Page 173 of Possession

It unlocks, betraying me just like everyone else in my life.

“I wonder what I’m going to find in here?” he mutters as he starts to scroll.

“Go for it,” I rasp. “You’ll see I didn’t do shit wrong.”

He starts to read, mocking me with every single word. “Rocco – This is Landyn. Please, call me. Rocco – You have to listen to reason. You left before I could talk to you. Please come back. Rocco – This is Brax’s phone, but it’s me. I know our friendship meant as much to you as it did me. You saved me once—I want to help do the same for you. Call me.” He presses harder, and I feel the tread of his boot sink into my skin. His voice rises two million octaves when he finishes. “Rocco – Please. Brax wants to help you. You didn’t do anything wrong. You can start a new life. You don’t need the club. We’re here for you. I can’t leave without at least talking to you.”

That doesn’t prove shit, but it sure doesn’t help my cause either.

“The messages just keep going. Are you sure the bitch isn’t into you? There’re voicemails too.” Logan squats and even more weight bears down on my neck. “They want you to come back. Who were you running from, pretty boy? Me or them? This still doesn’t convince me you’re loyal to the Jackals. This only tells me someone was grooming you for something else, and it had nothing to do with the family you made a commitment to—the club. I need to do something about that.”

My heart pounds in my chest like it’s a constrained animal at the zoo and needs to escape to survive.

Landyn is the coolest chick I’ve ever met, and the only one I ever trusted. Sure, I’ve had girls in my life for years. We partied or fucked. If I was lucky, it was both. But no one was like her.

Like a friend who believed I could do something. She was proud of me for shit I’d be embarrassed by with anyone else.

“If this is the same Landyn I had dinner with when that pig was playing me, I might want a piece of that.” Logan’s tone drips with something I hate. It reminds me of that Nic guy all over again. I struggle to move, but there’s no budging between my suspected broken ribs and his foot.

“Rocco, it’s Landyn.” Her voice breaks through the filth and grime, where it doesn’t belong. Hearing her fills me with regret.

I made the wrong choice. As much as staying with the DEA seemed like the worst idea in the world, I should’ve stayed for her.

She keeps torturing me through voicemail. “Look, you have to come back. At least call me—let me explain. I’m so worried about you. Please, call.”

Dammit. Yeah, I made the wrong choice.

The barrel of a gun is pressed into my temple. “I think it’s about time to take back our fucking tattoo,Rocco. I’ll see what kind of mood I’m in after that.”

A welding torch ignites somewhere too fucking close to me. Feeling the heat at my back has a whole new meaning.

“When all this is said and done, I might look for Landyn. She has a sweet mouth I’d like to fuck.”

No fucking way. A fire burns inside me that puts their fucking flame to shame. I’ll kill Logan. If they burn me and riddle me with bullets, I’ll still find a way to take down this motherfucker.

Landyn believed in me.

Hell, the narc did too.

Yeah, I fucked up big time.

42

COINCIDENTAL

Landyn

The day has dragged.

An emergency ping order isn’t like dialing 9-1-1 and getting a human on the phone in eight point two seconds.

It makes me wonder how long it takes to get the approval for a non-emergency ping order.

I’m antsy.

Who knows where Rocco is. Honestly, I hope he is on his way to Canada. At least he’ll be safe. I continued to text him while Brax was talking to Spencer. Finally, Micah took the phone from my hands, slipped it into his pocket, and told me I’d make myself crazy.

At least Spencer, June, and Miranda took their deals. I fell in love a little bit more with Braxton Cruz when I found out he insisted on taking care of the three people that made up our weird little family while living among the Marino Cartel. June is the only one of the three who worked there just to be near her grandchildren in the U.S. She was paid little to nothing in exchange for them smuggling her into the country. Now she’ll be a full-fledged U.S. citizen. She deserves it. The way I watched her take care of Miranda, even before I knew Miranda’s story, was heartwarming.

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