Page 12 of Sinners Keepers
I scoffed, glaring at him. “Yeah. I did. Until I heard you on the phone with the dipshit who put me in the hospital in the first place. What the fuck is your end goal here?”
He groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face in frustration. “My end goal is to keep yousafe,” he said like I was some kind of moron for thinking otherwise. “Ever heard the phrase, ‘keep your friends close, but your enemies closer’?”
I looked to the side, refusing to meet his intense gaze. That was too easy of an answer.
“Do you really think I would’ve stood by you all this time just to hand you back to him at the end of it, Hunt?” He placed two fingers at the side edge of my chin and gently forced my face toward his. I jerked away, still refusing to look at him. He grabbed my face with his massive hand, cupping my chin in his palm, his actions demanding I not look away. “I don’t know about you, but the last six weeks have meant something to me,” he said seriously, his words filled with a level of emotion I’d not yet seen from him. “Something I don’t take lightly and am not willing to put in jeopardy.”
“Since you don’t know how to behave,” Law interjected. “I’m not untying you.”
Alec relaxed his grip on my face and I turned toward the sound of Law’s voice, glowering at him.Jerk.
“But you can ask whatever questions you have and once you’re satisfied with the answers, we need to get the fuck out of here,” he continued.
I turned back toward Alec. “Do you still work for Ijah?”
“Yes, bu—”
“But nothing. I know how this works. He says jump, you jump. He says to pull the trigger, you pull the trigger.” And I wasn’t about to be on the receiving end ofthatagain.
Law clamped a hand over my mouth. “Can you please justlisten? Goddamn.” He was so fucking stern. “Or do I need to gag you, too?”
I grunted my defiance, garnering massive stink eye from the pair of them. Law kept his hand in place.
“Ijah has gone a bit…” he searched for the right words. “...off the deep end, if you haven’t noticed. He doesn’t want us to kill you because in his warped mind, if you survived his gunshot wound, you deserve this second chance at life. And we are sticking close because if we know what he’s thinking and planning, we can better protect you from him should he change his mind for whatever reason.” I had no idea I’d been in love with someone so fucked up, and if I didn’t already feel like I hadn’t known him at all, it sure felt that way now. My stomach churned.
I twisted my face away from Law’s grip and Alec leveled me with his intimidating glare, warning me not to speak. “Whichbrings me to my next point. Your fuckingdadis eager to get his hands on you again, so you’re backed into a corner here until we can take care of things on that front. You really need to admit to yourself that you need us. And being that we are more than willing to help, just suck it up and trust us as much as you can. If we wanted you dead,or whatever else, you would be by now.”
That was pretty much what I’d been thinking all along, but knowing for sure that my dad was already back on his bullshit so soon was really the push I needed. He was right. What other choice did I have? If they could find me here so quickly, so could he. At least staying with them would offer me a small amount of protection. And I maybe I could use them to get close enough to Ijah to return the fucking favor I owed him.
“Fine. I’ll go with you.” Where the fuck else would I go? Fucking stalkers. “But…only if you pinky promise swear swear promise that you’ll help me kill them both when the opportunity presents itself.”
Law snorted.
“Yes, Hunny,” Alec cooed, beginning to untie the ropes binding me to the chair. “Wepinky promise swear swear promise.”
I stood, rotating my wrists and rubbing my hands over the indented spots. I pointed at Law. “You’re an asshole.”
His eyes roved over me, heating my skin in a way the act shouldn’t, being that he literally just beat the shit out of me and tied me to a chair. “And you’re a brat.”
We left together, and I dragged my feet all the way to the parking lot like a petulant child. I hated feeling like this was my only option because, above all else, I longed for a bit of independence. Law opened the door of Alec’s SUV and I begrudgingly climbed into the back seat. I hadn’t even fastened my seatbelt when the door closed and the locks clicked into place.
Each of the guys slid into their own seats, Alec eyeing me in the rearview mirror as he chimed, “Shall we?”
CHAPTERSEVEN
Ijah
3.5 MONTHS PRIOR…
There was so much blood. Too much.
The sight of it wasn’t something that normally bothered me at all, but the sight of it gushing from the gaping hole just above Hunt’s chest completely unraveled me.
My hands shook uncontrollably as I held pressure to the wound, praying to every god I could think of that it wasn’t too late.
It couldn’t be.
We hadn’t come this far only for me to lose her now. She deserved so much more in this life than the hand she’d been dealt, and I wanted to be the one to give it to her.
