Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 63608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Because you are,” I choke.
“And you love me,” she whispers. My whole body freezes. She touches my chest right over my heart. “I remember enough to know that,” she says softly. “And I’m not scared of it.”
I can’t breathe. Not because her words scare me. Because they free me.
I grab her face in both hands and rest my forehead against hers, breath mingling, tears burning behind my eyes even though they don’t fall.
“I never stopped,” I whisper.
She gasps softly.
“Even when we ended things,” I continue baring my damn soul. “Even when you told me not to fall. Even when you walked away. Even when you forgot me. I didn’t stop. I don’t know how.”
Her hand slides to the back of my neck, grounding me.
“I don’t want you to stop,” she whispers.
A violent ache cracks open inside me. “I can’t lose you,” I admit. “I can’t survive that.”
“You’re not going to,” she promises. “Not tonight.”
Before I can answer, I hear movement.
Voices echo from the tunnel entrance. I stand so fast the air moves with me, placing myself instinctively between Kelly and the noise. I lift my weapon ready to take it head on again.
The metal hatch slams open.
“RIOT!” a familiar voice booms.
I lower my gun a fraction.
Chux. Stunt. Nitro. Shaft. Gainz. Looney. Along with three more brothers who spill through the entrance, weapons drawn, eyes scanning every inch of the underground. Kelly collapses forward against me in relief. I catch her, steadying her with both arms as her knees buckle momentarily.
Chux steps into the center of the room and freezes at the sight of us. His jaw ticks. He doesn’t comment about her so close to me.
He turns instead to the bodies on the ground. “Damn. You cleaned house.”
I don’t relax.
My voice comes out low and lethal. “One got away.”
“Yeah,” Nitro says, exchanging a look with Stunt. “We caught visuals him fleeing the east exit. He’s injured.”
“Not enough,” I growl.
Chux kneels by one of the downed men. “These marks, Jesus. Bratok’s men really did crawl out of their grave.”
Tensing, I share. “This wasn’t Bratok.”
“No,” Chux agrees. “This was something else. Someone else.”
All eyes turn to the shattered blast door, the broken vent, the blood.
“You saw his face?” Stunt asks.
My jaw flexes once, hard. “Yeah.”
“And?” Chux presses.
“He knows me,” I explain quietly. “Knew me before Kings. Before all of this.”
Chux raises a brow. Shaft stiffens. Nitro curses under his breath.
Kelly tightens her grip on me.
“He called me Ledger.”
Silence falls like a dropped anvil.
Chux breaks it. “You sure?”
I nod once. “Positive.”
Shaft steps forward. “Ledger Masters doesn’t exist anymore not in this world. Only Riot.”
“Tell that to him,” I snap.
Kelly shivers against me. I tighten my hold.
“Do we know this guy’s name?” Shaft asks.
I answer clear as day. “Jonas Greene.”
Another thick silence. The kind that ripples outward like a bomb blast. Chux whistles low. Stunt mutters a curse. Nitro shakes his head.
“You sure?” Chux asks again, because he needs the confirmation.
“Yeah,” I confirm, “Same eyes. Same voice. Same fucked-up calm.”
Kelly shivers. I pull her into me closer.
“He’s supposed to be dead,” Chux mutters.
“Apparently he disagrees,” I share.
Chux walks toward me and Kelly, stopping a few feet away. “We’ll lock this place down. Sweep the woods. Check cams. He won’t get near you again.”
Chux lifts both brows as I don’t settle in any way. I feel my cheeks heat. I don’t budge.
Chux sighs. “Alright. I get it. You’re in guard dog mode.”
“It’s not mode,” I explain. “It’s reality.”
Chux lifts his hands in surrender. “Fine. Reality noted. Need to switch it up. Not gonna keep you here.”
He turns to Stunt. “Prep for relocation. We’re moving them both to the inner compound.”
I stiffen. “She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”
“No argument here,” Chux says.
“But she does go,” Nitro adds. “You both do. Because wherever Greene shows up next, he’ll bring backup.”
Kelly slips her hand into mine. I squeeze lightly. She squeezes back.
Nitro pauses, watching us. “You good enough to move?”
Kelly nods. “Yes.”
I interject. “She’s rattled.”
“I’m not,” she whispers.
“You shot someone,” I remind her.
Her chin lifts. “To save you.”
Every man in the room stills. I go absolutely rigid. And then something happens, something I feel before I see. I turn toward her. Step in closer. Grabbing her waist with one hand, tilting my chin up with the other.
And then with my lips against her temple, I mutter, voice shaking, “You saved me.”
Kelly swallows hard. “I wasn’t letting him take you.”
“You remember us,” I whisper.
“I do.”
“Then remember this too,” I share not caring who is here. I need her to know Voice shaking, I admit, “I love you.”
Kelly blinks, breath catching, tears filling her eyes faster than I can stop them.
I didn’t plan to say it now.nIt came out of me the same way a dam breaks—too much pressure, too much rage, too much fear.
But once it’s in the air, neither of us can pretend it’s not real.