“No.” He shakes his head once. “You’re the woman none of us deserve but all of us want.”
The truth of it lingers between us and my pulse thunders in response.
His hand slips from my cheek and the other from my hip, leaving a chill in their wake as he takes a step back.
“We will show you tomorrow that we aren’t afraid to stand up for the right side any longer–even if it costs us our lives.”
He turns, and I feel like I’m moving in slow motion, despite having a speed he could never track. Before my mind has a chance to catch up, my body moves on instinct. I catch his wrist, fingers curling tight around him as I yank him back toward me. He turns, surprise flickering in his eyes, but I don’t give myself time to second-guess.
Fuck it. Fuck it all.
I rise onto my toes, closing the distance, my arms winding around his neck as if they’ve always belonged there, and then I kiss him.
For a heartbeat, he goes completely still beneath my touch. His breath catches against my lips, his whole body locked as if he can’t quite believe what’s happening. The shock radiates off him, and for the space of a single pulse, I think I’ve made a mistake.
Then he snaps into action, his hands finding my waist, rough and sure as he pulls me flush against his body until there’s no space left between us. The scent of salt and leather clings to him, the warmth of his skin searing through the thin fabric of my shirt, and the heavy beat of his heart pounds against my chest like it’s echoing my own.
My fingers tangle in the damp hair at the nape of his neck as I tilt my mouth against his, deepening the kiss before he can take control. It’smineto give, and I press it into him fiercely, like I’m cementing the choice into both of us.
He answers quickly, desire surging in the way his lips move with mine, hungry now, like he’s been starved for this. His grip tightens at my waist, anchoring me against him as though he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go.
The world narrows to the slide of his mouth, the rasp of his stubble against my skin, and the heat pooling in my core as I realize how easy it is to lose myself here, with him.
I break the kiss first, gasping for breath, but I don’t move far. Dante’s forehead drops against mine, and for a long moment we just stand there, tethered together by the ragged sound of our breathing. My arms stay looped around his neck, his hands still clamped firmly on my hips like neither of us is willing to let go.
Why can’t I fucking let go of them?
I’m startled by the emotion surging through me, deeper than anything I meant to unleash.
My throat is heavy with it as I bite out, “Don’t fucking prove me wrong in trusting you, Dante. Please.”
The last word fractures on the way out, a broken plea I can’t cage.
I can’t handle another betrayal and another crack in what’s left of me.
His grip shifts, rough palms sliding up to cradle my face.
“I won’t,” he answers in a tender, yet somehow fierce tone. “None of us will. Never again.”
The promise sinks deeply next to the one Callum made. Both are heavy, dangerous, and impossible to ignore, yet for the first time in days, I let myself cling to the faintest edge of hope.
Somehow each of them has given me exactly what I’ve needed, in the exact moment I needed it.
Maybe there is a reality in which I don’t have to let go of them at the end of this, if I want it.
CHAPTER 32
BRIAR
Sleep refuses to find its way to me.
I twist and turn until the sheets are nothing but a strangling knot around my legs, too hot one moment and too cold the next. The pillows are no better, feeling like useless lumps beneath my head no matter how I position them. I shove them aside, only to end up staring at the dark ceiling above. A heavy exhale falls from my lips, but my chest won’t loosen and my thoughts won’t still. The harder I fight for rest, the more restless I grow.
Every time I close my eyes, the thought of tomorrow rises up to choke me.
The compound. My mom. Terrance.
Then there’s the human men who’ve carved themselves into my mind and heart when, once upon a time, I swore I would kill them.
