It’s not my own life I fear for, it’s hers.
This isn’t how it ends for her. It can’t be.
Axe sighs. “I think you need a little motivation. Shoot Grace in the leg for me, will you, Tex?”
My stomach plummets. “Wait.”
“I did that already. Thirty seconds, and you’re still not talking.”
Grace is unmoving on my couch, holding her calm.
Tex regards his prez for a moment, attention slicing over to Grace, then me, then back to Axe, before he pushes off the wall and draws his gun. “Graves won’t like it.”
Axe shrugs. “She’ll be dead to her brother once I tell him what she’s done.”
“Don’t,” I say, voice cracking. I might be begging. Yeah, I think I am. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“Too late for that,” he says as he tosses a pillow to Tex. “Two in the knee.”
I lunge, but before I can reach the asshole, Preacher’s got me by the collar and is forcing me back down. “Axe!” I yell. “She’s not a part of this. It was all me. I did this. Do not. Fucking. Touch her.”
Axe gives me a grim smile. “You know, Gracie had me believing you two were just fucking. But that was a lie too, wasn’t it?” He eyes her, then turns back to me. “You don’tloveher, do you?”
I bite my tongue, glare firmly in place.
He chuckles. “God, you do. Little sick, isn’t it? Given the two of you share a brother? This just got a lot more interesting. Tell you what, Deck. I’m gonna have Tex blow out both her kneecaps. Then you’re gonna give me your version of what the fuck’s been going on around here. If your stories don’t match, I’m gonna string Grace up and use her as target practice until I’m sure you ain’t lying. You feel me?”
It’s all about pressure. Leverage. Threatening the one thing I’d lay down my fucking life for. Turns out, that thing I’d take a bullet for, that I’d put everything on the line for, is Gracie Donovan. The woman who shares a bloodline with the man threatening to end mine.
In a flash, I grab the barrel pressed into my neck and launch myself to my feet, using my weight to twist Preacher around as I grab for his face with my other hand. He’s on the floor in an instant, and then it’s me who’s got the gun inhisface.
“Nobody fuckin’ move.” My heart is in my throat, but it near stops when Tex points his gun at Grace.
“What’s the plan?” Axe asks. “You shoot Preach, Tex shoots Grace.Maybeyou take him out. And then what? You still holding out hope you’ll get the drop on me? That if you do, I won’t make sure your fucking life is over?” He huffs a laugh. “Iownyou. Never forget that. Even in death, I’ll own you. Drop the gun and sit the fuck back down.”
It’s my turn to smile. Pressure. Leverage. Threatening the one thing he’d lay down his life for.
“I’ll make sure she rots in there,” I say.
It takes him a moment or two to understand, but when he does, I see it. Just like in his sister. The little crack. The fear behind the mask.
“You know the system,” I go on. “How easy it could be for me to manipulate it, to make it so much worse for her. Gracie comesout of this with so much as a scratch, and I will make sure your old lady never sees the outside of a cell.”
Axe grits his teeth. “Don’t fucking threaten me.”
“I’m not. I’m threateningher.You hurt Grace, and I will do everything I can to make sure Kat is stuck in prison for the rest of her life. You understand? She will fuckingrot.”
The room is dead silent, my promise hanging between us like a blade ready to cut, slice, draw blood. I can almost feel Axe’s anger. The way it makes the room shrink. His men are braced too, waiting for the moment he loses control.
He and I are the same in that respect. I’ve lost myself to my rage, to my grief, to my guilt. Let the anger ignite, let the flames lick my skin until they’ve completely consumed me. I’ve looked at myself in the mirror, at the eyes I don’t recognize, the hollowness behind them, and wondered who I’ve turned into. All the resentment, the fire in my chest that flares every time I think about the shit I’ve done because of this man. Because of the choice I made.
And here I am again, trying to decide how to play this.
Another crossroads. Another choice.
But Grace in the middle of it all? It’s not a fucking choice. Axel Donovan has owned my soul for a decade, but he doesn’t get to take this. He doesn’t get to takeher.
Axe takes a breath, his fists unclenching, his rage simmering. “What are your terms?”
