“You gonna tell me what happened?”
The question landed softly, but it still knocked the air out of me. For a second, all I could see was her face when she screamed my name, her body naked except for the sheet wrapped around her. Her eyes had pleaded with me, but I was too far gone to stop. I needed the blood and bones to fill that growing hole inside me. The one she’d caused.
I stared at the bottle in my hand, took another long, deep swig until its warmth hit my belly, making me feel slightly less dead inside. The words tumbled out of me, fast and jagged, like they’d been clawing for the exit, and I told her everything.
What I heard. What I saw. The moment the phone rang. The sound of Val’s voice from the other side of that door. The way the rage swallowed everything after. How there wasn’t a thought in my head that wasn’t red.
Ezra didn’t interrupt. Didn’t look at me. Just listened, every word hitting and staying.
Rack emerged from the building just as I finished, nodding once to both of us. The Devil clan was on-site, and he had helped manage the clean-up while I wallowed. He was a good fucking second.
Ezra pushed herself to her feet, brushing her hands down her blood-spattered pants. She turned to me and set her hand on my shoulder, fingers tightening just enough to make me look up.
Her eyes were steady. Unshaken.
“Don’t worry, brother,” she said. “I’ll handle this.” A squeeze. A promise. “Everything will be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”
For the first time that night, I believed someone else could carry the weight.
Her hand left my shoulder, but whatever she’d pressed there stayed. Warm. Steady. I couldn’t have named it if I tried. My head was swimming, the Hellfire sloshing heavy in my veins, but it took the edge off just enough to keep me upright.
What didn’t ease was the look in her eyes.
Ezra had already moved on. I could see it in the way her gaze sharpened, distant and intent, like she was already counting steps and names. Someone out there still owed her. Someone she’d decided would pay.
She turned to Rack. “Take him home. Stay with him. He’ll need you.”
Rack answered with a single nod. His eyes burned with something fierce and unbreakable, the kind of loyalty that sat deep and quiet. It twisted something ugly in my chest. I’d always treated him like the brother I never had. Ezra treated him like a weapon she respected.
With me, he hovered. With her, he stood.
And yeah—maybe she was in a league of her own.
Still.
He wasmysecond.
Rack crossed to me anyway, grin cutting through the tension as he pulled another bottle from his jacket like a peace offering. All sins forgiven. He slid an arm under mine, steady and sure, hauling me to my feet like he’d done it a hundred times before.
We turned toward the car.
“Ezra,” I called out weakly, almost like an afterthought.
Ezra paused at the crumbling doorway, half in shadow, half in light. She looked back.
My mouth opened. Closed. The words jammed up somewhere between my chest and my throat.
I saw it in my head. Valentina’s midnight eyes dimming underneath Ezra’s ire, the life draining out of them hard and fast, which made my lungs lock up.
“Don’t…” I tried again, this time with more force. “Don’t kill her.”
The shame burned almost as hot as the hurt. Valentina had betrayed me. Betrayed the Syndicate. Made a fool of me in front of everyone that mattered.
She should pay for it.
But the thought of her dying because of me, of that weight sitting on my chest forever, was too much.
I’d loved her. In my own way. As much as I could… but it wasn't enough. I wasn't enough. She wanted her damn fucking mate, not me.
