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We haul ass, plodding snow, sucking oxygen, and my heart skips a damn beat every time a gunshot shatters the silence.
There are many practical reasons why someone would be shooting a firearm, but my brain only latches onto the bad ones. Fighting. Punishment. Murder.
“Hold up.” I stop my hot-headed brother before he rounds the back corner of the workshop. “Think for a minute before you get yourself killed.”
No one knows we’re here yet. If something is happening, we still have the advantage of surprise.
“It’s Frankie.” He’s visibly shaking, and it’s not from the cold.
“How do you know?”
“Look.”
I sidle past him, knocking him aside with all the gear on my back, and peer around the corner of the workshop.
On the northern edge of the property, Frankie stands beneath a flood light, facing away from us and aiming a handgun at a row of targets propped against the embankment.
She’s not alone.
Hovering at her side, Denver adjusts her posture. His hands slide along her hips, her spine, her shoulders. Then he moves in, pressing against her back, making himself at home against her body.
And she lets him.
My stomach turns inside out.
Leo grabs the pack on my back and yanks me behind the workshop. “What the fuck is happening? Why is Denver with her?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s about time.” Wolf emerges from the rear of the workshop with a cigarette dangling from his lips. “We need to talk.”
“You don’t say.” I follow him inside and glance back, realizing Leo isn’t behind me. “Fuck.”
Dropping the pack on the floor, I race outside and reach Leo just as he starts to storm across the yard. With a hand clapped against his mouth, I wrench him backward, jerking and snarling against my palm.
“Chill the fuck out,” I growl at his ear and drag him into the workshop.
“Fuck you!” He whirls on me, eyes wild and teeth bared. “His hands are all over her!”
I push Leo farther from the door and fling a soundless glare at Wolf. Explain.
“Frankie’s…uhhh…” He lowers onto a wooden crate, his knees bouncing uncontrollably as shadows flicker across his features in the dim light. “She’s fucked-up.”
“Fucked-up how?” Leo smacks my hands away and shoves off his gear. “What happened?”
Wolf’s eyes lower.
This is different from eye avoidance. He doesn’t break eye contact, but his lashes look so heavy, as if his eyelids don’t have the strength or energy to hold them up. These are sad eyes. Guilty eyes. On top of that, his complexion is sallow. Something is definitely wrong.
“Are you sick?” I approach him.
He curls in on himself and cowers.
Cowers.
“Answer me.” I grip his jaw and force his gaze to mine.
“Wolf?” Leo crowds in, inspecting him. “What the fuck?”
“The night before you left, Denver made Frankie a drink.” Wolf pulls away, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “He poisoned it.”
“No.” Leo clutches his hair, yanking at the braids. “No, no, no.”
“He made sure she couldn’t go with you. We were set up.” Wolf tries to light another cigarette, but his fingers tremble too violently to strike the lighter. “I didn’t have a choice.”
All the blood in my body rushes to my feet. “What did you do?”
“I made the bargain.”
“How many times?” My knees turn to water, and I grip the workbench to remain standing.
“That’s the thing.” His pupils shrink to pinpoints, and his voice falls flat. “It was only once. After that night, Denver hasn’t touched me. He spends his time with her. She won’t talk to me. Won’t look at me. She drinks a lot.” He rubs his nape. “She’s not the same. It’s like…I don’t know…she reminds me of…”
“No,” Leo rasps. “She’s nothing like your mother.”
“She made a deal with him.” My legs give out, and I slide down the workbench, my knees bending as my ass hits the floor.
Leo’s breathing grows louder, harder, building into a primal, nonhuman sound. He’s about to lose his shit, and I don’t think Wolf and I will be able to stop him. I can barely rein in myself.
“She’s protecting me.” Wolf flexes his hands. “She’s protecting us.”
“To what end?” Leo prowls through the room, unraveling. “A knife in the belly? A coat hanger? An unmarked grave?”
“Watch where you’re walking before you trip over your heart.” I match his blistering gaze. “So much for your plan to fuck her without emotional attachment.”
“Sharing her was never part of the plan.” He presses a hand against his sternum, his expression twisting in rage.
He’s a possessive fool.
A possessive fool in love. He just hasn’t figured that out yet.
“So this is about Leo and his poor feelings.” Wolf’s eyes flare. “I guess you’re glad I took the bargain.”
“No one said that.” I arch a scolding brow at Leo.
Choose your words carefully, dumbass.
“I’m furious with you.” Leo thrusts a finger at Wolf. “I haven’t even processed the fact that you broke your promise.”
“My promise…?”
“What was the last thing you said to me?”
