Page 130 of Wicked Ends
I gave him a tight smile. “You didn’t hurt me more than I deserved. That game wasn’t something I should have been playing with you. We just don’t work, Marcus.”
“Don’t say that again, birthday girl. You’re breaking my heart. Tell me you won’t forgive me, tell me you need a year-long grovel. Tell me that I need to crawl and beg for your forgiveness… that’s fine. I’ll do it, all of it. But don’t ever tell me you changed your mind about me. I can’t survive that.” He reached a hand toward me.
I stared at his fingers, wanting nothing more than to take them, but I couldn’t. Because loving me had cost him too much. Perhaps his entire future. I needed to make that right. Marcus was born to play hockey. I couldn’t let him follow in his father and brother’s footsteps. I couldn’t.
I didn’t take his hand. The glint of hurt on his face was nearly too much to bear.
“Ari—”
“It’s best this way. You’ve got the rest of your life to look forward to. Hockey and all the dreams you have. I want to see them all come true.”
“What about you? What about your dreams? I’m not in them even a little?”
You are them.I couldn’t say those words to this man, the one who had risked everything for me. It wasn’t fair.
“You took care of the monster under the bed, and you made me so happy, for the first time in my life. You’ve already given me my dream, and I’ll never forget that.”
I stepped back again, trying hard not to cry. Why was this so heartbreakingly sad? Marcus was safe, the money was back, Dale was dealt with. Cole was recovering from his injury. I should be celebrating, but there was only bittersweetness.
“So, what? You’re letting me go for my own good?” Marcus asked, staring down at me with an intensity I couldn’t match.
“It’s what I should have done from the start. It’s what’s right. You’ll meet someone your own age?—”
“Spare me, beautiful. I don’t need a pep talk.”
He faced away and rubbed at the back of his neck, a muscle working furiously in his jaw, and when he spun back, there was a coolness in his eyes that shattered my heart. It was for the best, it was the right thing to do, so why did it hurt so much?
“Marcus! Let’s get going. We need to get the money back to Cole,” Gage called to Marcus.
He turned back to me. “I guess you don’t want to ride with me?”
“I’ll go with Sally. We need to take Claire and Lulu home.”
Thank God all this had happened a few hours north of where they’d chosen to settle down. The Harbor Hounds rolling through town was definitely something that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.
Marcus nodded tightly. “Then, I guess I’ll see you in Hade Harbor.”
“See you there,” I said.
He walked back to his bike, and if felt like something was ripping inside me as I watched him go.
Marcus
“Doyou know the difference between animals and people, Marcus?” My father’s voice was as clear as the blue sky that day out in the woods, after my mother had left.
“No.” I’d been sullen and withdrawn, having already failed to impress my father at shooting.
“Animals don’t kill for sport. They don’t hurt for fun. Everything is purposeful and instinct-driven. If something is a threat, you hunt them, and attack, and take them out or die trying. We could all learn something about the world from the animal kingdom.”
I rarely gave my father credit for being right about anything, but tonight, as I pulled my motorcycle off the road beside the pin that Gage had dropped me, I would make an exception.
I’ve learned from the animal kingdom, Dad. Tonight, I’ll eliminate the threat of her brother from Ari’s life forever.
In the past few months, I’d been in more than my fair share of scrapes and dangerous situations; hell, the last one wasstumbling into a hellish brothel near the border on a rescue mission, and having what remained of my faith in humanity shattered.
I hadn’t had much to begin with.
Maddox and Gage had Dale in a boathouse near a river. The place appeared abandoned, no boat in the berth.
