Vengeance ran in my veins.

It was part of me. My thirst to kill and punish is what started everything. I was trapped in my own head, scheming one revenge plot after the other.

Yet, there was something I hadn't planned. Something I never thought would cost me more than I had bargained for.

I'd seen and done enough fucked up things and ended more than a few miserable lives to realize that when you found this, you had to snatch it up and keep it. My one shot at happiness. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by beauty and light, free from the heaviness of my tainted life—and possessed by nothing but her. She was my once in a lifetime chance at keeping humanity in my soul. My guiding light in the darkness of my underworld.

If there ever was a defining moment in time that had the power to pull my world from its axis, it was now. This was the moment I had dreaded more than I feared the eternity I'd spend in hell one day.

I should've known villains didn't get a happy ending.

With every step I took, the confusion and this sense of foreboding and fear kept on gnawing at my bones. The kind that brought news that changed you forever. It took hold of my throat in the sort of chest-constricting terror I hadn't experienced in a very long time. My vision blurred and a red haze descended over everything.

Blood.

The blood was the first thing I saw when I shoved the front door open. It decorated the walls of the foyer and down to the floor, leaving tracks on its path, only to stop where a body lay crumpled and unmoving. I recognize the body to be Nate's. Fear was like a chain around my heart, squeezing harder and harder.

I rushed forward, and the sight that greeted me will forever be engraved in my mind.

There in the hallway, lying in a pool of blood was my Ayla.

Ever since I'd come to realize that I love her, there hadn't been a second that I felt as though I'd taken her for granted. I'd loved her, I'd treasured her, and worshipped every fucking inch of her, but it still didn't feel like it had been enough. I want to prove what I feel for her. All I'd needed was more time...

A small whimper shattered the ominous silence, snapping me out of my trance. My chest was locked in a vise of horrendous pain and adrenaline shoots through my veins as I stagger to my feet towards her, only distantly noting that hers was not the only body lying on the floor.

She was on her back, her head turned sharply to the side, her arms wrapped around her stomach in protection as blood seeped from the dark hole in her chest.

"Ayla, no." I dropped to my knees and pulled her up. Raw sounds of anguish tore out of me as I carefully glides my hand over the curve of her throat and stop at her pulse. A faint beating, throbbing pulse. Another whimper comes from her as she watch me with half-close eyes.

"Kade..." she croaked, and the sound is so haunting and pained, it rips through me.

For the first time in my life, I began to pray. For her life or my death, I didn't know. I would have taken either just then.

How had it come to this? I wondered wretchedly.

I held her hand, and tried to fight the tears that were building up in my eyes, "I'm here, baby. Please stay with me."

"Everything hurts..." It's barely a whisper, but it hits me straight to a sombre corner in my soul. "Sorry I couldn't keep my promise.." Her breathing more erratic, like she was fighting for every breath.

"N-no, no. Please. Please. Stay with me, Ayla? Come on, baby." I croak, pulling her closer.

"I love you.." her voice trailed off and when her hand fell from mine, I bellowed, out of my goddamn mind. The pain the anguish the venom all spewed out in that one sound. I was vaguely aware of movement around me and sounds; everything became a blur as my mind struggled to make sense of what was happening.

I pulled her tighter into my chest and tried to will life back into her. "Don't do this to me baby, please."

I didn't even look up as the paramedics arrived in force. I only noticed the body that had been lying beside hers as it was shifted away. My vision was blurred and I just couldn't bring myself to focus on anything but the weak pulse in her throat that was becoming more and more shallow each passing second.

A paramedic crouched beside us and proceed to check her vitals. He called out loudly, but I didn't catch what he said. Soon, a stretcher was pushed and I moved back instinctively. They lifted her, and I hovered close, still holding her hand, fearing that if I so much as glanced away from her I might lose her.

I wasn't myself as I followed her unconscious form inside the hospital. I felt disconnected from reality as they worked on her. My heart had frozen in my chest and I couldn't think, couldn't feel. I was numb from the inside out. I was vaguely aware of Declan who trailed after me on the way to the hospital. He was with me while I was on the phone with her earlier, and the first one to call emergency when I heard the first gunshot.

I sat on the floor outside the surgery room for what seem like years in utter shock and numbness. There was a gaping hole that tore through my chest and grew by the second, a stark desolation that made it hard to even breath. It hurt worse now than after I lost my family.

There's a buzzing in my ear and I know I'm holding onto my sanity by a thread. I knew that nothing would ever be the same if she wouldn't survive this. If she no longer walked this earth. I wouldn't be the same. My world was worthless without her in it.

"Kade, you need to be present for this." Declan said, his voice firm. "You can't follow her inside but you can call in favors. Hell, buy the fucking hospital if needed if it means it'll give her the best chances."

I looked up at him, his words penetrating the haze I was in. He was right. What I needed was action. There were things I could do to help.

"Please have the board of directors on the phone," I told Declan. "Tell them I'm willing to pay and tripled their income for the next twenty years for this special treatment."

He nodded, already pulling out his phone to make some calls.

I saw Vince approaching and came to a stop next to me as I looked at the door of the surgery room.

"I went through the surveillance, Sir. It was Arabella. That dead man in the apartment was her partner."

"Where is she?" I bit out, the fury simmering through my veins.

"I got her in the warehouse." he replied just as the doctor came out with a somber expression.

I rushed to my feet, fear gripping my throat.

"How is she?"

"The bullet missed her heart, if only barely, but it punctured her lung, and the internal bleeding was severe. We were able to prevent a seizure but we still need to monitor her. Until her vitals stabilize, she's still not out of danger." The doctor explained.

"But she's going to survive, right?" I asked in desperation.

He sighed and it took all my willpower not to pull out my gun when he gave me a sad look. "I cannot offer a guarantee when the outcome is still uncertain, Mr. Sinclair."

"Then fucking do something!" I roared and I felt Declan pulled me back.

"I'm sorry," he replied forlornly. "We also checked her maternal abdomen for any signs of trauma, and although she's only six weeks into pregnancy—"

"She's pregnant?" I bit my fist and fell back as his words pummeled me like blows. Oh God.

"The fetus is safe. We did not find any problem that could affect both of them. We'll keep monitoring her vitals and keep you updated." he said, before excusing himself.

A nurse came and I was ushered to the room where Ayla was laying with tubes and ventilator attached to her small frame. My chest burned and I shut my eyes, letting awful tears run down my cheeks.

With desperation, I began to let myself hope, every inch of me trembling. I made crazy promises to God, promises to give him my soul in exchange for that miracle as I made my way over to the bed. Being as careful as possible, I sat on the edge of the bed and just looked down at her. "I know you can hear me, Butterfly. I know you need to take as much time as you need to heal but please don't take long."

I had to stop because my throat started closing up on me again.

"I can't do this without you, baby. I live and breathe for you." With my hand on the flat of her stomach and my lips next to her ear I made the three of us a promise. "Nothing like this will ever happen again. Both of you will never be in harm again, I stake my life on that."

**

The moment the doors opened, all I could hear was gibberish mixed in with different levels of screaming.

Fury was racing through my blood, darkness blowing through me like a windstorm as I'd shut off my conscience once again.

The way she looked at me when I walked in told me she had no idea what I had in mind. She was scowling at my men but her eyes lit up when she sees me. Burning rage spread through my veins like fucking acid at the fact that she's still breathing while my woman was out there fighting for her life.

"Kade! Oh thank god, you came." She began to shake and I wanted to roll my damn eyes at the dramatics of it all.

"You think I'm here to save you?" I drawled, seemingly casual. I walk up to the chair in front of her, my fingers gripping the handle of my silencer at my back so tight it bruises.

She held my gaze, lies and deceit swimming in her eyes. "I don't know these men. They suddenly grabbed me and I couldn't fight them..." She turned on the waterworks like I knew she would.

Arabella Van Horen was just as conniving and manipulative like her father.

I know it from the start. Hence, why I approached her in the first place. She thought our first meeting was purely out of fate. But she couldn't be more further from the truth. She was the first victim who took the bait that pretty much set the precedent for others.

"Ah, Arabella," I purr as I brush her hair off the side of her neck. "Tell me, sweetheart, did you think you would get away with it? Or do you simply wish for death?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kade." she whimpered, her eyes blinking innocently. "I'm so happy that I got to meet you again. I've been looking for you. Our wedding—"

The back of my hand connects with her cheek in a sharp crack, her body flinging onto the floor. She screamed loudly, looking at me in disbelief.

"I—I...No. I...But I...I don't understand. You love me!"

I chuckled darkly, "Just because you have deluded yourself into believing that, does not make it true. Welcome to reality, Arabella, and it's going to hurt like a fucking bitch."

She stared at me, wide eyed. "W–What do you mean?"

I grin. "You're nothing but a fucking pawn on my chessboard. The endgame was to make your parents pay for what they did to my family years ago. And I did..."

I watched as realization dawned on her. Her hands smack the floor, and she lets out a scratchy scream. "Fuck you, Kade—"

I cut her off. "Spare me the theatrics. I've always known what kind of a filthy whore you are. Do you think I wouldn't find out?"

She looked at me with some sort of confusion. My mouth quirks in amusement and just to add salt on the wound, "But it's okay. Your sister made up for it and so much more."

Her nostrils flared and she sneered through clenched teeth. "That fucking bitch did this! She stole you from me!"

I shake my head. "Ah, Arabella. It's not stealing if the person is more than willing. Now," I pulled out my gun, my finger on the trigger.

Arabella's were wide in horror as she stared down the barrel of my gun.

"You're going to die knowing it'll be Ayla on my side. It'll be her I'm going to shower with all of the good things she deserves for the rest of our lives. She'll be loved so much that she'll forget all the fucked up things you and your family did to her."

She broke out into a fit of laughter. She laughed as though she had finally lost it, so I calmly waited, which only seemed to add to her amusement. "Too bad you can no longer do all that. I shot her. She's dead, right?"

My jaw clenched, my gaze icing over her. "No, but you are."

She opened her mouth to scream, but not a single tone left her throat. A muffled pop sounded in the room, blood splattered across the cement and she slumped down onto the ground. The bitch was dead.