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Locked away until he was twenty-one.
He did not deserve that again.
Her voice broke when she yelled to Easy, “I’m sorry. I wish I could undo everything. I can’t, so I’m doing what I can.” She turned back to her brother, doing her best to blink back the tears. She was trying not to get overly emotional but it was a struggle. “I was the one who approached him, Trip. It was me. I was the one who wanted to keep this quiet. He wanted to approach you and I told him no. This is all on me. If you feel the need to punish someone for breaking one of your stupid fucking rules, one that involved me,” she slapped her palm against her chest, “then I’m the one you need to punish.”
“No! Don’t you fuckin’ touch her,” Easy yelled, taking unsteady steps closer.
“Not your decision to make. That’s your president’s. Don’t you move from that fuckin’ spot,” Judge warned Easy.
“You’d allow him to do it?” Easy asked Judge, ignoring his order and moving even closer.
“Not my decision to make, either.” Judge answered.
“Fuck that shit! Nobody’s touchin’ her. None of you.”
“When the fuck did you start makin’ decisions around here?” Trip growled at him. “And you weren’t supposed to touch her, either. That’s why we’re fuckin’ here right now.” He ripped his baseball cap off his head and scraped his fingers through his hair before slapping it back on.
“Go home, Tess. You can’t take my place.” She recognized the frustration on Easy’s face and in his voice because it matched exactly how she felt.
“You wanna do somethin’ to make this right? Then listen to him,” Trip told Tessa.
“Cage, get her out of here,” Judge ordered. “Take her home and keep her there.”
Grumbling curses and shaking his head, Cage broke free from the group and stalked to where they stood.
“You make sure she stays there. She don’t, it’s on you,” Judge informed Cage.
“Don’t you dare, Cage,” Tessa warned him. “Don’t you fucking dare take me anywhere.”
Cage’s expression turned grim. “Got an order. So did you. So did Easy. Let’s go so they can get this goddamn thing over and done with, Tess. You are not helpin’ this one fuckin’ bit. All you’re doin’ is delayin’ the inevitable.”
“I don’t want to delay anything. I want it to stop!”
“Ain’t gonna stop,” Cage said under his breath and grabbed her arm. “Don’t make this worse.”
As soon as she yanked her arm free, he grabbed her in a bear hug from behind and was beginning to walk backwards, dragging her along with him.
“No!” She struggled against Cage, snarling like a feral cat while kicking at his shins, clawing at his forearms, trying to free her arms from their prison. “No!”
“Stop fighting, Tess. He broke a rule, he needs to pay. Let him pay and get it over with. He’s a big boy and don’t need you interferrin’.”
“You’re wrong, though. You’re all wrong!” She dug her heels into the ground, trying to slow Cage down as he dragged her away. “Don’t do this.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to. I had no choice, Cage,” she cried. “Don’t let Trip do this. Please!”
“He already started, let him fuckin’ finish. I survived, E will, too. It’ll be all right.”
“No, it won’t. You don’t understand…”
“Tess!” Cage yelled in her ear. “I understand better than anyone!”
“No, you—“ Her breath caught as a few yards away she watched Trip’s arm rise again to club Easy, this time without him being covered with the blanket. Easy was going to get seriously hurt. He could die. “Trip, don’t! I’m… pregnant!”
She wasn’t expecting Cage to suddenly set her free. She almost fell to her knees when she lost her balance.
“You’re what?” both Trip and Easy shouted in unison.
Tessa ignored Easy. Now was not the time to explain. Now was the time to get Trip to give leniency to the father of his future niece or nephew.
Trip was all about family, so this had to work.
She spoke quickly. “If you accidentally kill him because you’re mad at the wrong person, my baby could end up fatherless. Is that what you want, Trip? You, who is so big on family? Aren’t you going to follow the words you spew? It takes a fucking village.”
Trip’s spine turned into a steel rod, his lips pressed into a slash and his narrowed gaze sliced from Tessa to Easy. Every muscle in Trip’s body became an overtightened guitar string as he turned back to Easy.
“Fuckin’ motherfucker.” The arm he held frozen in the air fell in a blur.
Easy fell, too, but in slow motion.
Then Tessa joined him as her world went silent and dark.
His whole world had turned as dark as a midnight without a moon.
He could hear nothing past the sharp ringing in his ears.
A groan bubbled up his throat. How did his lips even hurt? Had he been hit by a bus?
