“I’ll call you in a few hours when I’m back in my office, and we can discuss our future.”
I have to get to my brothers to try and stop the hemorrhage before it ruptures any further. I need them sharp and focused if Antoine’s threat becomes a reality. That realization has me stopping just a hundred yards away from her and changing directions to get to my Jag.
Every second I let my emotions make decisions is a second we can’t afford to lose.
I can hear the satisfaction in the sick fuck’s voice with his parting words.
“Don’t keep me waiting, Ezekiel.”
The line goes dead as his threat hangs heavy in the air, and I start at a dead run past the tree line, all the while paralyzed inside. I carefully go over every possible move, knowing that I’m fucked in every direction.
Once behind the wheel, I pull up the text, and my finger hovers for seconds before I slowly backspace until I’ve deleted it.
The decision’s been made for me.
She’ll need protection from the club moving forward. She’ll wake up marked, and she’ll hate me for it. Another unforgivable deception I’ll have to live with.
Hours later, I slam my phone down on my desk and sink in my chair in my Charlotte office, where I’ve been since I left King’s Garage, in an attempt to do damage control with Dom and Sean. I’ve spent nearly the entire day negotiating with a fucking madman in the bed I made years ago. I wired a significant amount of lunch money to keep the bully at bay, to keep him as far the fuck as possible away from my brothers, my club, and the woman I love.
And in doing so, I agreed to a new arrangement, one that will have me under his heel for some time to come. But it’s not my newly forced allegiance to him that’s eating me alive. If I can manage to get my club and relationships under control, then I can better figure out a way to deal with Antoine, even if it means declaring war and bringing him down. It’s the fallout with my brothers at our garage just hours ago that has me feeling defeated in a way I never imagined possible.
No matter what I do from this point, I already feel like I’ve lost everything.
She woke up hours ago, no doubt feeling violated in a way that’s incomprehensible to her. And I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there to attempt to explain myself or my reasoning for doing what I did. And at this point, I know they won’t matter.
Swallowing down the guilt, I scan the Charlotte skyline, my hands tied in a way they’ve never been. The helplessness I feel is inescapable, my fate and future sealed as Shelly comes in with another cup of coffee. “Honey, you look like hell. Drink this.” She places the offering on my desk as Sean and Dom’s condemning words circle my mind, my jaw sore from the punch Sean threw as their parting words to me rip my insides apart. Shelly lingers at my desk, and I can feel her concern, her hesitance before she finally speaks. “I know this isn’t the time, but you have a call—”
“Take a message.”
“He said it’s urgent, regarding someone named Cecelia.”
Every hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I head straight to the blinking light on my desk and lift the receiver. “Did they give a name?”
She nods. “Roman Horner.”
That phone call and the hours after I’ve replayed so many times at this point, I re-live it vividly. From the meeting with Roman that changed everything I thought about him, to the two terrifying hours I spent speeding back to Triple Falls to try and get to her. To the minute Dom lay dying in her arms and down to the second our eyes held just after I ordered her never to return. In twenty-four hours, my life exploded, and a war began.
That night I truly lost it all. Every bit of my control, along with my brother, Cecelia, my club, everything that fucking mattered to me because I hesitated when making decisions due to my emotions. I can’t make that mistake again. I can’t hesitate. I can’t lose her because of it. I have to let the emotionless soldier—the monster that dwells inside me—take over if I want to gain the upper hand with Antoine.