His words try to hammer into my heart, but I can’t let them. I won’t give up. “You can’t ask me to do that, Guy.”
“I can, and I am.”
Our eyes lock. “He killed my sister.”
“And he could kill you, too. Look what they did to you. I’m not saying we give up, but we do this the right way. The legal way.”
I pull from him and climb off the other side of the bed. “Like with Richard Mason?” He says nothing to that, and I run my fingers through my hair. “Even if we had evidence, it would go nowhere. These men are untouchable. If I don’t do this, Sawyer continues his life as normal. No one pays. Ava died for nothing.”
“Would she want this for you? To watch you get carved up, and probably die?”
“You have no idea what my sister would want.”
“She’d want you to be happy, Lina. So be happy. Be with me.” He rounds the bed and comes to me, and when he slides his hand to the side of my neck, I want to give him everything. “I love you.”
I pull in a breath, and tears fill my eyes once more.
My heart leaps from me—it must, because it’s no longer in my chest. Without warning or sense, it’s gone to him, and there’s no way I’ll ever get it back.
He presses his forehead to mine. “I love you, and I can’t lose you to revenge. I’ll call in every favor I have, have every man I can on this. I won’t give up. But please, please don’t do this. Don’t leave me to do this.”
A decade of my life has been spent on revenge. I’ve allowed bitterness to chew through me, burn through my blood to keep me going. It’s all I’ve known in the dead of night, all I’ve thought about as I watched another sunrise my sister would never see. My parents did nothing, so I did everything. I put my blood, sweat, tears, and life on the line to make them pay for what they did to her.
But maybe Guy is right.
Maybe this loneliness, this sharp ache in my chest, isn’t the need for revenge.
Maybe it’s my need for something more. To soothe the ache, not add to it.
To wash away the blood, not spill more.
At the very least, I should try.
“Okay,” I whisper.
Guy searches my face. “Okay?”
I nod. “No more killing. I won’t search for Sawyer. I won’t do it anymore.”
Guy releases his breath and pulls me to him as gently as he can. He kisses my shoulder. “We’ll get them for this. Every single one of them.”
I listen to the words and I try to believe him.
I know he’ll try.
I can only hope he won’t fail.
Chapter 19
Guy
Watching Lina across the breakfast table with Gray on her lap has me smiling. She’s singing to him, her voice sweet, and Gray is giggling.
I’m glad I went to her last night. What she told me was horrific, but I needed to know everything before I made my choice.
Stay or go.
I’m fucking staying.
