Tex leans against the wall, picking his nails with a knife, looking bored. And Grace looks… grim. She’s on my couch, hands twisting in her lap, face still a little swollen from last night. She’s wearing my favourite Jay’s sweater and a pair of jean shorts.
We exchange a quick look, but I don’t let my attention linger on her too long. I can’t afford to with the threat sitting in the recliner at the back of the room. Axel Donovan.
“Gracie was just in the middle of telling me a story.” He leans back, cocking his head, and gives me a once over. “Sit.”
I force a smile. “I’ll stand.”
Axe’s focus slices to Preacher, who’s still looming behind me. A sharp pain explodes in my lower back as he hammers the butt of his gun into my side. I crumple to my knees, choking as I hit the floor. Gritting my teeth, I glare up at him, at his gun, which is in my face again.
He only shrugs. That barrel is still too close to me. I could still disarm him from here. Still gain the upper hand. Still?—
“Given thestateI found Grace in when I came here looking for you,” Axe says, his lip curling, “I’m gonna assume she’s already filled you in on what she’s been up to. But I’ll catch you up just so we’re all on the same page.”
Grace clears her throat. “Axe?—”
“I’ll tell you when you can talk,” he snaps. “Gracie here jumped into bed with the enemy, and when shit got a little too real, the traitorous bitch slithered back into Sinner territory expecting to be welcomed back into my family.” He glowers at her. “That about sum it up?”
“Almost,” she says dryly. “You forgot the part where thistraitorous bitchtook out their VP before running back here.”
He snorts. “So you say. But I’ve met Broedy Bannon. Been a hot minute since I’ve seen him, but he was a big fucker even back then. Girl your size would have a hell of a time bringing a man like him down.”
She breaks into a brittle smile. “I imagine he thought the same thing. Buthe’sthe one who ended up on the floor drowning in a puddle of his own blood. You’d be smart not to underestimate me. He did. And look how that turned out.”
Brows jumping, Axe angles forward, elbows on his knees. “Let’s get something straight. Being Jimmy’s daughter doesn’t protect you out here. Fucking watch your tone with me. And you wanna threaten me, you better be ready to follow through.”
She folds her arms across her chest. “Maybe I am.”
“As much as I’d love to believe your little story,” he continues, “I can’t trust a goddamn thing that comes out of your mouth. Far as I know, you’re here because they asked you to be. They want what I’ve built, and they’ve sent you here to help them take it.”
Her eyes widen. “You can’t be serious. I would never?—”
“The part I’m confused about is whereyouplay into this, Decker.” Those cold eyes are back on me. “Why my guys tell me they saw you and Gracie running out of that shithole those Raider fucks were hiding out in. Help me fill in the gaps, or I’ll have Preacher here put a bullet in your fucking head. Can’t say I’d be sad to finally be rid of you.”
As if to prove Axe’s point, Preacher presses the barrel into my temple.
“Don’t,” Grace says quickly. “Decker had nothing to do with this. He was just helping me?—”
“Helping you what? Feed information to the fucking enemy?” Axe glares at me. “I bet you jumped right on that. Chance to take me down? Make it look like a territory war? Smart, I’ll give you that. Guess I underestimated your resourcefulness.”
I ignore the thrum raging in my chest, the pulse pounding in my ears. I push it all down—the sickness thrashing in my stomach, the panic clawing at my insides—and smile. “You caught me. Got a few facts wrong, though. Not surprising. Not a lot going on in that thick skull of yours, is there?”
Another sharp pain, this time Preacher’s gun colliding with the soft spot between my shoulders. Grace screams as I crumple to the ground. It takes me a second to gather the strength to push myself back up to my knees, but I manage.
“You’ve got thirty seconds to explain,” Axe says. “And if I’m not satisfied with your answer, I’m gonna paint your walls with Grace’s brains. And then I’m gonna kill you.”
Time stops. I lock eyes with Grace. Her face is still as stone. Signature scowl in place. She’s doing that thing she does, where she steels her spine, clenches her fists, takes in a small breath. Slips on a mask of challenge.
Do it. Try me. Make me. I dare you.
The look I’ve come to love.
But there’s the tiniest of cracks there too. A tear in her façade. Fear poking at the surface. She’s scared. I am too. I almost forgot what this feels like. Panic. Terror. How the bile clawing its way up my throat seems to be burning me from the inside out.
This day was always gonna happen. Me on my knees, gun locked and loaded and pointed at my head, Donovan’s finger on the trigger. I always knew the last thing I’d see would be his face.But when I pictured my death, I was facing it alone. Alone like I’ve been for the last decade. My only company the men who stand before me, whose souls are as dark and damaged as mine.
“Ten seconds,” Axe says.
It’s how my story was always gonna end. But Grace? She wasn’t supposed to be here.
