I hesitate, then nod.
“All right, but I can’t promise I won’t run.”
“That’s fair.”
Penny sends me the address.
I head upstairs, but the second I step into the apartment everything inside me starts to crack, my gaze drifting over the space that had begun to feel like home, over him still lingering in every corner, and I hate how much it hurts, how I promised myself I’d never fall for a man like him, never put myself in this position, and yet here I am breaking that promise without even knowing when it happened.
Marvel watches me as I pack, his eyes following every move like he already knows I’m about to leave.
“I don’t think you can come with me, buddy,” I whisper, my voice breaking. “It’s not safe with me.”
I sink to the floor, holding him close as tears fall into his fur.
I hate Russel for this.
For everything.
For taking him from me.
For taking Dex from me.
The only man I’ve ever loved.
CHAPTER 24
Dexter
Creed fills my helmet as I speed down Wyoming Highway 789. I’ve been riding for fifty minutes, the speed throwing me into the darkness, letting my rage slowly fade. My head clears, and I know I’m not angry at her anymore. Hurt? Absolutely. But the anger sits elsewhere now, locked on the low piece of shit named Russel. The urge to seek him out and make him know what it feels like to swallow teeth and blood is heavy in my chest. He hurt her. My Tinker.
My phone keeps blowing up, my brothers calling, sending message after message, but I ignore all of it.
Lexy… she was just a kid. Fourteen. Just a child, and she had to fight him off, had to survive that. All the times I heard her scream at night, call out for her mother… now I know, and it breaks something in me. The way she panicked when a customer grabbed her, the bruises on her neck when she first came in, it all crashes together until I can barely think straight.
If I kill him, I go to jail.
I drag in a breath, gripping the handlebars tighter.
If I kill him, I go to jail.
I check my phone and see Jude calling. I pull over and answer.
Silence greets me, but it’s not empty. I’ve always understood Jude’s silence better than most people’s words, even through the phone.
“She kept it from me.” My voice cracks, a dull, aching pain filling me.
Another beat of silence.
“Cas said she tried to tell you.”
“Yeah,” I say, staring out into the dark. “I knew something was off, but… Russel.”
The name tastes like poison.
“She tried,” Jude says.
I look up at the sky. Not a single star in sight. Rain’s coming.
