After that, the decision was easy.Shemade it easy.
“My leave started twenty minutes ago. I’m going. There’s no changing my mind.”
Brow pulled low, Axe subjects me to that stare everyone in his fucking family has perfected.Don’t fuck with me.A look that’s hot as hell on his sister. Not so much on him.
“Don’t look so pissed off,” I tell him. “OPP’s gone. The dust has settled. You got your people out of lockup, your old lady back by your side. I can’t give you anything else. For now, I’m done here.”
Allen has been labelled a traitor. An embarrassment to the badge. That’s not just a stain on the department. It’s a stain on every case he’s touched. I’ve never seen the Crown drop so many charges so fast. Triss was like a kid in a fucking candy store. I didn’t think that woman was capable of smiling so damn much.
“What are you playing at?” he growls. “This life, that badge, it’s in your veins like the patch is in mine. You were born to be a cop.”
I shake my head. “The blood that runs through me is the same blood that runs through your VP. Maybe there’s no fighting that.”
Axe was right about me. I was always going to be this man. He may have backed me into a corner, he may have forced the first injection of violence into my veins, but I still took that first life. Without question. Without hesitation.
Vengeance. Retribution. Tipping the scales back into place.
I am who I am.
Lincoln Decker. The boy scout. The hero. The outlaw. The asshole.
It’s just getting harder to see how this badge fits into who I’ve become. If that man still deserves to wear it.
Axe stares me down, but eventually he sighs and pushes up. With his hand on the doorknob, he turns to me and says, “Youcome back here, you’ll have a decision to make. Can’t be fucking with a girl like Gracie and still hold on to that uniform. And like I said, South Bay is gonna need you. She really worth letting all this go?”
I’ve asked myself over and over who I am without this badge.
Guess I’m about to find out. And when I do, she’ll be by my side. The woman whose bloodline runs thick with the sins of the man who spent the better half of the last decade torturing me. The woman who sees me for what I am. Who’s awoken parts of me I thought to have long been cold and dead in the ground.
All these choices I’ve made. The path I’ve taken. In the end, they all lead back to her. I’d have always ended up here. Gunning it down a highway, jacking up my speed, riding the taillights of the pretty girl on the bike in front of me.
Gracie Donovan.
There’s no leaving her behind. There’s no choosing a life without her.
Is she worth it? Hell yeah. She was worth it all along. The first night in that jail cell. The day I put that first body in the ground to protect her.
I lift my chin and smile. “I’m not gonna miss you, Axe.”
Another grunt. Then he yanks open the door.
Gracie stands just outside it, her usual pissed-off expression replaced with one of surprise. As always, she looks fucking gorgeous. Leather jacket, tight jeans, tiny top. Little hint of that tattoo peeking above her waistband. A tattoo I’ve spent the last month memorizing. Every line, every curve, every scale of that snake is burned into my brain. It’s become my favourite thing to look at.
She angles her head, eyeing her brother. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugs. “Club business.”
With a frown, she says, “Linc doesn’t have any business with you. Or the club.”
“So I’ve been told.” He leans closer and presses his finger to her chest. “Stay out of trouble, Gracie. And don’t forget about our deal.”
I push to standing and cross my arms. “What deal?”
Grace waves me off. “Don’t worry, big brother. I haven’t forgotten.”
Axe glowers. “Don’t call me that.”
“Goodbye,Axe.” She skirts past him, gives him a small shove, and slams the door in his face. Then we’re alone.
