Page 59 of Judgment Day

He shoved his phone into the back pocket of his jeans, then unlocked the door. “I’m going to miss this dude.”

Winston stood, looking out the window. Maddox had done as I’d asked and brought him a suit and made sure he hadn’t had any medication since yesterday. I wanted him alert and aware of every single fucking thing about to happen to him. He still looked like shit. The suit was too big due to him losing so much weight over the last few months. His cheeks were sunken in. There were dark circles under his eyes. But he wasn’t walking around like a zombie in his underwear. I called that a win.

“Hello, Winston.”

“Grey,” he said, his jaw tight.

I tucked my hands into the pockets of my dark green dress pants. “Ready for a road trip?”

“Giving up on me so soon?” He slowly walked toward me. “Typical Van Doren. Cashing out early.” He was referring to my parents’ early deaths, deaths caused by grief, deathshewas responsible for.

Darkness floated in from the edges of my mind, like a fog, a bleak mist settling in and clouding my vision. These were the moments when my demons came out to play. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist. And then I pulled back and punched him right between the goddamn eyes. His bone crunched beneath my knuckles. A spark of pain shot from my fist to my shoulder. He stumbled backward as blood gushed from the split at the top of his nose and the nostrils below. I reared back and hit him again, this time in the temple. He immediately went down, hitting the floor with a clunk. I rarely punched people. My methods of punishment were typically more… fatal. But you didn’t survive five years in prison without learning how to throw a solid hook. It took every ounce of my patience not to end Winston right now.

I stood over him. “I tried to keep this clean—this part, anyway. But you had to open your fucking mouth.” I cut my gaze to Maddox. “Put him in the fucking trunk.”

THIRTY FIVE

We stood on the terrace,looking over the palace gardens in Ayelswick. Linc had a Brotherhood meeting to go to and insisted I come with him. He’d even left Leo in charge of the safehouse. It was weird. He’d been to a dozen meetings and never asked me before.

“You should go to him.” His voice sliced through the silence. It blurred the bright flowers and dimmed the afternoon sun. It quieted the sound of birds chirping and rang loudly in my ears.That was why he brought me.

Surely, I’d heard him wrong.

He locked his fingers with mine but stared out into the garden. “He’s going to need you.”

Grey Van Doren never needed anyone. Why would he needme? The thought of there being any truth in what Linc was saying wrapped around my heart like briars.

But if it was true, if Grey needed me, I would bleed for him.

I would bleed for both of them.

“Go to him? Alone?”

Silence stretched, then he nodded. “Yes.”

I swallowed. “If I do that, there’s no going back,” I said, uncertain if it was meant for him or myself. We’d talked about it, agreed on it, even. But I couldn’t have anticipated how nervous I would be to follow through.

Linc looked down at me, a small tilt to his lips. “I think we’re way fucking past the point of going back, don’t you, Songbird?”

We were. We’d past it the moment his name slipped past my lips in Winston’s study.

My heart pounded in my chest. “But this…” I grabbed Lincoln’s other hand as I faced him. “This is different.” Linc wouldn’t be there this time.

“We’refucking different.” He dipped down and pressed his forehead to mine. “We always have been.” He smiled. “You said it yourself, we aren’t the fucking fairytale.”

He lifted his head, and the gardens came into view over his shoulder. Rose bushes. It suited us perfectly. We were roses and thorns, all three of us.

Linc tugged my hands, pulling me flush against him. “I don’t want to think about his fucking hands on you. But in case you haven’t figured it out, I love the fuck out of you. And I’m in this. He doesn’t get to be the only one who gives a fuck if you’re happy.” He poured his soul into his words.

My skin heated, my heart full of warmth. The sunlight made his eyes sparkle as he dusted a knuckle across my cheek. What did I ever do to deserve this man?

He rested his chin on top of my head. “He’s on the verge of becoming the most powerful motherfucker in the whole goddamn world.” He spoke in a quiet reverence. Awestruck. Then, his voice lowered. “That kind of power can only be harnessed in the pitch-black darkness. That kind of shit will consume you if you let it. He’s going to need you to be his light.”

The briars tugged on my heart. I knew what Grey was capable of. I’d seen the darkness that dwelled within him. He’d killed a man with his bare hands in order to save me.How much darker did it get?

If it was enough to make Lincoln worry about a man he used to hate, then I didn’t want to know.

“You’re scaring me.”

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