Of course she is. She just saw me kill a bunch of men.
I don’t regret killing them, but I hate that she thinks I’d ever hurt her. That she fears me.
My heart throbs like an open wound. I want to kiss her, to give her comfort, to tell her everything will be okay, but she doesn’t want any of that from me, and she doesn’t need more lies.
Whatever we had between us… It’s over.
Maybe I was an idiot to think it would ever work between us. A criminal like me, and a pure soul like her.
I squeeze the wheel between my hands.Fuck.
If I hadn’t pulled a gun on Brett, he wouldn’t have had enough evidence to convince those bikers to look into me.
I made a mistake. A terrible fucking mistake.
Why did I do that? So that I could feel powerful? So that I could be Nero again?
Well, I’ve gotten my wish.
The air thickens inside my lungs. I messed up, and this time, I’ve got no one to blame but me.
Blake’s been quiet for the last few minutes. I glance at her. There are silent tears slipping down her cheeks, and the sight makes me feel like the world’s most wretched man.
How could I do this to her?
She notices me looking and meets my gaze. “Just let me go. I’ll take care of myself.”
It’s impossible. She can’t go back to Darkwater Hollow. Someone from the Iron Raptors will take her as soon as they discover she’s back. She’ll pay for their deaths. “It’s not safe there for you anymore. That life is over.”
“My house is there. What about your company? We can’t just disappear.”
“If we go back, we’ll be killed. We have to leave everything behind.”
She's silent for a beat, and when she speaks again, her voice is no more than a weak whisper. “So what do we do? Where are we going?”
There really is only one option.
A city I thought I’d never see again.
I have to go back to New York. And she has to come with me.
The Ferraros know I’m alive. Lyle must have talked to someone on their side. He was confident he was going to get paid for delivering me. That means when we don’t show up at the meeting spot two days from now, we’ll be tracked down, hunted, and killed.
My cover’s blown. My new identity’s done.
I don’t have a way to get new documents for me and Blake. Not without reaching out to my old friends, and if I do that, I’ll only get them in trouble and probably die anyway.
Truth is, I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired of running, lying, and living a life that isn’t mine.
There’s a clean way out of this.
I can face the consequences.
Give myself up to the Ferraros.
Let them kill me.
But I have to find a way to protect Blake first. I need to be sure that even after I’m gone, she’ll be safe.
