Before I could stop myself, my feet were moving in his direction, even though my mind was telling me I shouldn’t. Jeremy was dangerous when he was unstable, but yet…my feet still moved.
My friend needed me.
When I was foot away, I came to halt. “Jer.”
“Don’t,” he said. His voice was low and brimming with anger, but there was also pain.
“We are going—”
He spun, charging me. “I saiddon’t.” His warm brown eyes were cold—deadly—and my own eyes looked down at his fists at his sides, noting the way they were shaking with a fury that needed to be released.
“I am going to kill him,” he hissed, getting in my personal space as I looked back up to him. Jeremy was always warm and kind. The last few months had been difficult, and his restraint had been put to the test, loss after loss. I understood his anger, but—
What if Haley was right? Her agent said Kay denied having Stockholm…
What if Kay really did love Collin?
My stomach twisted at the thought, the sting of his betrayal still in my heart, and though with time it had faded a bit. Seeing the man that I thought I knew just ripped open the wound all over again. I was stuck in No Man’s Land, in the middle of a raging war of love.
My friend loved his sister so much, he was blinded by the regrets of his past as he fiercely tried to protect her. She, an angel with a kind soul, loving the very man set to hurt us all…ready to fight for him and protect him.
Love had no warning bells. It claimed your heart when you least expected it and no matter how many walls you tried to build against it to shield yourself—love would conquer it all.
Could I let him kill the man who his sister might love?
There was no crime in falling in love, even if it was with a man possessed by darkness.
I’d spent the last five years trying to run from love and all the pain that came with it. What I failed to realize was that I was actually fightingforlove. The love I had for Dean and our son. The love I had for my friends. The love all of us deserved.
My heart constricted at the realization as tears filled my eyes.
My revenge was an act of love, not pain.
“Jer, I need you to think about this,” I urged gently, my mind spinning.
“Collin Stevens will die, G.”
I shook my head. “Kay—”
“Jeremy.” James’ voice cut mine off.
My friends’ eyes flicked up behind me, and he lifted his chin.
“You're going back to St. Louis.”
Jer moved past me, pointing west as I turned to face them. “If you think you can send me home when my sister was in your fucking grasp tonight—”
The agent held up his hand, his dark eyes flaring with fury. “Your sister provided the location of Stevens’ house. Haley isthere. You'll be going to extract her.” He looked at me, his scruffy jaw tight. “I want that house turned over. Arrest the staff.”
“Whoa! Kay said not to touch the staff or the house!” I protested, stepping up to them. Those could be innocent people. A tan, tattooed arm shot out, catching me at the waist before I was hauled against a hard, warm body.
“Baby girl…”
“Karina Jones is not my boss, nor does she have any say in how I conduct this case,” James said at the same time Dean tried to calm me down.
“She said to not hurt the staff, that they were innocent in all of this,” I snapped, straining against Dean’s hold. Holy hell, had he been working out?More?
The tainted agent shot me a look. “They will be perfectly fine in the holding cells.”
