beating herself up for dropping her gun.

I circle around her until I’m at her back, watching her.

Leighton approaches and talks to her. He raises his gun, but I’m faster.

I don’t think—I just shoot.

My bullet hits her hard in her right bicep. I don’t know if Leighton was only going to graze her skin with his bullet. I don’t know if I did her a favor or hurt her worse than she deserved.

My heart trembles in my chest. My eyes glaze as she looks at me. A tornado of emotions howls through me—glee, fear, lust, terror, vengeance.

I turn and run before Ri has a chance to call me out and before I do something stupid like carry her out of here.

I hate her.

I want her.

I everything but love her.

“Why the hell did you shoot her like that?” Caius says from my left.

I stumble to a stop.

I don’t know—maybe because she’s responsible for Odette’s death? She stabbed her. She may have later shot her.

But I don’t tell Caius that.

Instead, I hold my hand above my head as my chest tightens. It must be because I’m out of breath, not because my heart hurts.

“You could have just grazed her. You didn’t have to actually shoot her in the arm. That recovery is going to take forever and she’s right-handed.” He stares at my missing right arm. “You of all people should know not to shoot your friend in their dominant arm.”

She’s not my friend. She’s my enemy.

I raise my gun, about to aim at Caius, but he beats me to it.

I feel the burn of the bullet as it brushes against my outer thigh, doing more damage to my jeans than to my skin. But I see a couple of drops of blood as Caius runs back toward Ri.

I wish the wound would have hit deeper. Maybe then I would be too consumed with the pain to register any other feeling—not that I understand how I’m feeling exactly.

Every step I take back toward the campfire is agony. Every stride feels like a step away from Ri.

You shot her, you asshole. You’re the last person she would want to see.

She’s safe with Leighton and Caius. They won’t let her get shot more. And I just shot her in the arm. It’s nowhere near fatal, even if it is painful.

I think back to losing my arm and shudder.

I’m a monster, but she deserved it.

She deserves a fate far worse.

I take my time making it back to the campfire, careful not to accidentally run into someone’s loose bullet. Eventually, I make it back into the light glow of the fire.

The fire doesn’t provide much light, but it’s enough to see at least a dozen dead bodies lying in the dirt. No one has tried to move them yet. Corsi is sitting on a log drinking a whiskey with his guards like he isn’t feet away from decomposing corpses.

I know he’s ruthless, but this feels low, even for him. It’s one of the reasons I never wanted to be a leader. I don’t ever want to become this callous about taking lives. I never want to be feared so much that I don’t even respect human life.

I continue around the circle, to the side that seems to have mostly alive men. Some seem to just have grazes or nicks, flesh wounds that will heal easily enough. Others are moaning in pain. If they have any allies, they are getting tended to or helped to the cars. If they don’t, then they’ll eventually join those who’ve already died.

I spot Caius, sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree trunk as he holds his shoulder tightly. And then I see the blood.

Fuck.

I run to him, removing my shirt and tying it around the wound to form a tourniquet.

“We need to get you out of here. You need that cleaned and stitched, and you might need a blood transfusion.”

Caius looks at his wound. “In just a second, I think Corsi is about to announce the winner.”

I frown but hold my hand against the wound and the bleeding comes to a stop. I assess the amount of blood on his shirt and the color of the blood on his skin—still pink. He’s got some time before he bleeds to death.

I want to know who won as well.

“By the way, I didn’t realize it was Ri I shot. My eyesight is shit in the dark. I was in shock when you approached me. I couldn’t believe I shot her.”

“Noted—you can’t see in the dark. But I don’t think Ri will forgive you that easily for shooting her,” Caius smirks, thinking he’s going to get her to kiss him or even fuck him again before she forgives me. That is until I tell him the truth.

Corsi stands. “It appears we have a winner—Leighton Stone.”

People grumble; some applaud.

Corsi looks to his left, where I assume Leighton is sitting. I don’t know why he doesn’t stand. Is he wounded too? Just the last to get shot?

“Congrats. Your prize is you get Rialta for the week. She’s no longer forbidden from sex. You can do with her as you please.”

Everyone falls silent as he says she’s no longer forbidden. My breath catches, my heart slams to a stop, and my skin prickles with fear.

No longer forbidden—Ri, what did you do to save us? And why would you when you killed Odette? Did you really want me that badly that you’d kill my wife? Did you really think I’d love you after what you did?

“The only rule is that you keep her safe. You keep her alive, which by the looks of her at the moment, is going to be hard. If she dies, I’ll hold you and everyone you care about responsible, Leighton,” Corsi says with a growl so fierce I don’t know how I’m going to get that sound out of my head.

Does Corsi really care about his daughter? Or just her survival so he can find a man to marry into his family?

I don’t know why he’s so worried. I just shot her in the arm. She’s fine.

But then Leighton stands to leave, and I see why he wasn’t standing before. Ri is in his arms, completely limp. Blood falls like a river down her body from her arm, even though he has his shirt wrapped around it.

“I’ll take good care of her, sir,” Leighton says, and then he starts jogging.

I start walking after her.

“You can’t,” Caius says.

“I…” I’m speechless. I just shot her in the arm…she can’t be dying. I don’t understand what happened.

“You must have hit an artery,” Caius says.

I hit an artery.

Me.

If she dies, it’s my fault as much as Leighton’s. I’m not letting him off the hook. He came up with this game.

I need to go after her. I need to see that she survives.

Only so you can kill her all over again, the darkness within me says.

Only so you can have a chance to forgive her, the light says.

But the guilt—damn, is it strong.

“Help me up, and stitch me up on the way. We can follow and make sure she’s okay,” Caius says.

I put my arm under his shoulder and help him up. We walk together back to the car—the secret threatening to spill out of me with every step.

I can’t tell him. He’d hate her. He’d want to follow in order to ensure she’s dead, not to save her.

As much as I know that’s the right thing to do, what should be done, I’m not ready for her to die yet. I’m not done messing with her, ruining her life. I’m not done fucking her yet.