I stayed where I was, watching her for several more seconds, feeling something distinctly uncomfortable flare to life in my chest.
Uncomfortable but not exactly unwanted.
• • •
“Are you fucking her?” I demanded, staring hard at Adam. The sight of him and Liv arguing earlier had been weighing heavy on my mind. So much so that I’d left Autumn sleeping and came to find Adam. He was still at the garage, like he often was, working well into the night and usually early morning.
But if he’d fallen down that rabbit hole and she’d gotten her claws in him, it meant I couldn’t trust him anymore. And if I couldn’t trust Adam, there was no one left here, aside from Autumn, that I could trust.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Adam said, and sighed. He closed his eyes a moment and shook his head.
I stepped forward and watched him stiffen. “You have no goddamn clue what the fuck I’m thinking.”
His hands fisted at his sides and his nostrils flaring, Adam held his ground and my gaze. “You gonna hit me again? When I’ve been doing nothing but trying to protect your ass?”
I paused. “Protecting me?”
“She’s on the motherfucking warpath, Eagle. She’s been paying me visits since you shacked up with that crazy little mama of yours. Threatening to send me back to the pits if I don’t help her.”
I’d known it was coming, been waiting for it even, waiting for the other shoe to drop and Liv to make her move. But at the same time, I’d hoped she would have realized how fucking idiotic it was to turn on me. Something that would undoubtedly lead to her revealing what the fuck she’d been doing all these years behind Jeffers’s back. Was she really going to risk losing everything over me? No one was that goddamn crazy.
But even as I thought it, I realized, yeah, Liv was that goddamn crazy.
“She’srealmente loco, man,” Adam continued. Reaching up, he rubbed his temples with the heels of his palms. “She be riding my dick, screaming at me to be choking her, telling me all sorts of crazy shit like.” Dropping his hands, he raised his wide, bloodshot eyes to mine and sighed. “Don’t know how the fuck you’ve been dippin’ your shit in that all this time. She’s got me wanting to put myself back in the pits.”
Under different circumstances, I would have laughed in his face for falling into the ninth circle of hell that was Liv’s pussy, but none of this was actually funny. Liv was planning something, and even if she couldn’t manage to recruit Adam, that didn’t mean she would stop trying. She’d find someone willing to go up against me; I was sure of it.
“What does she want?” I asked, feeling twitchy. Half of me didn’t want to know what was coming, the same half of me that wanted to remain in the quiet place I’d finally found. The other half of me just wanted Liv dead. Ached for it, even.
“She wants me to set yourchicaup.” Adam rolled his eyes. “Told me to make it real public and shit. Lots of witnesses to her fuckin’ around behind your back.” Blowing out a frustrated breath, Adam refocused on me. “You know what they do to branded women they find getting their freak on.”
It didn’t happen very often; most of the branded women in Purgatory wouldn’t do jack shit to fuck up the security and safety the brand afforded them. But there had been some, a few girls who’d fooled a man into branding them and then gone ahead and continued to do whatever and whoever they wanted.
Jeffers didn’t take that sort of shit lightly. As weak as he could be when it came to actually enforcing the rules here, he was the one who’d come up with the branding, to give married women, and women in a serious relationship, a sense of security.
And it was Jeffers who’d let Liv throw those women into the cage. The men too. Where the entire population of Purgatory watched as they were torn apart by rotters.
Just the thought of Autumn being locked inside that pile of steel, forced to defend herself against one of those walking pus bags with only her two hands, it was enough to turn my stomach. I wouldn’t be able to save her, not with the sheer number of people there. I’d be overthrown the moment I made my move.
“Keep fucking her,” I ground out.
Adam’s eyes went wide. “Fuck you,” he spat. “I’m—”
I stepped forward, bringing us chest to chest. “I need her distracted. Just until I figure out how the fuck I’m going to get Autumn out of here.”
Turning away, I closed my eyes, and for the millionth time since I’d found her waiting for me, I wished she hadn’t come back. There was no way a miracle like that was going to happen twice. Not here. Hell on earth didn’t come equipped with miracles. Only death ... and Liv.
“You gonna owe me, man,” Adam called out. “Big time.”
“You can have everything but my truck,” I said, slapping the tarpaulin aside. “Every goddamn thing.”
Outside the garage, I half expected to find Liv waiting for me, finger on the trigger and ready to blow me away, but both the lot and the field were empty and quiet. Not even the usual sound of crickets could be heard.
Panic hit me, and I started jogging. I should have never left Autumn alone, not even at this time of night. All Liv would need was a few strong men and a set of bolt cutters, and she’d be inside my place. Inside where Autumn was naked and sleeping, and goddamn vulnerable.
Cursing, I started running, not slowing until I’d reached my front door and found every single lock still secured. Breathing hard, I ripped my keys free from my jeans and opened them one by one. My heartbeat didn’t slow until I was inside, the door shut behind me, and every one of those goddamn locks back in place.
Once inside my room, I found Autumn sitting up, the moonlight reflecting off her eyes. Without a word, I stripped quickly and climbed into bed beside her. When I pulled her up against me, she settled comfortably into the crook of my arm and sighed.
