AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You can trust me.”
I know I can. That’s why I have no problem leaving Royce to clean up another mess.
Me?
I’m going to get my wife.
* * *
Thanks to my driver,I make it to the meet with three minutes to spare.
I’m not surprised that Damien picked this part of town. This particular alleyway, either. It’s dark, especially closing in on midnight, and none of the locals will look twice down it. Even if they do, they’ll look away again, and no one will involve the cops.
I know that for a fact. After all, this was the exact spot, fifteen years ago, where I lost control when Skittery threatened Ava.
Damien knows, too. He wasn’t there that night, but he was the one that our old boss assigned to help me clean-up the old junkie’s remains.
For the next two years, we were as tight as thieves, each one working toward something. I wanted Ava. Damien wanted his Family.
Now, fifteen years later as I walk into the alley to find him standing at the back of it, holding Ava at gunpoint in front of him, I realize that we both got what we wanted for a short amount of time. I had my wife if only for a few short weeks. Damien had the Libellula Family for more than a decade—but unless he can do what he promised Burns he would and explain himself to me, one of us is going to lose what we hold dear the most tonight.
And it’s not fucking gonna be me.
“So glad you found us, Lincoln,” he calls out. He has his gun in hand. So do I… and if Ava wasn’t positioned as a shield between us, I would’ve taken my shot and ended this without having to do this at all. “I wondered if you could find the place. If you remembered.”
To Ava and Royce, I’m Link. To the rest of Springfield, I’m Devil.
But to my old friend, I’ve always been Lincoln.
“Yeah. I remember.” When he quirks his eyebrows at me, I shrug. “Skittery.”
Ava’s eyes widen in recognition at the name. They shouldn’t… but they do.
How?
“Forgive me,” Damien says. “I told the story to your wife earlier. I guess she didn’t believe it could be true.”
Of course not. Even when presented with evidence to the contrary, Ava has only ever seen the good in me.
I needed her to. That’s why I forbid any one of my men from telling her anything I’ve ever done as Devil, starting with the murder that kept me away from her for so long. I never wanted her to known what I was capable of. For fifteen years, I strived to be a better man… and maybe I’m not.
Maybe IamDevil. Heidi Fox would definitely agree that I am. And while I did my time, I did mypenance, I protected Ava as best I could, I’ve decided that the only way to keep her safe was with me. Even then, I fucked up. She wouldn’t be standing with a gun at her back if it wasn’t for me, and I decide then and there that it doesn’t matter.
I’ll save her, but I’m not giving her up.
“You got me here, Damien. Just like you wanted. Burns passed your message along. If I showed up to talk, you’d give me my wife back. Drop the gun. Let her go.”
I didn’t honestly believe that would work. When we were partners, Damien’s best quality was his sense of honor. I’d lie to anyone and everyone—except for Ava, of course—but Damien? He thought it beneath him.
Oh, no. He preferred to manipulate and maneuver people instead, like they were pawns on a chessboard.
Then again, I haven’t had any thing to do with him in years. Maybe he changed, because I’m caught flatfooted when he crooks his arm around Ava’s waist before I can react, tugging her against him. The mouth of his gun kisses her temple, an obvious threat.
If I make any sudden move, he’ll kill her. No hard feelings, just a casualty of the war brewing between his family and my empire. To Damien, she’s just a bargaining chip.
To me, my wife iseverything.
“You asshole,” I rumble. “You said you’d let her go.”
