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I hate every second of it but I will deal with it.

Storm nods and turns to the barn, squaring his shoulders. “Let’s do this then.”

We follow him and step into the barn before closing the door behind us and when I glance up, Evan grins at me, blood dripping from his mouth.

“Ah, Travis. I was so hoping you’d be here.”

“Shut the fuck up, asshole,” Henn snarls, clocking him across the face. My desire to make Evan pay and my need to not become a murderer wars inside me as his head snaps to the side. He’s tied to a wooden chair in the middle of the room and it looks like Smith and Henn have worked him over pretty well already. One eye is almost swollen shut and his lip is cracked right down the center.

Laughing, Evan spits some blood on the ground before looking back up at us. “Hello, boys. Long time no see.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Fuzz growls, pulling the gun from his waistband but Evan just laughs again.

“What? No foreplay? Don’t y’all want to know about all of the awful things I did? I know it’s been driving you crazy,” he teases as enjoyment flashes in his eyes.

“Sure. Go on and tell us all about your revenge plan,” Storm says, planting his feet in front of Evan and crossing his arms over his chest. Evan laughs again and shakes his head.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Son of a bitch,” Kodiak seethes, stepping forward and slamming his fist into his nose. The chair falls back, taking Evan with him and he hits the floor with a thud but he just keeps laughing. Storm turns back to all of us and shakes his head.

“Fucking demented,” he whispers and I nod. This isn’t news to me since I’ve been dealing with Evan for weeks now but this is a whole new level. He has nothing left to lose now and it shows every time he cackles with joy at our frustration.

“Look, if we’re going to end this, then let’s just fucking end it.”

“Oh, boys,” Evan calls and we all glance back at him as he lies on the floor, unable to move. “Maybe I’ll give you a little hint.”

Moose arches a brow. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

“I had a part in everything. For the last two years, everything that happened in your lives was controlled by me!” he yells followed by maniacal laughter and we all turn back to face each other with wide eyes.

“We think he’s telling the truth.”

I shrug. “Who knows? That’s the whole point. He’s playing a game and fucking loving every second of it. He’s never going to tell us the truth.”

A scuffle pulls my attention back to Evan and I glance up just in time to see him stand up, the arms of the chair still taped to his arms as he punches Henn, knocking him to the floor. Once Henn is down, he grabs his gun off of the floor and points it at Storm. I react before I even realize what I’m doing, whipping my gun out of the waistband of my jeans and leveling it at Evan, pulling the trigger. His gun goes off, too, as he falls backward, his body hitting the floor with a thud that makes my stomach churn as my breath rings in my ears. I look down at the pistol in my hand.

Oh, fuck.

What the hell did I do?

“Motherfucker,” Storm hisses and I glance over at him as he clutches his shoulder and my eyes widen when I see the blood oozing through his fingers. He grits his teeth. “Stupid asshole fucking shot me.”

“He’s dead,” Smith calls, kicking the gun from Evan’s hand as he turns and meets my eyes. There is a sour taste in my mouth as I try to swallow past the lump in my throat, my mind swimming. My hands tremble as crime scene photos I’ve never been able to erase from my memory flash through my mind and my chest aches.

Goddamn it.

I’ve spent years trying to make things right and make sure I never turned into that monster and I just threw it all away with one bullet and now, I’m just like him…

Kodiak steps up in front of me and grabs my shoulder, shaking me until I meet his eyes. “You had to do it, brother. He was going to kill Storm.”

“Yeah,” I whisper as I nod, my entire body numb and my mind blank.

“Get him out of here,” Storm says through clenched teeth. “And someone clean this shit up. We don’t need this coming back on us.”

Henn, Smith, Fuzz, and Chance nod in unison as Kodiak grabs my shoulder and leads me out of the barn with Storm and Moose on our heels.

“Someone want to take me to the fucking hospital?” he asks, looking a little pale as he holds his hand firm against his shoulder and Kodiak nods.

“Yeah, ride with us.” At the mention of the hospital, my attention shifts back to Rowan and I suck in a breath, every other thought fleeing from my mind as I hand my gun off to Moose. All of this shit, all of the baggage I clearly need to sort through can wait for later. The most important thing is getting back to my girl.