Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 33577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
He nodded once, his gray eyes taking in the scene with the same detached calculation I was forcing myself to maintain. "Could have been worse."
"Got three more who'll need a hospital," I continued. "Call Doc Simmons. She'll arrange transport, keep it quiet."
"What about the bodies?" Ghost asked, nodding toward the fallen Copperheads.
I considered this. Part of me wanted to string them up as a warning to demonstrate what happened when you fucked with Bound in Blood. But that would bring heat from law enforcement we didn't need right now. And it was only a matter of time before someone came out this way to see what the fuss was about.
"Dump them on Copperhead territory," I decided. "Let Acid deal with his own dead.”
I turned to survey the rest of the compound. The main building had held, though its façade was riddled with bullet holes. Two vehicles still smoldered, black smoke curling into the morning sky. The fence would need rebuilding, the gate replacing. Work that would take weeks.
Ghost nodded to Honey. “Girl’s one of us now.”
“Yep.”
"I need to check the rest of the building," Ghost said, tactfully excusing himself even if he did give me an amused grin.
When he was gone, Honey reached for me. "You got cut," she said, reaching up to touch my forehead. I hadn't even noticed. “Stopped bleeding.” She sounded kind of vacant as she spoke.
"It's nothing." I captured her hand, holding it against my face for a moment longer than necessary before bringing her fingers to my mouth and kissing them. "You okay?"
She nodded, a small smile touching her lips. "I killed a man today."
The words were simple, matter of fact. No hysteria, no breakdown. Just an acknowledgment of what had happened.
"I saw," I said. "Clean shot."
"I thought I'd feel... I don't know. Different. Guilty, maybe?" She looked down at her hands, still holding the shotgun. "But he was going to kill me. Would have killed you if he could. So I pulled the trigger."
I studied her face, searching for cracks in her composure, signs of the trauma that should follow taking a life for the first time. Instead, I found a calm acceptance that both surprised and concerned me.
"It changes you," I said quietly. "Killing. Not always in ways you notice right away."
"I'm already changed, Jack." She met my gaze again. "From the moment I walked into that party and you claimed me. There's no going back from that, is there?"
The question hung between us, loaded with implications neither of us was ready to fully examine. I thought about the life she'd had before. She’d said it was quiet and more than a little boring, untouched by the violence that defined my existence. She could have that again, in theory. Could walk away once the danger passed. But we both knew she wouldn't. Not now. Not after today.
"No," I answered honestly. "There's no going back."
I reached for her, pulling her against my chest, uncaring of the blood and dirt that smeared between us. She came willingly, her body fitting against mine like it was designed to be there. The shotgun pressed awkwardly between us until I took it from her.
"I'm sorry," I murmured into her hair.
She pulled back slightly, looking up at me with confusion. "For what?"
"For bringing you into this." I gestured at the destruction around us. "For changing your life."
Honey shook her head. "Don't be. I chose to stay after that first night. I could have run, found a way out. But I didn't." Her hand came up to touch my face again, tracing the line of my jaw through my beard. "I stayed because I wanted to be here. With you."
The simple declaration hit me harder than any blow I'd taken during the fight. This woman, who'd seen the worst of what my life entailed, still wanted to be with me. Not because I'd claimed her, not because she feared what would happen if she left, but because she chose it. Chose me.
I bent my head, capturing her lips in a kiss that tasted of blood and gunpowder and something undefinably sweet that was uniquely Honey. Her arms wound around my neck, clinging as the kiss deepened, neither of us caring who might be watching. When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, I kept her within the circle of my arms, unwilling to let go just yet.
"What happens now?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
I looked over her head at the compound. My brothers moved among the wreckage, securing our home, and removing any evidence there was a fight.
“We clean up and stay vigilant. Same as always.”
As we stood amid the aftermath of battle, Honey warm and alive in my arms, I knew with bone deep certainty that what had started as a claim of convenience had become something neither of us had anticipated. She wasn't just wearing my property patch anymore. She was part of my world now, for better or worse.