44. Nolan
44
NOLAN
“W hy?” Juliet stares at my eyes as she whispers the question. Behind her, Lex takes the knife that Gio offers him.
I return my attention to the woman in front of me and see that her attention is now on the weapon in my hand. The gun. “Why what?” I ask.
“Why are you doing this?”
If someone had told me three months ago that I would be standing here in Trail’s End, handing Juliet Donovan a gun that would inevitably lead back to me if it ever got picked up by law enforcement and encouraging her to kill someone, I would have laughed myself stupid and then punched them for such a ridiculous idea.
Why am I doing this? She’s not the only one wondering the same damn thing, but if there’s one thing she’s taught me—it’s that opinions change.
I once thought she was nothing more than a spoiled rich princess. Every time I’d seen her at one of her posh prep parties in her designer t-shirts and thousand-dollar jeans, she’d ignored me, turned away as if she couldn’t bear the sight of the street rats crawling their way through her turf. It didn’t matter that we’d been invited—temporarily, of course, and only for what we could provide on the drug market. I thought she’d been disgusted by us—and maybe she had at one time.
“Do you not want it?” I ask in lieu of an answer. I’m not sure I can offer her one right now, not until I know for myself.
“I…” Her gaze remains locked on the gun, but she doesn’t reach for it. Not yet. Is she not ready?
Perhaps I tried too soon. I’d been so sure Juliet would be ready for this next step, this final barrier to cross, but as she continues to stare at the weapon in my hand without reaching for it, I feel my chest cave a little. I hadn’t realized how hopeful I’d been until this moment.
None of us have ever known a woman like her—someone willing to do the dirty, bloody work that comes with revenge. The night she’d shoved that pissant motherfucker who’d broken into her apartment over the railing, I’d wondered if maybe she hadn’t been waiting for us too.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” I tell her.
At her back, the guys are going apeshit. Lex laughs as he drives his fist into his victim’s face, over and over again. He doesn’t even bother to use the knife. Gio grunts as he drags his man over the train tracks, ignoring the sobbing and begging. Pathetic.
With a sigh, I shift to put the gun back in my holster when Juliet’s smaller hand latches on to my wrist. My eyes shoot to hers and this time, she stares back.
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to,” she murmurs. “But I know I shouldn’t…”
Is that it? She’s still hooked on what she should and shouldn’t want, on what society has told us is right or wrong?
Flipping my hand over, I press the gun into her palm. “Don’t worry about what you shouldn’t want,” I say. “Focus on getting justice for yourself. We’ll take care of the rest.”
Juliet doesn’t look like she quite believes me, but she also doesn’t rear back and slug me in the face—that’s progress, right? Maybe she wants to believe me. God, I hope she does. I’ll prove it to her again and again if that’s what it takes.
Her slight fingers curve around the grip of the gun, and I chuckle when she fumbles and almost drops it. “Here.” I adjust her hold and force her finger to adjust against the trigger. Even with the safety on, I point the barrel down to the dirt. “Just like this, Princess.”
It does something to me to see her wield my gun. To look down at it not like it’s nightmare fuel, but as if it’s the key to her own freedom. I want to be that. We all do. The key to Juliet Donovan’s freedom starts tonight. One bullet. One life. One death. All ours.
“Don’t be afraid.” At first, I don’t realize I’ve spoken the deeply rooted desire aloud until her head tips back and azure-blue eyes meet mine, deeper than the stormiest ocean waves.
“Of what?” she asks.
My lips part. “This.” I nod down to the gun. “That.” I glance over to where Gio and Lex are laying into the men who thought they could steal her from us while our backs were turned. “Us.” I return my gaze to hers.
Juliet straightens, standing up taller as she shakes her head. “I’m not,” she says. Then, she turns and walks towards the others.
“Lex!” Even though I only call one of their names, both Gio and Lex stop what they’re doing. Lex’s eyes lock onto the woman making her way towards him. He’s so fucking gone for her. I thought it was bad before, but in the last few months I’ve watched how much worse it’s gotten. Getting his hands on her, his dick inside of her, has changed him.
Some stalkers lose interest with their obsession when they finally get what they want. They’re more into the chase than the actual woman, but not Lex. I might pity Juliet if I didn’t know any better. If she doesn’t realize how we’re all in this for her—that we won’t just kill for her, but that we’ll die for her now—then she will soon. Because now that we’ve had her, there’s no getting away.
Juliet stops as she nears Lex and looks at the man he’s holding up by a firm grasp on the back of his head. “Do you want this one, baby?” Lex’s voice lowers, dipping into one that is almost sickeningly sweet in his attention to her.
She doesn’t look at him, but glares at the man whose face looks more like pulverized meat than two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I doubt she recognizes them now, but I do. I recognized the one Gio killed as well as the one he now presses into the dirt with a foot on the back of his neck.
They’re not just faceless kidnappers or assholes who thought they could take what didn’t belong to them. They’re from Silverwood. Old Public jocks that graduated years ago and disappeared into the gutter like so many before them have.
“Yeah,” Juliet glares at the man who coughs, spitting up blood as it dribbles down his chin. “He’ll do.”
Lex reacts immediately, setting the man back onto his knees, still bound and unable to get away. I suck in a breath as Jules looks down at the gun in her fist. The bound man sways, likely concussed because he doesn’t even seem to hear or recognize the exchange. It’s not like he can see much out of those swollen and bruised eyes of his. He probably doesn’t even know he’s about to die by the hands of the hottest woman I’ve ever had in my bed. The only one I’ll ever have there again.
“There’s a safety on it.” I watch as Lex moves to Juliet’s side and helps her to figure out the mechanics of shooting a handgun for the first time. “When you pull the trigger, there might be a bit of a kickback,” he informs her. “It’ll also sound loud since there’s no silencer on it. Don’t be scared.”
Juliet looks over her shoulder at me, her brow puckering. I read her concern in an instant as I cross my arms over my chest and nod to the man she’s chosen. “No one will hear you out here,” I tell her. “Do it. Take back your control.”
That’s all it takes. That one last sentence has her stiffening her spine all over again and swinging her attention back to the man. All three of us—Gio, Lex, and I—are riveted to the sight as she steps up to her kidnapper and presses the gun right up against his forehead.
Lex takes a step back but remains close, and I can’t help but drift nearer myself. Her upper lip curls back from her teeth and I half expect her to say something snide, to remind the douchebag that even if he thought he could take her earlier, she’s got the last laugh. She doesn’t though.
Juliet doesn’t say a word. There’s none left in her. She just levels the gun and pulls the trigger.
The echo of the shot disappears into the night sky, and the fluttering of bird wings sounds in the distance. The man’s body slants sideways, a plume of loose dirt rising up around him as he thumps down. Juliet lowers her arm and rubs it—no doubt sore from the kickback.
“Good job, baby.” Lex takes a step up to her side and when he reaches for the gun, careful to keep the hot barrel from touching her, she lets him. She doesn’t respond to his praise and he frowns. “Baby? Do you want to do the next one?”
My mouth opens to tell him “no,” that we need to keep the last one for information, when she shakes her head. “No, I…” Juliet blinks and stumbles away from the dead man at her feet. “No, I-I just want to go…” Home. I know that’s what she wants to say, but she doesn’t because to Juliet, there is no home anymore. At least, she doesn’t think there is.
I lower my arms back to my side and cross the distance in a few long strides. I take the gun from Lex’s hand. “Why don’t you take her back to your place,” I say. “Let her get showered and cleaned up, yeah?”
Lex frowns. “I don’t?—”
“Yeah, I want that.” Juliet turns and glances between us. “Can we go back to your place?”
Relief hits me. Thank fuck she’s making this easy for me. If I were to let Lex stay behind, the final kidnapper wouldn’t live long enough to tell us his blood type much less any valuable information on who hired him and his friends.
“Go on,” I say, nudging Lex. “G and I have got it here. Take the SUV.”
There’s no more argument from Lex as he curls an arm around Juliet’s waist and starts to lead her away. Just before they’re about to pass me by, Juliet stops and reaches out. Her hand grazes my arm. “Thank you, Nolan.”
Fuck me, but I can’t stop. There is no stopping. I bend down and grip her chin, turning it in my direction as I take her lips with mine. Her eyes bulge, but she doesn’t pull away. Our eyes remain locked for the entire duration of the kiss and I tell her everything I want to say with them.
I love her. We love her. We’ll never let anything bad happen to her again. She’s ours. She’s safe.
When I break the kiss, I feel a little lighter. “You never need to thank me for giving you what you need, Princess,” I tell her before repeating the most important word of all. “ Never .”
She blinks, slow and dazed as if she’s surprised, but then Lex grins at me and urges her towards the waiting vehicles. A few moments later she’s hoisted into his passenger seat and buckled in and the lights of his SUV flash as he cranks the engine and backs away, turning and revving off back towards town.
I wait. One minute. Two. Three. When the last glow of his tail lights dims until they’re imperceptible, I turn back to G.
“Alright,” I tell him, marching over to my discarded bag and pulling out a can of gasoline, a hammer, and a collection of other useful tools. I spy a few discarded railroad spikes jutting up from the ground. Those will work for what I have in mind. “Let’s get started.”