Angelo pushed me to the side as he and all of his children rose to their feet, guns drawn. "Show your hands or die," Turo shouted. Two hands slid through the opening in the door. "Seriously?" I heard a familiar voice say. "I'm just here for Ryker.""That's not a good thing at the moment. Step through," Turo ordered. The shockingly white hair of one of my few friends peeked through the opening. His fierce blue eyes were narrowed as he pushed the door open slowly. "I'm Foster Ambright. I've got a meeting with Ryker.""Stop moving, Foster Ambright," Turo said as he took a step closer. He looked at me. "Know this guy?"I nodded. "That is his name. And we do have a meeting." I turned to my friend. "How the hell did you get up here?"Foster's brow furrowed. "I walked? Was I supposed to run? Or fly?"Turo sneered as he put his gun away. "Where were the men? Did you get stopped on your way up?"Foster shook his head. "Like a victory tunnel? No. No bouncers, no shylocks, no

I eased her against the console as my inner demons woke. They blasted through the vault I kept deep inside. I'd been done with true pain. The pain to hurt others with. The kind that crippled and damaged.And I just used it on the love of my life. I stomped on the gas pedal. We had to get there. I had to get her to Jessa to make sure she didn't suffer too much damage. I hadn't done it in so long, I just prayed to her goddess that I hadn't bungled it. The body was such a tricky machine. One wrong move here, a little too much pressure there...it could be catastrophic. "Please be alive. Please be alive. Please be alive," I chanted it as I raced towards my own destruction. She was going to hate me. Push me away. And I wasn't going to be able to let her. I couldn't let her go. Not now. Not after everything that had passed between us. I hadn't been lying that there would come a time when she would probably hate me. I just hadn't imagined, even in my worst nightmares, that it would

She was a goddess. Stretched out before like a gift I hadn't earned, I knew my mistake had been in letting her withdraw in the car. We were born for each other. Made and crafted to be the missing piece the other needed. I wasn't going to spit in a deity's face. Not again. I would lay out my cards, force her to accept them, and then we could skip, walk, dance, race each other to hell. I smirked as she glared at me. I could almost hear her shrill voice as she spat more angry words. "You know my father was an asshole." She went still beneath me. "He beat me. Beat my mother. What you don't know, is that he forced me to beat my mother." I voiced the words that condemned me to hell. "If I didn't do it, my beatings and hers were ten times worse. He became more sadistic the older I got. Seemed to think that because he could cow me into hurting her, that he was a big strong man."I looked into Willow's eyes. Saw the acceptance. The willingness to listen. To absolve. To comfort.

Ethan's smug face...I wanted to resurrect him just so I could kill him again. Over and over until...until my girl didn't hurt. Until she didn't shudder at night or whimper in her sleep. "You really were the best assistant I ever had, Willow. I know I didn't tell you that enough. All the good books on leadership say you should tell your team how much you appreciate them." He sighed dramatically. "I never received any such accolades for simply doing my best, but you aren't exactly on my level now are you." He waved that away. "Please consider this my last will and testament. Willow gets all of it. She knows where the bodies are buried." He winked. "And she knows how I would want all of my assets dispersed."The screen went blank again. "Hurry the fuck on, Nik. I don't think I can stomach much more of this," I demanded. She nodded, punched in another sequence of keys. "This fucker is batshit." She looked at Willow, huddled and vacant on my lap. "She's strong."I nodded. "The

I came back to myself slowly. Almost as if I'd been drugged again, but I knew Ryker would never allow that to happen. The fading heaviness in my limbs was a gradual aching that spoke of life. "Cupcake?" Ryker asked from behind me. His voice was so hoarse, I could barely understand him. I nodded. "W-" my throat refused to work. He jostled behind me. "Let me get some water. Jessa brought some on her last check-in." I felt the bed spring up as he got up. I heard his bare feet pad across the floor. He was back in moments. His hair was all kinds of crazy. He had bags under his eyes. His beard scruff had turned into an almost full covering. I took the glass. My hand shook as I lifted it to my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw dried blood sprinkled over my arms. I finished the water, handed the glass back to him. "What happened to me?"He flinched. "I happened to you. I tried everything to bring you back. All the blood is from me pinching you with my fingernails. Y