I stood there.
Dumbstruck.
Cracking up, Brock clapped me on the shoulder.
“You did it now, boss. Looks like you got a little too friendly with someone’s sister.” He tsked. “Couldn’t keep your hands off all that deliciousness, could you? Not that I blame you. Salem is fine as hell.”
I grunted at him.
Backing away, he lifted his hands in surrender and grinned. “Don’t sweat it, man. Obviously, she’s worth it.”
Without saying anything else, he turned and went back to work.
I glanced at Salem who stood horrified in the doorway.
That feeling squeezed my chest.
Yeah.
She was fucking worth it.
Whatever the cost.
THIRTY
JUD
“Where are you going?” Kennedy frowned from their bedroom doorway as Jud tossed a change of clothes into his duffle bag.
“Consult on a custom bike.” The lie burned as it fell from his tongue.
A dagger.
A blade.
He felt as if he were slicing right through the vows he had made even though a whole ton of them had been silent. The ones Kennedy had no clue he’d needed to make.
His wife’s frown deepened. “I thought you were booked out?”
Jud zipped the bag and strode across their bedroom. He pecked a kiss to her temple, trying to keep himself together, to act normal, like this was no big deal. Fought not to be so stupid to lose his cool and blurt where he was actually going.
Kennedy wouldn’t get it. Wouldn’t understand. Wouldn’t accept he had no other choice but to do one last job.
For Logan.
For his family.
The truth was, he’d protected Kennedy from the world he’d come from. Protected her with every fiber of his loyalty. He couldn’t burden her with who he’d been. With the inhumanities he’d witnessed and the atrocities he’d committed.
He’d turned a corner and planted a new life.
But the roots of that old, wicked life drew him. He was caught in the snare of the ghosts that dragged him back to the past.
Grim.
He gritted his teeth and forced a smile. “It’s an important client. I’d be a fool to say no. I’ll be back in a couple days.”
She pressed her hand to his chest. “Okay.” Then she tipped her head. “Be careful?”
“Always,” he promised, then he kissed her long and slow before he crept into his daughter’s nursery. She was in her crib, fast asleep, the tiny, sweet thing lost to her dreams.
Love exploded. Beat at his chest.
He splayed his hand over her belly, made the silent promise, “Just this once.”
Then he left the little house and climbed onto the back of his bike, and he rode through the night.
A monster. A wraith. A demon.
Grim.
And he swore this would be the last time he would be him.
Marcello waited at the meeting point, in the seedy part of the city that felt like Jud’s old stomping grounds.
Ground covered in blood.
He killed the rumbling engine of his bike, swung off, and approached him slowly, like he might be walking into an ambush, which knowing this prick, that’s probably exactly what it was.
Marcello quirked a satisfied grin. “You made it.”
“Told you I’d be here.”
His grin widened. “Always so amenable.”
Jud grunted. “Not always.”
It was a testament. This was the end. The last thing he would subject himself to.
Jud stared at the man he all but detested. Marcello and his family had been pulling Jud’s strings for years, and he was finished being anyone’s puppet. “Let’s roll. I want to get this finished, and then it’s done. Do you understand?”
Marcello smiled. “A deal’s a deal, my friend. We stand by our commitments.”
“What’s the score?” Jud asked.
“We just need to send a warning to an associate who’s gone off the rails. Remind him where his loyalties stand.”
“A warning?”
That wasn’t what he was expecting.
He’d thought he’d be getting his hands dirty. Forcing out information or maybe silencing a threat.
Marcello tsked, laughed a light sound. “You act like we’re horrible, unreasonable people.”
Hot air puffed from Jud’s nose.
Horrible didn’t even cut it.
They were wicked. Vile. Cruel.
Just like Jud had been.
His stomach twisted.
Something after tonight, he refused to ever be again.
I jolted from the memory when Salem touched my elbow.
I kept getting swept up in those old memories. I guessed it was because I never wanted to go there again. They were a reminder of the spiral I’d slipped into, of what I’d lost, of all the mistakes I’d made—and standing there, I felt this astounding internal declaration that I’d never repeat it.
I was going to live for these two.
Live whole and right.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Salem tilted her head, like she’d thought I might have changed my mind about wanting them there rather than the truth swimming out to the horizon of where hope waited.
That I wanted her here. In every way.
“Not even close, darlin’。 I asked you here, didn’t I?”
“More like demanded it.” It was a tease, even though there clearly wasn’t a whole lot of easiness as she remained just inside the door to my place.
Like she was unsure of where she fit or belonged.
Looking around like she’d never stepped inside before.
Juni actually hadn’t been there before, and the little bee was buzzing around the living space with a pink backpack strapped on her shoulders. Her black hair was in pigtails, those blue eyes gleaming in excitement as she explored the main room of the loft.
She touched about everything, not slowing as she went.
She skipped into the kitchen. “Wow, Motorcycle Man, you gots the biggest kitchen I ever seen.” She pulled open the refrigerator and poked her head inside, no shyness to it. “My mimi is gonna be the most jealous so we better nots tell her ’cause we only got a butt bumper over at our house.”
I eased deeper into my loft, a smile pulling at my mouth. Was impossible for it not to be there with this wild little thing filling up the vacancy.
“Butt bumper?” I hedged.
“Means we’re bumping our butts all the time we gotta go in and do the cooks.”
Amusement hummed in my chest.
Energy crackled, but it was different this time.
It was slow and sure.
A rumble of satisfaction as my chest pressed full.
My spirit singing that this was right.
Old guilt made a bid to drown it out. Ancient devotion that no longer quite fit.
That purpose fading at the horizon of my mind.
Grinning back at Salem who still wavered at the doorway, I carried the overnight bag she’d packed thirty minutes before. “Come on, let’s get you two settled.”
She’d refused to bring any more of her things. She’d insisted it was temporary, and she’d be back at Darius’ house soon.
Too bad every bone in my body shouted hell no.
Doubted there was a chance I would be able to let her go considering every part of me raced toward something I’d chalked up to loss.
A type of devotion pumping through my veins that I’d never thought I’d feel again.