“We won’t let him. I won’t let him.”
“Too late, Titus. Look at her. You think he let Race live, or Gus? You think that even if I agree to be put on his leash from here until eternity that he’ll let you and Dovie go? He’ll kill everyone that matters to me and make me watch. That blood will be on my hands forever. No, this ends here and now. He wants to break my world apart . . . well, I’m about to shatter his legacy into a million bloody pieces. He can have my blood on his hands forever.” I understood it now. I was Novak’s end game. I was where everything started and ended for him. Yanking me around, playing games with me . . . it was the only thing that brought him any kind of pleasure, and with me gone, with my life over, the game would end. Dovie, Titus, Race, and even my mom . . . they would cease to have any kind of value to Novak if I was no longer part of the equation.
I saw Novak shove Dovie away. She careened sideways and landed in a heap on her side next to where Nassir was standing. I wanted to rip his arms out of the sockets when he reached down to help her to her feet, but Novak was prowling toward me, that knife covered in Dovie’s blood flashing in his hand.
I took a deep breath, remembered the way her eyes flashed at me, the way she felt so new and so wholly mine, and flexed my finger on the trigger. Novak reached for me, Dovie screamed my name so loud I was sure I heard the sound of windows breaking, and just as I prepared to do the only thing I could think of to fix this situation forever, I was plowed into from the side like I’d gotten hit with a freight train. The gun in my hand went spiraling out across the n*ked concrete floor as I groaned and rolled over to look into the wild eyes of my older brother. He was dripping blood all over my face and I couldn’t even complain when he drew back his fist and punched me square in the mouth. There wasn’t a lot of force behind it, and just as I was about to ask what the hell was going on and how in the hell he had freed himself from his captors, a single gunshot echoed throughout the cavernous warehouse.
The acrid scent of gunpowder burned my nose as I rolled over at the same time Titus did. Both of us watched with frozen eyes as a bloom of wet, sticky blood spread steadily across the center of Novak’s shirt. He lifted shaking fingers to the wound and gave me one last look before slumping to the ground in an undignified heap.
Before anyone could react, there was suddenly a bright light filling up the room and the sound of more breaking glass.
“Nobody move! FBI!” I jumped to my feet before Titus could say anything and tackled Dovie to the ground much in the same way that he had done to me. I was immediately covered in her blood and could feel her shaking violently against my chest. I had to use all my strength to pry the hot metal of the gun out of her fingers. As soon as I did, she curled them in the material of my shirt. I looked over her head at Nassir, who had dropped on his knees next to us, with his hands behind his head, at the order of the black-clad SWAT team that was suddenly swarming all over the building. I narrowed my eyes at him in warning and he just gave his head a shake.
“You and the girl, on your knees. Hands behind your head,” the fed barked in a no-nonsense tone.
“She’s hurt.”
“Bax . . .” Her voice quivered as I rolled off of her. I put the gun on the ground at the fed’s feet and looked at her. I kissed her hard and then laced my fingers behind my head and assumed the position I was all too familiar with.
“I shot him,” I said to the fed.
“You shot Novak?” he replied.
I grunted when Dovie opened her mouth to argue, but she was bleeding badly enough that the cop inclined his head to the paramedics that were rolling in a stretcher.
“Forget him. He’s DOA. She needs some attention. Why did you shoot Novak?”
I felt the corner of my lip curl up in a sneer as I saw Titus making his way over to where I was. He looked at the gun, then up at me, and then over to where they were strapping Dovie to the stretcher, and shook his head.
“It was a family disagreement.”
The fed opened his mouth to say something, but Titus interrupted. “That’s my brother.”
“The one with the record? He just admitted to shooting Novak.”
Titus shook his head again. He looked like he was about to pass out. “Come on, Kruger. It was like ten on one. Clearly it was self-defense. Novak was a piece of shit.”
“Look, King. You brought us the op and agreed to hand it over to us. We don’t have people in Novak’s pocket. We’ll do a full investigation and see where the chips fall.”
Titus ran a hard hand over his hair and looked down at me. I just shrugged. If I had to go back to prison to keep Dovie safe, so be it. She was worth it and that was a light consequence compared to the single other solution I had come up with. I didn’t care if I never saw the light of day again as long as she got to live the life she was supposed to.
“Novak was torturing Bax’s girlfriend, his goons were beating the shit out of me. They probably killed his best friend. Can you blame him for pulling the f**king trigger?”
“Look, King, this is a goddamn mess. We got a dead body, kidnapping, dirty cops, coercion, money laundering, assault, attempted murder, and every other crime that can be committed. We need time to weed through it all or else some other slimeball will be right back in Novak’s place tomorrow.”
I heard Nassir snort and I was tempted to reach for the gun. Another fed dressed in full SWAT gear got behind me and roughly pulled my hands behind my back. I felt the handcuffs, cold and so final, snap over the chains I already had inked there.
Titus swore. “I’m sorry, Bax.”
“It’s cool. A heads-up that you actually had a plan would have been nice to know, though.”
“The feds took forever to get back to me. I knew there was a dirty cop working the inside, I just didn’t know who it was. I don’t know how they found Dovie and Race. I figured they were going to grab me and bring me in. I swear I didn’t know he had your girl.”
I was roughly yanked to my feet and Titus reached out a hand to steady me as I wobbled a little.
“I’ll get you out as soon as I can.”
I lowered my eyebrows at him as cops and feds rounded up all of Novak’s thugs. I almost laughed when they put the cuffs on Benny, who was screaming about suing the government.
“I don’t care about me. Make sure Dovie keeps her mouth shut and keep an eye on her. If Race didn’t make it . . .” I trailed off as I was hauled away from my brother.
“Shane—”
I interrupted him. “I mean it, Titus. You keep her as far away from me, as far from this, as possible.”
He didn’t get a chance to respond because I got pulled in the opposite direction. Once I was outside, the night was alive with people and commotion and red and blue lights swirling all around. I let the cop drag me to an unmarked car and waited while he yanked the back door open. I looked over the roof of the car just in time to see the paramedics open the back of the ambulance. Dovie was still on the stretcher, and some force that ultimately tied us together made those moss-colored eyes flash open and lock on mine.
There was no getting around the fact I was hooked up in cuffs and getting arrested. I saw the panic overtake her, saw her start to struggle, but she was already weak from loss of blood. I really wished I had been the one to pull the trigger. She said my name and I’m pretty sure she mouthed “I love you.” All I could do was watch as they loaded her into the ambulance and shut the doors. All those sharp, pointy pieces that were loose inside me finally formed one razor-sharp blade and dug right into the center of my heart. I would do it all over again. Offer my own life, give up my freedom for her. There was no other way to repay her for finally setting me free, free from everything, even if I spent the next twenty years behind bars.
CHAPTER 16
Dovie
I SAW THE COP behind Bax put a hand on top of his head and shove him into the back of the car. Even though I was bleeding and hysterical, I still saw Bax grin at me before the ambulance doors closed and I had a paramedic hanging over me. I was crying and trying to shake my head. I was mumbling a mix of “I love you” and “I’m the one who did it,” but it all sounded like gibberish. The next thing I knew there was a prick at the bend in my arm and an IV was inserted. Whatever was mixed in the clear bag dangling over my head made my already fuzzy mind weave in and out of consciousness. One thing that was still startlingly clear behind the haze and murky gray was that Bax had been willing to end his own life to try and set the rest of us free. And now he was back in handcuffs because of me. Be he good or bad, Bax couldn’t seem to keep his infuriating self out of trouble.
I couldn’t believe it had been twenty-four hours since he’d dropped me back off at the group home. After Bax left, I had spent an uneasy night with Reeve’s judgment and disapproval hanging over me. I got that she didn’t think Bax was a good choice, but if it was the last I got of him, then I wasn’t going to let anyone taint it. Sure enough, the next morning, I was summarily suspended from the group home by my supervisor for leaving my post the night before. I wasn’t sure whether suspended translated to fired or not, and I felt really bad about leaving the kids high and dry for a few stolen moments with a man who was like trying to hold on to smoke, but I refused to regret any of the decisions I had made where Bax was concerned.
Reeve had tried to explain why she had done it for my own good, but I didn’t want to hear it. I’d tried to call Race to come and get me, but he never answered. I’d been tempted to call Bax, but things with him were so intense, so precarious, I didn’t want to wind the spring up even tighter. In the end, I’d decided taking the bus would just have to suffice. Only I’d forgotten the world was out to teach me every hard lesson I hadn’t already learned.
I hadn’t even made it to the bus stop before a black SUV was screeching to a halt next to me on the sidewalk. My instinct was to run, to flee, but there was nowhere to go. If Novak wanted me, he was going to get me and I might as well make it as easy on myself as possible. I wasn’t stupid. He wanted me so he could get to Bax or Race. He wouldn’t do anything to me until he had either of them, or both of them, where he wanted them.
I looked at the two thugs, noticed one had cracked-open knuckles and a split lip. I twisted my hands together and forced myself to swallow the bile that rose up in my throat.
“Is that Bax’s blood?”
The thug looked at his hands and then looked back up at me with a smirk. “No. That bastard bleeds black. Think closer to home.”
Which had made me gag and had tears filling my eyes. I couldn’t think about Race hurt, maybe dying all alone.
“Is he still alive?” My voice was the barest of whispers, which had made both the thugs grin.
“He might be. The old man, not so much.”
I just closed my eyes and tried to think of a way that any of this could end without people I loved dying. I didn’t see any way for that to happen.
The rest of the ride after they had pulled me into the SUV had been silent. I could smell fear and anxiety pouring off of me, could feel silent tears running down my face, and when the SUV stopped and Nassir appeared to pull me out of the backseat, I was such a mess I couldn’t stand on my own two feet. He had to yank me up and he gave me a hard look.
“This is why they say love kills, honey. You need to pick your boyfriends more carefully.”
I had just looked at him numbly and blinked eyelashes that were sticky with moisture. “He’ll kill you.”
Nassir had sighed and started to drag me through the empty club. I could hear the echo of voices, could hear Bax’s low and so very angry tone. I was scared, but something inside of me knew that as long as he was still alive, Bax would do everything in his power to try and get us out of this as unscathed as he could.
“He’ll kill everyone. You have no idea who you are actually dealing with, little girl.”