He tilts his head, regarding me. “My turn to… what?”
“Apologize. You can start with Decker. Say you’re sorry for being an absolute piece of shit. For doing what you did.”
His barking laughter echoes off the metal walls of the building. “I’m good, Gracie. I got nothing to apologize for.”
“Really?” I cock a brow. “No regrets about blackmailing him into a life of crime? About using his dead pregnant girlfriend to do it?”
He dips his head back against the wall, holding my stare, keeping that scowl perfectly in place.
These fucking men. Neither willing to back down, to lose, to wave the white flag and forget all this.
It’s shocking how similar they are. They both have a code. A way of life. A doctrine they live by. They’re willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe, to get bloody in the name of their own sense of justice, of morality.
Regardless of where they came from, of how they got here, they’re cut from the same cloth. A cloth I seem to have wrapped around my life. Despite how long I’ve been gone, this dogma, this way of living, it’s engrained in me too.
This life is one I’d kill to protect. That I’d die fighting for. All the shit in between doesn’t matter.
The silence stretches. Axe shifts and lets out a breath. “I did a shitty thing. So what? We all do shitty things. It’s business, Linc. Don’t take it so personally. I saw an opportunity, and I took it. I didn’tmake youinto anything. This has always been who you are. You proved that the second I put that blade in your hand. You’re just pissed I made you face that.”
Decker snorts. “Pretty sure I’m pissed about the blackmail. But yeah, let’s go with your thing.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Axe says. “We’re about to meet our maker. All because you couldn’t fucking lay down and do what you’re told. Want to apologize for that? For selling what’s left ofyour soul to the enemy? To the club that’s gonna roll intoourtown and take what I built? Whatwebuilt.”
“Isaw an opportunity and I took it,” Decker mocks. “Don’t take it so personally.”
“Except they turned on you, didn’t they? And now wealldie. Good job. Know that if we end up in the same place in the afterlife, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Axe grunts. “You wanna go hand-to-hand with me? Sure. I’ll sentence you to a fucking lifetime of it. A million lifetimes.”
A deep chuckle spills from Decker’s mouth. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll end up in the deepest part of hell, Axe. Right along with you. We’ll have plenty of time to beat the shit out of each other. But no one’s dying today. There’s a way out of this. There’salwaysa way out.”
He lies back and closes his eyes, doing that deep breathing thing he does when he’s trying tonot punch everyone in the face.
But his hands are tied, so there will be no punching. And I’m not done talking.
“Linc—”
The large sliding door of the hangar screams open, and one of our captors walks inside. Leather cut. Skull and crossbones. Half-rotten smile and his eyes on me. A phantom sensation hits me. A reminder of what his hands felt like getting too close to all the places I didn’t want him touching.
He points to me. “I’m bored. Time to pay penance, little snake.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Decker snarls.
He only gets a cold, menacing laugh in return as a big leather-clad biker stalks towards me.
I’m moving before he can get his hands on me, but my bindings keep me from gaining much ground. He buries his hand in my hair and yanks me towards the exit, dragging me across the dirt floor, the pain in my scalp searing. White hot.
Decker is on his feet, hands still tied as he runs at the man holding me. He makes contact. The pain intensifies as I’m jerked back, unable to brace as two large bodies fall to the ground and take me with them.
There’s a scuffle, a grunt. The hold on my hair loosens, and I clamber away as Decker slams his head into the nose of my attacker with a sickening crunch. But as Decker moves to strike again, a fist pummels into his face. He’s thrown to the ground, and the Raider immediately pushes up and kicks him in the ribs.
I scream again, scrambling to help, to stop the attack, but Decker is given another hard punch to the jaw before I can get up, and he stops moving.
No. No, no, no. “Linc? Linc!”
Face twisted in anger, blood flowing from his nose, the Raider grabs a fistful of Decker’s hair and angles up his face. “You wanna watch me fuck your girl? Fine by me. I love an audience.”
Hands pin me in place, then a massive body crushes down on me.
No.
