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I shrugged. "It is what it is, man."

"When will you be back?"

"Couple of days," I muttered. "Couple of weeks. Who fucking knows, man."

"What are you gonna do about it?" he asked, voice low, attention locked on the cigarette in his hand. "You're in now, man." He turned to face me then. "With G? There ain't no coming back from that handshake, Luck."

I knew that.

Blood would have to be shed.

I had commitments to carry out.

Lives to take.

"Hope staying with that shithead doesn’t change anything for me." Shaking my head, I rolled the butt between my fingers and stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. "I can't force her to love me, man. It's not in my control." I took another drag before adding, "But Icankeep her safe. And I will."

"I can't decide if you're the craziest son of bitch I've ever met or just a plain old masochist," Noah retorted dryly. "But whatever you are, I'm down." He knocked his shoulder against mine. "Always."

"Remember when we were inside?" I asked him.

"Hard to forget."

"Yeah." I nodded more to myself than him. "Well, I'm right back there, man." Taking another drag of my cigarette, I exhaled a cloud of smoke before continuing, "That woman? She's got me in chains."

"Well shit," Noah muttered gruffly.

The only way I could escape this was to leave.

I had to go.

Put space between us.

"I'll end up killing him, man," I admitted, breaking the silence that had settled over us. "And I know I shouldn’t, I know it would ruin her if anything happened to him, but that's what I'll end up doing – if I stay."

****

Jordan

Hope betrayed me.

She was unfaithful to me.

She lied to me.

AndIwas the bad guy?

Fuck this life.

Screw them all.

Unable to cope with the pain in my chest, I walked over to my backpack and retrieved the bottle of amber liquid hidden inside.

The need to forget was what pushed me to crack open the lid, but it was the memory of the unadulterated hatred in Hope's eyes when she looked at me that tipped me over the edge.

Emotionless, I pressed the bottle to my lips and drank.

It wasn’t enough, though.

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