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)
That is the thing. I know what Jonas is angry about. I know why he’s here. I thought he had enough sense to understand why I did what I did all those years ago.
Because the fact of the matter is, I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Only now, I would put him in the ground beside his brother rather than give him an opportunity to even breathe on the same planet as me.
I walk into the basement room where the man who has turned my world upside down sits tied to a chair on a concrete floor, blood dried all over his face and arms. His clothes sticking to him from the wounds he sustained. One eye is swollen shut and his lip is busted where a tooth came through just under the bottom lip.
I had a shower with Kelly. One where she washed the sins of who I am down the drain and we gave ourselves to each other over and over before finally falling asleep in the safety of each other.
The man in front of me used to matter. He was someone I would have taken a bullet for. Now he is nothing but a problem in need of a solution.
I have the answer.
The look in his eyes is unique. Not fear. Not pain. Pure hatred.
Rage.
Jonas Greene’s voice cuts like a knife straight to my soul. “You can kill me,” he says. “But she’s marked now. You know how this works, Ledger.”
Every muscle tightens.
Inside the room, Shaft stands behind him with crossed arms. Nitro leans against a wall, arms folded. Chux studies Greene like he's a puzzle he wants to break open.
Greene lifts his head. He smiles with missing teeth. I lunge.
Chux slams an arm across my chest. “Not yet.”
Greene laughs a wet, broken sound. “She’s not safe. Not now. Not ever. Because Ledger Masters finally showed the world what he cares about.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl.
But Greene keeps going. “You think I’m the only one looking for you?” he taunts. “For her? You think I’m your only enemy. Someone’s always watching the Kings. And now they know exactly how to break you.”
A cold wave washes over me.
Chux steps forward. “Unless you give us names, Greene, this ends with you in a shallow hole.”
Greene smirks. “Names won’t matter. Not when the girl dies. I called in my contacts. Whether I’m breathing or not, I made sure your weaknesses are known.”
I snap surging forward, shoving Chux aside. Nitro and Shaft grab me instantly, pulling me back by force.
“Riot,” Chux barks. “Stand down. We need him alive.” He pauses, “for a moment.”
Greene watches him with quiet cruelty.
“You couldn’t protect her then,” Greene whispers. “You all think you are untouchable. But I found your weakness in the women you fuck.”
The world tilts into clarity.
Greene snarls. “Sentimental nonsense will get all the ones you love killed.”
I let out a maniacal laugh before I lay it out for him. “That’s your mistake. You think love was weakness. You’re wrong. Loving her makes me dangerous because motherfucker it makes me lose my mind. And Jonas, it’s the thing that’s going to destroy you.” I smirk, “because we know that you know just what crazy does.”
Chux lifts his brows. Shaft whistles. Nitro mutters, “Damn.”
Greene lunges against his restraints. “YOU—”
I cut him off, voice low and deadly steady.
“You didn’t steal her from me. You gave me clarity and gave me a future I didn’t feel worthy of. Every time I kiss her, I fuck her, I taste her it’s going to be even sweeter knowing you thought you had me and you never had a damn thing in your useless life.”
But Greene’s voice cuts through the air like a blade. Soft. Cruel. Deliberate.
“You think she’s safe now?” he whispers. “Ledger, your past runs deeper than me. You killed someone who mattered.”
I freeze. Everything is cold. Still.
“What brother?” Mellow demands.
Greene smiles through blood. “Oh, now what a memory the Masters’ brothers have kept buried long before he met her.”
A new silence floods the room.
One too heavy.
One too full of dread.
When Jonas Greene says the word brother, the world narrows like someone cinched a belt around my ribs.
My vision tunnels. My breath stalls. Heat builds behind my sternum in a slow, suffocating wave.
Not again. Not here.
Mellow steps forward. “What brother? Name.” Because he thinks it could be an enemy club. No, that isn’t the kind of brother Jonus is referring to.
Greene only smiles bloody, broken, pleased with the devastation he just detonated inside me.
“Ledger knows,” he croons.
“Quit speaking in riddles,” Shafts snaps.
Greene tilts his head toward me. “Tell them, Ledger. Or Damian can.”
I close my eyes, inhale once, slow and jagged, then exhale the truth like poison. “I killed a man,” I state.
The room goes silent but not in the shock kind of way more like stupefied.