Page 53 of Seizing Control: Part One

“Cherub. Just think.” I elbow him on my way to Zeke. As I wrap my arms around my restrained ex-fiancé’s hard waist, Joseph tries to pull me away, but my father tells him, “Let her have a minute.”

Caught between gratitude at Dad’s meddling and anger at his escalating betrayal, I inhale deep, greedily sucking in Zeke’s scent as I press my forehead to his. Desire for bloody retribution powers me when I whisper, “I’m going to kill him. Maybe not today, but damn soon.” Zeke stiffens, however I forge on, determined to halt whatever plan he has concocted to save me from the consequences of my own actions. “Don’t do this, Zeke. Please.”

“I promised you I’d fix things.”

My admonishment is immediate. “This fixes nothing.”

“No,” he hisses. “This fixes every-fuckin’-thing.”

Pulse pounding in my ears when I realise that our time is running out, I ask with urgency, “How do you figure that?”

“Speak to Cass, sweet thing.” Zeke’s voice is low as he tells me, “He can fill you in with most of it. We’ve been workin’ on taking Brutus down for months… he just sped shit up when he resurrected this arranged marriage bullshit.”

“Zeke.” Confusion ripples through me. My legs turn to jelly as the reality of this plan hits hard. My first love intends to go to prison for me. It’s a hare-brained scheme—one I can’t allow to proceed. “I don’t want you to do this. Let me take responsibility for my own actions.”

“None of this is on you.” After nuzzling my nose with his, Zeke rasps in a voice thick with emotion, “Plus, sweet thing, it’s only temporary. They can’t convict me for somethin’ I didn’t do.”

“This is all on me… and you know corruption runs rife through the force. They could convict Charlie for this if they wanted to—” Zeke growls at my assertion, but I forge on. “—the last time you told me something was temporary between us we ended up spending six months apart.”

“I fucked up back then. This time is different. You needa let me do this so you can concentrate on keepin’ Sander whole. He needs you more than I do, right now. Every motherfucker here needs you more than me.”

When Zeke invokes the name of the one person who outranks everyone else in my list of priorities, my head spins. My twin is my soft spot. I can’t leave him to flounder alone. Not when he’s been beaten and pumped full of drugs. It kills me to admit it, but Zeke is stronger than my brother—every man in the club is, as hard as that is to admit to myself.

To abandon Sander in his current state is to sign his death certificate.

Dad will use him, then chew him up and spit him out when he’s no longer useful.

I can prevent that from happening.

The unfairness of Zeke’s request is put into unavoidable perspective.

I thought I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

No such luck.

The stakes are now life or death.

Nausea roils through my stomach as I’m forced to acquiesce without protest. My hands shake. I blink to clear my narrowing vision. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. My hearing is hampered by the sound of my racing heart. I feel Zeke step away from me, and I want to follow. The trembling in my legs makes me unsteady. Lowering the knife I’m clutching to my chest like a winning lottery ticket, I swallow deep and work to keep myself upright while my overwhelmed brain tries to shut down.

As Zeke tersely confers with Slash, I attempt to pay attention.

I can’t keep up.

It gets worse when Zeke switches to Gaelic.

My rudimentary understanding doesn’t stand a chance against his rapid-fire request.

“Why?” Slash demands.

“You know why,” Zeke retorts. I hear Gabriel, then my uncle mentioned. Crystal is brought into the conversation. “Lily will explain the rest.”

“What do I need to explain?” I demand. The two men glance at me, then they lock eyes again. “You said…”

“Use my rainy-day fund for the rest of it. There’s more than enough for everyone.”

Slash baulks at Zeke’s order. They continue arguing in hushed tones while Joseph huddles with my dad and the armoured cops pace between the agitated group of Shamrocks and the two men who own my heart.

“I’m trustin’ you with my life... look after her.”

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