My head spins as I attempt to absorb everything. And it isn’t the tangled web or the injustice that finally sinks in.
“So, both the man who thought he was my father and my birth father wanted me dead.” As my voice quavers through that acknowledgment, Axel enwraps me tighter.
“None of that matters,” he grits out. “Neither of them deserves even one of your tears. I raised you. I love you. We all do.”
“I love you too. So, what now?” I’m not even sure what I’m referring to.
“I’m taking care of Balzano,” Axel supplies. “Now that you’re … I’ve already said too much. I’m handling it.”
“No, Axel.” I shake my head, terror rocketing through me. “You can’t. Do you understand who he—”
“We know,” Ryker interrupts, his icy-blue eyes grim. “Don’t say a goddamn word. It’ll get you fucking killed. Don’t worry about it.”
As I’m about to launch a follow-up interrogation, Ty approaches. A brief, silent conversation transpires between the three of them.
Eventually, Axel extends his hand to Ty. “She comes first. Before everything.”
Ty accepts the peace offering with a promised, “Always,” as they share a heartfelt shake.
“And if you hurt her, we don’t give a fuck who you are; we’ll kill you.” A phantom smile hikes up Ryker’s cheeks, and he smacks Ty on the back, which is about as close to a welcome as I’ve ever witnessed from him.
Axel chuckles, and Ty receives the threat with a nonchalant air. It’s the same air that all my beloved wicked men possess. The darkness that is home.
“That’s what I’d do,” Ty quips as he drags me into his arms, cupping my face and kissing my forehead. “You okay, baby girl?”
I’m not sure how to answer that. I’m in the arms of the man of my dreams, but life is whipping around me like a cyclone intent on ripping me to shreds. Torn between two worlds.
The dissension settling is of no relevance anymore. Who cares if they’re getting along at this point?
“Does this marriage keep my brothers safe?”
“No.”
The harrowing truth of Ty’s cryptic admission from earlier rings in my ears as I process what Axel was hinting at. It sounds like my brothers are going after Balzano—a KORT chair—and if my husband finds out, he might have no choice but to kill them. Or be killed for not reporting them.
“There are rules. We agreed to bylaws, and there’s no going back. Anything that puts the organization at risk is punishable by death.”
TY
You’re more than one day, one choice, one monster’s assault on your family.
XO,
Little Moon
A smile creeps up my cheeks as I stare at another Post-it Note. Rena leaves me notes. All day. Everywhere. Because sometimes, my soul won’t accept the truth she speaks—her explanation,not mine.
That morality fence I straddled for years has shifted. Or fucking weathered. I’m not sure. My toes are no longer stretched between right and wrong or whatever fucked-up, twisted, moral philosophy was ruling my life. It’s far more complex now. Maybe it always was, and I was too close to see it.
This isn’t a my-head-is-finally-on-straight awakening though. My sanity is just as heavily at stake.
My intuitive wife has simply illuminated my stance so that I clearly see how stretched I am. On one side, there’s the shame. Tormenting guilt for what I didn’t do, for what I have done, and for all I’m about to thrust Rena into.
The other side is new. Brand-fucking-new. It’s a reprieve. Relief and gratefulness for a fortune of happiness I don’t deserve, but am all too eager to plunder.
I used to think there was a moat between Rena and me, one without a drawbridge. One that would forever keep me from her. Anytime I felt the urge to cross it, the conclusion—thatnot being with herwas a justified atonement for all I’d done—would crash through the fleeting notion.
Now, I have a new vision. She’s the bridge over the moat, linking my nightmares and my dreams. They might always bleed into one another, but somehow, she’s enabled me to cross freely between the two.
