Axe chuckles. “Yeah. That honour was gonna be yours, wasn’t it, Deck? You still a knife man? Or would you have chosen the clean way out and shot another bullet through me?”
Decker pushes to sitting, his bloody face splitting into a deep grin. “Nah, Donovan. There won’t be any blades or bullets when you and I go head-to-head. It’ll be just you and me. When I kill you, I’ll do it with my bare fucking hands.”
Axe barks out a laugh. “I’d love to see you try.”
“You better hope they keep me tied up. I lose the ropes, you lose your life.” Decker shifts his focus back to me, and his smile falls. “Itold youI was ending this, Grace. What did you think I was gonna do?”
My stomach lurches. “I don’t know. Maybenotbe an asshole?”
He sighs. “You know who I am. The shit I’m capable of. Don’t act so shocked when I follow through. He pushed me too far. He took too much. He took”—his throat bobs; the massive room shrinks—“he tookyou. So I’m done. I’m done losing.”
I shake my head. “This isn’t about losing. It’s about you not being able to let go of whatever this shit is between you two. I told you to come with me. To leave this behind. Instead, you chose to fight until the bitter fucking end.”
“And at the end we are,” Axe says. “You started this, Decker. Guess it makes sense you’d want to finish it too.”
Decker’s face twists into an angry scowl. “Youstarted this, Donovan. You handed me the fucking knife.”
Axe scoffs. “I may have given you the knife, but you’re the one who used it. Stop blaming all your problems on me and take some fucking responsibility.”
I huff, frustration taking over for the fear that’s plagued me all day. “What knife? What the hell are you two talking about?”
“Emily,” Linc snarls. Her name sounds bitter on his tongue. “The man who killed her. The manIkilled. Axe set it up, then setme up. He found me drunk off my ass, stewing in my grief, and offered me revenge. He used my anger. Leveraged it to get me under his thumb.”
Decker releases a long breath, his chest caving in.
“You want to know why I’m like this, Gracie? Why that boy scout you love so much is dead and gone?Him.He turned me into this. Made me what I am. I fucking trusted him, and look where that got me.”
My gut plummets to the filthy floor. He… he didwhat? “Jesus, Axe. That’s fucking low. Even for you. What the hell were you thinking?”
Axe rolls back his shoulders, spine straightening a little. “I was doing what needed to be done. I was putting the club in a better position so that Jimmy’s legacy wouldn’t be destroyed because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants when it came to your mother.” He adjusts his position against the wall, wincing. “I was thinking my father dropped his cut at my feet, that the club was falling apart, and that no one was about to trust their new twenty-four-year-old prez without some kind of sacrifice. I had to prove myself, and Officer Good Boy over here was getting on my last nerve. All his talk aboutcleaning up South Bay. Give me a fucking break. Someone had to put him in his place.”
Decker’s got that look on his face. The one he got the night he nearly choked the life out of Keegan. A loss of control. A need to kill.
All the hate. The anger. The resentment. All the shit he keeps bottled up, that he directs at my family. I get it now. Maybe I even get the part where he needed to stay.End this, as he said. Burn it all down, even if that means burning with it.
I know what that’s like. Feeling like there’s no other choice, no way out, no way to turn back the clock, to fix what’s been done.
Knife slicing down, body slumping, eyes wide, fresh blood on my hands.
Like Linc, I had no one in my corner, no one to get their hands bloody forme. Until him. He used the violence forced into him and willfully threw himself into this mess right along with me, even after I dragged him into it at gunpoint, even after he had the chance to walk away. The man who’s racked up his kill count a few notches just to keep me safe.
I understand. But more than ever, I need to protect what we have.
I can’t let him strike that match. I can’t watch this end—us, the club. I can’t watch South Bay fall into the hands of Raiders. I can’t watch any more bodies hit the ground.
Clearing my throat, I nudge Linc. “Maybe you should, uh, say something. You know, about… what you’re feeling.”
He quirks a brow. “What I’mfeeling? I think I’ve made it pretty fucking clear. I’m not interested in a reconciliation, Grace. I kind of just want to kill your brother.”
I give him a tight smile. “Well, you’re all tied up right now. So how about we give it a try anyway? Like adults.”
When no one speaks, I sigh and shift my attention to Axe.
“Fine. I’ll go first. I’m sorry,” I say, my tone earnest. “I should have come to you when I was in trouble. I should have hightailed it out of that place the second I saw that skull and crossbones.” With a deep breath out, I steady the tremble in my voice. “I lied. It wasn’t by accident. I knew what I was doing, who I was getting into bed with. I honestly don’t know why I did it. Maybe because I needed to feel something. Feelthisagain. Or maybe I did it as a big fuck-you to Jimmy for dragging me away from my family. To you and Jack for not dragging me back.”
More silence.
“Now it’s your turn,” I say to Axe.
