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“Fuck!” I roar, slamming my fist into the drywall as my entire world crashes down around me. I can’t erase the picture of Ali in a pine box out of my mind. I can’t fucking do this again. I can’t lose her. This time, I won’t survive it. “I gotta go.”

I don’t even wait for his reply as I hang up the phone, and the door to Streak’s office opens. “You okay?” he asks, and I glance back at him before stalking off toward the stairs. I’m not thinking as I fly down the stairs and scan the room for Ali. She walks out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit, a huge smile on her face, and I suck in a breath. Glancing up, she spots me and her smile fades as she looks me over. She hands the plate off to Smith and practically runs across the room to me.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, running her hands down my arms. I suck in a breath, breathing a little easier now that she’s in my grasp.

“I need you to listen to me, okay?”

She nods, her eyes vulnerable as she looks up at me.

“I have to go handle something, and I need you to stay inside this building, no matter what. You can’t go outside, you hear me?”

She shakes her head. “What’s going on, Logan? You’re scaring me.”

“Kitten,” I whisper, pulling her into me and pressing my lips to her forehead, “I promise to tell you everything when this is over but right now, I need to go. I’ll fill in the guys, and I need you to stay here. Please?”

She nods, reaching up to kiss me. “I love you. Please be careful.”

“I made you a promise, Baby, and I intend to keep it. I’m going to end this, and then I’ll tell you everything. I just hope you don’t hate me when it’s over because I don’t know how I would survive losing you.”

“I could never,” she says but I cut her off with my lips, kissing her with all the love and pain and desperation that I feel in this moment, and when I pull away, she wipes a tear from her cheek. Planting one last kiss on her forehead, I walk toward the door and throw it open, bright sunlight almost blinding me.

“Want to fill us in?” Blaze asks, waiting by my bike.

“Ian hired someone to kill Ali.”

“Shit,” Blaze spits as Fuzz runs a hand over his hair.

“What’s your plan?” Fuzz asks.

I stop and look at them because honestly, I hadn’t even thought about it. My girl was threatened, and I just jumped into action without thinking over my options.

“I’m going to take your silence to mean that you have no fucking clue,” Blaze says, and I nod. He glances over at Fuzz, who shrugs.

“When this all started, Fuzz came to me with an idea that might be our best option.”

“All right, well, let’s hear it.”

Blaze sighs and shakes his head, looking off in the distance. I know he hates this situation coming to this since they all left the violence behind six years ago, but there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect Ali.

“I’ve got this friend up there, who is a guard. I’m going to give him a call, and he’ll meet you outside the prison on his break at five. Slip him a note to give to Henn, telling him to call you. When he calls you, tell him to recruit someone to take Ian out, someone who has no chance of ever getting out, and we’ll deposit two grand into their account over the next six months as payments,” Fuzz says, and I just stare at him for a moment, thinking through his plan. It might just work.

“I don’t fucking like this,” Blaze says, turning back to look at us. “But we ain’t gonna let your girl get hurt. It may be time to rethink some things if y’all are gonna start settlin’ down. Smith was right. We can’t let people think they can hurt our women.”

I nod. “We’re not regressing here, Blaze. Maybe just tweaking a few things.”

He nods and slaps my shoulder. “You should take Fuzz with you.”

“You ready to go?” I ask Fuzz, and he nods. Blaze heads back inside with a promise to keep my girl safe, and Fuzz and I climb on our bikes before pulling out of the parking lot. The entire way to the prison, I’m assaulted by memories of six years ago and everything that this worthless motherfucker did to Fi and I. I can’t stop them this time, and I stop trying, letting them come so I’m prepared to face him as we drive up to the prison. It feels so damn good to know that I’m ending this for real this time; that Ian Blackwell will never bother me again. Then, Ali and I can move forward and start planning our life together. There’s nothing I want more.

* * * *

I shift in the chair, waiting for Ian to appear on the other side of the Plexiglas so I can get this over with and get back to Ali. Fuzz’s plan didn’t require that I come here and confront him but I needed it. I needed to look in his eyes and let him know that he doesn’t get to win. He doesn’t get to take anything else from me. And then I see him. He limps into the room, a guard on either side of him and his wrists and ankles cuffed. When he looks up and sees me, a wide smile stretches across his face but his eyes look like death.

“Well, well, well,” he says as soon as they sit him down in the chair, and he grabs the phone on his side. “Gotta say, never thought I’d see you here.”

“This isn’t a social visit, asshole,” I snap into the phone but it only makes him smile wider.

“Ah, are you here about your new little toy? Let me ask you something, how could you do that to our sweet Sophia?”