Page 94 of His Keepsake

“Fuck! You fucking asshole!” Emme pulled the trigger again.

She turned, glaring at me, though her mouth wobbled. This night would unhinge anyone. I offered her my hand, and she gave me the gun, grip first. I flung it into the sea.

There was no splash. It vanished into the night and the gray waves. The boat rocked lightly under my feet.

“Good girl.”

Axl let out a long breath while I hugged her against me. Her face was hidden in my chest, and the tremors were back. “I won’t ever let you be irrevocably hurt, Emme. But you’re ours now, remember that.”

She said nothing, only clung to my waist, my shirt. Her hands were like those of some fae creature, digging in and wrenching at me. It would take a while to get her over this, but I was a patient man. I ran my hand up her back to her neck and encompassed it, holding her there and massaging. That seemed to calm her.

I eyed Axl. “Have you got his phone? The images? I assume you have that execution recorded?”

“I do, you smart bastard.” He pointed upward at the shadowed overhang from the cabin. “Then again, if you weren’t smart, I doubt we would have stayed friends so long.”

Lazily, I saluted him with a finger to the temple. “We’re all in this together now. Complicit in killing him.” And again, he understood the all. One goes down, all go down. Play moderately nice with her, or else.

Though nice was a fluid word.

He came over and handed me the phone. Blood was leaking from the corpse, but I didn’t care. Dead was dead. I assumed Axl had ideas on disposal and cleaning. Rich friends meant deep criminal pockets. I didn’t want to be involved in that side of things, but Axl gave us protection.

“This.” I tapped a few images of Charity, bloodied ones, scrolling across them. They were dark stills. “Are you sure she’s dead?” I raised my head.

“He said so.” Axl jerked his head toward the dead guy. “You think she is alive?”

“She could be.”

“I’ll make enquiries. Though all the men on the other boat are dead.”

I blinked. That was a lot of dead people.

Whether I was right or not, investigating this would make Emme happier, and now I knew I needed that. I needed it for balance because I wanted to see that side of her. Also, where was the fun in taking someone to the depths of terror and pain if they were already there?

I kissed the top of her head. Negotiating this was going to be difficult and the biggest thrill of my life, even with Axl in bed with us.

I pointed at him and shot Axl a measured frown. “You will behave, too. I give zero fucks as to what filthy waters your alternate ego swims in. Keep me and her out of it.”

He bowed. “You have a deal, sir. Except that we will be going to the CNC parties. That is not negotiable.”

I thought it through, still massaging my thumb over Emme’s nape. “Not often.”

“No. Not every week.”

I rolled my eyes. He was fudging things already. Without Martelle, though, those parties might be fun, a very dark and electrifying fun. “It’s a deal, Satan.”

He smiled.

* * *

EMME

I hung onto Grayson, needing his large, anchoring presence to keep myself from disintegrating. My legs barely worked. I had killed a man, put two bullets in his head, and made his brains leak out along with far too much blood. He had deserved more. I wanted to kill him over and over.

Doing that did not bring Charity back to me.

If Grayson was right, she might be alive, and I planned to make them follow every lead, by pleading if I had to, by begging on my knees.

I understood what had been done to me now. Grayson had been somewhat cruel and calculating in the middle of this fucked-up situation, for which, I curiously admired him.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com