Page 107 of Poisoned Pawn

And another.

“You let him just walk out the fucking door with her! I’ll fucking kill you, you spineless mother fucker!”

His hits, his words, they make their mark. Chipping away at my guilt. And just like sixteen years ago, I failed someone I love.

I don’t even bother trying to hit him back. No, I’m saving all that pent up fury, all the soul eating guilt and the hate for those that deserve it.

Because while the outcome is the same—I failed Star—I have something I didn’t have sixteen years ago.

Sixteen years ago, all I had was a broken heart, grief and a whole lot of rage.

Now I have knowledge. I have resources.

And I have a woman who is the other half of me.

The very fucking heart of me.

“Fuck, Aidan, stop! Aidan!” Roxanne shouts.

I see the next hit coming through blurred vision, but it never lands.

“Whoa! Enough!” Maddox shouts as Frankie and Zak pull Aidan away.

He shoves them off him. “It is not enough! Why the fuck is he still breathing?” he sneers, pointing a finger at me as he looks to Roxanne.

I spit a mouthful of blood on the floor and swipe a hand across my mouth.

“He’s still breathing because it wasn’t his fault. And if we want to get her back, then you need him.”

“The fuck I do!” he roars, pulling his gun and pointing it at me.

Parker steps in front of him, laying a hand on his arm, and he slowly lowers the gun, but he doesn’t take his fierce stare from me.

“Aidan, enough. Now is not the time to be fighting amongst each other,” she tells him.

Roxanne hands me a tea towel, and I take it, mopping up the blood dripping from my nose and split lip.

“You good?” she asks, and I give her a nod. “We have more important things to talk about,” Roxanne states, levelling Maddox with a stare.

After we arrived back at the church and Roxanne had calmed down enough to listen to reason, Maddox explained what happened while Frankie saw to his gunshot.

I wasn’t really listening, that was up until the point Maddox mentioned Rook knowing her real name. That in itself isn’t the issue. Most people who know the Lawlers and Kavanagh know she’s Roxanne’s sister, but Rook’s allusion to a brother who knew her as a child and after she was taken… That shit fucking had me listening.

“He called her Anastasia, Aidan. He talked about a brother, friends that mentioned her when she was held at the compound,” Maddox explains carefully, his nostrils flaring and mouth turned down in a grim sneer.

I thought I was mad when he touched her, hit her, forced her into going with him, but it’s nothing to what the thought of what else he knows, what his brother and friends know, what they did to her.

“That’s not possible,” Aidan says, shaking his head. “We destroyed everyone that ever had anything to do with that place.”

“Obviously fucking not!” I snap, tossing the towel in the sink and leaning back against it to face the room. After a moment, I push away from the counter and march for the door.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Aidan hollers after me.

“Out.” I hurry to the car, jumping in and peeling out of there before anyone can even make it outside.

I dig my phone from my pocket and hit call. Rook’s men took our guns but didn’t take our phones. No doubt he has a reason. Like me, Rook doesn’t do anything unless there’s a valid reason.

“Where are you?” I bark as soon as the call connects.

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