Edmund knew something was wrong the moment Lucien didn't show up. Diablo was a madman; trusting him had been a gamble.
He should have known this would happen since he also betrayed them.
But Dominus was a small group compared to the two giants like Luceros and Lunox.
He underestimated how obsessed Crimson Diablo was with his jewel, Lucien.
He had already sent men to slip into Lucien's escort as backup, but Dominus must have sniffed them out. One by one his men were killed and Edmund lost contact.
"Damn that devil. I shouldn't have trusted him," he ground out, jaw tight. "Adrian, speed up."
"Calm down, Young Master. Lucien will be fine. He's been Don for ten years; he always finds a way," Adrian said, voice steady.
"You think too highly of him," Edmund snapped. "Arrogance like his will drown him someday."
He tapped his fingers on his knee, working through possibilities, and then the car rolled to a stop. Bodies littered the roadside.
Edmund's face went ice-cold. He didn't hesitate. "Silas, check the tire tracks. Adrian, search the bodies."
His voice stayed calm, but the men around him felt the cold in it. The Twinster only nodded and did what he ordered.
Everyone knew not to get in the way when their boss was hunting a man he wanted dead.
They spread out and inspected the scene. Not long after, Silas knocked on the window. Edmund rolled it down.
"I can follow their route from the tread marks," Silas said.
"Good. Leave the corpses and let's hunt the devil."
***
At the top of the hill with the ocean below, they found the cars. Diablo's men guarded the area like maniacs.
They moved strangely, recoiling from the shaking sedan as if something inside it made them afraid.
Edmund understood at once. He stepped out without giving any orders; the Twinster stayed, watching, because they knew better than to interfere.
The Leopard moved like a storm. He cut through men with precision. Bullets sang past him and tore at sleeves and skin, but he didn't hesitate for a second to shoot everyone that was in his way.
If Crimson Diablo is infamous for his crazy endurance against any attack, the Leopard was as fast and precise as lightning. His fingers pressed the triggers a couple of times as each bullet drilled through Dominus' men's brains.
But still, they were like roaches that attacked him. He ignored a graze on his arm and kept going until he reached the car that rocked and rattled at the cliff's edge.
The scent of jasmine hit him and made his head spin.
"I'm going to destroy you, Reznik!" he howled and charged.
He punched through the line of men—hard enough to send one sliding into the trunk—then shot the last guard who tried to leap him.
Blood ran down Edmund's hand. His veins stood out on his temple and his eyes were red with fury.
Inside the car, his jewel moaned beneath another man and the sound made something in his chest burn.
He slammed his shoulder against the sedan and smashed the anti-bullet glass with only his bare hand. The window exploded inward.
He grabbed a fistful of red hair and hauled the man up, staring into those golden orbs the same as his hair.
"Don't you dare do it, Reznik!"
The devil only laughed. "Or what? You're gonna kill me now?"
Edmund's jaw tightened, his eyes sharp as glass. He pressed the barrel of his pistol against Mikhail's temple, steady and merciless.
"Are you challenging me? A small parasite like you dare to do so?"
His tone was soft, almost mocking, but it carried the kind of weight that could break bones.
"Ah, I am, this small pest dares you to kill me now," Diablo smirked.
"You just slaughtered my men like roaches. That's a declaration of war, kitty."
"You violated the agreement," Edmund said flatly.
"What agreement?" Mikhail spat back. "You send me men crawling like rats and you wish for me to trust the agreement? What an arrogant Young Master you are."
He leaned closer to Lucien, who was trembling with sweat, moans still caught on his lips.
"Anyhow, Vincent's dogs wanted to rape him. I saved him. You should be thanking me for fucking him instead of him becoming—"
Edmund didn't let him finish. His fist crashed into Mikhail's face, sharp and brutal, the sound cracking through even the ocean waves crashing into the hill.
In one motion, he wrenched the car door open, reached in, and pulled Lucien to him. The omega's body was damp, sticky, heavy with exhaustion.
His scent clung to the air, thick and sweet with jasmine, maddening even to Edmund. But his smell was tainted by the burnt wood that clings like filth in his jewel's body.
The urge to end Mikhail here, to rip his throat and drown him in the sea, seared through him like fire. His fingers twitched on the gun.
But then Lucien whimpered—a small, fragile sound—and Edmund froze. Rage could wait. Revenge could wait. His omega came first.
He gathered Lucien into his arms as though he were the rarest jewel, he is his jewel. Even smeared with another man's seed, even trembling and broken, he was beautiful.
His, and no one else's. That was enough for now.
"Reznik," Edmund said coldly, "if you want him back, take him. Fight me, bargain with me, whatever you want. He is where he belongs."
Mikhail wiped blood from his mouth, grinning through the split in his lip. "I will take him. By violence if I must."
Edmund's eyes narrowed. He turned toward his car, every step measured. Adrian was waiting with a calm smile, already pulling a jacket over Lucien's bare skin. Edmund slid in, holding Lucien close, his gaze never leaving the devil.
Mikhail's voice thundered behind him. "I will take him back. Watch me."
Edmund's teeth clenched. The words were an insult and a threat at once. He could feel the contempt in them. That devil thought he could snatch Lucien back any time. How dare he.
He would show him. Some treasures, once claimed, were worth killing the world for.
And Reznik would learn that soon enough.