It’s not a particularly detailed plan. Yet. There will be a mound of bodies when I’m done. That’s all that matters.
“You’re finally thinking fucking straight, brother. Christ, it’s about damn time.” The pride in his voice is expected. Gage thrives on no-nonsense revenge. “I’m on my way. See you in about seven hours.”
“Seven hours? Aren’t you somewhere out west?”
“Yep. But I can’t fly. I’ve got cargo I need to keep an eye on, so I’m gonna drive to you and have the crew deliver the plane later. Get some sleep or fuck yourLittle Moon.” He trills her nickname in jest and bellows a laugh. “It’s almost three. We’ll take care of them after sundown tonight.”
“Thanks, man. See ya soon.” I end the call and amble to the couch opposite Rena, setting my gaze on the incensed girl bound before me.
Her skin is flushed a pretty pink, coordinating with her silky strands and highlighting her raging blueberry-field irises. No freedom here.
“You’re not going to uncuff me?” she asks. An incredulous tilt of her lips has the piercing in her eyebrow bouncing and the one in her nose wiggling.
“It would appear that way, wouldn’t it?” I respond. Those words are flat. I don’t know if I’m numb or so angry that I’ve lost the ability to process my emotions.
“What happened to gentle Ty?” That’s a taunt, not a question.
My teeth sink into my cheek, chewing on the various holes in my mouth—after months of this stress, they’re everywhere. I mull over my answer prudently. “I’m never gentle with people who endanger women, especially the women I care about.”
“That makes zero sense. I’m not asking you to be gentle with them.” She yanks on her constraints with a bewildered grimace set on me. “Uncuff me and go take your freaking roid rage out on the dicks who chased me, like you’re apparently planning to do.”
She was unfazed by the news that I’d killed the guy who’d hurt her and his accomplice and obviously perfectly amenable to the notion of me obliterating the entire group of motherfuckers. Maybe she fits in our world better than I originally figured. It’s still not what I would have chosen for her, but it seems it won’t break her.
“They’ll be dealt with,” I assure her, my fingertips pressing against my lips as though they can keep my harrowing nightmares from pouring out of me. “But by running from me, you put my favorite girl in danger, so you need to be dealt with too.”
“Favorite girl?” Her breath hitches, and her eyes well with tears. “You’re a freaking enigma. You know that? One minute, you don’t want me because it’s too complicated. The next, you’re letting me suck you off and pissed that I left. And I see it, how wanting me torments you. Maybe I should respect that, understand what these new feelings are doing to you. But I guess I’m too broken. This probably makes me sound pathetic, but I don’t fucking care anymore. This isn’t new for me, Ty. You’re hurting me. Unlike you, I’ve dreamed of something more between us for years. Since the first time I saw you, I fantasized about you being mine. And I can’t … I get that you’re a good friend to my brothers and mad for them—”
“You think I’m pissed on behalf of your brothers?” My skin heats with that question. Other than during the incessant-knocking fiasco, they weren’t a thought in my head.
“Or angry that I bested you,” she sneers.
I leap from my couch, so irate that my vision spots, and landright before her, gripping the velvety sofa to keep myself steady as I crowd around her small, scrunched-up frame. “I couldn’t fucking breathe, Rena.”
That admission blasts out of me, far more aggressive than I ever want to be with her, but she’s been ripping my heart out over and over for months. And she doesn’t get it. How could she?
“What?” she gasps. “When couldn’t you breathe?” There’s fear and curiosity, hope and shame, all swimming in her green-hazel pools at once.
I could keep my answer simple, tell her the bare minimum, but we’re past that. So fucking past that.
“That day with the Skulls, I didn’t know if you were okay, and my chest felt like it was collapsing. And afterward, since I couldn’t personally … and the second Axel called to tell us you were missing. Eleven. Fucking. Days. And when I realized you were gone and then saw you on that goddamn beam—” I grip my chest, as if willing my lungs to finally consume the air properly. “For nearly two months, I haven’t functioned. I haven’t slept. I haven’t breathed.”
“Why?” she asks, a tear trickling down her blushing cheek.
I catch the drop of her mixed emotion on my thumb, caressing her satiny skin. “Because the thought of one hair on your beautiful head being harmed makes me want to burn the whole fucking world or die.”
Both. I’d burn everyone first and then welcome the scorch of the engulfing flames.
“I’m sorry.” She glances away, that shame returning tenfold. I can’t bear to see it there.
Axel mentioned Rena’s impulsivity, and I’ve witnessed it. She’s been depressed. Distraught. Scared. Doing whatever the hell pops into her head is the way she copes, like she did when she jumped in the lake the day her parents died. It’s not necessarily negative. Thinking on her feet is a strong trait. It certainly aids her in perilous situations. But with me, she needs to learn to take a breath. It’s the only way she’ll survive the life she unwittingly signed up for.
“I don’t want your apologies,” I say, lifting her chin so she focuses on me again. “But you’ve awakened a part of me that I tried desperately to bury. It makes me a little untethered.”
“Untethered.” She nods in my grip. “That’s something I can understand. Don’t hold back with me, Ty. I’m lost, but I’m strong. Give me your demons. And I’ll give you mine. We can let them dance together.”
She is so strong and so perfect. I don’t deserve her, but I’ll gladly spend every breath I have earning the dance she’s offering.
“I like the sound of that. But I need a promise.”
