Page 16 of Fractured Heart

“You think you’re that person?” he bites out.

I shake my head. “You and I both know I’m not that person and nor are you. There is someone out there though that will bring her back but until that time comes, I will stand by her side and help her however I can for as long as she will allow me to.” Xander presses in until we are chest to chest, his gaze boring into my own as he tries to read me.

“What the fuck are you getting out of this?” he snarls so close to my face I can smell the weed on his breath.

“Nothing–”

“Bullshit. You want something out of this…” He clamps his mouth closed and then narrows his eyes as he presses in closer, pushing his forehead against mine. “You want her.” It isn’t a question so I don’t bother responding because he’s right, I do want her and I’m not willing to let her go without a fight. From the moment my gaze collided with hers, I felt something deep inside me come to life. I’ve never wanted to be tied down or be at the beck and call of another but it seems it didn’t matter what I thought I wanted because from that moment of meeting her, I’ve been willing to change everything about myself and my life to fit in with hers. “I’ll never let you take her from me.” The conviction he says that with has me believing that he would do anything to make sure he is the one who ends up with her.

“What if she doesn’t want you?” I ask.

“She doesn’t know what she wants right now,” he snarls.

“What if she didn’t just want one and wanted both?” He reels back as if I had hit him and looks at me with disgust.

“That shit was a one-time deal, it won’t happen again.”

I shrug and purse my lips. “Suit yourself, I’m willing to share if it means I get to keep her but if you're not…” I let my sentence trail off.

“You think you can just share?—”

Xander is cut off. “No one is sharing anyone!” At the sound of her voice I spin around to find her standing there with Nano, Vaughn and Grandpa, the four of them all stare at us with weird looks, clearly they heard our conversation and I feel like a dick that she overheard us discussing her like a piece of meat we have a right to claim. “Quit thinking with your cocks and get your fucking heads in the game or fuck off.” She turns and heads back inside without so much as a backward glance. My shoulders deflate, I just fucked that up.

“So that’s why you ordered her to be unharmed.” I purse my lips and nod. Grandpa smiles and nods his head. “Very well, the girl will not be harmed but she will be tested, Trevante, and you will not stop that. She wants to lead, then she has to prove her worth like every other man.”

“She isn’t a man!” Xander snaps from beside me.

“No, she isn't, which is the only reason why I am open minded about this.” I frown at his answer.

“What aren’t you telling me, old man?” I ask.

“Time will reveal all, be patient, Grandson, and you may just see the rise of a true queen.”

Xander

With Knox, I always rode shotgun, that was my spot.

Being reduced to the back seat with Trevante while Wave rides shotgun with that dick Nano grates on my nerves. She shouldn’t be here. I keep warring within myself to send her ass back to the warehouse and do this without her but I know she will fight me. For fourteen years I dreamed of her being alive and well and one day seeing her again, but I didn’t expect that dream to come true except, she isn’t really back. She’s still a prisoner of her own mind and a slave to her vengeance.

I know what that feels like, being a prisoner of your own mind is the worst.

I was freed of that burden eight years ago when the truth came out about what I had done the night of Wave and Lake’s accident. I was freed but at the same time I lost everything, my family, my home and worst of all, I lost my best friend.

“Stop here,” Wave instructs Nano. He does as ordered and pulls off to the side of the road with the others following behind doing the same thing.

“The ship is already here, we’re too late,” Nano says with a slight hint of anger in his tone but it isn’t directed at the woman sitting beside him.

“No, they won’t unload the women until all the cargo has been removed. Karl doesn’t have enough pull at the ports since Ian stopped backing him. Once all the workers leave, then the others will come to claim the girls but we’ll have already freed them before then.” I’ll admit, I am in fucking awe of her and my cock is twitching in my pants. Her leading is something I never thought I would see, she used to follow and do whatever Lake did but now, she seems to have come into her own.

“How long before we move?” The hint of respect in Nano’s tone has pride bolstering inside me, she earned that shit on her own. I cut a glance to Trey to see the fucker is sitting there with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“As soon as the crane operator removes the last container from the ship we move, the room the girls will be in is in the engine room of the boat.”

My face contorts. “Why there? The heat would be suffocating!” I growl. She swivels in her seat and meets my gaze head on with a cold look in her eyes.

“You won’t hear them scream over the engines. If they die from the heat then they weren’t cut out for this life.” The way in which she says that shit like it’s just a matter of fact is fucking worrisome, she is more detached from her feelings than I thought. I’m a cold, heartless fucker and I don’t care for many people, but she is coming across like she cares for nothing, no emotion.

After ten minutes, the crane finally stops and the final container is loaded onto the back of a truck. We wait another five minutes before getting out. I frown when I watch her head to the back of the car and pop the trunk. When she returns, she has her bow slung over her shoulder with arrows strapped to her back and a knife on each hip, she looks like a fucking badass. She ties her hair in a messy bun atop her head, then cracks her neck side to side.

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