Page 100 of The Devil's Scars

“You promised me, Wolf!” she cried. “You promised me that I’d be safe here, me and Keira. Well, look at her!” She pointed at the tiny form in the hospital crib. “Does that look safe to you? Huh? Does that look like a kid whose Mom has nothing to worry about?”

“Ah, shit,” Wolf said, realizing that he’d completely missed this whole aspect of things, somehow. “I didn’t think – Zoe – I didn’t mean –”

“You didn’t mean for this to happen? Is that what you were going to say, Wolf? Well, it did happen! And my kid almost died, and the man that I love is half-dead, maybe. I told you that I’d only come back if it was safe, and you told me that it was. You lied. You put me and my daughter smack in harm’s way, in the line of fire of a bunch of one-percenters. You almost got a bunch of your own brothers killed at work. You – oh, God.” Zoe shook her head, catching her breath. “Wolf – you swore up and down that it was OK with Dawson and his dickhead friends, that I was in good hands and could trust you. How could you? How could you?”

She flew towards him again, pummeling his chest this time, weeping now, crying out her anger and helplessness. And Wolf just let her, just kept his massive arms hung limp at his side, letting her release all her worry and fear on him, because he deserved it. He fucking deserved it.

This was all his fault.

And now, in one fell swoop, he’d maybe lost his sister and his favorite brother.

Oh, and his soul. That too.

Zoe stepped back suddenly, and his heart ached as she stared at him like she hated him.

“Get out,” she spat at him. “Get the hell out, and don’t come back.”

“Zee…”

“Get! Out!” she screamed. “Get away from my baby! From me!”

He backed up now, his hands up in front of him in a placatory gesture. “I’m gettin’ away from you, baby girl. But I can’t leave you alone here –”

“You can, and you will! I’m staying here with Keira, and I’ll be moving between her and Scars for as long as it takes, and when I do, I don’t want to see you. You hear me? Don’t talk to me. Don’t touch me. Don’t have one of your guys check in with me and report back to you. Don’t even look at me. Just – pretend you don’t know me. Pretend we never met.”

“No,” he said, horrified. “No, please –”

“Leave me alone,” she said, her voice so hollow now, so lacking in any emotion at all, it scared him. “Leave us alone. Now.”

“Please…Zee. Let me be here for you.”

“No.”

Her tone was so final, so done-deal, that Wolf knew that he had no choice. He knew that he couldn’t reach her right now, and maybe he wouldn’t be able to again, not ever. Maybe this fuck-up was too awful, too destructive, and maybe there was no way back to a friendship from here. Maybe he’d broken it beyond repair.

She was standing there, in so much goddamn pain, and he knew that he was just causing her more. Wolf had spent the past twenty-two years of his life making sure that no harm befell Zoe, and no matter how much of a prick he was with other women, he’d made it his life’s mission to be good to her, to not harm her.

And here he was – hurting her, just by standing in front of her.

That’s totally fuckin’ unacceptable.

So, he left. It was with a heavy heart, and cement in his boots, and actual damn tears in his eyes. Badass, brutal Wolf Connor, a man who hadn’t cried in over twenty years – and here he was, tearing up today. It had been one hell of a day and he’d seen more than his fair share of hellish days, but still… today was really bad.

Today threatened to finish him, because today, for the first time in more than two decades, he didn’t have Zoe in his corner.

So it killed him to walk away, but he did as she said. It was the least that he could do. It was the only thing that he could do.

**

Wolf was back in the lounge, staring at the TV without seeing it, wondering just how the hell he’d messed everything up quite this badly. How had he gotten Dawson so wrong? When had someone actually plant a bomb at one of his businesses? Why couldn’t they figure out whose finger was in the box? What had they missed?

What have I missed?

“Wolf…”

The voice came from the doorway behind him, and Wolf shot to his feet and spun at the same time, his hackles rising, his heartbeat accelerating.

“Dawson,” he said, in complete disbelief. He was too stunned to be angry right off the bat, because this was like Dawson wandering into a lion’s den, playing a kazoo and carrying fresh, bloody meat. This was literally the stupidest, most dangerous place on earth for the man to be, and just by showing up and breathing, he was being full-on provocative. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?’

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