Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
I remained frozen, unable to move or speak, waiting for his anger, his disgust, his rejection. My heart hammered so loudly in my chest I was certain he could hear it across the table. Outside, the storm reached a crescendo. Rain pelted the windows with such force it sounded like hail. Lightning flashed again, closer this time, casting stark shadows across Marcus’s face, highlighting the scar I’d once traced in a gentle exploration. Thunder followed almost immediately, the crash so loud several café patrons jumped in their seats.
Marcus set the device on the table beside my other belongings, then bent again to retrieve the second bug. This one he placed beside the first. I waited, breath caught in my lungs, for his judgment. For him to walk away. For him to expose me to everyone in the café as the traitor I was. For something, anything, to break the terrible, weighted silence between us.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low, measured, betraying none of the emotions that must have been churning beneath his controlled exterior. “Reeves has been after me since I got out,” he said. “This isn’t about the club. It’s personal. If Reeves has been watching us all this time, then my interest in you has put you in his crosshairs.”
I blinked, struggling to process his words through the fog of fear clouding my thoughts. “What?”
“His son,” Marcus said, still not looking at me, his eyes fixed on the listening devices. I wondered briefly if they were active and Reeves was listening to everything we said. Marcus would know and would assume he was listening so, I guess, fuck it. It wasn’t like Reeves and Mercer weren’t going to figure out I hadn’t done what they’d asked. I was at their mercy no matter how I looked at it. “The man I killed. The one who murdered Sarah.” He picked up one of the bugs again, rolling it between his fingers contemplatively. “He was Kurt Reeves Jr. Detective Reeves’s only child.”
The revelation hit me with physical force, driving what little air remained from my lungs. Suddenly, Reeves’ fixation, his willingness to fabricate evidence, his determination to use me against the club, all of it made a terrible kind of sense.
“He’s using you to get to me,” Marcus said, finally raising his eyes to meet mine. “And I led him right to you.”
The guilt in his voice, the self-recrimination in his eyes, wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d brought danger to his door, betrayed his trust, planted a listening device in his home, and somehow he was taking the blame?
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, the words hopelessly inadequate. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Marcus swept the bugs into his palm and closed his fingers around them. His expression shifted, hardened into something resolute and dangerous. “You don’t have to do anything,” he said. “I’ll handle Reeves.”
The calm certainty in his voice sent a chill down my spine. “What are you going to do?”
Marcus slipped the bugs into his pocket, then reached across the table to brush a tear from my cheek that I hadn’t realized was there. His touch was gentle despite the lethal promise in his eyes. “This time, I’m going to protect what’s mine,” he said simply. “And then I’m going to make sure Detective Reeves never threatens you again.”
The storm raged on outside, matching the intensity of what passed between us in that moment. Fear and relief and something deeper, something I wasn’t prepared to name yet, hummed in the air between us.
And despite everything, the danger, the uncertainty, the knowledge that things would likely get worse before they got better, I found myself believing him.
Chapter Nine
Rancor
Rain drummed against the roof of my truck as I drove us back to the compound. Cora sat rigid in the passenger seat, her fingers twisted together so tightly her knuckles had gone white. The listening devices weighed heavy in my pocket. They were probably active, so I had no doubt Reeves knew his plan hadn’t worked. He’d played her perfectly, exploiting her fears, using her against me. My jaw ached from clenching it, but I kept my face neutral, my movements measured. Showing my rage now would only frighten her more. I didn’t want her thinking I was angry at her. She was the only innocent person in this whole fucking mess.
“You don’t have to take me back to the compound,” she said suddenly, her voice barely audible over the engine’s rumble. “I’ve already caused enough trouble.”
I glanced at her. Her face had paled, eyes rimmed with red, hair still damp from the rain. Something fierce and protective surged in my chest. “You didn’t cause anything, honey.” I kept my voice low, steady. “Reeves did.”
Kurt Reeves. The name left a bad fucking taste in my mouth. I’d known from the moment I was released that he’d come for me someday. Eight years hadn’t dulled his hatred. Or mine. But I hadn’t expected him to find such an effective weapon. Using Cora against me, forcing her to do his bidding when he couldn’t do anything to me legally, threatening to destroy her life… It was calculated cruelty. The kind that spoke of a patient, festering rage that matched my own. And now Cora, an innocent person who had done absolutely nothing wrong, got caught in the crossfire of a vendetta that began long before she entered my life. “He was waiting for an opportunity,” I said, more to myself than to her. “Watching for a weak point.”