Page 190 of After the Burn

Beck stumbled back, and Nash tackled him. They hit the gravel hard, and Nash clawed for the fallen knife with his good hand.

I started toward them and felt a hand grab my arm. Before I could swing, I heard Lucas’s voice.

“No. He’s got to do this alone.” He pulled me back against him, his gun at the ready.

Beck caught the back of Nash’s shirt and dragged him away from it. Nash twisted and threw an elbow. Beck blocked it, then drove his fist into the same cheek I’d cut earlier.

Nash screamed.

Blood opened fresh across the wound.

Nash swung wildly, and Beck ducked. One punch to the ribs, then another to the jaw.

Beck stood. “You should’ve stayed dead.”

“Fuck you.” Nash pushed himself to his knees. “And the bitch you rode in on.” He made another grab for the knife on the ground.

Beck was faster.

He grabbed the blade and in one motion drove it beneath his father’s ribs. “Things could’ve been different.”

Blood poured from between Nash’s lips. “The only thing… I’d have done… different… was fuck her… as… soon as I saw her.”

Beck twisted the knife deeper. “Burn in hell, motherfucker.”

Nash sagged against him, and Beck threw him to the ground.

I ran to him and hugged him tight. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, Fox.” He kissed the top of my head. “It was always going to end like this.”

Our moment was brief; I saw an enhanced guard charging toward Adrian as he was putting a knife into another man. I broke free of Beck and intercepted him.

My knife struck him in the side as his other arm came up and grabbed my wrist. I drove my forehead into his nose, and his grip loosened. Lucas’s hatchet came down into his shoulder, and the man screamed. I drove my knife into the side of his neck, and he dropped.

Lucas smirked at me. “Teamwork.”

“Wren already used that line.”

He laughed as he kissed my forehead. “I missed you, Menace.”

We were in the middle of a war, and my men were still affectionate. Ben would be so proud.

Gunfire erupted near the office, and I saw Adrian duck behind a fuel truck.

“Down!” he yelled, making eye contact with me.

Lucas and I both dropped.

Bullets tore through the metal siding behind me.

Caesar was coming down the steps, death on his face, and a rifle in his hands, shouting orders at anyone still listening.

I noticed the woman who had led us to the pen, herding the women, one by one, into the warehouse. Hopefully, they’d be safe there until the fighting was over. The warehouse door slammed shut behind the last of them. Good. Out of sight was the closest thing to safety any of them had right now.

Caesar shouted something from the office steps, and three of his men broke away from the eastern fence.

They were trying to get organized.