Chapter 6 #2
“No.” I shook my head, trying to dispel the thought from my head.
Even the possibility was threatening the tenuous hold I kept on my sanity.
“I would be lost. There wouldn’t be anyone alive who could stop me from the rampage I’d go on.
I’d kill every one of those fuckers with the hope I wouldn’t return, that I’d be able to join you in the next life that much sooner. ”
“Don’t say things like that,” she snapped, her fingers digging in as she gripped my chin. The slice of pain sent a jolt of pleasure straight to my cock. “I would never want that; I would never want to be the only one you’re living for.”
“When I met you, I saw so much of myself in you.” I wrapped my arms around her, needing to feel her tight body pressed to mine.
“There was a burning need to live, to escape, to have a normal life while I searched for a way out from the people who were supposed to be my parents. After they took my sister from me, I was going through the motions until I met Merrick and Kellan and found another purpose, another wrong to right. I was still missing that light, a purpose, until I found you.”
Her eyes fluttered shut, and she pressed her forehead to my chest, her hand slipping from my face to rest tenderly on my shoulder.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, and maybe I’ll be in the same place when we kill Angelo—”
“No.” I gripped her shoulders, pulling her back so I could lock onto her sweet amber gaze. “Don’t say things like that, Giana.”
“How do you think I feel when you say you might get yourself killed to be with me?” Her eyes turned to granite as her jaw tightened.
“I love you, Spade. You’re a part of my heart, so it kills me to hear you speak like that.
Anne would want you to live, to find another purpose in your life to keep you going. ”
My eyes closed of their own volition, the name like a knife to the chest. “I lived for her. I escaped for her to live the life we both should’ve had.”
“And how many more people are out there suffering in the same way both of you had? Maybe your purpose is to help others get out, to defend themselves in the way they couldn’t before.”
“I think I like the sound of that.” I placed a kiss on the top of her head.
A sense of peace settled over me for the first time since we broke off to save Sophia.
My sugar was here, she was safe, and she was going to help me find my way through this existence, which was far too bleak before I met her.
I’d been avoiding her because I couldn’t stomach the thought of almost losing her, but if I kept putting this distance between us, it would be like severing the cord that linked our hearts together.
There was still a puzzle piece needing to be slotted into place.
I needed her wrapped around my cock, to feel her breath stutter against my heated skin as I pounded into her wet heat, punishing her for ever daring to leave me.
That was what I needed to clear the haze that had been fogging over my mind since the moment she told us to leave without her.
Before I could pin her against the wall, a scream reverberated off the bricks, snapping our attention to the main street.
“It could be a trap.” I grabbed Giana’s shoulder before she could make a move.
“Please, let me go,” a woman whimpered, the terror coating her voice making me see red.
“Why would we let a pretty thing like you go?” a man asked, the condescension evident in his tone even from our place hidden in the shadows.
I pulled Giana to the back of the building as a group of shadowed forms turned into the mouth of the alley.
We peered around the corner, staying out of sight as one of the men glanced around the seemingly abandoned alley, making sure there were no witnesses to the horrors they were going to subject that innocent woman to.
“I’ll go around the other side to take out their watchdogs,” I whispered, my lips brushing against the shell of her ear. “I’ll draw them out to me. Wait for me before you move.”
She nodded, the motion jerky and stiff as she clutched her hands into fists.
I sucked in a long breath, needing to trust her, because if she showed herself before they were distracted, I knew they would switch their target to her in a heartbeat.
I wouldn’t be able to leash the violence churning in my head if they captured her and took her to the sick fuck they called boss.
Her shoulders slumped slightly as I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and slunk back through the shadows, my hands nearly shaking at the jolt of exhilaration that zinged through me.
“Alpha team has eyes on four rogues,” Giana said into the earpiece. “Going silent. Bravo team is on standby.”
“10-4,” Kellan said, tension obvious in his tone.
With the reassurance that Kellan and Nicholas would be here if my sugar needed them, I kept close to the wall, slinking through the shadows on the other side of the hardware store. No one was in the alley, but it didn’t mean they didn’t have someone keeping watch on the street.
I scanned the front of the shop while keeping myself hidden in the shadows.
There were two of the Barone’s men standing in front of the store windows; one was looking down the street while the other was glancing inside the shop.
The rest of the street was clear, giving me the perfect opportunity to strike.
I kept my steps silent as I crept closer to the two men, palming a knife in each hand.
Just as the one looking into the store caught my movement in the glass, I was on him.
He reached for his gun, but I was faster.
I slammed my knife into his throat, cutting off the warning he was about to shout, leaving only a gurgling sound to cut through the otherwise silent night.
Blood muffled his words, but it was enough to alert his buddy.
He was on me in the next second, his fist flying, but I deftly dodged him, jabbing my knife into the side of his gut before bringing my other one up to plunge into the side of his neck.
“What the fuck was that?” a man rumbled from the alley, coaxing a grin from my lips. The warm splatter of blood still coated my face as I readied for the next volley of assholes.
“Your worst fucking nightmare,” I growled and then pounced.