Chapter 27 #2
We all lean in as she pulls the ribbon loose and opens it, and freezes.
Then she pulls out a tiny romper.
“Oh my Lord!” she squeals. “Another grand baby!”
She pulls Penny into a tight hug, tears in her eyes.
Josh laughs, blinking away his own as he pulls Cas into a hug.
“No better gift than this,” he says.
I glance up at Dex. He’s smiling softly.
“Guess you’re Uncle Dex again,” I tease.
He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. “Yeah… Uncle Dex. And Auntie Lexy.”
My eyes widen. “I don’t know if that’s… I mean, it’s still too soon to…”
He leans in, his voice low. “I’m in this for eternity, Tinker. As long as you’ll let me… I’m not going anywhere.”
Warmth floods my chest.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“So you won’t mind being Auntie Lexy?” Penny asks behind me.
I look at the romper. I love Oma and Opa.
This is family.
“Of course not. It’s an honor.”
“So I can call you Auntie too?” Mia asks.
I crouch down. “If you want to, I’d love that.”
She hugs me tightly. “Thank you, Auntie Lexy!”
I kiss her head, and when I look up, every Hawthorne is smiling.
Dex’s smile is the biggest.
The sun dips lower, twinkle lights glowing brighter as the band starts playing. Couples drift onto the dance floor.
Dex stands and holds out his hand.
“You promised me all the dances.”
I take it, letting him pull me into his chest. “I did.”
“Did I tell you how beautiful you are today?”
“About a thousand times.” I smile. “But I don’t mind.”
He kisses my hair and leads me out.
The music slows.
His hands settle at my waist, steady, sure.
We move together, slow and unhurried.
His gaze never leaves mine.
Not once.
“You still with me?” he murmurs.
“Always.”
A shift passes through his eyes, deeper now, rougher. His grip tightens slightly before easing again.
I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
I’m Safe.
His hand moves slowly up my back.
“I’ve never had this before,” he murmurs.
“What?”
“This.” His eyes flicker between mine. “Pure happiness… you.”
My heart stumbles.
“Good,” I whisper. “Me neither.”
He pulls me closer.
Around us, the fair fades.
It’s just him.
Just us.
And it’s perfect.
We dance some more and then take our seats back on the blankets to take a break.
“Mommy, can I have some cotton candy, please?”
I stand up. “Why don’t I get you one?” I look around at the Hawthornes. “Anyone else want some cotton candy?”
“Oooh, one for me, please,” Penny says.
“Sure.”
“Tinker, let me get them for you,” Dex offers, but I shake my head.
“I want to stretch my legs. I’ve got this.”
He stands and kisses me quickly. “Alright.”
“Be right back,” I murmur to Dex, squeezing his hand before slipping away toward the cotton candy stand.
The lights are softer here, shadows stretching behind the booths, the laughter and music fading just enough to feel distant. I get two of the big pink ones and turn to leave…
I barely register the shift before it happens.
A hand clamps over my mouth.
Hard.
My body jolts, a scream caught in my throat as I’m yanked backward, dragged behind the stand, out of sight.
“Don’t.”
The voice is low… and familiar.
My blood turns to ice.
Russel .
My heart slams against my ribs as I thrash instinctively, but another man grabs my arms, locking them at my sides. Too strong. Too fast.
Russel steps into view slowly, like he has all the time in the world.
Like he owns this moment.
Like he owns me.
“There she is,” he murmurs, almost pleased. “My girl.”
My stomach twists violently.
I try to scream again, but the hand over my mouth tightens.
Russel sighs softly. “Still fighting me.”
My breathing comes fast and sharp through my nose, panic clawing its way up my throat.
He pulls out his phone, then turns the screen toward me.
At first, it doesn’t register. A dark room, a shaky camera, and then… Mason .
He’s tied to a chair, bruised but alive.
Everything inside me goes rigid, a broken sound forcing its way past the hand over my mouth.
His head lifts slightly.
“Lexy, don’t…”
The video cuts.
“No…!” My scream is muffled, shattered.
Russel watches me carefully, a satisfied smile settling on his face.
“I knew that would get your attention,” he says softly. “You scream and he dies, understand?”
I nod, frantic.
The hand on my mouth loosens. I shake my head violently, tears spilling over.
“What did you do to him?” I try to say, but it comes out broken.
Russel leans in close, his breath hot, the smell of alcohol and cigarettes making me nauseous.
“You don’t ask questions,” he says quietly. “You listen.”
My heart pounds so loud I can barely hear anything else.
“I’m going to have fun with you,” he murmurs, “but first… we need to get rid of that Michael’s Legion bastard you’ve been playing house with.”
My breath catches.
“So you walk back out there… and you end it with him.”
Everything inside me stops.
“No…”
“You tell him it was a mistake,” Russel continues calmly. “That you changed your mind. That you’re leaving for good.”
My chest caves in.
“You don’t cry. You don’t hesitate. You don’t look back.”
I shake harder, my whole body trembling. “He won’t believe me…”
His hand tightens suddenly on my jaw, sharp enough to make me gasp.
“You will make him believe you.”
He tilts the phone again.
The video is live now.
Mason.
A man steps into frame.
A gun rises and presses against Mason’s temple.
My breath stops.
“At my signal,” Russel says quietly, “he dies.”
A sob tears through me.
“You don’t leave any doubt with him,” he adds. “You walk away and make sure he won’t follow.”
My vision blurs.
“And then…” he straightens, slipping the phone away, “…you come back to me.”
“Try anything,” one of the men mutters, “and your brother is dead.”
I suck in a shaking breath as Russel steps back.
“Go on,” he says softly.
Like I have a choice.
My feet don’t move at first.
Then they do.
One step.
Then another.
Back toward the person I’m about to break.
And I know I’ll break my own heart in the process.
By the time I step back into the light, I feel like I’m walking through water.
Everything is louder. Brighter. Too normal. The music swells, laughter spilling across the fairgrounds like nothing just changed.
Like my world didn’t just split in two. Like I didn’t just sign my heart and happiness away.
I spot him immediately.
Dex.
He stands near the dance floor, talking to Ethan and Cas, but the second I come into view, his head turns.
Like he feels me.
His eyes find mine instantly, and just like that, everything in me shatters.
He smiles at me, and his eyes hold such love and devotion they feel like a knife to the heart.
His eyes search mine as I get closer, and then his expression shifts.
I don’t smile back.
I force my feet forward.
Don’t cry.
Don’t hesitate.
Don’t look back.
For Mason.
“Hey,” Dex says, his voice low, searching. His hand lifts automatically to reach for mine.
I step back. The movement is small.
But it lands like a gunshot.
His hand freezes.
“What’s wrong?” he asks quietly.
I shake my head, staring past him.
“I… I made a mistake.”
The words taste like poison.
Dex goes still.
“What?”
“I shouldn’t have… last night. This.” I point between us. “Us.”
“Tinker,” he says slowly, stepping closer, “look at me.”
I can’t.
“I said… look at me.”
I force my gaze up and almost break.
“Say it again,” he says quietly. “And mean it this time.”
Panic grips me because Dex knows me too well. He knows I love him. He knows something’s wrong.
If he doesn’t believe me… if he keeps pushing, Mason dies.
I don’t have a choice.
I need him to stop.
The only way to do that is to hurt him badly enough that he won’t come after me. That he’ll let me go.
The thought of what I’m about to say kills something inside me. The words taste wrong, like they don’t belong to me, like saying them will rip something out of my chest that I’ll never get back.
For Mason.
I force my eyes on his, locking everything down, burying every feeling that might give me away.
“You’re just… too much for me, Dex.”
I see it.
The exact moment it lands.
The way something in his eyes fractures, quiet and devastating, like I just broke something I can’t ever fix.
And I hate myself for it.
Because I know what I’m doing to him.
But if making him hate me will save Mason, so be it.
My eyes burn from the effort of holding the tears back. He can’t see me cry.
“Lexy, please.”
I freeze.
“Tell me the truth.”
For a second, I almost do.
But then I see the gun pointed at Mason’s head, and I look away.
I turn and start walking.
I bite down on the inside of my cheek until I taste blood, just to keep from turning around.
I’ve never hated myself this much.
Mason.
Mason, Mason, Mason.
I repeat it over and over in my head as I force myself to take another step. And another.
Away from the only man I’ll ever love.
Dex will heal. He has to.
He’ll find someone else. Someone better. Someone who doesn’t come with a past like mine, someone who won’t bring danger to his door, someone who won’t break him like I just did.
And me…
I swallow hard, my chest tightening painfully with every step.
I’ll find a way to save Mason.
And when I do, I’ll pay whatever price it takes to keep the two men I love the most as far away from Russel as possible.
Even if it means I never get to come back.
I barely make it past the edge of the fair before it happens.
A van door slides open. Hands grab me.
No time to scream. No time to fight.
A sharp sting at my neck, and darkness crashes in.
The last thing I hear…
“You’re mine now,” Russel murmurs.
Then… nothing.