Mickey well-and-truly vanished from my life and while I’m grateful and fucking relieved, I’m still haunted to this day.
“What did you say?” I ask, my voice coming out softly.
“I said,” Ty steps closer to me, his breathing coming out heavier and I know this is the moment.
He’s choosing me.
“You spent years being tortured and used by that monster. To keep yourself safe, but also to keep me and Asher off his radar. We both already were, but you didn’t draw attention to our connection so that Mickey couldn’t make it worse for me. Not for you, but for me. You… You went through hell for me and I don’t take that lightly.” He runs a hand through his hair, his words coming out quickly and much more laced with an accent than recently. “And all those years ago… I found out what you’d promised him. How you were going to do itagainto keep me safe. To keep Asher and the shop safe. To keep my fucking family out of his reach.” Ty’s eyes get lost in the past, his fists clenching at his sides. “And I couldn’t let you do that again.”
Those eight words… They turn my world upside down.
“What did you do?” I try to speak with steel in my words, but instead they come out as a whisper.
“What I had to. You were mine to keep safe. And… It was my turn.”
There’s not one inch of regret on his face. If anything, Ty stands taller at his declaration, like I won’t be able to make him change his mind on that.
“Your turn for what?”
“To sacrifice.” That’s it. That’s all he says, but it’s all he really needs to say.
I know what he means.
I know…
“You promised,” I whisper, my heart beating loudly in my chest.Is it hot in here?
I step back just as Ty steps forward.
“Rox,” he starts but I shut him down.
“You PROMISED!” I scream. It echoes through his apartment as I realize all that this meant. “You told me we wouldn’t do that anymore. That we’d work together to figure things out and instead, instead you… Oh god, I feel sick.” I put my hand to my stomach and the other to my head.
“Roxie,” Ty tries again, stepping closer. “I had to.”
“You didn’t. You didn’t have to. Youchoseto. There’s a big difference,” I snap angrily. “What did you give him? Is that why Mickey never came to collect?”
Ty shuts down. And I’m thrown right back into the day he doubled-down years ago. I’m back in the backroom begging him to tell me I was something to him, and he became so closed off I didn’t recognize him.
It took years for us to get here.
And now we’re imploding.
“Well, don’t stop now. You’ve already started talking, so fess up, Ty.”
He takes a deep breath and the muscle in his jaw clenches. Running a hand over his face, he groans.
“You’re going to kill me.”
“Probably. But I already want to, so you might as well try to save yourself andfucking tell me already,” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest. I can feel my phone vibrating in my little bag. Fuck, we’re probably so late for Asher and Jade’s.
She’ll understand though, my girl Jade, she always understands.
“He had someone following you. He had Mario addicted and drowning in debt for drugs. He said I had to win this one fight,” Ty’s voice breaks and he swallows hard. “When I walked in and it was you I was meant to fight, I told him no. I refused to fight you. I wouldn’t. I offered to fight more, to rig fights, to lose fights, to keep us from fighting. But, he… He had one of his goons up in the rafters with a rifle. With the sights trained on you, Roxie.”
My heart is beating so loudly in my chest that I can barely hear him. It sounds like he’s underwater as I fully grasp what he’s saying.
I step back–let’s be real, more like stumble back– and he rushes closer to try and stop the inevitable freakout that’s coming.
