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“Who the fuck cares? I have a disaster to deal with.”
“Was he meant to be there?” Wylder repeated with deadly firmness.
Axel paused, and in the momentary quiet, I sensed the understanding hitting him. “He didn’t show. The cops must have grabbed him early.”
“Then it’s awfully funny that Gideon can trace his car to one of the Storm’s people’s main hideouts right now, isn’t it?”
More silence. Then Axel switched over from shock to defensive anger like the flick of a switch. “How the fuck do you know about any of this? Seems like you’ve been awfully involved right when things went sideways.”
Wylder let out a sputtered guffaw. “Are you accusing me of sabotaging things just so you don’t have to admit you picked a rat for your team?”
“You’re the one who said it,” Axel snapped back. “Someone has to pay for this mess. I guess we’ll just have to find out what Ezra says about it. I expect to see you back at the house when I get there. Have you even finished the last job he gave you?”
The job that was murdering me. We hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but Wylder’s time was up tomorrow. He looked at me, determined but with a question in his eyes.
He’d made a hell of a commitment to me just minutes ago. Certainty gripped me that I needed to show him I was just as all-in as he was. That I’d be here with him no matter what shit his dad rained down on us.
I reached to grab his hand and squeezed it. Then I took the knife he’d given me out of my pocket. Holding his gaze, I slid the blade across my palm like he’d done to his thumb when he’d sworn to help me take down Colt if I cleared Kaige of the murder suspicions on him. A blood promise.
Wylder’s eyes tracked the movement of the knife, the blood that welled up from the shallow cut. I held up my hand so he could see it clearly. “I’m in this with you,” I whispered, holding his gaze when it lifted to my face. “All the way to the end.”
Wylder gave me a tight little smile, but his eyes shone brightly. He turned back to the phone.
Axel was yammering again. “Did I hear someone there with you, kid? What kind of—”
“Axel,” Wylder said brusquely, “shut up. You’re not seeing me tonight. Possibly not for a few days. I have my own business to take care of, and maybe it’s time both you and Dad realize just how much you need me after all.”
He hung up before Axel could do more than start to sputter and tossed the phone on the dashboard. In one swift movement, he captured my wrist with his strong fingers. I kept my hand steady, ignoring the stinging in my palm.
“Blood for blood,” I said, my voice still quiet. “We’re in this together.”
“Yes, we are,” he murmured. Then he slowly leaned in and licked the blood clean from the small wound.
As his tongue made contact with my sensitive skin, I sucked in a breath, but I didn’t flinch or pull back. He wiped a tiny smear of blood from his lips and smiled at me with the warmth of the sun. “I couldn’t ask for anyone better to have by my side.”
I smiled back and brandished the knife, the tip of the blade still bloody. “Maybe it’s time for the prince and princess of the Paradise Bend to become king and queen and reclaim what both of us really deserve.”
Wylder’s eyes heated. I saw lust in them, and resolve, and something else—just for me. “Damn right.”
I didn’t know how the hell we were going to deal with Ezra or the invading gangs or anything else we were up against, but in that moment, everything felt totally right.
Until Wylder’s phone buzzed again.
Wylder let go of my arm with obvious reluctance and snatched the phone off the dashboard. He frowned at the screen before answering. “They’ve gotten out of there, Gideon. We were too late to salvage the deal.”
“That’s not what I’m calling about this time,” Gideon said in an unexpectedly panicky tone. “Something’s been set off in the Bend. The Storm’s people came out of nowhere—they’re all over the video feeds—they’re attacking everyone they can get their hands on. It’s a fucking massacre.”
