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“We will have this town’s best interest, the town my daughter will grow up in, as it should be. This isn’t about a powerful family. This is about a bulletproof empire. She deserves the strongest Graven has to offer. That’s not Collins.”
“You’ll take the Graven name, give it to Zoey?” Donley asks slowly.
His acknowledging he knows her name has all the boys inching forward, and Cap’s hands ball into fists at his side, but he swallows, holding his head high. “Yes.”
“This is bullshit!” Collins shouts.
Donley shuts him up with a simple hand raised. He gauges me. “How about you, princess?”
Suddenly all eyes are on me, and I want nothing more than to tear his out.
Donley looks over my shoulder and I know it’s Maddoc he’s focused on. “You’ll have to give him up. Completely.” His foul stare comes back to mine. “This would have to be an honorable marriage, a new beginning.”
“Why?” I snap. “Five minutes ago you were prepared to force my hand, now you wanna talk honor?”
He continues like I never spoke. “I won’t allow you to marry one, and secretly keep the other. Maddoc will be expected to find his own bride. Will you accept this, accept Captain’s offer?”
I swallow past the bile that makes its way up, forcing my features blank for the bastards before me. My gut tightens to the point of pain.
Captain turns to me, but I force my feet to shift.
I look to Maddoc.
He stares back, blank face, dead eyes – the boy I met on my very first day in this twisted city.
The boy I love, who loves me back. The one who would do anything for his family, for those he loves. No sacrifice too big.
I love him, I love all of them.
I look back to Captain.
My decision to marry Collins saves Zoey. I marry Collins, she’s safe. She goes home where she’ll be cared for and protected to no end, with her true family.
The boys would have her and each other, as they were meant to.
They would be okay and I would be in the arms of the asshole who touched me without permission, who attacked me to the point of loss of consciousness, who wants me so he can feel like he’s worthy in Donley’s eyes.
I agreed to marry Collins, but Cap is offering me his hand. Someone I trust and care for.
Marrying him, Zoey would still be safe to come home, but with the trade of grooms, Captain becomes everything he hates. The boys lose their brother, sort of. Maddoc would be forced to watch me at Captain’s side.
Forever?
I lick my lips and look to the ground.
No sacrifice too big.
“No.”
Cap’s face falls and Collins smirks.
“No?” Donley repeats, almost as if he doesn’t like my answer.
“I don’t want him.” I step away from Captain, moving toward Collins.
“No,” Cap says.
“Raven,” Royce starts.
“I said no!” I shout, looking to my boys, but it’s too much, so I break the contact just as quick.
“Brayshaw stays on top. Brayshaw keeps control and Collins gets his wife. Me.” I look to Donley, the others still struck by my decision. “It’s what you wanted walking in here. I will be everything expected of me, I swear, but only for him.”
At my words, Maddoc snaps, the indifference he tried to put off for the others in here gone.
He rushes me before anyone can stop him. Gripping my shoulders, he tugs me close.
“Stop it,” he growls, eyes wrecked.
“No,” I whisper, attempting to tear away from his touch.
“Baby,” he breathes, so low I almost miss it. His grip tightens, his hands shaking against me though nobody else could spot it. “Don’t.”
“You knew why I was coming here.”
“And now there’s a better choice.”
“If it’s not you, it doesn’t matter.”
“Yes. It does,” he growls. “Marry Captain.” His brows meet in the center, deep creases buried in his forehead.
“I can’t.”
“May my family have a moment alone outside?” Rolland asks.
Before an answer is given, Maddoc yanks me down the hall and out the front. He pulls me around the corner, telling the security standing there to leave.
He turns to me.
“You love him,” he rushes out, desperation screaming behind his green eyes. “You could love him more.”
“I don’t want to.”
“He’s saving you.”
“By breaking you.”
He steps against me, his hands sliding up both sides of my face.
I lift my chin, and his palms slide farther, tangling into my hair, his thumbs on my cheekbones.
“Nobody can break me but you, snow,” he whispers. “And you will, you will fucking shred me if you marry Collins when you could have Captain instead.”
“No. We both win or we both lose.”
“That’s fucking stupid!” he hisses. “Why when you can have more, be safe?”
“I won’t destroy your family so I can sleep easier at night.”
“You think we’ll be functional knowing you gave your life for us? We won’t.”
“Maddoc please...”
His lips push against mine, but they don’t move. They don’t demand, and they don’t take as they should. They plead.
