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“Evening, Rox, the usual.”
“Please, Demi, and can I get an Old Fashioned and Macallan on the rocks too.”
“Of course. I’ll bring them over.”
I turn my attention back to the two men in front of me, and a beam of satisfaction lights at the scowl they are both wearing.
My small victory doesn’t last long though.
“Get rid of the watchdog, Roxanne, or the deal is off,” Maddox orders, and his scowl from moments earlier morphs into a triumphant smirk.
“I guess the deal is off then,” I say, rising from my chair. A hand lands on my wrist, stopping me as chair legs scraping across the wooden floor signals others getting to their feet, including Maddox, who I snap my eyes to.
I hold my free hand up halting my watchdog, as Maddox called him, and give a shake of my head to ensure he understands.
Locked in a stare off with Maddox, I twist my hand in Zak’s grip, and with a barely there nod from Maddox, Zak releases me.
Demi chooses that moment to arrive with our drinks and breaks the stalemate as Maddox and I take our seats again.
Drinks placed on the table, Demi hurries back to the bar, and I see Mitch ease back into his own chair. The fact he’s been rumbled not bothering him in the slightest. It bothers the hell out me though.
“Looks like you forgot what’s at stake, Roxanne,” Maddox warns.
I shake my head, quirking a brow at him. “Not at all. I have a choice, even though you seem to be under the impression you have me by the balls.”
He pitches forward, slamming his fist on the table in front of me. “There is no fucking choice. You do this or you risk losing everything,” he snaps.
“Bullshit! I’m screwed no matter what I choose. But my choice remains. I just have to decide if it’s me or you that ends my fucking career.” I watch as my words hit home. He knows that either way, my time as a cop is done. After this goes down, I’ll be cast from the force, stripped of everything I worked for, and be number fucking one on the most wanted list of every cop and criminal organisation across the damn country. “And I choose me, Maddox. Every fucking time because that’s all I’ve got.” I regret the vulnerability those words show, but they’re the damn truth, and I’m all about the truth. It’s the only reason I’m even agreeing to this. Allowing them to force my hand.
My need for truth and justice have been what fuelled me all those years ago. My need for answers to what happened to my mother and my sister have been the single thing to keep me from turning into the female version of the men before me.
It could so easily have been me sitting where they are, but I chose a different path ten years ago. One that led me to my best friend, Jessica, and helped me control the demon that resides inside me.
I know that doing this, stepping back into a world I left behind, will have her champing at the bit to be unleashed. I just hope I’m strong enough to prevent her from taking complete control and scorching the earth with her vengeance.
ChapterFour
Zak
It’s almost three in the morning by the time my head meets my pillow, and it’s thumping. Tonight was hard fucking work. Maddox is much better at hiding his truth.
My truth seeps out of me like the blood in my veins when you cut me. Rox might not have been around us for the last ten years, but I felt her eyes on me, searching out my little tells. Maddox is a fucking fool if he thinks she doesn’t know shit about us. Her knowing our poison of choice proves that she’s not as in the dark as we thought.
I enjoyed toying with her and sending her reminders of the ticking clock, but that was easy because I couldn’t see her face, couldn’t smell the scent of the perfume she’s worn since we were teens wrapping around me. I was shocked as hell that she was still using it when we met her for the first time in the warehouse car park two weeks ago. The floral notes of lotus and lily and the woodsy scent of cedar and musk hit me almost as hard as leaving her behind did the night everything changed for us all.
I shake the thoughts from my head as the sound of the door opening downstairs reaches me. I know who it is, and I’m in no mood for it. I slam my eyes shut at the first creak on the stairs and use the time it takes her to climb the stairs to settle my breathing into that of someone lost to sleep.
Maddox wasn’t wrong when he called me a hypocrite earlier. In fact, he was bang on the fucking money, but at least my choice of pussy to get lost in isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I’m all too aware that my days of fucking Lila are at an end. And if I’m honest, I’ve been waiting a long time for this day.
The click of my door opening echoes through the silent room, bringing a cool breeze from the hall with it. Goosebumps raise on my bared arms as muted footsteps travel over the plush carpet towards the bed.
When her fingertips meet my skin, I hold back the urge to flinch away from her. I know that I need to distance myself from her. I’ve been doing it subtly for months now.
“Zak?”
When I don’t answer, I think she’s got the message, but fuck no, she hasn’t. The rustling of clothes being discarded perks my ears up, and when I feel the sheets lifting, I bolt up, bringing the knife I keep under my pillow with me.
