Better When He's Bad

Welcome to the Point - 1

Jay Crownover

INTRODUCTION

A LOT OF PEOPLE think I write about the quintessential bad boy. It’s true the boys in my books tend to be mouthy and full of attitude, and they generally sport a lot of ink and metal in fun places, but to me that doesn’t really make them bad. I think it makes them men living life on their own terms, comfortable in their own skin, and not afraid to play by their own set of rules. I think I write about interesting boys.

That being said, I was fascinated by the idea not of a bad boy, but of a boy who is bad . . . like really bad. The idea of writing about an antihero who was “painted” with a brush of trouble and who is troubled, a guy who revels in being from the wrong side of the tracks, wears that skin with pride, and embraces the choices it has forced him to make . . . I just ate it up. Plus, what kind of girl could possibly love a guy like that?

Enter Shane Baxter. He’s a guy who is hard to love, hard to empathize with, and is just HARD all around. I wanted to see if I could build a bittersweet love story around a character who is so . . . well, bad. I like to think I accomplished my goal . . . I was in love with Bax by the end of his journey, even if it took me a minute or five to get there.

The Welcome to the Point series takes place in a fictitious inner city I just nicknamed “the Point.” The idea being it can be in any city, any rough part of town, and any run-down neighborhood the reader can see or relate to in their mind’s eye. The locale is the ultimate “wrong side of the tracks.” This series is a little darker, a little grittier, and a whole lot more fanciful than my Marked Men series.

I hope you enjoy the ride!

Jay

CHAPTER 1

Bax

THERE ARE VERY FEW things that can kill the buzz of postsex mellowness. Getting coldcocked in the side of the head by a pair of knuckles that felt like they were encased in steel ranks right at the top of the list. My ears rang from the blow as my head snapped around from the force. I would’ve reacted, but an uppercut had my chin flying back and my skull ringing solidly against the brick wall behind me. Now I was seeing stars and swallowing blood. Not like these guys cared about a fair fight, but eventually I was going to get my wits back, and there was going to be hell to pay. I spit out a mouthful of blood and took the cigarette the guy who had inflicted the blows offered me.

“Long time no see, Bax.”

I lifted a hand and worked my jaw back and forth to see if it was broken. Nothing ruined a mellow, postorgasm mood like dealing with a bunch of clueless idiots and the thought of losing some teeth.

“How did you find me?” I blew out a stream of smoke and leaned back against the wall of the apartment building I had just exited. The copper taste of blood was tangy on my tongue. I made sure it landed on my assailant’s wing tips when I spit out another mouthful.

“Five years is a long time for a man to go without.” He lifted his eyebrows and flexed those hands I knew from experience were capable of far worse than a little smackdown. “No pussy, no booze, no blow, no fast cars, and no one who gives a shit who you are. I know you, kid; I knew the first thing you would want when you got out was tail. I gave Roxie a heads-up to call me when you came knocking.”

He was wrong. The first thing I went for was the fast car. Granted, I used it to haul ass to a sure thing I knew wouldn’t say no, but still, pussy came after a quality ride.

“So you took it upon yourself to make sure my welcome home sucked as much as possible?”

“If I know Roxie, and I do, you don’t have anything to complain about.” His merry band of thugs all chuckled and I just rolled my eyes. There was a reason Roxie was a sure thing, and not just a sure thing for me, even though I had been out of commission for the last five years.

“I’m not here for me. Novak wants to see you.”

Novak. The name made normal men shake in fear. It usually only came up when people were talking about murder, mayhem, and general discord on the streets. He was ruthless. He was cold-blooded. He was untouchable and a legend in the Point and beyond it. In the shadows and back alleyways he was king. Nobody crossed him. No one walked away from him. No one dared defy him . . . no one except for me. I wanted to see Novak as well, but I wanted to do it on my terms.

I finished the cigarette and put it out under the sole of the heavy black boots I had on. I was a lot bigger now than when I had gotten locked up. I wondered if these guys had bothered to notice. Living a life full of booze, drugs, and easy girls, no matter how young and active you were, isn’t a recipe for healthy living. Getting all that unceremoniously yanked away changes not only how a man lives mentally, but also what he becomes physically, be it by choice or not.

“I don’t want to see Novak.” At least not right now. My ears had finished ringing and all I had now was a splitting headache. These guys didn’t have the element of surprise anymore, and if they wanted to push the issue, it was going to get bloody and ugly really fast. I didn’t care even if I knew the goons were more than likely packing.

The guy who had delivered the blows just stared at me while I stared back. I wasn’t some scared kid anymore who wanted to belong . . . who wanted these guys to be impressed. Sacrificing five years of your life for a bunch of bullshit has a way of leaving a mark on a guy. Novak should’ve known that.

“Race is missing.”

Now, that had the desired effect. My eyes narrowed and my shoulders tensed. I pushed off the apartment building and ran rough hands over my shorn hair. Having hair in the joint was a bad plan, and even with the wicked scar that curved across the side of my scalp, I had no intention of growing the jet-black locks back. Low maintenance was necessary in my line of work—well, my former line of work—but that was a problem I didn’t want to think about now, or ever.

“What do you mean he’s missing? Like he went on a trip, or like Novak made him disappear?” It wouldn’t be the first time Novak took it upon himself to make a problem go away with a bullet between the eyes.

The guy shifted on his feet and my patience vanished. I lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar of his fancy button-up shirt. I wasn’t eighteen and scrawny anymore, so I saw the fear flash in his eyes as I literally pulled him to the tips of his toes so we were now eye-to-eye. I heard the slide of a gun get pulled back, but I didn’t take my gaze from his as he clawed at my wrists for purchase.

“Answer me, Benny. What do you mean Race is missing?”

Race Hartman was a good dude for the most part. Too good and too smart for this life. He should have never gotten caught up with Novak, should have never been out on the streets with me the night everything went to hell. Doing a nickel to keep a guy like Race out of the clutches of a piece of shit like Novak was a sacrifice I had no trouble making, but if the idiot hadn’t heeded my warning and walked away like he was supposed to when they slapped the cuffs on me, I was going to level the entire city.

Benny tried to kick me in the shin with his sissy wing tip and I tossed him away from me. I shot a dirty look at thug number one, who was holding a gun on me, and flipped him off.

“Bax . . .” Benny sighed and moved to smooth out his shirt where I had wrinkled it up by manhandling him. “Race went to ground the second you got busted. No one heard anything from him; he wasn’t around. None of the girls even saw him. Novak kept an eye out for him in case all that mess the two of you created came back to bite us in the ass, but nothing. Then last week, when the word was out you were getting out, he popped back up. He came around making threats, telling Novak it was bullshit you went down for what happened. I thought he had a death wish, but then . . . poof, he was just gone after stirring up the hornet’s nest. Now, you tell me why a smart guy like Race would do something like that?”

I didn’t know, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t have any friends in this world, anyone I trusted, aside from Race Hartman.

“Tell Novak to back off. I’ll see what I can do to get a pulse on him, but if Novak had something to do with Race going AWOL, he will regret it.”

“Pretty brave making threats when you haven’t even been out of lockup for a full twenty-four hours.”

I snorted and stepped around Benny like he wasn’t worth my time, which he wasn’t.

“Five years is a long time to go without; it’s also a long time to work on a grudge and grow the fuck up. You don’t know me, Benny. Novak doesn’t know me, and I don’t care what kind of muscle or firepower he wants to throw at me, if he had anything to do with Race going missing, I’ll make him pay. Tell Roxie thanks for ratting me out.”

“You get what you pay for.” I wasn’t sure if that was a dig at me or at her.

“I don’t know about you and your ugly mug, but I’ve never had to pay for it in my life.”

I saw him scowl and took advantage of his distraction to lunge forward and slam the hardest part of my forehead right into the bridge of his nose. I heard a satisfying crunch, and then his scream of pain as his cronies hurried forward to keep him from folding to his knees in the dirty alley. I gave my head a shake to clear my vision, because the move hadn’t done a thing for my headache. I stepped around my now howling and blood-gushing adversary, tossing over my shoulder as I made my way to the mouth of the alley:

“You might not want to underestimate me, Benny. That was always your downfall.”

My name is Shane Baxter, Bax to most people, and I’m a thief.

Got a girl? I’ll take her from you. Got a sweet ride you dropped a mint on? I’ll take it from you. Got expensive electronics you think are safe? I’ll come and take them, because you probably didn’t need them anyway. If it isn’t nailed down or attached to you by unbreakable chains, there is a good chance I can make it mine. It was the only thing I was good at. Taking things that didn’t belong to me was second nature; well, that and finding all the worst kinds of trouble to get into. I was only twenty-three, had gone in for a nickel right on the heels of my eighteenth birthday, but that wasn’t even close to the first time I got busted or banged heads with the law. I wasn’t a master of good choices or clean living, but I knew my strengths and I stuck with them and I took care of my own. Whatever the cost might be.

I had two people in my life I bothered to care about: my mom and Race. There used to be three, but the last one let me down in too many ways to count, and now I swore I would coldcock him the next time I got the opportunity. My mom was long-suffering, stubborn, and the only person who stayed on my side when I went away. She had terrible taste in boyfriends, a bad habit of drinking more than was healthy, and trouble keeping a steady job. She was the very definition of down-and-out no matter how many lifelines I tried to throw her.

I started stealing stuff before I understood what I was doing because I was so tired of going without. As I got older and better at it, I did it to pay the bills and to keep a roof over our heads. My mom never judged me, never turned her back on me, and was the only person in the world who would actually be happy to see me out of prison.

Race and I were the two most unlikely friends anyone could imagine. He was college-bound, tech-savvy, and from a family that had all the right connections and pedigrees. He was well spoken and charming, always dressed like he was going to a job interview, and was full of patience and common sense. He was a delightful summer breeze to my blizzard of destruction. I hadn’t even finished high school, could barely read a full sentence, didn’t have a family beyond my mom and the slum we lived in, and I looked like what I was: a thug. Even before serving hard time I had carried layers of hard muscle and bulk making me a big guy who no one wanted to mess with. No one but Race.

I tried to jack his car one night when we were both teenagers. He was driving a sweet Roush Mustang with an even sweeter blonde in the passenger seat. I had no idea what he was doing in such a bad part of town, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who let an opportunity pass me by. I shoved a knife in his face, pulled him out of the driver’s seat, and proceeded to try and take his car. Only Race was in no hurry to let it go. I never knew if he was fighting for the girl or for the ride, but either way, we beat the shit out of each other. I broke his wrist, he cracked my ribs and knocked out my two front teeth. It was gory, and epic, and by the time it was all said and done, we were blood brothers.

I got the blonde’s seat in the Stang on the way to the hospital and I got a brother from another mother in Race. I never went to his fancy house on the Hill or dirtied up his good name at his fancy prep school. He never slummed it with me in the ghetto or had to deal with my mom’s drunken outbursts. When I started boosting high-end cars for Novak on the regular and needed help with the computer systems in the rides that cost in the high-six and sometimes seven figures, he was the only one I trusted to have my back. We had a good time, blew through hot girls, and partied with stuff kids our age shouldn’t know anything about. Every day I regretted asking him, regretted dragging him down to my level so badly. Five years was a long-ass time to work on an apology. It was just as long to wait for one that was owed, one that when it came, I hoped would be enough to keep me from having to put my hands around my best friend’s throat. We both had made some serious mistakes along the way that needed atoning for.

Trouble was, I had no idea where to start. When I went away, he had been enrolled in some Ivy League school out east. I wasn’t sure if he made it to that place, I went away so he could, but there were no guarantees in life. I learned that lesson the hard way.

I shook out a smoke from the pack I had snagged from Roxie and dug out the prepaid cell phone I had picked up when I went and got my car. I walked up and around the block to where I had parked the beauty, far away from curious stares and hot hands. I knew what kind of cars thieves looked for and what kind of cars car guys wanted for their own. My bumblebee-yellow-and-black, race-striped, 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner with its tricked-out hemi and hood scoop was both. It was loud. It was tough. It was faster than fast, and it was the only thing I had left after I got locked up. I told my mom to sell it when I went down, but she refused. She knew how much work, how much sweat and tears I had put into that car, so if it meant rent or my baby, my baby won.

I sucked the noxious fumes into my lungs and squinted up at the sky. I would kill for some Tylenol to get rid of the pounding throb in my head, but there were more pressing matters I had to deal with at the moment. Not to mention, a few rounds with Roxie had done nothing to dull the burning want at the back of my throat. I liked girls and girls liked me. When you grew up poor and without any kind of parental supervision, sex was just something you did to kill time and to chase away the monotonous moments of despair and depression. Two people could make each other feel good, so that’s what happened more often than it should. I wasn’t used to going without . . . well, I was used to it now, but in my old life, getting laid was like breathing. It took no thought and zero effort.

I was tall, well over six feet. I had dark hair and dark eyes that chicks like to tell me made me mysterious. I didn’t talk a lot, not unless I had something important to say, which led to my not-unjustified, badass aura. Plus I owned a mirror, so I knew what I had going on was pretty nice to look at. I wouldn’t win a modeling contract anytime soon, but the chicks seemed to dig it just the same. Even with the scar across my scalp and my nose being twisted from being broken more than once. But possibly the most noticeable difference between me and every other decent-looking guy floating around was the tattoo of a small black star inked next to the outside corner of my left eye. I thought it was a brilliant idea when I was sixteen and high. Now I still thought it was cool in an intimidating and “I’m crazy enough to tattoo my face” kind of way. Like I said, I looked like a thug, an all-right-looking thug, but a thug nonetheless.

I needed to get a handle on Race and get back into some pretty young thing’s bed. Roxie was off the table if she was going to sell me out as soon as I got my rocks off. I never did trust her. She played the role of innocent-girl-next-door too well. Especially since she was as far from innocent as any one person could be. Annoyed at how the first few hours of my freedom were playing out, I put in a call to an old contact.

“Hey.”

Silence met my ears from the other end of the call. I tossed the smoke and slid behind the wheel of my car. It felt more like coming home than banging Roxie or knocking Benny around ever could.

“Who is this?” Everyone I knew was a suspicious bastard. That was especially true when the person on the other end of the call happened to be a rather successful drug dealer.

“It’s Bax.”

“When did you get out?”

“Today.”

“Already looking for a score?”

Hell no. Five years without made me never want to mess with any of that stuff again. It made the bad choices I made even worse. If I was going to screw up now, I was going to do it clean and sober.

I told the dealer in a flat tone, “No. I’m looking for Race. I heard he dipped out when I got busted and showed up a little while ago making noise at Novak. No one’s seen him. Have you?”

More silence. There was a fifty-fifty shot I was going to get an honest answer. I hoped my reputation still held enough weight to put the fear of God into people. If not, I would just have to go knock some heads together and earn it back.

“No. I tried to hit him up a few times after you got locked up. I thought he would get me into all those college parties and I could split the take with him. He stopped answering my calls.”

Good for Race.

“He still at the school?”

“No one knows. I know Novak kept eyes on him after everything went to shit, but then he was just a ghost.”

“I need to find him.” I made sure the seriousness of the situation was hard in my voice.

There was some muttering on the other end of the phone, and the sound of rustling like he was getting out of bed. Even drug dealers need a good night’s sleep, I guess.

“Look, last I heard he was staying with some chick in the Point. A redhead. Benny sent a crew to drag him back to Novak, and he was gone when they got there.”

The Point was where I grew up. It was the opposite of the Hill, where Race grew up. I didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“A working girl?”

“No. Just some girl. Not a fancy college girl or a skank. Just a girl. Benny’s guys scared the crap out of her and that’s why Race went postal on Novak. You taught that preppy little shit how to talk tough, and everybody wonders if you taught him how to follow through on it.”

I didn’t need to teach him. Race was smart. Brains beat brawn any day of the week, plus he actually had stuff to lose. That made a man dangerous. It was a man who had nothing that wouldn’t put up a fight.

“How do I find the girl?”

“I dunno, Bax. Google that shit.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and frowned at it. It looked like knocking heads might have to happen after all.

“You better have an address or I suggest you put on some pants. I’ll be over there in ten to drag your happy ass on a tour of the city if I can’t find the spot on my own.”

There was some swearing and some more rustling and I heard a lighter flare up.

“Check the Skylark, that crappy apartment building downtown. I think that’s where I heard.”

“I’m supposed to just go knock on every door in the middle of the night?” I was getting frustrated and pissed off, and I think he could tell. He really didn’t want me to pay him a visit in the middle of the night in the mood I was in.

“There’s a diner across the street. Stick your head in there and ask. The chick is a carrot top. Like orange and young. Benny’s guys picked her out of a crowd no problem, and you know he doesn’t hire the best and brightest.”

I snorted in agreement and fired up my baby. God, how I missed that sexy growl.

“I also heard you jacked his face all up.”

“He started it.”

“Benny’s not the type to let something like that go.”

“Fuck Benny.”

There was a dry laugh on the other end of the phone. “Still think you’re the baddest dude on the block? A lot has changed in five years, Bax.”

I didn’t think the obvious needed an answer, so I hung up and tossed the phone on the seat next to me. I was already in the Point. Roxie lived right downtown, so it only took a couple minutes to find the Skylark and locate the diner. I pulled the Runner into a spot in the parking lot under a light and pulled a beanie on over my shaved head. I got out of the car and looked at a group of kids that had no reason to be out this late in this part of town, other than they were looking for trouble. I gave them all a hard stare, waited until each and every single one of them looked away, and went inside.

I was tired. I had just walked out of the barbed-wire gates of a prison a few hours ago, but it already felt like months. I was just as tired of my life and of myself, but that didn’t stop me from having things I needed to take care of. I waited to catch the eye of a harried-looking waitress, and when I did, she gave me a slow once-over and indicated that she would be with me in just a second. Waiting tables sucked. Waiting tables at a greasy spoon in the crap part of town in a place that was open twenty-four hours sucked even worse. I felt bad for her.

“What can I do for you, hon?”

I saw her eyes flick over the bruise that was flowering on the side of my face from Benny’s sucker punch and over the blood his uppercut had left on my bottom lip. I’m sure I wasn’t a pretty sight at the moment, but she was pleasant all the same.

“I’m looking for a friend.”

“A table for two?”

“No. He might’ve been in here a few times. Big guy. About my height, but skinny. Blond hair, green eyes, looks kinda like he should be modeling for Abercrombie and Fitch. He might’ve been hanging around with a redhead who lives close by.”

She tilted her head to the side and hollered at some drunks who were throwing napkins at each other in a back booth.

“No hot blondes have been in on my watch, but I know a redhead. Dovie Pryce. She’s in every morning. We usually grab coffee as I’m getting off my shift. She lives across the way.”

“You sure you’ve never seen my buddy? Word is he might’ve had a thing with her.”

“With Dovie? No way. That girl lives like a nun. Goes to night school, works a full-time job, and a part-time one on the weekends. She doesn’t have time for a guy.” She slid her gaze back across me. “No matter how cute.”

I smiled at her and rubbed a thumb along the line of my jaw. I was going to have a nasty bruise there.

“Are you always so forthcoming with your friends’ information?” If so, no wonder Benny’s guys had found the redhead so easily.

“No. In fact the last guy who came looking for her found out the hard way. No one wearing a suit around these parts has any kind of good intentions. Our cook is an ex-Marine. I had him handle the last guy.”

“You think I have an honest face?” There was no humor in my tone and she got my drift right away.

She just shook her head at me and clicked her tongue. “No, hon, you look like you had a bad day.”

I barked out a laugh with zero humor in it. “Believe it or not, today is the best day I’ve had in a long time.”

“Hmm . . .” She ran her eyes over my battered face one last time. “Good luck finding your friend, hon, but leave Dovie alone. She’s a good girl who doesn’t need your kind of trouble.”

“How do you know what kind of trouble I am?”

She waved a hand dismissively in front of me. “I’ve been around a long time, sweetheart. Any boy with that many secrets in eyes that dark is the worst kind of trouble. The kind you can’t ever get out of.”

I couldn’t argue with her and I had the info I needed for now. I tipped my chin at her and let the grimy glass door swing shut behind me as I walked back to the parking lot. I glanced at the Runner to make sure the kids hadn’t touched her and then back at the building that held my prey.

“Hey, man, you got a smoke?”

The biggest of the kids grew some balls and approached me. He was probably all of thirteen years old. Too bad I saw so much of a younger me in him.

“You’re too young to smoke.”

“Are you shitting me?”

I lifted an eyebrow and he took a step back.

“No, I’m not.” I pointed at the Skylark. “You know a redhead that lives there?”

His eyes narrowed at me suspiciously.

“Why?”

“ ’Cause I’m asking is why.” Little punk. I wondered if I was that annoying when I was running the streets off the leash.

“Will you give me a smoke if I do?”

I fought an eye roll. “Sure, kid.”

He grunted and shuffled his worn-out tennis shoes on the asphalt. “Dovie. She lives on the same floor as me. She’s wicked nice. She cooks dinner for me and Paulie sometimes.” He hooked his thumb at another kid, this one had to be ten or eleven. What the fuck was wrong with the world we lived in that these kids were out hustling me and not in bed waiting for school to start the next morning?

“What floor?”

“Why?”

I frowned at him. “We gonna do this all night?”

He shifted nervously and his gaze slid to my car. “That’s a sweet ride.”

I gritted my back teeth. “It is.”

“You steal it?” I wondered if he had any idea who I was. I used to be a legend. Now I was just a cautionary tale.

“No. That’s about the only thing I didn’t steal.”

“Can I go for a ride in it?” This kid. I had to give him credit. He had what it was going to take to make it in this part of town.

“Maybe. If I can find the girl and she can help me find my friend.”

We stared at each other in silence for a long moment. His little crew of hooligans was getting restless, though. I clearly wasn’t a mark; they didn’t want to tangle with me, but they didn’t really want to help me out either.

“You promise?”

Did I promise? Did this kid think I looked like the kind of guy who kept promises? I shrugged.

“Sure, kid. I promise.”

“She’s on the second floor. Apartment twelve. The last guy that asked told me he would spot me a hundred. He lied.”

Jesus. Benny had bribed the kids to get her info as well. Out here it was every man for himself, and that bastard knew it. I sighed and fished out a hundred-dollar bill. I had a stash of cash left from before the bust that was going to have to last me until I figured out my next move, and handing any of it over to a punk kid didn’t thrill me. I passed it to the kid and turned to go across the street to the dingy apartment complex.

“Smoking is bad for you. Go buy some groceries, or some new shoes or something.”

“What about the ride?”

“We’ll see, kid. We’ll see.”

I jogged across the deserted street, and stepped over the sleeping bum on the front walk. I pulled open the rusty security door and took the stairs, which smelled like stale beer and something I didn’t want to think too much about, to the second story of the building. The hallway was empty, but I still pulled the hood of my sweatshirt up over my beanie and tried to make as little noise as possible. No one with any kind of common sense was going to open their door to someone who looked like me after the sun went down. Luckily I never met a closed door I couldn’t open, save for the one that kept me separate from my freedom for the last five years.

This apartment was crap, which meant the door was crap. I could have jimmied it open with a credit card, but it also gave under a little pressure from a well-placed shoulder and a hard shove. There was a loud pop and a soft creak but no one stuck their head out of their apartment to see what was going on. Most people who lived in places like this didn’t have anything worth stealing in the first place, and most single girls forced to live like this invested in better locks. I pushed the door open and went to slink inside in the darkness. I knew I was going to scare the shit out of the girl, but surprise was key, and nothing was going to stop me from finding Race.

I had awesome night vision. It came from running around after dark, living my life on the wrong side of the law, and keeping my ass safe in prison. I saw the heavy object flying toward my head before it had a chance to make contact. I heard a soft voice swear and heard a dull thud as whatever it was hit the ground. I dodged around a swinging fist and moved just a fraction fast enough to avoid the static charge of a Taser that was shoved toward my side. I swore, got a hand around a delicate wrist, and twisted the weapon away. I saw her open her mouth to scream and clamped a heavy hand over it. She fought me all the way as I hauled her farther into the apartment.

“You call the cops already?” She nodded vigorously in my hold, which told me she hadn’t. If she had, she would’ve been stalling, buying time for them to get there, because it took forever for the police to show up in the Point.

“I just want to know where Race is. I know you know.”

She went still and stopped clawing at the back of my hand with blunt fingernails. She really did have coppery-red hair, a whole lot of it that was all up in my face as she tried to tilt her head back to look at my face.

“I’m not with the guy in the suit. Race and I go way back. If he’s in trouble, I want to help him, okay?”

I waited for what felt like an hour until she gave a stiff nod.

“If I let you loose, are you going to make me regret it?” She vehemently shook her head in the negative and I felt her hands fall to her sides. She was kind of tall for a girl. When I set her away from me and she spun around to glare at me in the dark, I noticed she just had to tilt her chin a fraction to look me in the eye.

“I’m getting real sick and tired of people thinking they can just bust in here and demand answers from me. Next time, I’m shooting them.”

She was pale, her milky skin a bright shadow in the darkened room. Her hair was a mess of red and gold curls and she had freckles. She looked like a kid. No older than sixteen or seventeen. She also looked like she should be on a farm somewhere in the Midwest. All kinds of earnest wholesomeness poured off of her, and there was no way her baggy jeans and frumpy plaid shirt belonged on someone used to making and taking in this part of the city.

“Get a better lock.”

She glared at me and pushed a handful of that wild hair out of her face.

“Good locks cost money and I still don’t know anyone named Race. So you and your buddy in the suit can still go fuck yourselves.”

Mouthy and brave. That was a dangerous combo when faced with a man who had nothing to lose. I didn’t have time to play games with her, so I took a threatening step forward just as she whirled around to turn on the light. I blinked for a second and saw her mouth tighten as we saw each other clearly. Her gaze locked on my face, but not on the battered and bruised part . . . on the star tattooed next to my eye.

“Carmen called me the second you left the diner. You don’t think when a guy who looks like you comes around we don’t warn each other? Paulie and Marco took down your plate number, and if I don’t flick the lights in five minutes, the cops are getting called and you don’t want to know what’ll happen to your very pretty car.”

I blinked like an idiot. No one ever got the drop on me. Not ever, and this girl, who looked like she should be out on a farm, sure as hell shouldn’t have been able to be the first one to do it.

“Why am I here, then?”

The cops didn’t scare me. Wild kids around my baby did.

She crossed her arms over an entirely unimpressive chest and narrowed eyes that were a pretty, leafy green at me. I tilted my head to the side, because for some reason, I thought she looked vaguely familiar.

“What kind of trouble is Race in?”

“I thought you didn’t know anyone named Race?”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You have four minutes.”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out. I’ve been . . . indisposed up until about eight hours ago. I’m trying to put all the pieces together.”

She bit the corner of her lip and looked even younger. I didn’t know what this chick’s deal was, but I had a really, really hard time seeing her as one of Race’s pieces. He was all about long legs and big boobs with nothing between the ears. This one had the legs but she was obviously sharp, and her figure, from what I could see, was nothing to daydream about. She was too sweet-looking. Guys like Race didn’t do sweet, neither did guys like me, but that was because I never got the chance. Sweet ran the other way when it saw me coming.

“Can you help him?”

“I can try.”

She reached over and flicked the light, green eyes looking up at me.

“You’re Bax, right?”

I tried not to show any surprise at her question. I nodded stiffly. She bit her lip again and started to twirl a bright curl around one of her fingers.

“He told me if anything bad happened, if anyone came looking for him, to say we didn’t know each other. He scared me, but then the guy in the suit showed up with his thugs. I told Race and he freaked out. He told me to lay low, that he would take care of it. He told me if a guy came around, a guy with a tattoo of a star next to his eye, that I should trust him. He told me his name was Bax.”

That was all fine and dandy, but it didn’t help me figure out what kind of mess Race was in or who this chick was and the part she played in it.

“Who are you?”

“Dovie.”

I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest to mirror her pose.

“Who are you to Race?” If she told me she was my buddy’s old lady, I was seriously going to have to question what he had been doing while I was locked up.

She blinked at me and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. She cocked her head to the side and furrowed eyebrows that were the color of rust.

“I’m his sister.”

I stared at her for a full minute before bursting into harsh laughter. It hurt my head, so I rubbed my tired eyes and shook my head at her.

“Lady, I don’t know who you are or what’s going on with Race, but I don’t have time for this. I just spent a nickel in the pen, I need to sleep, need to get laid, and need to figure out what kind of shit Race stirred up. If you don’t want to help me the easy way, fine. I can do the hard way.” I took a step toward her, but she held up her hands in front of her.

“No, I swear. Race is my older brother.”

I swore. “I’ve known Race since I was a kid. He is an only child, Copper-Top.”

She let out a shrill laugh and moved toward the kitchenette that was the size of a closet. She took something off the fridge and handed it to me. The picture was a few years old, but there was no mistaking Race’s elegant good looks or the way he was smiling at the camera with his arm around this strange girl.

“What rich, powerful man do you know that keeps it in his pants? I’m the Hartmans’ dirty little secret, only no one kept it very well and Race came looking for me about four years ago just after I turned sixteen. Different moms, different last names, same asshole father. If you can help Race, I’ll tell you anything you want to know, and if you can’t, I’ll find him on my own. He’s the only family I have and I love him. He saved my life.”

I looked from the photo back to her face. Race was a handsome dude, refined and regal. This girl was basic and ordinary, aside from that hair and her smart mouth. Those green eyes stared at me unblinkingly, and I saw it. It was all in the evergreen gaze that was watching me like a hawk. Race and the copper-top had the exact same eyes.

“You aren’t going to do anything but fill me in. Race is family to me too, which means I’ll do whatever I can to pull his ass out of the fire.”

Hell, I had already done five years for the guy; going toe-to-toe with Novak would be a walk in the park.

CHAPTER 2

Dovie

I HAD BEEN AROUND long enough in the worst parts of town to know the difference between a bad boy and a boy who was just bad. Bad was stamped all across Shane Baxter and it had nothing to do with the star tattooed on his face or the ominous and deliberate way he moved, like a coiled snake ready to strike and eager to fill you with poison before you could blink. His dark eyes were flat, like his emotions had long ago been switched off and he had no interest in tapping back into them. I grew up poor. I grew up where sometimes it was a luxury to just be poor because that meant at least you had a little bit of money. So I had seen that look more than once, but I had never seen it worn in a face you just knew could destroy everything you loved and not even blink a ridiculously thick black eyelash. This was a young man who had seen more—lived more—in his short years than most people did in a lifetime. You survived in his world by being the best of the worst and there was no doubt in my mind that was exactly what Bax was.

Sure, Race had given reassurance after reassurance that Bax was a good guy. That once he was out, he would be able to help my brother fix the situation with Benny and Novak, that he was just a guy who had been handed a hard lot in life and did the best with what he had. But looking at him in my run-down apartment, I could see that Race was way wrong. My brother wasn’t familiar with desperation, with having to suffer without; he couldn’t see what I saw in the man before me, and that was the undisguised willingness to do whatever it took to survive. Five years in prison hadn’t beaten him down when he went in as a scared kid. It had made him stronger, made him a bigger threat, and if I wasn’t mistaken, probably a better criminal. I didn’t want him anywhere near me, but if he was my only option to help Race, I would do whatever it took, give him whatever he wanted. Race was that important to me.

Bax didn’t bother to ask if I cared if he smoked, just lit a cigarette and put it between his lips. The bottom of his mouth was puffy and cracked like he had smacked it on something. His dark eyes roved around my space and I felt like he was taking stock. I hated it. I lived on what I made, I supported myself by working my ass off, and I knew how to live and protect myself in the slums. I wouldn’t let him judge me and find me lacking. He was a convicted felon after all. I might not have had much, but everything I did have I came by honestly.

“What do you know?”

His voice was scratchy, rough, like he didn’t use it often. He walked over to the cracked window and pulled the sheers I had over it away so he could look at the diner across the way. He was probably worried about his precious car.

“Not much. Race showed up at the group home I was dumped off at when the last foster family I lived with moved right after you went away. He told me he was my brother. He gave me the basic rundown on the Hartmans and I realized my father was as much of a nightmare as my mother. Race took me out of a really bad situation, gave me a pretty good life for a brief minute, made us a family, and then he brought me back here to wait.”

“Wait for what?”

I shrugged and flopped down on my ancient couch. “Wait for you, I guess.”

I sent Carmen a text to let her know so far things were okay. I had the entire neighborhood keeping an eye out for the elusive thief with the star tattoo for the last week. It was almost a relief he had finally shown, even if he thought breaking and entering was appropriate. It bugged me that I had missed with the Taser. I needed to spend a couple more sessions at the local Y working on self-defense. A single girl in this kind of neighborhood could never be too safe or take too many precautions.

“I grew up in a town just like this, in a place just like this, but a state over. From what I managed to piece together by listening to Race when I shouldn’t have, Lord Hartman paid my mom off and she was supposed to get rid of me and disappear. She didn’t. Took the money and ran; only she didn’t want me so much as she wanted a fix. I was in the system—foster care, group homes—and Race found me just as I was getting ready to get placed in a notoriously bad home. The dad had grabby hands, mom was a drunk and didn’t care. I wanted to take off, but Race talked me out of it; told me he would take care of me. He bribed the lord to step in and claim his parental rights so I wouldn’t be in the system anymore, and we stayed in the town where my school was at together until I graduated. He never told me why he couldn’t come back to the Point and I got tired of asking. And then a year ago something changed, and he packed us up and moved us here like he was on some kind of mission. Like he had a plan. I felt like I owed it to him to come along without question. He saved me.”

I shook my head and twisted my hands together. “I don’t know what he had going on, but I liked this neighborhood, liked the community college, so I settled in. He kept to himself and kind of skulked around the streets. I thought he was just waiting for you to get cut loose, but then the guy in the suit showed up. He roughed me up a little, scared the hell out of me, and Race went off like a lunatic. I’d never seen him that fired up. I know he went to see Novak. He said he was done being a puppet, that he was done letting other people call the shots. He told me he never forgave himself for what happened to you, and that if you came around I needed to trust you. That was weeks ago, and no one has seen or heard from him since.”

He blew out a stream of smoke and pushed the hood of his sweatshirt back. He had on a black knit hat that made him look like he was up to no good. In fact, everything about him made him look that way. The bruise on his cheek, the black pants and heavy boots, the small tattoo of a cartoon Road Runner on the back of his hand by his thumb, the thick, dark eyebrows over emotionless eyes, and the downturn of a mouth that was too soft and pretty to be on such a hard face. With the obvious power harnessed in his big frame, he was not a guy I wanted to be in a tiny place with on a good day, and I hated—absolutely hated—that he didn’t say anything to me or that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking behind that curtain of black in his gaze.

“He never went to school?”

That seemed like a weird question to take away from everything I had just laid on him, but I had no choice but to play along.

“No. He used his tuition money to support us for a few years. He also pulled me out of public school and put me in private school for my last two years.”

“Altruistic bastard.”

I bristled automatically. “The school I was at had metal detectors, the students and the teachers were armed, and a girl got raped in the locker room. I never knew if I was going to get homework or attacked. It was awful. Race wanted something better, and since Lord Hartman refused to do anything about it, he took it upon himself to.”

“He couldn’t save me, so he decided to save you?”

I had thought the same thing, many, many times, whenever Race brought up his incarcerated best friend. A guy who looked that tough shouldn’t be so sharp. He should be all muscle and no brains. His perceptiveness made him a million times more dangerous in my mind.

“I don’t know what his reasons were and I didn’t care. I had someone who loved me and cared more about me than a hit. He offered me a chance at a normal and stable life; he showed me what family could be. He went to battle with the lord and lady of the manor for me, and I will do anything—and I mean anything—to keep him safe.”

Race was more than just my big brother. He was my hero. He was my savior. He was the only thing in the entire world I couldn’t live without. Money, objects, security—none of it mattered; it was all an illusion. The sacrifices Race had made for me, the way he had swooped in and showed a lonely sixteen-year-old from the way, way wrong side of the tracks that there was more to life than just getting by . . . I could never repay him for that. I would give anything and everything I had to keep my brother safe.

He put out his cigarette on the heavy tread of his boot and pushed away from the window. He pulled his hood back up around his face and walked past where I was still on the couch. When he got a few steps away, he looked down at me. Those eyes of his were just an endless dark void in a face I was sure I would never forget.

“Keep your head down. If Benny or anyone shady comes poking around, call this number.” He rattled off a bunch of numbers I would never remember but I nodded anyway. “If Race makes contact, any kind of contact, tell him I’m out. Tell him to find me, that Novak is my problem, not his. Tell him the slate is and always was clean until I say differently. You got all that, Copper-Top?”

I hated that nickname. Being broke was one thing, being broke and having flaming red hair that everyone wanted to make fun of on top of it was another. However, he was not the type of guy I was going to quibble with over a stupid nickname. In fact, he didn’t look like the kind of guy that took to quibbling, no matter what it was over. He moved toward the door and I jumped to my feet.

“That’s it?”

He looked over his shoulder at me and pulled the rickety door open.

“Unless you know anything that might actually help me, then yeah, that’s it.”

I glared at him. “I meant, what happens now? What do we do to find Race?”

He lifted a dark eyebrow at me and the corner of his mouth pulled down in a frown.

“We do nothing. I hit the streets and make people talk. I need to figure out what Race was working on the back end that Novak wants bad enough to have Benny looking for him. You just let me know if you hear from him.”

He was out the door so silently and quickly I had to scramble to follow him to the stairwell. I was tall and had long legs. He was taller and had longer ones. He also moved like one giant dark shadow against the other ones on the wall.

“I want to help you. I need to help. I owe Race everything.”

From a few steps below he looked up at me where I was nervously hovering. It made me shiver. No one’s eyes should be that cold, that flat.

“He might not be my brother by blood, but he’s my brother just the same, and I know him well enough to know that whatever he did for you, he did because he wanted to, not because he had to. Race loves being the hero.”

I didn’t know how to take that, and by the time I got my thoughts in line, he was already all the way down the steps. I knew if he disappeared, I would never see him again and I couldn’t let that happen. He was my only link to Race, no matter what that meant for me.

“I need to help.”

He looked over his shoulder at me and I knew enough not to follow him any farther.

“You couldn’t even help yourself. You really think you’re going to stop anyone with a Taser and a frying pan?”

I also had a loaded nine-millimeter in a nightstand next to my bed that Race had made sure I knew how to use, but I figured that was information he didn’t need to have.

“I’ve been waiting for you. I knew it was you.”

“And if it hadn’t been me and you missed with the Taser, you would’ve been fucked. Literally. I work better alone. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t need some farm girl slowing me down or messing with my flow.”

I felt my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. I had heard a lot of things about the way I looked, some more flattering than others, but never had anyone insinuated I looked like I belonged on a farm.

“Excuse me?”

He laughed, at least that’s what I think the noise was supposed to be, and jumped down a few more stairs.

“It’s the freckles and the ivory skin. You look like a little girl on the farm. You definitely don’t look like you belong in the inner city, and you sure don’t look like you’re twenty.”

Well, he didn’t look like he was just a couple years older than that, but there was no denying he totally looked like a criminal and all the dark and dangerous things he supposedly was.

“Well, I’ve never been on a farm in my life and I will do whatever it takes to keep Race safe and bring him home, with or without you.”

I wanted to sound strong. I wanted to sound like I would be valuable to him. I didn’t. I sounded scared and unsure. He heard it.

“Without me, Copper-Top.” And then he was gone. Just vanished. Disappeared into the night like the thief he was.

I sighed and went back up to my apartment. I wasn’t worried about any more unwanted visitors. Lester, the homeless guy who lived on the stoop, didn’t let anyone in the building that wasn’t supposed to be there. All I did was bring him a plate of food and pass along a six-pack every now and then and he kept an eagle eye on me. The only way Benny and his goons had managed to find me was because they had ambushed me on an early Sunday morning when Lester took his stinking self to church. They were lucky. I was not. I was also scared.

I was scared for Race—scared for me. And if I was being honest, I was one hundred percent terrified of Bax. I was street-smart. I knew how to take care of myself, but there was nothing in my bag of tricks that made me think I was capable of dealing with a guy like him. He was a very scary wild card, but I needed him. I had never needed anyone in my life before Race showed up at my door.

My cell phone was ringing just as I was twisting the locks shut on the front door, even though I now knew they were useless, thanks to my midnight visitor. I snatched it up and went to the window to wave down at Carmen.

She laughed in my ear and I flopped down on the couch. She was sweet. A single mom . . . Marco and Paulie kept her busy. They were good kids. She was a good mom but this wasn’t a fairy tale, so I knew life was hard for all of them, especially since Marco was thirteen and Carmen was only six years older than me. We tried to watch out for each other, but living like this was every man and woman for themselves, and the sooner you learned that, the better off you were. Expectations were foolish to have. The reality of the situation kept all of us honest and allowed us to form loose bonds with each other.

“So? What did he say?”

I sighed and twisted one of my orange curls around my finger and stared up at the yellowish-tinted ceiling. It wasn’t a great apartment, but it was far from the worst place I had ever lived.

“Not a whole lot.”

“He have any idea where Race might be?”

“No, but he didn’t seem overly concerned that something bad had happened to him either.”

“Your brother told you that he was all kinds of ‘take care of business.’ You should’ve believed him. Race was always up front with you, even when you didn’t want to hear it.”

She was right, so I sighed again.

“He’s not going to be back. I’m not going to know what’s going on. Race could be out there anywhere. Hurt, in trouble, or worse, and I’ll never know.”

She muttered something over her shoulder and there was the clatter of dishes in the background. She got back on the line and sighed.

“This Novak guy is no joke. He’s a bad man and Race told you all along that getting tangled up with him was the worst thing he had ever let happen in his life. I hate to tell you this, honey, but this might just be a situation for the bad guys to outdo each other. Heroes have no place in this kind of fight. It takes nasty to fight nasty, and the word around the Point is that nobody is nastier than Novak.”

I knew Race wasn’t perfect, that he had made a lot of really bad decisions, decisions that had life-changing consequences, but despite that, he was MY hero, and if that meant hitching my wagon to the devil’s black horse to see this through, then that’s just what I would do.

“If Novak is that bad, I don’t understand how some two-bit criminal who’s hardly old enough to drink legally can stand a chance against him. Not only that, how does he have enough clout to do anything about Race? He’s been locked up for the last five years, how does he even have a leg to stand on in this kind of fight?”

Now, having just spent an hour in his presence, I had to admit Bax radiated all kinds of scary, bad things that made me want to believe he could be my brother’s saving grace, but I couldn’t get over those eyes. If he didn’t feel anything, anything at all, how was he going to care enough about Race to find him and help him? I needed to make him understand how important helping find my brother was. No one had more invested in Race’s safe return than me.

“Honey, you heard the way your brother talked about this guy, like he’s some kind of superhero. This guy is your brother’s best friend. They had a bond strong enough that he was willing to go to prison for Race. That means something, Dovie.”

Logically I knew she was right, but I was having a hard time separating fear, adrenaline, and panic from rationality.

“I gotta go. I just had a big group of kids walk in. I wonder if their parents know they’re out this late.” It was said ironically because she knew good and well that Marco and Paulie were anywhere but in bed, sound asleep, where they should be. “I tell you all the time, hon, people are going to ultimately be who they are. If this guy is bad news, then maybe he’s bad enough news to tangle with Novak. You just keep your head up and watch your back. I don’t trust the suit, and I don’t trust a boy with that kind of trouble in his eyes.”

I snorted. “There was nothing in those eyes, Carmen.”

“Oh, honey, if you look close enough, everything is in those eyes. That’s why they’re so dark. They are full. Full of every secret, every promise, and every temptation that can make a good girl do really bad things and enjoy every second of it. Watch yourself, Dove. This could get ugly for you really fast.”

My place had already been broken into twice, a known gangster knew my name and where I lived, and my brother was missing and a convicted criminal was my only hope to find him. It was already as ugly as it could be in my mind. I told Carmen good-bye and walked into my room so I could curl up in a ball on top of the thin comforter. I didn’t like to feel out of control. Ever since I was little, it had been up to me to make sure I survived, that I was safe, that I had what I needed to make it in this world. Race showed up and blew all that to hell. I relied on my brother. I trusted him and I loved him, two things I had never felt for another human being, ever. Not being able to do anything, just throwing all my eggs in the Bax basket, made me nervous and entirely exasperated.

I heard a knock on my front door and roused myself from my moping. It could only be the kids; everyone else lately seemed to think breaking and entering was the best way to get inside my place. I pulled the door back open and looked down at Marco and his younger brother. He was a future badass in the making, no doubt, but he was also a sweet kid who looked out for his little brother and treated me like family because I made him cookies occasionally.

“What’s up?”

He shifted nervously on his feet. “Just wanted to make sure you were all right. That guy isn’t a joke like the guy in the suit was.”

“I know, Marco. It’s fine. He’s gonna try and find Race.”

“I know. He was on the phone when he got back to the car. Man, is that a sweet ride.” Envy colored his tone.

“What was he saying on the phone?” I bit my lip because I shouldn’t be pumping a kid for information, but if Bax didn’t want to let me help him, maybe I just needed to take the choice away from him.

“He was talking about someplace called Spanky’s over in the District.”

The District was where all the working girls lived and worked. It was where all the strip clubs and bars where girls were looking to make ends meet on their backs were at. It was still in the Point, just one more part of what living on the poor side of town brought you.

“What was he saying about Spanky’s?”

Marco looked at me questioningly and I tried to smile reassuringly. My anxiety made it more of a grimace, and he didn’t buy it for a second, but he answered me anyway.

“He asked if a girl named Honor still worked there. He told whoever he was talking to that he would be by tomorrow to talk to her.”

I didn’t know if it had anything to do with my brother, or if he was just worried about getting laid. He did say that was on the top of his priority list at the moment, but I wasn’t sure it was a lead I could let slip through my fingers. I reached out and messed up Marco’s hair. He swore and grabbed Paulie’s elbow to drag him back to his apartment.

“Be careful, Dovie. That guy isn’t someone you want to mess around with.”

If this kid at his age could sense the danger radiating off of Shane Baxter, then maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea to try and insert myself directly in his path. I ran the very real risk of getting run over. Unfortunately, I just didn’t know what other choice I had at this point.

“YOU’RE IN A HURRY to get out of here tonight.”

I looked up at the sound of the voice as Brysen Carter sat down next to me. We were both waitresses at the same corner restaurant that rested right in the part of town where the Point turned into the Hill. I was from one side of the road and she was from the other, but we got along pretty well, and if I was the type to have friends, I would’ve considered her one. She was nice to me, didn’t pry into my business, was always willing to pick up a shift for me if school or my other job called, and she didn’t take crap from anyone. And it wasn’t because she clearly came from money, but because she was petite and pretty and the restaurant was close enough to the Point that it made people think she was easy pickings. They were wrong.

“I am.” I was doing my count-out well before my shift was over and had handed off my last two tables to a new girl. I hated giving up money, but finding Race was what mattered to me most of all, and I could go without hot water for a month if that’s what it took to find him.

“Homework?” She was just being friendly, but I didn’t have the time to get into it. I had no idea when Bax would show up at the club, which meant I needed to get there before he saw and intercepted me.

“No, not tonight.”

My other job was working a few hours a week at a transition home for kids who had grown up like I had. While there were a lot of really good foster homes and people wanting to help out in the world, there were also a lot of really bad ones. I wanted to help. Wanted to give kids the option to have a normal life, like Race had done for me. I went to school at night because I eventually wanted a degree in counseling. I wanted kids in my shoes to have a fighting chance.

“Well, I know you don’t have a date because hell hasn’t frozen over, so where are you off to?”

I looked up at her and rolled my eyes. She was such a pretty girl, I always wondered why she was here and not in some sorority on a campus somewhere. She had a perfectly styled bob that was just the right shade of blond and lighter blond. She had kind blue eyes and a figure that was made for the tight black skirt and T-shirt she wore to work. She was lovely, and genuinely concerned about me but I couldn’t get into it with her. I didn’t need someone else telling me to be careful and to watch my back because Bax was trouble. Message received, universe, the guy was bad news; too bad there was nothing I could do about it. Instead of answering, I cocked my head to the side and lifted an eyebrow at her.

“Do you think I look like a farm girl?”

She stared at me like I had grown horns, and then barked out a laugh. “What? Who told you that?”

I shoved the money and receipts in the bag for the drop and pocketed my tips. “Just this guy. I thought it was crazy.”

She tilted her head to the side and considered me thoughtfully for a second, then tucked some of her blond hair behind an ear.

“Well, you do have this whole wholesome-and-wide-eyed-innocent thing going on, but I know you, so I know it isn’t really who you are. It was probably the clothes ten sizes too big and lack of makeup. Plus all that wild hair you never do anything with makes you look about five years old most of the time.”

Fancy clothes, nice hair, and a made-up face got you unwanted attention in this part of the city. Plus my hair was already a beacon, and I didn’t need anything else to make me stand out.

“That’s what he said.”

“Who is this guy?”

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage. “Just a friend of my brother’s. He stopped by looking for Race and I had to tell him I hadn’t seen him in a while.”

She made a face. For some reason Brysen was not a fan of my brother. They had similar backgrounds and were both slumming it now for personal reasons, but they didn’t click. She was rude to him, and he dismissed her, and it was awkward for me because I genuinely liked her, and I didn’t like very many people as a rule.

“Did he have any idea where Race might be?”

I shook my head and shoved away from the table. “No, but I’m not sure he would tell me if he did. He didn’t strike me as the sharing type.”

“Sounds like the rude type if he called you a farm girl without knowing the first thing about you.”

“You have no idea . . . Look, I’ll talk to you later, okay? I have to go.” I didn’t wait to see what her response was before bolting out the door.

I didn’t have—had never had—a car and when Race disappeared he had taken his car with him. It was just one more reason I was worried about what happened to him because it was a really nice car and the likelihood of someone trying to steal it was as high as the junkie on the corner. I twisted my riotous hair into a ponytail and pulled a slouchy gray hat over the mass. If anyone was going to recognize me, it would be from the hair, and not the nondescript jeans, baggy black sweater, and worn-out Converses I had on. I looked just like every other street kid wandering around, and Bax had seemed entirely unimpressed with my minimal assets as it was, so it wasn’t like he would be looking for me anyway.

Bar after bar. Strip club after strip club. Men and women making a living in a way that had been around since the dawn of time colored every block, every bend in the District. Trying to find a place called Spanky’s when every other joint was named something similar with the same thinly veiled innuendo was a lot harder than I thought it would be. When I finally did locate it, I was loath to go in.

It was neon. It was pink. It screamed debauchery and dirty things. Just standing on the sidewalk made my skin crawl. My life wasn’t pretty and rosy, but I had never been low enough to think that getting naked and selling myself was a way out. I gave myself a mental pep talk and forced myself to open the door. I couldn’t stop from rubbing my hand on the thigh of my jeans after I was inside. It was just as pink and gaudy on the interior. My eyes darted around, trying to figure out the best place to hide out and be unobtrusive, when a hand clamped down on my arm and whipped me around.

“You old enough to be in here, girly?” The behemoth African-American man gave me a little shake. His bald head gleamed under the neon-pink lights and I felt my heart lodge in my throat. Aside from the diamond in his front tooth and the snarl on his face, there was no missing the gun he had snuggled to his side in a leather holster. I was used to violence and the unsavory things that happened in this part of town, but guys with guns was new, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed without making a fool of myself or blowing my shot at checking up on Bax.

“I am.”

“You aren’t here to work or to watch.” It wasn’t a question. “What are you doing here?”

I tried to pry my arm loose, but didn’t get anywhere. “I’m looking for someone.”

That was the wrong thing to say because his ebony brows slammed down and he gave me another little shake. My teeth clicked together and I tasted blood.

“Look, little girl, if your man stepped out on you, that’s your problem. You got a beef with one of the girls, you handle that on your own time and not during working hours. Understand?”

That must be a regular problem if they had this guy here to prevent catfights before they started.

“Run along. Go buy some lipstick or something, and maybe next time your fella won’t have to come looking for a good time down here.”

My pride made me bristle against my will and I pulled on my captured arm again. I was about to tell him to go to hell when the door behind me opened. The brisk night air wafted in, along with an electrical charge that was only carried by a force darker and heavier than the air around it.

“Hey, Chuck. I need to see Honor.” There was no mistaking that rough voice that crackled with authority and cigarette smoke.

“Hold on a sec, Bax. Gotta escort the riffraff out.”

Oh, great. Now, if I had been hoping to slide by unnoticed, there was no chance. I could practically feel those dark eyes burning a hole through the back of my head. My other arm was grasped in a steel-like grip, and I was hauled mercilessly around. My hat went flying and my ponytail sprang free and smacked me in the face. I blew on a curl and met a blazing black stare. The star next to his eye throbbed in time to the muscle twitching in his cheek. It was as terrifying as it was fascinating to watch.

The large bouncer took a step away from me, which sent me falling all the way into Bax. He caught me with his other hand and shook me so hard that my neck made an alarming crack.

“What in the fuck are you doing here?”

“You know her?” the bouncer asked drily.

Bax’s gaze narrowed on me and he gave me a shove that had me scrambling to stay upright on my feet. I felt like a little child being punished for not finishing my dinner. I snatched my hat up and shoved it back on my head and crossed my arms over my chest.

“No. Race knows her.”

“Ahhh . . . well, I have to say, he used to have better taste,” the bouncer drawled, just as drily as before. I wanted to smack him. Too bad he was the size of a house.

“She’s his sister. Lay off.”

“Sorry.” Only the apology went to Bax, not to me. Go figure.

“Honor is on the main stage for five more minutes. I told her you were coming by tonight to see her. She didn’t know you were out.”

“It’s been a busy few days. Just trying to touch base now.”

“That was a raw deal you got, Bax. We were all sad to see you go down for it.”

Bax bit out a bitter-sounding laugh that had no humor in it, and jerked me around to his side.

“I was in the car when the cops stopped me. No getting out of that kind of thing, plus I was a habitual offender. I was lucky all they saddled me with was a nickel.”

“I heard there was way more to it than that.”

Those dark eyes flicked to me and then back up to the bouncer. “You heard wrong. I got busted running cars for Novak. That’s all there was to it. Now I’m out and Novak can go fuck himself. I just want to touch base with Race and get on with my life. Five years is a long time to sit on your hands.”

The bouncer nodded like he understood and I subtly tried to pull myself free. Bax wasn’t having any of it and tightened his grip on me. It hurt, and I think he knew it, if the way those dark eyes narrowed at me indicated.

“Tell Honor I’ll be there in just a second. I gotta handle this first.” This was me, as he turned around and hauled me back out the door. I squeaked in surprise because I wasn’t used to being manhandled, and I wasn’t used to having that kind of unbridled anger directed at me. I minded my own business, I kept my head down, and I stayed out of the way. That was how I survived as long as I had. Getting right in Bax’s way flew in the face of all that, and now this was the consequence.

“What are you doing here? How do you know about this place?”

I wasn’t going to answer that, and I also wasn’t going to let him intimidate me. I yanked free and spun around with every intention of walking away from him. Only I forgot that I wasn’t dealing with just some guy. This guy, he didn’t get ignored or dismissed, and I subsequently found myself backed up against the crumbling brick of the strip club in a scary part of town with an even scarier man all up in my face. I gasped and put my hands around his thick wrists as he hauled me up to the very tips of my toes and got nose to nose with me. The anger in that midnight gaze was hot enough to burn.

“You think you can play games with me, Copper-Top? Do I strike you as the kind of guy that’s carefree and easygoing? Now, I’ll ask once more, and that’s as nice as I get, because if you make me ask again, neither one of us is going to be happy about it. What in the fuck are you doing here?”

Each thick wrist I was holding on to had a matching black-and-gray tattoo of broken links of chain around it. Like he had broken free from some kind of restraint and was set loose to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

“I’m worried about my brother. He trusts you, thinks you can help him. I need to know what you know. Marco heard you say you were going to be here, so I need to be here. I love him.” My voice cracked, and even though I knew it was foolish to show the enemy weakness, I couldn’t stop tears from filling my eyes.

“You have no clue what you’re doing. All you can do is be in my way and make trouble for me. Chuck never forgets a face, so if someone comes sniffing around, he’s going to mention a redhead poking her nose where it has no place being. Go back to school. Go back to the diner. Go back to your apartment. If I can find Race, and it’s not too late, I’ll let you know.”

He let me go and I slid down the wall, my hair snagging on the rough brick. He turned his back on me and I reached out to snag his wrist. I knew desperation, knew the soul-deep burn of want and can’t have, but this was something else.

“Please, Shane. Please let me help you. He’s my brother. I’ll do anything. I’ll give you anything you want. Please.” I had never begged for anything in my life, and I sure as hell had always been too smart to owe a debt to a guy like this, but for Race I would do it. I tried to make him see, tried to put everything I was feeling into my gaze, but those black velvet eyes didn’t so much as flinch. He flicked the tip of his tongue out and let his gaze skate over me from the top of my head to the tips of my battered tennis shoes.

“Are you a virgin, Copper-Top?” I recoiled, because I had no clue what that had to do with anything. I felt heat flood into my face and I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Why? What on earth does that have to do with anything?”

He pulled out a cigarette from the pack in the pocket of his hoodie and lifted a dark eyebrow at me.

“You’ll give me anything? I don’t think you have anything I want, but I was locked up for a very long time. A guy gets lonely.”

I couldn’t tell if he was baiting me or if he was just being mean and outrageous on purpose. I also couldn’t tell if he was serious, which was the worst case.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

He gave a laugh and blew out a stream of smoke. He ran his thumb along the edge of his bottom lip and stepped around me.

“No one calls me Shane. It’s just Bax and that’s why you’ll only be in my way. When you say you’re willing to give anything, you have to mean it. These people, they will take it all, even if it’s something you don’t want to give. Go home.”

His hand was on the door and he was slipping away from me again. I don’t know what spurred me into action, still didn’t know if he was serious or not, but for Race I could do it. I would hate myself, hate this dark and dangerous boy, but I could do it.

“I’m not . . . a virgin, I mean. No one is anymore, so no one can take it, because Billy Clark already did. I gave it up willingly after drinking a stolen bottle of wine when I was sixteen and he told me I was pretty. He was the first boy who ever did that. I’m not scared of you, Bax. I am, however, scared to death for Race. I will do whatever it takes.”

He must have seen the resolve, must have known I wasn’t just going to go away, because he flicked the cigarette he was smoking into a puddle of unidentified liquid and pulled open the door.

“We are both going to regret this sooner than later, Copper-Top. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I felt his eyes burn into me as he followed me back into the strip club. I wasn’t sure what I had just agreed to, or what was waiting for me around the next bend. What I did know, could feel in every cell of my body, was that I had just made an unbreakable deal with the devil and paying up might mark my soul forever.

CHAPTER 3

Bax

SHE SURPRISED ME. THAT was hard to do anymore.

I pushed her, downright threatened her virtue, and she didn’t so much as flinch. She wasn’t my type. I liked girls who played on the same field as me, girls who knew enough not to ask if I was coming back or bothered with being on a first-name basis. Not to mention, all that pale skin and orange hair wasn’t my thing. Although she was prettier today in the neon lights of Spanky’s. Her green eyes were luminous and stubborn as hell, and with all that hair pulled away from her face, I could see high cheekbones dusted with freckles and a pink mouth with full lips that didn’t belong on a chick who looked like a Catholic schoolgirl. She was far less ordinary than I initially thought, but she had an entirely untouched vibe going on that I just didn’t have the time or the patience for. I still couldn’t tell what she was working with under all those ill-fitting clothes, but sweet and soft was not a turn-on, and neither was the obstinate way she was hounding me.

It was clear I wasn’t just going to shake her off. She was bound and determined to have her fingers in everything I was doing to scare up information on Race, and the fact of the matter was, she was safer in front of me than trying to dodge my heels in the shadows. In all honesty, I figured she would see the places I was going, the rough crowd I was dealing with, and back off. If that didn’t work, I would just dangle the threat of raging libido in front of her and hope that did the trick. She didn’t strike me as the type that liked getting down and dirty, but I was a bastard and could push any advantage I had if it got me what I wanted.

All strip clubs were the same. Desperate girls dancing for lonely and depressed men. They smelled like baby oil and cheap booze and I had yet to be inside one where either the customers or the workers seemed like they really wanted to be there. Spanky’s was a little different. The girls who worked there didn’t have to rely on turning tricks or taking the clientele home to make a buck. Ernie, the guy that ran the joint, was on Novak’s payroll and let his guys use the spot to do business and run illegal poker games on the weekends, so the girls were well compensated and often acted like pretty pieces of furniture rather than exotic dancers. Chuck kept a tight eye on the place, and I could see not much had changed since I had left as he escorted me and my tagalong to one of the red velour booths in the VIP section back by the bar.

He was giving Dovie a curious look out of the corner of his eye, and when we got to the booth, I shoved her in the shoulder, totally ignoring her sour look, and took a step to the side when he inclined his head, indicating he wanted a word.

“Since when does Race have a sister?”

“Since I got locked up.”

“They don’t look anything alike. You sure she isn’t one of Novak’s? He’s got everybody looking for your boy. Word is he needs him breathing and is willing to pay major cheddar for him.”

I shrugged a shoulder and rubbed a hand over my shaved head. “She look like she could be rolling with Benny and the boys?” It was asked sarcastically.

He laughed drily. “No, but then again you don’t look like the scourge of the Point either, just like some punk kid.”

I was glad my rep still held water when I needed it to. “It’s the eyes. They both have eyes the color of pine. She seems straight, but if she’s not . . . I’ll handle it.”

He nodded because sentimental I was not. She was already in my way, and if she proved to be anything other than what she claimed, I would make her regret it in ways that would be legendary in a place where bad stuff was the day-to-day norm.

I was going to slide in the booth next to her, where she was watching me with those dark green eyes locked on me in a ferocious glare. Her pretty mouth pursed into an ugly frown when bare arms wrapped around my neck from the back and lips that smelled like cherry candy landed behind my ear. I couldn’t tell because of my hoodie, but I was pretty sure a fine-ass pair of man-made breasts were pressing into my back.

“Long time no see, handsome. I didn’t know you were out.”

Her voice was husky, manufactured that way to make horny men think it was a brilliant idea to give her all their hard-earned money, even if it meant their kids and wives went without.

I turned around and brushed a brief kiss on her heavily made-up lips. It was like kissing a candle, and I tried to give her a hug that was as modest as it could be while I was fully dressed and all she had on was heels and a G-string.

“Just got out. Looking for Race. You see him since he blew back into town?” She looked over my shoulder to where Dovie was practically bouncing up and down in the gaudy booth.

“Who’s the Pollyanna?”

I glanced at her over my shoulder and Dovie went still. Her pale hands flattened on the tabletop and she just stared at me.

“No one. Honor, you and Race had a thing before I went down. I need to find him. I think he’s in trouble.”

The stripper opened her mouth but not before Dovie snorted and interrupted with a matter-of-fact, “My brother was not banging a stripper.”

Well, shit. Honor’s fake lashes fluttered and lowered and I could feel her anger rolling off of all that exposed skin. You didn’t walk into a dancer’s gig and insult her. That was just a house rule in the District.

“Oh, honey, he wasn’t just banging a stripper . . . he was banging a whole fleet of them. Sometimes more than one at a time. When Bax says we had a thing, that just means Race liked me best. Seems to me you would know that if you’re gonna be running around calling him your brother.” She hooked a thumb at Dovie’s scowling face and narrowed her eyes at me. “Really? You get locked up for a minute and you bring this piece around? You forget the way it works out here, Bax?”

I sighed and gave my head a little shake of resignation. “I didn’t forget anything. I just need to know what Race is into.”

She pouted for a minute more and kept up her glare contest with Dovie. Neither was going to win since it was like an apple glaring at an orange, so I waited until the dancer looked back up at me. She switched tactics and broke out in a gigantic fake grin. She batted those plastic eyelashes at me and ran her long nails over the zipper of my hoodie. I lifted a black eyebrow and caught her wrist in my fingers.

“Why don’t you ditch the deadweight and come back after my shift? We can chat, and you know . . . get reacquainted.”

“I’m running on limited time and even more limited patience, Honor. You don’t want either to run out.”

She made a face and flipped her long, reddish-brown hair over her shoulder so I could see the pointed tips of each naked breast where they were rubbing against me.

“All I know is everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking for him. He stopped in when he very first got back to town looking for Ernie. I asked him if he wanted to take a trip down memory lane and he wasn’t interested. He was quiet for a while, we all knew he was back and living in the Point, and then overnight he was rattling Novak’s cage and then he was a ghost. I like Race, we all like Race.” That was said pointedly to Dovie and I heard her suck in a sharp breath. “If I knew anything else, I would let you know, Bax. You know I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”

I considered her for a minute, trying to determine how much was truth and how much was just what she thought I wanted to hear.

“What did he want to talk to Ernie about?”

She shrugged a naked shoulder and ran her hand up and down my arm. Any prolonged contact with a female who was missing her clothes was bound to have an effect on my starved sex drive, but for some reason, I found the twitch in my pants annoying and ill-timed rather than exciting and blood heating.

“I dunno. He didn’t say. He did ask if I saw some guy hanging around, though.”

I went stiff and grabbed her by her upper arms. She gave a little shriek as I pulled her up to the very tips of her cheap heels.

“What guy?” This was important. I could feel it. I was a good thief, a successful criminal, because my instincts very rarely failed me, and whoever Race was asking after was key to his disappearance. I just knew it.

“Bax?”

It wasn’t Honor’s overly sexed-up voice that made me realize not only was I squeezing her hard enough to leave marks, but I was also shaking her like a rag doll; it was Dovie’s much quieter, much more modulated one. I set the dancer down and took a step back.

“What guy, Honor?”

She was scowling at me and starting to walk away, her gunmetal-gray eyes flashing sparks at me.

“You’re still an asshole, Bax. I don’t know how I managed to forget it. It must be because you’ve got that whole dark and dangerous thing going on. I forgot that the dangerous part isn’t any fun. Some rich guy. He was asking about some really rich guy, that’s all I know. If you come back, leave Pollyanna at home, and try to remember I don’t like it rough.”

She flounced away with as much attitude as anyone in ridiculous heels and not much else could muster, and I turned to look down at Dovie. A storm was brewing under her pale skin. I could see it in the hot flush high on her cheeks and the way her green eyes darkened to almost black.

Her fingers curled into fists on the table and she snapped, “No way. There is no way Race was messing around with a piece of trash like that.” I noticed she didn’t have the same illusions about me. I put my own hands on the edge of the table and leaned down so we were almost eye-to-eye. She pulled back a little and I saw her gulp.

“What you think you know and what you actually know are two very different things, Copper-Top.”

“I know my brother.” She was stubborn and I liked the way her pretty mouth set in a firm line. Finding someone with that kind of loyalty in a place like this was rare, even if it was misguided.

I pushed off the table. “You know your brother now; you have no idea who he was then. It’ll make for less disappointment if you keep that in mind. I gotta go find Ernie. Stay put and try not to piss off any more of the dancers.”

She screwed up her face, which I had to admit was cute. Those freckles were starting to grow on me.

“I want to come with you.”

“Too bad. Ernie and Novak do business together, so he’ll see me. You try and stick your nose in there, and you’re gonna find your happy ass stripped and onstage whether you like it or not. Ernie isn’t the most enlightened strip-club owner, if you can imagine that. You just keep your ass in the seat.”

I didn’t really care if she was going to listen to me or not. Chuck would keep an eye on her, and if she wanted to tangle with a bunch of half-naked chicks just trying to make their way in the world, that was her choice. Being a babysitter had never been on my occupational goals list and I didn’t have the time to try and convince her that Race was a person with a past, just like everyone else in the Point. Sure, he came from a shiny and more well-to-do place than the rest of us, but that didn’t mean the undercarriage wasn’t just as rusted out and full of holes, just like the rest of ours. The sooner she saw that, the softer the letdown would be when whatever Race had mucked into got dragged out into the light.

I made my way to the back room, nodding in Chuck’s direction and hooking a finger over my shoulder to indicate I had left Dovie on her own. He tilted his chin in acknowledgment and I went to the office and rapped on the door with a knuckle. I didn’t bother to wait for an invite in.

Ernie was a big, fat slob of a man. He was balding and greasy, had beady little eyes, and was as greedy as he was crafty. My theory was that all guys like him started strip clubs because there was no other way they could see hot chicks naked. Novak loved him because he was malleable and a coward. He paid the big boss whatever he asked and let him use the joint for whatever he wanted. In turn, Novak made sure Ernie was insulated, had a steady line of new girls, rich customers, and an endless supply of blow. It was a relationship that benefited both of them. Not to mention, they were both slimeballs and only operated on the other side of the law. In Novak’s case it was the far, far other side of the law.

Ernie was sitting behind his desk talking on his cell. His bushy brows went up high when he saw me. I offered up what passed as a smile but really was more a baring of teeth and leaned back against the closed door with my arms crossed over my chest. My intent was clear. Unless I got the answers I wanted, no one was going in or coming out of the office without going through me first.

“Ernie.”

“Well, if it isn’t Novak’s golden boy back from the joint. I heard you might be poking around. Trying to hit up on your old girls. Five years is a long time; most of them moved on by now.”

Which really meant most were strung out, got smacked around one too many times, or got too old to bring in the revenue. This guy was a class act all the way.

“I’m looking for Race.”

“You and every other SOB in the Point. Don’t know why he had to show back up and stick his neck out. He had a good thing going with you locked up. Out of sight, out of mind. Now his dumb ass is on everyone’s mind and nobody is happy about it.”

“Honor said he was asking after some moneybags. Who was it?”

“Why should I tell you shit? You went away, kid. You don’t have any pull around here anymore. The way things went down with you and Novak . . . shit, you’re lucky to be breathing.”

I narrowed my eyes just a fraction and let my mouth kick up on the side in a grin that had sent far more dangerous men headed in the opposite direction.

“Novak isn’t here. I am. You really want me to get the answers out of you the hard way? You want to find out all the ways I dreamed up for payback while I was locked up?” I pushed off the door and started to stalk toward the desk.

Ernie pushed back the chair that looked like it was going to snap under his bulk. I saw a fine sheen of sweat break out on his bald spot. I might not have pull, but I sure as hell had push.

“Look, I don’t know who the guy was. Race had a picture, like one out of a newspaper or something. One of those fancy society pages. He was all worked up over it. Demanding to know if the guy had been in here. I told him I had no idea, and he put his fist through the wall.”

He indicated a spot that was covered with a raunchy picture of a girl spread-eagled on a bed.

“He didn’t use the guy’s name?”

“No. I told him I didn’t share Novak’s business with anyone, but that Mr. Fancy had been in on poker night more than once. Not alone either. He brought his own entertainment, if you know what I mean.”

I scowled as Ernie leered at me.

“Race didn’t say what he wanted with the guy?”

“No, but shortly after that, Benny and the boys went and roughed up the chick he was shacking up with. Sent him over the edge. Always thought Race was a smart guy, but then he marched into Novak’s compound, making threats and talking crazy. You don’t tell a man like Novak his time is coming to an end, not unless you want to end up in the ground. Boy wasn’t as smart as I thought.”

I didn’t like the sound of any of that. Race was smart and he knew not to make idle threats. If he had something on Novak big enough to sink an entire criminal empire, it was no wonder he was off the grid, and it explained why Novak had all his minions looking for him. I didn’t understand the timing, why he was back, why he had waited until I was loose to make his move, and I had no clue what he had in his bag of tricks that he thought he could hold over Novak. It was starting to make me uneasy. I didn’t do uneasy.

“The guy he was looking for, he have business with Novak?”

Ernie snorted and tapped his too-long fingernails on his desk. “Like I told your boy, I don’t discuss Novak’s business. That’s why I’m still here and why I got all the best girls. You saw Honor; she miss you? I always heard those girls had a thing for you. I think you broke a couple hearts when you got busted.”

The girls liked me because I got what I was after and left them in peace. I didn’t want to hang around and bitch about my day or discuss my work, I just wanted to get off and go home. Fortunately for them, I was fairly considerate in the sack. I always tried to make sure I gave as good as I got, unless I was in a hurry.

“Right now Novak’s business and my business are one and the same. Tell me what you know, Ernie.”

I cracked my knuckles and let my hands curl into fists as he lumbered to his feet and leaned on the desk.

“Saw that you brought Race’s redhead in with you. I don’t know what it is about that girl that has you boys all in a lather, but I think Benny and his boys would love to know you somehow managed to hook up with her right after Race disappeared. Maybe, just maybe, she’s the key to getting him to pop back up.”

I didn’t like being threatened. I liked him threatening a seemingly innocent young woman even less. Dovie might live the hard life, might be familiar with the sacrifice and struggle it took to live on this side of the fence, but everything about her was soft and untouched. She didn’t need Ernie or Benny dirtying her up.

It took two steps and a single lunge to get Ernie around his sweaty collar. He swore at me and I used all my upper-body strength to pull his flabby bulk over the desk. He didn’t have the strength or the leverage to fight me as he swore and scraped at my wrists to get purchase.

“She is off the table. Do you understand?”

He swore at me again and tried to knee me in the balls. A totally pussy move by a guy who had others do his dirty work.

“I don’t have pull, Ernie, but I still have a temper. You might want to pass along to Benny and to Novak when you see them that nobody wants to be on the wrong side of it after five years on the inside. That’s a really long time to stew in your own fury.” I gave his hefty body a violent shake, which had his teeth snapping together. “What was the rich guy’s business with Novak?”

“I don’t know. He wanted something done and came looking for someone to handle it. If he was looking in the Point, it wasn’t something legal, and Novak never met a rich person he didn’t want to exploit and have in his back pocket.”

I stared at him hard, until I determined he was giving me as much information as he had. I shoved him away and took immense satisfaction in watching him hit his office floor assfirst. He swore and glared up at me as I went to pull the door back open.

“You’re useless now, Bax. You aren’t in the game anymore, and Novak thinks you’re a loose end. Your days are numbered. You might want to consider how you want to spend your last days. Race let you go away without a fight. Novak would’ve let you burn. Any normal guy would walk away, hook up a few times, and go out with a smile. Why you gotta stir shit up and piss everyone off?”

This time when I smiled, it actually had humor in it.

“It’s what I’m best at. If you hear anything about Race, you better pass it along, or our next visit will be far less enjoyable for both of us.”

In the hallway, I rolled over what Ernie had told me. Race came from money. His family was tied into a lot of really wealthy families and charities on the Hill. He knew a lot of really powerful men from his life before. He could’ve been asking about any one of them and if the guy he was asking about was in Novak’s pocket, that meant whatever he wanted done was big and all kinds of bad. It was a shame I couldn’t just go to the source and ask. If I got in a room with Novak, one of us wasn’t coming out alive and I wasn’t cocky enough to automatically assume I would be the one walking away unscathed.

“Hey, Bax. Benny and his boys just rolled in and headed right for your redhead. You didn’t tell me you broke the old guy’s nose. Bet he was pissed.” I liked Chuck. He was a solid dude who just followed orders, and I think he was a pretty good judge of character.

I pointed to my black eye. “He sucker-punched me not even a minute after I got my first taste of pussy in longer than I want to think about. He’s lucky the only thing I broke was his nose.”

“I always said none of those boys knew what they were doing messing around with you. Even when you were a kid, you were still twice as scary as the lot of them together.” Chuck sounded proud of that fact.

I lifted an eyebrow and nodded.

“I tried to tell them that. They never wanted to listen.”

I made my way back into the club and immediately saw Benny and two of his guys hovering at the edge of the booth where I had left Dovie. Honor caught my eye and gave me a wink from the stage. I rolled my eyes and shoved past Benny to slide back in the booth next to the redhead.

Those eyes, so green and leafy-colored, were hard, but I could see the fear lurking in the darker veins. I didn’t want to know exactly what Benny had done to her last time, but I wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t going to put his hands on her again without facing blowback from me. I pulled her so that she was flush up against my side. I ran a hand across the back of her neck and got a fistful of all that orange-red hair. The curls were soft and springy where it was gathered up off the elegant curve of her face. Her freckles were dark against the pale canvas of her skin and her mouth looked like all the things I had dreamed about while I was locked up. She wasn’t going to like what I was about to do, but I hoped she was smart enough to just roll with it. If not, it was every man for themselves and she could figure out her own way to get Benny to leave her alone. I didn’t need her to like me or respect me when all this was said and done, I just needed her to do what I wanted and stay out of my way while I handled business.

I brushed my thumb along the full sweep of her lower lip and saw her eyes widen in a flash of understanding right before I claimed her mouth with my own. I held her still with the hand I had wrapped around the back of her neck and held her face with my other hand so she couldn’t jerk away and set Benny off. She was stiff as a board and her hand was digging into my thigh like a claw. I was right, though; she was every kind of sweet and unsullied. She tasted like fresh strawberries and purity, and good God, that mouth, I could press my own to it forever and never get tired of it. The last thing she needed was a guy like me pawing at her. She didn’t open her lips, didn’t let me invade the moist heat of her mouth with my tongue, which I totally would have taken advantage of and done if she’d let me. It was probably a good thing. If Honor’s little bump and grind had elicited an unwanted erection, this closed-lip, virginal kiss with this bothersome girl had me ready to come in my jeans like a kid. I couldn’t feel anything other than the plush press of her mouth against my own, but it was erotic and a total turn-on, which was just one more surprise Race’s little sister had in store for me. I could only imagine what it would be like if she loosened up and actually let me kiss her for real.

I grinned against her pursed lips and licked the tight seam for good measure. I felt her tremble, in either desire or annoyance, and I didn’t care which. When I pulled back, I winked at her and saw that she was glaring daggers at me. I squeezed her neck in warning and turned to look at Benny with a smirk.

There was no missing the black-and-purple bruising around the white bandage that covered the bridge of his nose. He looked pissed.

“I think it’s an improvement.” I nodded at his battered face and grinned just to get a reaction.

He growled at me and I moved Dovie so she was pressed all along my side. She didn’t want to relax, and that wasn’t going to do anything to sell that I was into her to Benny. Not to mention she wasn’t my normal type, so chances of him buying it were slim already.

“Your buddy is gonna crawl out from under his rock sooner or later, Bax, and then you’re all mine.”

“You gonna sucker-punch me again, Benny? Might be harder now that I know you’re coming.”

His gaze flicked to Dovie and then back to me. “Picked up right where your boy left off? There really is no honor among thieves.”

I snorted. “Well, we all know Race owed me. And like you said, five years is a long time to go without. I’ll take my payback however I see fit.” I tilted my head in Dovie’s direction and tried not to grunt as she dug the pointy tip of her elbow into my ribs.

“Why her? I’ve seen the girls you usually roll with. She doesn’t fit the bill.”

I lifted an eyebrow and looked at her sideways. I could literally see where she was biting the inside of her cheek to avoid saying anything. She was pretty cute when she was indignant and put upon. Just to aggravate her a little more, I snatched her slouchy hat off her head and snapped the elastic band holding her hair back off her face. The red waves sprang free like they were escaping from jail.

“I’ve lived in grime and filth for my whole life. Maybe now I want something clean and unblemished by this life. Don’t pretend like you know me, Benny. You never did.”

“I’m starting to think this girl has something magical going on. First Race and now you. Maybe I’ll have to give her a spin to see.”

He wanted me to react, to get mad, so he could have his goons work me over and pay me back for his nose, but I wasn’t stupid, and this was a game I had written the rules to, so I just reclined in the booth and pulled Dovie with me. She put a hand on my stomach and looked up at me under her rusty-colored eyelashes. She wasn’t happy, but she was smart enough not to fight me.

“You can try. A couple of black eyes and a crooked nose will be a picnic after I’m through with you if you do it, but you’re more than welcome to push your luck.”

He grimaced and pulled his pants up with a jerk on his oversize belt buckle.

“Maybe she wants to try a man on for size instead of a boy. Roxie said you forgot all about what a woman wants while you were gone.” He turned to Dovie. “How about it, sugar? Wanna give ol’ Benny a try?”

His leer was enough to make me want to punch him in the nose again, not to mention the fact that he was actually stupid enough to proposition a girl he had just recently knocked around. What a douchebag. I was going to tell him to piss off, to just leave her the hell alone, but I didn’t get the chance because she grabbed my face with both hands and pulled me down so she could kiss me.

There was no closed-lip, restrained press of mouth against mouth this time. Her quick little tongue darted between my surprised lips and stroked across my own. Her fingers curled into the side of my face, rubbing over the black star inked at the corner of my eye and around my neck, and every breath she took I breathed in and felt like she was trying to give me something I had never had before. I nipped the inside of her bottom lip with my teeth and pulled her closer so I could show her what happens when I kissed someone like I meant it. By the time she finally pulled back, her already-full lips were puffy and devoured-looking and her dark green eyes were almost as black as my own. Her chest was rising and falling in a rapid rhythm, and all we could do was stare at each other. Kissing wasn’t a big deal; in fact, it was normally boring and just a motion I went through to get to the main event. This wasn’t boring at all, and now I really, really wanted to know what she had going on under those ugly, baggy clothes.

She blinked at me and tossed a saucy grin at Benny and his boys that looked all wrong on her innocent face.

“I’m good. He’s better, so no thanks.” She dropped her head on my shoulder and batted her eyelashes up at me. I had to bite down a laugh.

“You heard her. Move along, Benny. Stay out of my way and watch your step.”

“You always were too sure of yourself, Bax. It’s gonna blow up in your face.”

I shrugged and grabbed Dovie’s hand to pull her out of the booth behind me.

“I’m surprised it hasn’t already, but it’s going to take someone bigger and badder than you or Novak to do it.” I pulled Dovie out of the booth and pushed past the goon closest to me while tucking her under my arm. I gave Benny one last look over my shoulder. “You know how I drive, Benny. Stay out of my way or you and all your boys will get run over.”

I pushed my luck and guided my companion out the front door with a hand on her surprisingly firm ass. I needed to see this girl in clothes that actually fit her. Chuck stopped us at the door and I gave him the obligatory fist bump.

“Lemme know if my little visit stirs anything up. I need to find Race.”

“Oh, it’s going to stir shit up, which I’m pretty sure was your point, son. You better watch your back with Benny. He didn’t get to be Novak’s right hand by being reasonable and forgiving.”

“I got this, Chuck. I have five years of ‘fuck you’ pent up and it’s all directed at Novak and his crew. I’m not going anywhere until he knows exactly what I think about how that last job went down. I just need to make sure Race is okay and not playing at something too dangerous for him to handle alone.”

“I’ll keep an eye out. I take it you don’t want the boys to know Little Miss Sunshine is related to him?”

“No. Let them think she was just a piece on the side. It’s safer for her that way.”

“Playing with fire by sticking your tongue down her throat. Benny thinks she means something to you, he’s gonna get ideas.”

“Good. Let him. Come on, Copper-Top, let’s get you tucked into bed all safe and snug.”

I didn’t miss that she recoiled from my touch and walked as far away from me as she could on the sidewalk when we got outside. I had to hide an amused grin as she glared at me. That red hair wasn’t a lie. She was all kinds of fiery and full of fight. I shouldn’t like that nearly as much as I did, and I shouldn’t want to see her in my car, but that’s exactly what I was thinking as I led her silently to the Runner.

CHAPTER 4

Dovie

I WAS SHAKING. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, anger, adrenaline, or the fact that Bax didn’t seem to think posted speed limits and things like stop signs applied to him or his loud, wickedly fast car. I checked my seat belt every few seconds and gripped the dash in front of me with fingers that were white. We hadn’t said a word since leaving the strip club. He hadn’t mentioned what happened when he went in the back, the brush with Benny, or the fact I had practically mauled him in front of the sleazy mobster.

That was so unlike me. I was reserved, shy even, when it came to the opposite sex. I never trusted their motivations and I had seen too many girls my age knocked up and abandoned because of pretty words rattled off a talented tongue. I didn’t want that for myself. I tried to make smart choices, choices that would eventually lead me out of places like the Point. That meant most boys who came from the streets were boys I didn’t waste my time on. Not to mention I dressed like a boy most of the time and didn’t bother to doll up. It wasn’t like they were pounding down the front door to get after me . . . but that kiss with Bax was different.

When he had kissed me for show, I knew it was an act, a way to stake his claim and get the guy in the suit to back off. His nearly midnight gaze never wavered and it was like pressing my mouth against the unrelenting surface of a statue. Sure, he tasted like enticement and all the things dark and dangerous that oozed out of him, but it was all a game to him and I could feel it. I wished that had been enough to stop my skin from tingling and my lips from desperately wanting to spring open and pull him in. Being kissed by a guy like Bax for whatever reason was enough to mess with my already spinning head, and I didn’t like it, so when Benny had pushed, I needed to take the control back.

Only it backfired, and kissing Bax for real was like getting sucked into a vortex of desire and not being able to tell up from down. The guy had skills. He had a touch. It was no wonder tramps across town were bummed about his recent incarceration. Everything about him screamed that he knew his way around a good time and anyone would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to have one with him.

I couldn’t hold back a gasp as the muscle car squealed around the corner of the street in front of the diner and whipped into the parking lot. He drove like he was running away from the police, and even though the car stood out like a sore thumb, no one, the police included, seemed inclined to stop him.

“Christ! Are you in a hurry?” I didn’t mean to sound terrified, that wasn’t how I wanted him to think of me, but it couldn’t be helped.

He grinned in the dim interior of the car and I watched the way it made that star on his face crinkle up on the edges. It shouldn’t make him attractive—it was impossible to miss and screamed “troubled-and-trouble”—but it was hot. I hated to admit it, but he was all sorts of sexy felon. God, what was wrong with me? That kiss had made me stupid.

“I need to take you home and hit up a couple other places. Race say anything to you about a rich guy tied into Novak?”

I scowled at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “If you’re going someplace else, then I’m going with you. I thought that was the deal.”

He looked at me, and I sucked in a breath as he leaned over me and shoved open my door. He smelled like lingering cigarette smoke and cheap perfume from the half-naked girl who had dry-humped him.

“There was no deal. I have things to take care of not related to Race. My entire life was put on hold for years. I’m trying to put it back together and find your brother at the same time. Plus, girls who kiss with their mouths closed aren’t really my thing.”

He smirked at me as I snapped the seat belt off.

“I think anything with a heartbeat and a vagina might be your thing.”

He leaned back and put his arm along the back of the seat. His dark eyes glittered against the darker interior of the car. They were like raw pieces of onyx, polished and put in his brutally attractive face. I wondered how he got that scar that bisected the dark stubble of hair on his scalp.

“Two things I’m particular about. My ride and my women.” He winged an eyebrow up at me and kicked his mouth up into a half grin. “I like both to run smooth and be easy to handle. Neither of those things applies to you, Copper-Top. Even if I need a quick fix, I don’t tangle with complicated pussy.”

I was going to snap a retort at him when I shrieked and spun around because a heavy hand landed on my shoulder and pulled me the rest of the way out of the car. I stifled a scream when I looked into Lester’s dirty and slightly deranged face. I put a hand to my racing heart, but before I could catch my breath, Bax was out of the car and between me and the veteran. I wanted to warn him that Lester wasn’t quite right, but he pushed me back so I was behind him and shoved Lester back with a hand on his chest. Lester stumbled a little and screwed his face up.

“Dovie?”

I grabbed Bax’s elbow and tugged until I could peek around him.

“Sorry, Les. This is Bax. Remember I asked you to let him come up into the building last night? He’s friends with Race.”

“He tried to break in?” Lester’s mind had gaps. Carmen thought it was from too much acid in the seventies. I thought it was from the war, but regardless, he carried a machete under his dirty overcoat and wasn’t scared to use it.

“Yes . . . well, no. He’s trying to find Race. He’s okay, all right, buddy?”

Lester and Bax had a standoff going on and I was scared one of them was going to get hurt before the other backed down.

“Why are you over here, Les? You never leave the stoop after dark.”

I tried to keep my voice soothing and mellow. Unwittingly I leaned my weight into Bax’s side, trying to show Lester that he was okay, not a threat. What a load of bull that was. I had never met any one single person in my life who broadcasted that he was a threat like this guy.

“Bad things. Too many people. They made me leave. Gave me a bottle of whiskey.”

“What kind of bad things, buddy?”

His wild eyes skimmed over me and then over Bax.

“Good he’s here. Good, good.”

I shivered and looked up at Bax, who was frowning and trying to follow Lester’s broken thinking pattern.

“Why did they give you whiskey, Les? Help me out here, big guy.”

“Don’t go home, Dovie. Bad things. You watch her. She’s a sweet girl.”

Lester nodded, like his business with us was done, and stumbled back toward the apartment building. I was full of apprehension, and shivered involuntarily.

“He’s a disabled vet. No one—and I mean no one—goes in or comes out of the building without his okay. The only time he leaves the stoop is for church on Sunday morning and if he gets the chance to go on a bender. He’s good people.”

“What did he mean by bad things?”

I sighed and shoved my seriously tangled hair over my shoulder. “I don’t know, but I have a really bad feeling I’m about to find out. Don’t let me keep you from your nightly conquest. I expect to hear from you tomorrow if you’ve got anything on Race. I expect you to keep your word, Bax.”

He grabbed my elbow and started hauling me mercilessly across the street. I struggled a little at first until I realized he was going up to the apartment with me. I really didn’t want to face whatever might be waiting for me up there alone.

“I always keep my word, Copper-Top. That’s not something you have to worry about with me.”

Great. He had already insinuated that if I kept getting in his way and making things tricky for him, he would use me in a way I couldn’t even imagine. I had never offered my body as a bargaining chip before, and I had no desire to start now. But I sensed he would push me if it got him what he wanted. He wasn’t scared of coming across like a total scumbag; in fact, I think he kind of liked it.

I pressed up against his back as we skulked up the stairs to my floor. He was all hard lines and coiled strength. I didn’t know how a guy as big as he was moved so silently. He just melted into the shadows and darkness around us. I felt clumsy and awkward behind him.

“Shit.” The swearword was breathed out more than spoken when we rounded the corner where my apartment was.

I guess I really should have put a move on those new locks because the door was standing wide open, and even from where I was partially hidden behind Bax, I could tell I didn’t really want to see what was inside.

“Benny?” My voice quivered a little.

Bax shook his dark head and I felt the muscles I was leaning against tense.

“No. Destruction isn’t his style. This was Novak, though. He wants me to know he has eyes on me. He waited until we were together to do this, not while you were here alone.”

He swore again.

“You have anything in there you absolutely need?”

I bit my bottom lip. “My stuff for school.”

He sighed and ran his hands over his head. “If this was a typical turn and burn, I doubt anything really made it. You can check, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

I was shaking. I seemed to be doing a lot of that tonight.

“The good thing about going without much is that there isn’t much to get attached to. Let me see what I can salvage and I’ll call Carmen to see if I can crash with her and the boys for a few days.”

He gave his head a violent shake. “Too close. You need to get farther away.”

I snorted. “Where do you suggest? This is the Point, not grammar school. I don’t have a hoard of besties in my back pocket to pull from in an emergency. The only other person I can rely on in the world is missing, in case you forgot, so Carmen’s will have to do.” Not that I was thrilled with the prospect of bringing any kind of danger to her door.

He sighed and his hands opened and closed into fists.

“I have a place I can take you for a few days.”

I barked out a laugh and tucked some hair behind my ear. “No, thanks. I’ve had enough of strippers and prostitutes for one night. Carmen’s will be fine.”

He glared down at me and started hauling me toward the door, which was hanging drunkenly off its hinges. Turn and burn indeed. Nothing escaped unscathed. My clothes, pots and pans, the stuff in the fridge, anything that wasn’t tied down was on the floor. The couch was upside down, the curtains were ripped off the broken window, and sure enough, every single book and piece of paper that was in the messenger bag I used for school was tossed and thrown all across the floor. It looked like someone had put the entire mess through a wood chipper. Disaster didn’t even begin to cover it. All I could do was stand there and try and take it in with my mouth hanging open.

“Come on. There’s nothing you can pull out of this mess.”

He sounded gruff and angry. When I numbly looked up at him, I was surprised to see black fire glowing in his eyes. I don’t know how I, for one second, ever thought those pitch-black orbs were emotionless. I felt like whatever rage was burning in them was tied to the very core of his corrupted soul.

I picked my way across the floor as delicately as I could to peek inside the tiny bedroom. It wasn’t like I had very much stuff or any kind of quality wardrobe, but what I did have was shredded and tossed around the room like fabric confetti. Whoever had done this had taken their time and enjoyed every second of it. I shook my head and jumped a little when Bax grabbed my arm from behind.

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t struggle and didn’t argue when he dragged me past Carmen’s apartment and back down the stairs. There was no way I could put her and the kids at risk. This was my problem . . . well, Race’s problem, but since he was now literally all I had left in the world, it was my burden to figure out. If Bax wanted to dump me with one of his lady friends for a few days, I would just have to deal with it. My next shift at the restaurant was in a couple days and I would just ask Brysen if I could hang out at her place for a while. I was pretty sure she would be okay with it. That only solved one immediate problem. I had no idea what I was going to do about my schoolbooks or finding money to buy an entirely new wardrobe.

I felt like a rag doll as Bax ushered me back into his black-and-yellow monster and strapped the seat belt on around me. All I could do was stare blankly at him as he rounded the hood and slid in next to me. The engine sounded as angry as he looked as he peeled out of the parking lot and headed farther into the Point. It was well past midnight now, and nothing good ever happened here when the sun went down. I should demand to know where we were going, what his plan was, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy to care. I closed my eyes and tried to remind myself that Race had saved me, had changed my life, so little inconveniences like a totally trashed apartment and a disturbingly hot make-out session with a criminal were just small sacrifices I could suffer through in return.

I was brooding and lost track of time, so when the car pulled to a stop on the street in front of what looked like an abandoned warehouse, it could have been an hour or five minutes later. I rolled my head over to look at Bax, but he was already pocketing the keys and climbing out the door.

“Where are we?”

He gave me a weird look, like he suddenly remembered I was there, and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head.

“You can wait in the car. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I looked around the area where we were parked and threw open my door. No place in the Point was exactly safe, but just like in every bad part of any city, there were some areas that were worse than others. This was one of those places, and I had had enough of feeling rattled and shaken for one night. Right now, sticking by Bax was the only thing giving me a modicum of security.

“I’ll just go with you.”

He sighed and lit up a cigarette. It was a nasty habit, but considering the guy stole things for a living, I guess there were far worse things he could be lighting up in my presence.

“Just stick close, I mean in-my-back-pocket close. I need to talk to a guy about some money he owes me.”

“It can’t wait until later?” I was emotionally exhausted. I didn’t know how all this stuff after dark didn’t wear him out. It was like an entirely different life in the shadows.

“No.”

Nothing more and nothing less. Just “no.” Clearly prison hadn’t offered Bax any kind of awesome communication skills. I just grumbled at him under my breath and trudged along behind him down a set of stairs that looked like they were going to collapse under our weight. In fact, the staircase was so rickety and dilapidated, I put a hand on the back of his sweatshirt so if we went down, there was a chance I could land on him instead of the concrete below. This was creepy and didn’t look like anyplace I wanted to be, but Bax acted like he knew just where he was going, so I dutifully followed along.

At the base of the stairway there was a bare lightbulb hanging over a metal door that was painted bright purple. It looked like the service entrance to the warehouse, but Bax punched in a numerical code on the little box to the side and the door swung open under the flat of his hand.

“What is this place?” I didn’t really expect an answer, but he looked over his shoulder at me, most of his face obscured by the hood.

“Just a bar.”

I couldn’t contain an eye roll or the sarcasm that colored my tone as he guided us down a narrow hallway toward the sounds and smells of what indeed seemed to be a bar.

“A bar doesn’t have a secret entrance down a back alley and a password to get in. A bar has PBR signs on the window and tired girls cocktailing the floor.”

He grunted. “It’s not that kind of bar.”

Loud electronic music was making the ground shake under my sneakers, and when we rounded a corner to finally come into a big, open space, which was obviously the old factory floor of the warehouse, we were in what definitely was not that kind of bar.

Neon lights swirled all around from the exposed metal rafters. Girls of all nationalities, in outfits more suited for a strip club or hip-hop video, were on platforms spread throughout the space dancing and writhing to the loud music. There had to be no less than two hundred people milling about. All of them holding drinks, smoking something other than cigarettes, and gyrating to the electronic thump and bass of the music. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before and totally not where I would picture Bax spending his time. It was too bright, too colorful, a complete sensory overload that made my head hurt and my eyes twitch.

“What are we doing here? My brother is still missing, my apartment is trashed, and I’m tired and cranky. Do you really think this is the best time for a rave?” I had to shout to be heard over the music.

He cut me a look and caught my wrist and dragged me over to where the bar was. He leaned on the Lucite bar top and hollered at the bikini-clad bartender, “Where’s Nassir?”

She was busy pouring drinks and looked like she was going to ignore him for a second. He lowered his hood and I saw her eyes flicker over that star inked on his face. It made him so identifiable. She wiped her hands on a bar towel and pointed to a set of wrought-iron stairs that coiled up behind the brightly lit bar.

“Up in the VIP section.”

He jerked a nod and dragged me along behind him. I tugged on my wrist to try and get free but he only curled his fingers tighter. I was getting sick and tired of being yanked around by this guy. In every sense of the word. I felt like I had been tangling with him for months—not just a few short days.

The VIP section was the converted catwalk of the factory. It was all metal and chains and looked like it was about to fall to the ground at any second. It was a good thing I wasn’t scared of heights because there was nothing but a twisted chain barrier between the edge of the metal platform and the drop to the dance floor below. Once again I gulped and scooted closer to Bax’s back. He stalked through grinding bodies, not stopping even when a couple called out to him or tried to stop him. He was clearly on a mission and nothing was going to deter him, not even me having a mild panic attack as I noticed that the entire platform moved and flexed with all the weight on it.

We made our way to a raised section at the very back of the platform that had several tables with black satin covers on them. It was less populated back here, and Bax headed straight for the table where a very good-looking man of obvious Middle Eastern descent was seated. He had a chilled bottle of champagne on the table in front of him as well as an open laptop. There was a really pretty blond girl seated on his right and an even prettier brunette seated on his left. Both girls were trying to get his attention, but whatever was on the computer had his undivided focus until Bax pulled out the chair opposite him and plopped down.

He let go of me finally, and I was at a loss as to what to do besides hover uneasily over his shoulder. I didn’t belong in a place like this with a guy like him. I was uncomfortable and doing nothing to hide the fact. The girls were watching me with curious eyes, and all I could do was fidget nervously with one of my curls.

The gorgeous man with the olive skin and jet-black hair lifted his head and skimmed his eyes over Bax and then flicked them to me. He offered a grin that literally made my heart trip over itself and I knew I was blushing.

“I heard you were out. Figured you would find your way here. It’s good to see you, Bax. Hard time looks good on you.”

“You have my money?”

The guy’s gold eyes drifted up to me and I felt like he was looking right inside of me. I felt my breath hitch. Wow, that was some powerful mojo he was working with. No wonder he had two supermodels fighting for his attention.

“I do, but I think I have a better option for you. It looks like you bulked up in the joint. What are you pushing now, two-eighty, two-ninety? You can hold your own with some of the big boys. Why don’t you let me set something up, double or nothing, and I’ll only take a fifteen percent cut instead of my normal twenty.”

“You actually gonna set up something clean, Nassir? I told you before that last fight you set up before I got locked up that I’m not playing with amateur hour. I don’t have any time for it.”

“Out only for a minute and already back to making demands. You always did have balls the size of watermelons. I’ll keep it as clean as I can.”

“Do you actually have fifteen grand on hand to go double or nothing?”

I felt my eyes pop wide. I had no clue what they were talking about, but fifteen grand was a lot of money. Who in the hell was this guy my brother considered his best friend, and what kind of life had Race been living before he rode to my rescue?

“I’ve never shorted you, Bax. I’m not a stupid man.”

Bax gave a jerk of his head and cast me a look out of the corner of his eye.

“You see Race around since he came back to town?”

The dark-haired man turned back to the computer he had in front of him. “No. He never cared for how I did business. I haven’t seen him since he asked me to track down someone for him. That was a month before your arrest.”

Bax climbed to his feet. “Who did he ask you to track down?”

The man waved a hand dismissively. “Some girl. He was very intent about it. I found her over in Carlson and passed the info along. He was supposed to owe me a favor, but I never saw him again, and then you got busted, so he was no use to me anyway. I heard Novak was frothing at the mouth to locate him, though, so I’m not surprised you’re asking or that he’s nowhere to be found.”

My heart was thudding loudly in my ears, and I think I might have toppled over if Bax hadn’t clamped down on my arm and hauled me to his side. I was the girl. I was from Carlson. Race had used this smooth, obviously connected man to track me down even before Bax had gone to prison. I was on his radar well before he had realized there would be no saving his best friend. I wasn’t sure what to do with that information, but it felt significant.

“Be here Friday, Bax. I hope you remember what it’s like.”

Bax just lifted an eyebrow. “You mean it’s different from trying to keep your ass safe in the yard every day?”

Nassir laughed and I saw both his companions’ eyes glaze over in arousal. Man, he was potent.

“Good point. It really is good to see you, Bax.”

Bax didn’t respond in kind, but gave me a little shove so I was leading the way down the staircase. Once we were back on the main floor, he couldn’t seem to get out of the club fast enough. I almost had to jog to keep up with his purposeful and long-legged strides back to street level and the car.

I had a million and one questions I wanted to fire at him, answers I wanted to demand, but his jaw was locked and he looked mad. Not at me, not at his criminal cohort, just mad at the world in general, and I didn’t want any of that pointed in my direction. I hadn’t survived as long as I had on my own without knowing when to keep quiet and disappear into the background.

We drove in silence for fifteen minutes out of the city. I was surprised when he pulled the car to a stop in front of a cute little bungalow right on the border of the Point and the Hill. This was a nice neighborhood. Kids could play outside here. Parents didn’t need bars on the windows or handguns under their pillows. That being said, I had no idea what we were doing here or what I should do when Bax parked in the driveway and turned the loud engine off. I turned to look at him and noticed his jaw was clenched and that the star was throbbing as the vein under his skin moved.

“This is my mom’s house.”

I wasn’t going to ask. I didn’t think it was my place to do so, but something was off, so I had to wade in.

“Okay. She won’t mind me staying here until I can work something else out?”

His jaw clenched and I was pretty sure I heard his back teeth crack under the pressure.

“She doesn’t live here. The place is empty. It has been for years.”

I blinked in surprise. Mostly because I never would have pictured him coming from a nice, suburban background like this.

“I’m sorry. Did something happen to her?”

If it was possible, his jaw got even tighter.

“No. I bought this house for her right before I got locked up.”

I blinked at him. “Didn’t you go to jail when you were just a kid?”

He made a noise in his throat and rolled his head around on his shoulders.

“You grew up in the ghetto. Are we ever really kids?”

It was a valid point, but that still didn’t explain a nice house in a pricey neighborhood.

“Why doesn’t she live here if you did something so nice for her? It had to cost an arm and a leg.”

I was really starting to think Race hadn’t bothered to tell me anything about his life before finding me. A few insights into his complicated friend would have been really useful right now.

“Whoever said crime doesn’t pay is an idiot. It pays great, which is why there is so much of it. I bought her a house because I knew eventually I was going to end up dead or in jail and I wanted her to be okay no matter what happened to me. The one stipulation I put on her was that she had to be sober. She can’t stay here while she’s drinking.”

I hissed out a breath, because addiction and mothers were a sore spot for me as well.

“You mean to tell me she has this house free of charge and all she has to do is not drink?”

“Yep.”

“Wow.”

He looked at me and opened his door. “Anyway, it’s empty and no one knows about it because she never dried out enough to move in, so you’ll be safe here for a while. We’ll try and figure out some food and clothes tomorrow.”

I got out of the car and looked up at the house. This was my dream. A cute little house in a safe place. I had never even been close to something like this. It was just sad that some people couldn’t let go of their vices long enough to appreciate a gift like this.

“It’s lovely. Who took care of it for you while you were locked up?”

He grunted, his standard response when I asked him anything he didn’t want to answer.

“Same person that took care of my car.”

I wanted to ask who that was, considering the only friend he seemed to have was on the run and in hiding right now, but I didn’t want to push my luck and I really wanted to see inside the house.

“Are you leaving me here alone?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I was worn out from being in his presence for the last few hours. Being around him was like constantly getting shocked by a jolt of electricity. I just couldn’t find solid footing around him, and yet, besides Race, I had never felt more like someone wouldn’t let anything hurt me.

Those dark eyes were fathomless. I wished he was easier to read.

“For tonight I’ll crash on the couch.”

I wasn’t going to ask where he typically spent the night. I was sure the answer had to do with the impressive package I had felt pressed against me when he kissed me earlier. It wasn’t my business and I didn’t want to start feeling like it should be.

As he cracked open the door and walked inside, I asked, “What did you set up with that guy at the rave? A race or something?”

“No, I wish. No one will run a street race with me anymore. I never lose, so they stopped asking.”

I had seen him drive, so that wasn’t really a surprise.

“What then?”

He cocked an eyebrow at me and flipped on a light switch. It looked like a model home. Everything inside was pristine and untouched, all cool, neutral colors that reeked of professional design. It was so lovely it almost hurt. I looked at Bax and noticed he was taking it all in with a more cynical eye.

“The master bedroom is in the back, off the kitchen. It has a bed in it and I think the sheets and stuff might be in the closet. I’m sure everything is covered in dust, but it’ll do for a night or two.”

I could hear the disdain in his gruff voice. He pulled out a cigarette and headed toward the front door.

“A fight. I set up a fight.”

I frowned at his back. “Like a fistfight?”

He chuckled, but it had no humor in it. “One can hope only fists will be used. Try and get some sleep, Copper-Top. If my luck holds, shit is going to get way worse before it gets better.”

I bit my bottom lip and noticed his eyes followed the movement intently. That made something hot and tingly slide down my spine. I wasn’t used to overt male attention and Shane Baxter was most assuredly overtly male.

“That’s an awful attitude to have.”

“It makes for less disappointment later. Go to bed, Dovie.”

It was the first time he called me by my name. As I turned and went to find the room he had indicated I could use, I couldn’t deny that the sound of it in his raspy, rough voice made me remember I was a girl, with all kinds of girl parts that reacted to a hot guy. Even if my head was screaming RUN AWAY! as loudly as it could.

What had Race gotten me into?

CHAPTER 5

Bax

I WAS A LIGHT sleeper. Always had been, but being locked up made me even more so. Not to mention this house made my skin crawl. It just reminded me that even when I tried to do good, it blew up in my face and ended up bad. I lifted my head up at the barest sound of feet on the floor. I was sprawled out on the couch; I hadn’t bothered to go find a blanket or anything, so I hoped if Dovie was making her way toward me, she was ready to handle me in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. I wasn’t motivated enough or gentlemanly enough to bother to scramble for my pants. I didn’t embarrass easily, and since she was the one all up in my space, she could deal with me in my skivvies.

The footsteps drew closer and I leaned around the arm of the couch enough to see her lingering in the walk-through between the kitchen and the living room. None of the lights were on but there was no missing the minimal light glowing off her white skin. She was luminous, and missing her pants as well. She still had on that gigantic sweater, but the expanse of leg sticking out from the hem that hit her at midthigh was all toned and elegantly curved. If I was a leg man, hers would’ve been in the top of those I had ever seen for sure.

“What’s wrong?” I saw her jump a little and twirl a curl around her finger. I noticed it was what she did when she was nervous or uneasy.

“Did I wake you up?”

I ran my hands roughly over my face and swung my legs so my feet were on the floor. I leaned my neck back on the cushion and stared at the darkened ceiling.

“No,” I lied. “I don’t like being here.”

She came around the side of the couch and flopped down next to me, close but not touching. She curled her bare legs up under her and I tried not to watch. I felt as her eyes skated over my mostly naked form and then snapped back up to my face. My body was a road map of a short life lived hard and too fast. I had a nasty scar on my ribs from a dirt-bike accident when I was ten. I had a wicked scar that ran the entire length of my bicep from putting my hand through a car window when I was first starting out. There was also a lovely battle wound on my back to match the scar on my head from the one and only time I hadn’t been fast enough to get away from an angry cop and his baton. Not to mention I had a giant tattoo of the classic V8 logo on my stomach, and BAX in huge letters that ran across my upper back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. On the opposite side of my ribs I had a naked hot-rod girl straddling a spark plug, and in places that it was too dark and too private to see, I had twin checkered flags indicating that whoever was lucky enough to see them had indeed reached the finish line.

I was sure she was appalled by it all, appalled by me in general, but she tapped her fingers on her naked knee and told me, “That sucks. It’s a really nice house. My mom was messed up too. That’s how I ended up in the system. She wanted to do drugs, not be a parent.”

I wasn’t big on talking, much less on sharing, but she didn’t seem like she was going anywhere, so I sighed and closed my eyes and crossed my hands over my flat stomach.

“She gets dry. She tries. It just never sticks, and I’ve learned to stop pushing. It’s not like a guy with a prison record and no legitimate means of employment can cast judgment on what anyone else is doing right or wrong. I love her, she’s my mom, so this is the kind of relationship we have.”

She made a little noise of sympathy and it twisted something inside my chest. If it had been pity I would’ve just shut her out, but since it was empathy, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

“Tell me about Race. I need to understand why you’re doing this, making people mad, rattling cages. Clearly you’re putting yourself in danger for him. Why?”

I tilted my head and pried my eyes open to look at her. Her head was bent and she was staring intently at the stack of my hands on my abdomen and the Road Runner tattoo perched there. If she looked any lower, she would be blushing, because right or wrong, we were both missing enough clothes in the dark to make my dick interested in what was going on.

“I got us into trouble, Race got us out.” She snorted and I had to grin. “When Nassir said Race didn’t like the way he did business, he wasn’t lying, but that was because his business normally ended up with me risking my neck or getting my ass kicked, and Race hated it. When I first started boosting cars, Nassir was the middleman between me and Novak. He took a cut of everything I did and it bugged Race to no end that I was the one on the line, the one breaking the law, and Nassir could just sit back with clean hands and let me do it.”

I shifted my leg to give my burgeoning erection some room and saw her blink. I bit back a grin.

“Race was the one who told me to cut out the middleman and go right to Novak. He was a big-picture guy and competitive as hell. It didn’t matter how much I wanted to party, Race partied harder. It didn’t matter how many chicks I wanted to plow through, Race wanted more. It was like he was trying to prove who he was despite his background, instead of because of it. It was like that with breaking the law. I did what I did because I was good at it, loved the cars and the thrill. Race wanted it to be a business, wanted to be smart about it. At first it was awesome, and then we started to realize just how deep in we were. I never wanted to be owned by anybody, and Race was still tied to the Hill and the Hartman fortune. We got disillusioned, stuck, risking bigger and bigger scores, and he had enough. He was supposed to be working on a way to get us out when I got busted.”

She cleared her throat and I watched as she had to drag her eyes up from what was happening below my waist.

“How did you get caught if you were so good?”

That was dangerous territory and I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.

“I was set up.”

She blew out a breath that sent her red curls dancing.

“By who?”

I lifted my hands up off my stomach and pushed them out in front of me until my knuckles popped loud in the quiet house.

“By Race.”

Dead silence met my words. More for shock value than anything else, I reached down between my legs and adjusted my junk. I heard her make a strangled noise.

“No way. He loved you like a brother. He never would’ve done that to you. He never would’ve told me to trust you if you came looking for him if he thought you were going to use me or seek out revenge.”

I got to my feet and went to where I had tossed my discarded pants. I yanked them on and fished out a cigarette from the pocket.

“You also never thought he would bang a stripper, when I know for a fact he used to do that very thing on a regular basis. We never really know anyone all the way through and through, and it is ultimately every man for himself on the street.”

“I just don’t understand. He must’ve had a reason. He never would betray you like that. I told you he talked endlessly about how guilty he felt that you went away.”

I stuck the smoke in the edge of my mouth and moved to the couch. I put one hand on the arm and the other on the cushion behind her head so that she was caged in between them. I looked down at her. Those green eyes were full of a mixture of compassion, disbelief, and fear. I could see the delicate flare of her nose expand when I leaned down so that we were almost nose to nose.

“No one can ever know a man’s motivations when he’s desperate. I don’t know why he did it, but I’m going to find out.”

She gulped a little and put a shaky hand to her throat.

“And then what?” It was barely a whisper from her full, trembling lips.

“Depends on his answer.” I shoved up off the couch. “Go back to bed.”

She nodded mutely and I went out the front door to suck some calming toxins into my lungs. I stayed outside for a few minutes, long enough to get my raging hormones under control. I needed to stop associating Race’s sister with anything sexual. That was a whole bag of “not going to happen.” I didn’t need to be wrestling with blue balls until I figured out my buddy’s agenda.

I locked the front door and went to kick my pants back off when I noticed she had listened to me, only instead of going back into the bedroom, she was curled in a little ball on the end of the sofa. I just stared at her, dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to do with her. She didn’t look comfortable, but I wasn’t sure she would stay asleep if I snatched her up and dumped her back in the room. I scratched my head and decided I would just leave her and go take the bed for myself for the rest of the night. I was in the kitchen when I heard her whimper. Whatever had woken her up originally obviously hadn’t worked its way out of her system.

I whispered a litany of swearwords and sat down next to her on the sofa. I got an arm around her shoulders and wiggled so I could put her back against the cushions, and stretched out in front of her. I was more than likely going to end up on the floor. I wasn’t tiny and it was already a tight fit, but she wound an arm around my neck, situated a leg between my own, and settled into a much more comfortable- and restful-sounding sleep. I was glad one of us could rest. Being this close to any girl, but really being almost on top of this intriguing and surprising girl, was doing a number not only on my restraint but on my willpower. I shouldn’t be interested in anything about her; instead, I was interested in everything about her, and I didn’t like it one bit.

Her soft breath feathered against my neck and I groaned out loud and resigned myself to a long, sleepless night.

“I WAS JUST GOING to wait until I saw you at work to ask, but the situation is more serious than I thought.”

I groaned and threw an arm over my eyes as all my stiff muscles tried to straighten out. I was by myself on the couch and Dovie was obviously on the phone. Morning light was smacking me right in the face and I had a crick in my neck from holding Dovie close to my chest all night.

“Yeah, everything is gone. No clothes, no books, no anything. I’m not sure how long I’ll have to stay with you, but my place just isn’t safe.”

I heard her mutter something else and say a quiet “thank you,” then her footsteps as she came back into the living room. She perched on the arm of the couch and looked down at me. I lifted my arm to meet her leafy gaze. She was gnawing on her lower lip and messing with her hair, so I knew she was uncomfortable.

“My friend Brysen lives about six blocks from here. I’m going to go stay with her. No one knows that I talk to her since we’re really only coworkers, so it should be fine, safe.”

I don’t know why she thought I would argue with her, so I just put my arm back over my eyes.

“I’ll drop you off.”

She cleared her throat and I sighed because clearly she wasn’t going to let me go back to sleep. Something had gotten under her skin at some point between using me as a pillow and waking up.

“I still really want to help find Race, to make sure he’s okay. After last night and what you told me, I’m not sure how honest your motivation to help him really is.”

It was early, I was sore and cranky, and I had zero interest in trying to convince this uptight chick I wasn’t out to cause Race any more trouble. I swung my feet to the floor, found my T-shirt, and pulled it on over my head. My teeth felt gross and I needed an Advil for my neck in the worst way. I cut her an impatient look as I tugged my boots on impatiently.

“Do you need some cash?”

She blinked at me like an owl. “Excuse me?”

I swore and shoved up to my feet. I was hungry. I needed to ditch her and find some food. She was messing with my game and my head. I didn’t have time for any of that nonsense.

“Cash, money, dollars, currency . . . do you need some money to get some clothes and girly shit until you can stop laying low?”

She tilted her head at me like I was speaking a foreign language, so I swore under my breath and pulled a couple hundreds out of my wallet and shoved them into her hand.

“Let’s go. I’m starving and I’ve had enough of this house.” I headed for the front door, not bothering to see if she was following me or not. She was acting scared, and it irritated me. I hadn’t done anything scandalous or forward toward her and she was acting like I had followed through on my threat from the night before.

I heard her scrambling behind me, and before I could round the car, she stopped me with a hand on my elbow. She tried to shove the money back at me but I just shook her off and went to the driver’s door.

“I can’t take this from you. We aren’t friends. I don’t even think we’re on the same team anymore, and I don’t want anything to do with your criminal enterprise.”

I gritted my teeth and lifted an eyebrow. She was being a bitch this morning. I figured waking up on top of me might not have been something that thrilled her, but I would be damned if I was going to be a target for her ire.

“Get in the car. The money is clean.” Well, clean in terms of that I earned it selling an old Super Bee I had fixed up and turned into a straight street rod. Not clean in terms of I won the Bee in an illegal race before I was even old enough to vote. “I don’t have the patience to deal with you this morning, Copper-Top, so your choice. Get in and let me drop you off, or walk. I don’t give two fucks either way.”

She was considering it. I could see it, but I started the car and she climbed in. Her hair was a tangled mess. I knew it was softer than anything I had ever felt in life and it was real easy to get your hands all twisted up in those curls, but I didn’t want to think about that. Her lips were compressed in a tight line and she had her arms crossed under what I was beginning to suspect were some seriously awesome breasts, if her legs were any indication as to what the rest of her looked like. She resembled a little kid pouting. I think it peeved her I wasn’t going to delve into the complicated girl reasoning that made her need to get away from me. It was what it was, and all it meant for me was that I could move about more freely while trying to find Race.

She gave me stilted instructions to a really nice house that was a little farther up into the hills than my mom’s was. No one would really think to look for her there. I idled at the end of the driveway and waited for her to climb out. It wasn’t like I owed her a heartfelt good-bye or anything. She watched me for a second and took the money I had given her and put it on the dash. Without another word, she slipped out of the car and headed up the driveway to the big house. I blew out a breath that I felt like I had been holding for an hour and peeled out, making sure I left rubber and smoke in my wake.

I don’t know what the deal with Race’s sister was, or if it was the fact that she was tied to the only person in my life I genuinely cared about, but I couldn’t afford to let her be twisting me all up. My life wasn’t set up for feel-good crap like that.

I spent the rest of the day running around, touching base with people I missed, people who owed me cash, anyone and everyone I thought could put me in touch with Race. I went and saw my mom at the hovel she lived in. It was just a rented room in a house filled with other addicts and people that had simply given up. She could be in the house I bought for her but couldn’t put the bottle down long enough to make that happen. It burned like acid in my guts and of course put me in a nasty and harsh mood.

I made it a point to kick it with Roxie and tell her I would be back later that night. What I didn’t do one single time was think of Dovie or what could have happened to send her running like I had personally done her wrong. I wasn’t a good guy, but I hadn’t done anything bad to her and I didn’t like her treating me like the enemy, even if that was what she ultimately had determined that I was.

I was frustrated and short with everyone I ran across the rest of the week. It was starting to grate on my last nerve that no one—and I mean no one—had any information on Race. I had heard from three other people that he had been asking around about some rich guy when he came back, but no one had a name or anything helpful to use, and everywhere I turned I ran into either a wall or Benny. I was about done with his sense of smug satisfaction that I wasn’t getting any further than he had with finding my buddy. When he asked how Dovie liked the remodel of her place, it literally took every ounce of self-control I had not to break all his teeth in. But if nothing else, prison had taught me how to be patient, how to bide my time, and how sweet retribution was when it was delivered unexpectedly. I just ignored him and made sure he could see the storm brewing in my eyes every time I walked away from him.

I sent Dovie a text in the middle of the week to let her know I hadn’t made any progress, but considering she now thought I was out to harm her brother, I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t hear anything back. I was pissed at myself that her snub poked under my normally thick skin like a splinter. It wasn’t my way to try and convince her that I needed Race to explain what he had done to me before deciding how to feel about it. I wasn’t the explaining or justifying-my-actions type, plus the guy had always had my back, no questions asked. There had to be an explanation as to why he had set me up, an explanation behind the bitterest betrayal I had ever experienced in my fairly young life, and it needed to come from him and be delivered man to man. I might very well have to murder him if his answer wasn’t up to par, but I knew Race. He spent so much time trying to save me, there was no way he would have just watched me burn.

Before I knew it, it was Friday and I had to show up at Nassir’s club for the fight. I hadn’t been in a knock-down, drag-out, blood-splattering, dirty-as-hell fight since the first year I was locked up. Once you put down all the guys who were bigger than you out of sheer desperation, they stopped trying to take you down a peg. In fact, they stopped trying to mess with you at all. There were always scuffles and dustups, that was going to happen with a bunch of violent men locked up together, but fighting for my life or my pride wasn’t something I’d had to do in a long time. Fighting for a paycheck wasn’t something I had done since I was a teenager. I hoped I could still take a beating and bounce back enough to function the next day.

I was smoking like a chimney. Full of nervous energy I would never admit to. Nassir’s had turned from an electric house party to a hollowed-out fight club. Instead of trendy kids filtering in from the Hill and the university looking for a good time, it was now packed to the rafters with men and women looking for an animalistic and gory show. I didn’t want to know what the odds were. I had caught just a glimpse of the other guy when he rolled in with his entourage, and there was no denying he was a monster. He probably had a good inch on me, but was leaner and more cut. I had a thick, bulky build that came from cheap prison equipment. This guy looked like he had a trainer and a team of people whose sole purpose was to make him a fighting machine.

“Nervous?” Nassir’s smooth voice scraped across my already frayed nerves as I looked down at the bare circle someone had drawn on the center of the factory floor with red spray paint. No ring. No pads. Nothing but fists and blood. It was a brutal way to make a buck.

“No.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. He was holding a tumbler of Scotch that was older than me and watching me with unfathomable eyes.

“I’m surprised you agreed to do it. Seventy-five hundred is a fair chunk of change and I know you squirreled away most of what Novak paid you. You can’t be hurting for cash. I thought maybe it was to save face in front of the redhead, but then you showed alone.”

“I don’t have to save face for anyone.”

“Ahhh . . . but she was different. I’ve been around a long time, Bax. My primary job is to instantly read and judge people. There was something more to her than one of your typical tramps.”

I gave him a dark look and opened and flexed my hands mechanically. I had never been much of a drinker because of my mom, but right now I was wishing I had a bottle of tequila and a dark room all to myself to get myself psyched up in. I wrapped my hands around the linked chain railing and watched the crowd below mill about. More than half wanted my head cracked open, and the rest didn’t care who won as long as they got their payout at the end of the night. It made my stomach hurt. I didn’t want this scene to be what my life looked like anymore, but I doubted I would ever fully be rid of it.

“She’s important to someone who’s important to me. That makes her different.”

“It’s more than that. A man like you—put him in a cage for long enough, and he either becomes domesticated or regresses to all wild animal. You went in wild, so that means all there was for you to do was be tamed. Your edge is gone, Baxter. I can see it, and if I can see it, that means Novak is going to see it and exploit it. You need to be careful.”

His words wormed under my skin and made my blood throb in my head. Without thinking about it, I grabbed the tumbler out of his hand and sent it sailing over the open railing to the crowded floor below. I watched as it shattered on the ground, sending glass and expensive liquor in every direction and splattering the crowd. Nassir clicked his tongue at me and squeezed me on my shoulder.

“See what I mean? Before, you would have just ignored me. Good luck, my friend. Normally I wouldn’t think you’d need it, but tonight I am not sure that is the case.”

He turned toward the steps. “You have ten minutes, I suggest you use it to get your head in the game.”

I blew out a heavy breath and hung my head. I squeezed my eyes shut so hard I saw stars behind my lids. It galled me, but Nassir was right. I wanted out before getting locked up. Doing time had just solidified that living my life like I had nine lives and was bulletproof was getting old and just made me feel foolish. When I pried my eyes open, the first thing they landed on was a shock of orange-and-red curls moving through the frantic and frenzied crowd. I blinked because I thought I was hallucinating, but sure enough, she turned to look up, and our eyes locked. A girl with a stylish blond bob put a hand on her shoulder and yelled something in her ear and she nodded, never looking away from me.

I hadn’t seen her in a week, since Tuesday morning, but it felt like longer. Like her skin was paler, her eyes were smokier, her freckles more prominent across her pert little nose, and like she wasn’t sure what she was doing here either. Her friend grabbed her elbow and pulled her out of the way as the other guy suddenly bounded into the center of the circle.

A loud roar from the crowd went up and he started screaming like a lunatic. Shit, I bet he was hopped up on something. There was no other way to explain the bulging veins and wild-eyed look he was sporting. He ripped his black T-shirt off and threw it into the crowd, getting everyone even more whipped up. He had on cargo pants and black smudges of something under each eye like this was some kind of combat mission. I felt my night get ten times longer.

Grumbling under my breath and wondering why Dovie was here, I went down the stairs and headed for where I had last seen her. I didn’t need to look very hard because she waylaid me as soon as my booted feet hit the main level. I took off my hoodie, fished out my cigarettes, and handed them all over to her without saying a word. Her friend was gaping at me and looking me up and down, but I was ensnared in that forest-green gaze.

“I got a text saying if you were fighting, Race was bound to be here. They even sent the code to get in that crazy purple door.”

Her hands clutched around my hoodie as I shook my head. “He’s not going to be here. It’s a setup. They want you here so I’ll be distracted and that Hulk has a chance to cave my skull in.”

Her eyes got big. “Benny?”

I shrugged. “Novak. That’s way too smart for Benny.” It bugged me to no end that I was actually happy to see her. I really liked the stubborn tilt of her chin and the messy waves of her endless hair. I pulled my shirt off over my head by the collar and handed her that as well. I saw her gaze drop to my chest then dart right back up. She might think I was scum and question my motives, but she was hot for me, no doubt about it.

“You need to stay out of the way. The crowd goes nuts. There’s no ref, no rules, and things get ugly fast. If someone bet a lot of money on me and I lose, it’s not just the other fighter who wants to kick my ass. Be smart. If you feel the crowd turn, get the fuck out of Dodge, or better yet, haul ass outta here now.”

She folded my stuff against her chest and gave the blonde a searching look. The other girl shrugged and looked back at me.

“It’s your call, Dove. I told you something about that text didn’t seem right.”

Her head snapped back in my direction. “Is it safer for you if I go?”

I didn’t get to tell her “hell yes” it was better for me if she left because Nassir appeared by my side.

“Time to roll, lover boy.”

I gave Dovie one last look and stepped around her into the crowd. I rubbed my hands briskly over my shaved head and tried to shut down the noise and the smell of sweat and anticipation. I brushed off pats on the back and high fives and growled at Nassir, “What’s that guy jacked up on?”

He shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Clean fight, my ass.”

“Did you really expect anything else?”

Not from him.

“Keep an eye on the girl, Nassir. If anything happens to her in your house, I’m holding you personally responsible.”

There were only a few people between me and the raw circle.

“You better make sure you make it out the victor if you want to ensure her safety.”

I gave him a dirty look and he just offered that perfectly crafted smile at me. I wanted to punch him, but just then there was a roar worthy of the Serengeti. The last of the barrier between me and my opponent ducked out of the way and I was hit with the equivalent of a human bulldozer. I smacked into the cement hard enough to have my ears ringing and to have Big Bird dancing an Irish jig above my head. I grunted when I felt heavy jabs on either side of my ribs, but it was hard to hear anything above the shouts of the crowd and the bellowing breath of my attacker in my face.

I got a hand around his throat and shoved him up and off of me, not to the ground, but far enough away that I could throw myself up to my feet. He wasted no time in lunging at me again, only this time I was ready for him, and caught him across the middle with a well-placed knee that had him buckling over. He was strong, but the narcotics were making him frantic, not able to predict my next move, so I felt no remorse in clipping him hard across the side of the face while he was hunched over. A spray of blood out of his mouth followed the blow, and angry gasps and shouts from the crowd echoed off the rafters.

I jumped back as he suddenly surged upward and rammed the crown of his head right into my unprotected gut. That hurt. The wind whooshed out of my lungs and blackness started to tinge the edge of my vision. It set me off-kilter enough that I didn’t rally enough to block his next punch, which split my cheek clean open. I tasted my own blood in the aftermath and it made me furious.

He swung a wild kick at my legs and missed. I grabbed one of his arms and wrenched it up behind his back. I cranked on it just hard enough to hear a loud pop and let it go. I didn’t want to break it, but jacking up one of his hands would save me more of those brutal body blows. I spit out a mouthful of blood and gasped as his free arm suddenly snaked around my neck. I don’t know how he got that kind of leverage, but he sure as hell was using it to his advantage. He squeezed and squeezed and I clawed at his skin until it was slippery with blood. I couldn’t breathe. He was straight choking me out.

Right before it was all said and done, I threw my head back as hard as I could because I could hear him snorting out breath in my ear. Luckily I had a superhard head, because even over the screaming crowd and the blood rushing in my ears, I heard the thin bones in his nose snap and the furious howl that followed. The second nose in as many weeks that I had broken, only this guy wasn’t Benny. He was juiced up and out for my blood. I jumped back as he barreled, unwieldy, toward me. My head hurt, my ribs had to be bruised, and the rusty taste of blood from my face and my newly reopened lip cut was filling my mouth. Someone in the crowd threw a beer bottle in the circle and it shattered at my feet. I guess maybe I should’ve thought first before tossing that glass over the railing.

I dodged him once, and then once again, and landed a solid blow to his knee with a kick on his last pass. I was getting tired, but he had chemical fuel to keep him going, even though his face looked like raw meat and his dislocated wrist was hanging at a weird angle at the end of his arm. It needed to end . . . like now. I was trying to put together the best way to make that happen, pinpoint his weakness, when he bent down and pulled something out of the side of his boot. I swore loudly and took an involuntary step back when the switchblade flicked open. The sight of the weapon literally made the crowd erupt. More glass and liquid I didn’t want to try and identify rained down on us. This wasn’t going to go well for me.

He charged again and I barely escaped the blade. I felt the razor-sharp tip skim across the taut and sweaty skin of my abdomen. I backed up, keeping one eye on him and one eye on the knife in his good hand.

“Shit.” His eyes were all kinds of crazy and out of control. He had to be hurting as much as I was, but there was no sign of it behind the glassed-over and vacant gaze due to the drugs. He parried, I moved. He thrust, and I jumped back. I realized the only way to get this over with was to let him get close enough for me to get the knife out of his hand.

I took a deep breath, stepped into his next forward motion, felt the blade slice cleanly across my ribs, high, close to my armpit, and locked my arm down so that he was stuck. We were now eye-to-eye. His nose was beyond fucked up and he was huffing and puffing like a bull. He wasn’t going to go down without a serious effort. I twisted, used the leverage I had despite my side being flayed wide open, and bent, and bent until I heard the bone crack and the knife clatter to the ground at our feet. He howled, screamed, and struggled to get me to let his now-useless arm go. I refused until he toppled to his knees in front of me, blood and snot smearing the black paint all across his face.

I put my knee under his chin so he had to look up at me.

“Hurt?”

He screamed a litany of swearwords at me.

“Seriously, dude. Are we done?” I squeezed the broken arm even tighter next to my gushing side. I was losing a ton of blood.

He made another noise and tried to grab for me with the hand I already dislocated. I sighed. I shoved him back and delivered a swift, nasty, totally dirty kick to the face. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over like a baby rhino taking a tranquilizer dart.

I heard the crowd go nuts, heard my name, but it was taking everything I had to stay upright. I saw Nassir nod at me, saw the circle start to tighten around me as the monster’s entourage tried to rouse him. I needed air. I needed to get the hell out of here.

Suddenly all I could see was wide green eyes full of concern. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding a lot.”

She handed me my T-shirt, and instead of putting it on, I bunched it up and stuffed it against my side. I felt the blood seep through the fabric instantly.

“I’ll live. I need to get my money from Nassir before he comes up with another stipulation or brilliant plan.”

She bit her lip and moved my hoodie to the side to show me a thick envelope in her other hand.

“I had Brysen count it while you were fighting. He handed it to me before you even threw the first punch. He must have been pretty confident you were going to win. It’s there, minus his cut.”

I blinked because her voice was going in and out and I was having a hard time keeping her face in focus.

“I need to get out of here.”

“You need a hospital.”

“Just a little patching up. That’s what Race used to do for me after I fought.”

Crap. I must be light-headed. I never would have told her that otherwise.

She tilted her head to the side and held out my hoodie. I needed her help getting my heavy arms into the sleeves. I just stared at her dumbly when she stuck her tiny hand into one of the pockets and pulled out my keys.

“Come on. I’ll take you to your mom’s and see if I can keep you among the living.”

“No one drives my car.” I sounded drunk. The words were slurred and I didn’t honestly know if I was going to make it as far as the suburbs.

“No one but me.”

She slid her tiny frame under my arm on my noninjured side and I almost collapsed on her. For the first time since I let Race take me to the hospital when I was sixteen, I relied on another human being to take care of me. I didn’t want to think what that meant for either one of us.

CHAPTER 6

Dovie

I KNEW SOMETHING WAS off with that text message. Just like I knew I was in trouble when I woke up on that couch and Bax had been holding me like I was something to be treasured. I never felt safe, never felt protected, even with Race in my life. I still knew every day was going to be an uphill battle. But in that instant, while I was all wrapped up in him, I felt like nothing bad could ever get to me again. That’s why I bolted. Sure, I didn’t know what his ultimate agenda with my brother was, but more than that, I was starting to think he might be developing a separate one for me. It wasn’t smart to send Brysen back to the Hill after the fight without me. I should be running from this guy as fast as I could, yet every time I turned around, I seemed to end up closer and closer to him.

It had taken every fiber of control I possessed not to return his text in the middle of the week, and there was no denying I dragged Brysen to that fight more to see him than out of any real hope of locating my brother. I was dangerously attracted to him; he was magnetic and so hard to get a handle on, and after the violence of that fight, I knew he had vicious brutality floating close to the surface of his tattooed skin. He was also losing way too much blood from that knife wound, and stubbornly refusing to let me take him to a hospital. Instead he had shoved some money in my hands and ordered me to stop at a drugstore and buy the basic first-aid stuff I would need to keep him from passing out from blood loss. He also told me to grab a couple tubes of superglue. I didn’t even want to know what his plan for that was.

By the time we got back to the bungalow, his eyes were squeezed shut and deep lines of pain were radiating out from the corners of each eye. His skin looked kind of waxy and pale, making that black star prominent and so ominous where it throbbed at his temple. I had to scramble around the side of the car and get the door open for him. I gasped when I saw the wet spread of blood that had soaked through the side of his hoodie.

“Bax, that’s a lot of blood.”

He just grunted at me and struggled his way to the front door.

I had to reach around him to get it open and almost got lost in the endless darkness of his eyes as he looked down at me. I gulped a little and blinked up at him. He gave his head a shake and started struggling out of the blood-soaked hoodie before I had the lights on. The T-shirt he was using as a makeshift bandage was so saturated that all he could do was toss it in the trash on his way to the single bathroom that was in the hallway. I wasn’t sure what I should do. I got him someplace safe, he was a big boy and could clearly take care of himself, Brysen only lived a minute away and I could be back, safe and sound with her in a heartbeat, but none of that felt like the right answer. I argued with myself as I followed his half-naked form into the bathroom.

He already had black-and-blue marks flowering all over his taut skin and that knife cut on his side had just barely missed the naked pinup that covered his entire side. His face had a steady stream of blood trickling from the cut on his cheek, and his bottom lip was back to being split wide open. He was a mess.

“Sit down on the toilet and I’ll clean you up as best I can.” I was no stranger to patching up Carmen’s boys after scuffles with other kids in the neighborhood. Granted, this was on an entirely different level, and being that close to him made my skin feel like it was electrified.

He looked at me emotionlessly in the mirror over the sink. He looked like he had just come out of a war zone.

“Are you scared of me?” His voice was scratchy.

I met his gaze steadily in the glass. “Terrified.”

His chin dipped in a little nod of acknowledgment.

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

I saw a shadow flit across that midnight gaze. He lifted a knuckle and rubbed at the blood smeared across his face.

“You going to go to bed with me?”

I sucked in a hard breath through my nose. I wanted to look away but he wouldn’t let me. “Probably.”

He finally looked away and picked up a washcloth and slapped it on the cut.

“I was hooking up with Roxie at the beginning of the week. I’m not a nice guy. I don’t know how things with me and your brother are going to play out. By the time I’m done with Novak, there’s a good chance I’ll be dead or back in jail. You still gonna go to bed with me?”

My heart did a weird flip and my blood did a weird thing where I felt like I could actually feel it slow down in my veins. At least there was no second guessing with him. He turned around and leaned back on the vanity. I sighed and reached around him to put a towel on his steadily leaking side. His blood-caked skin was warm, despite the fact he had goose bumps raised along his naked torso.

“If I do, is it going to be any different than you going to bed with Roxie or that stripper?”

“Do you want me to lie to you?”

I grabbed his hand and forced him to hold the towel so I could work on his face. I cleaned him off with a cotton ball soaked in peroxide, which had him swearing and scowling at me. I found the little butterfly Steri-Strips I bought and slapped a couple on his cheek.

“Yeah. I think I do.” I couldn’t tell the difference when he lied to me anyway.

He grunted and narrowed his eyes even farther at me when I slimed some antibacterial goo on his lower lip.

“Then no. You would be exactly like all the rest.”

I flicked my gaze up to him and we stared at each other for a drawn-out minute.

I cleared my throat. “Let me get something wrapped around that knife wound.” I gave a dry laugh. “Those are not words I thought I would ever have to say to anyone.”

He winced when I pulled the towel away from his side. “Hang out with me a little bit longer and they’ll become a regular part of your vocabulary.”

I didn’t have an answer for that, so I ran some warm water in the sink and tried to clean up the bloodbath. It was a long gash, probably five or six inches, but it was clean and didn’t look like it went deep into the muscle. I blew a wayward curl out of my face and pulled open several of the large bandage pads and the Ace bandage I had bought. I went still when one of his rough, callus-tipped fingers brushed across my forehead and moved a loose curl out of my eyes. That was what undid me about him. He was unpredictable, he was a criminal, he was hazardous to my sanity, but then he held me when I couldn’t sleep and he touched me like I would break. It was an intoxicating combination that I was having no luck in fighting.

“Lift your arm up if you can.”

It obviously hurt him to do it, but he got the thickly muscled appendage out of my way so I could secure the wrap all the way around his broad chest. I had never been around a man who built his body up to use as a weapon before. I couldn’t ignore how impressive it was. Even with the stark black ink that covered his abs and spread across his shoulders, it was still a nice sight. When he shifted I noticed he even had ink peeking out of the top the band of his boxers showing above the edge of his jeans.

“If you really don’t want to go to the doctor, that’s the best I can do with what we got.”

I took a preventative step back.

He moved stiffly and bent to pick up his ruined hoodie off the floor. The cream-colored tiles were stained crimson where it had fallen.

“If it’s still bad in the morning, I’m going to have you seal it shut with superglue.”

I made a disgusted face and followed him out of the bathroom. “Gross. No way am I doing that. If it’s not better tomorrow, we’ll take you to the hospital.”

He just ignored me and made his way to the back bedroom, where the bed was still barren of sheets and blankets. He threw the hoodie on the dresser, popped the button on his jeans, kicked his heavy boots off, and plopped across the naked mattress on his back.

“I don’t need a doctor. This is fine.”

“You’re white as a sheet.”

“I just got my ass kicked. Of course I look like shit.”

He didn’t really. He looked battered, worn out, and a little rougher than usual, but I really thought it would be impossible for him to look like shit. His eyes were closed and his chest was rising and falling in a pretty steady rhythm, so I thought maybe he was falling asleep. I needed to snag his car keys and go get some food and stuff for this shell of a house. He might not like it very much here because of the memories attached to it, but he seemed to keep landing back here for safety and security and he needed provisions.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

His voice was sharp when I turned to go back to the living room, where he had thrown the keys on the coffee table.

“To the store. I need to get food and stuff. This house is empty.”

“No.” His eyes were still closed and he sounded mad.

“No, what?”

Before I could react, he was up off the bed and had one arm locked around my waist. I gasped when the soft mattress was suddenly under my back and he was looming over the top of me, black eyes blazing like coals.

“I want you here with me.” He was braced above me on his good arm and using his injured hand to unbutton the front of my flannel shirt.

“Bax. The house is empty. I need to get food, need to buy the basics. I’ll be gone for like a second.”

Why wasn’t I making him stop undressing me? The front of the shirt split open and fell to the sides. I had on a serviceable black bra that was nothing fancy, but it made my skin look even paler and more speckled by contrast.

“Holy fuck . . . no wonder you dress like a hobo. You would never be able to leave the house if you walked around flaunting these babies.” His voice dropped an octave and his gaze flicked up to mine. Nothing but pure male admiration shined back at me. Apparently Bax was a boob man, and I had a really nice set, no getting around it.

“Look, Bax, I said I was probably going to go to bed with you, I didn’t mean tonight.”

He took a knuckle and ran the edge of it along the top cup of my bra. I shivered in response. His skin was rough and darker next to mine.

“We can’t have sex. No protection. I’m an asshole on my best day, but I would never put you at risk like that.” His mouth tightened and a muscle in his jaw ticked. “You really don’t want to know where I’ve been.”

He was right—I didn’t. I was surprised he didn’t cart a pack of them around with him until I remembered the girls he was used to hooking up with had to have them on hand for business purposes. Gross.

“Besides, I can barely move. I asked if you were going to go to bed with me, not if you were going to fuck me, Dovie. I just want you here.”

I needed to argue, to make him let me up, but with a gesture born of pure familiarity with getting women naked, his hand snaked across my ribs and popped the fastener of my bra open. Because my arms were trapped in the straps and the loose material of my shirt, I could just stare up at him in a mixture of apprehension and wonder when he tugged the cups down to fully expose me.

My breasts were on the large side considering that I was tall and lean. They were dusted with freckles just like the rest of me and crested with nipples that were the palest pink and, at the moment, puckered and not shying away from those black eyes. This was wrong. He was wrong, but I didn’t have the words or the will to rein it in.

“Pretty. At first I wasn’t sure, but now I can’t believe I missed it.”

“Bax.” It was a warning and a question all mixed together on air escaping from lungs that felt like they were squeezing shut. I wasn’t the most sexually experienced girl in the world, but I knew enough to know that I was restless and achy, feeling heated and light-headed, and he hadn’t even so much as kissed me. He was way more than I was ready to handle, and then he was sliding the button on my jeans out of the hole and my belly was sucking in.

“You have to stop.” Only the zipper followed down and my black cotton underwear that was in no way intended to be on display was suddenly just that. His eyes were like obsidian, his mouth was tight, and I wasn’t sure if the light sheen of sweat beading up on his shaved head was from battling back discomfort or from arousal. I could feel the press of an impressive erection through the denim that separated us, but he was moving slow and had said he had no intention of having sex. He was a liar, though, so I shifted and made a move to cover myself back up.

He used the hand that wasn’t holding his entire weight off of me to snatch my own as I pulled at my bra and the sides of my shirt. I tugged futilely to get him to let me go, but he forced my palm flat on my quivering stomach and trapped it between my skin and his palm. He smiled down at me, and it wasn’t nice. It was wicked and promised all kinds of dark and scary things. It made my breath catch in my throat and I was momentarily stunned enough that it didn’t register that he was dragging my much smaller hand across my belly, below the hollow of my hips, and into the waistband of my underwear.

I panicked a little—okay, a lot—when I realized his intent. I could feel that even though my head knew I shouldn’t be here with him, my body was all for it. I was slick across my own fingers, damp, warm, and pulsing. I saw something in his eyes flare. I struggled to pull away again and it just ended with a broken moan coming out of my throat as he actively forced both our hands farther into my pants and closer to the parts of me that were well aware of what a guy like Bax could offer.

“Tell me to stop.” His voice was low and lost somewhere in the haze of sexual intoxication he was spilling all over me.

“Stop . . .” It should’ve been harsh, sounding sure and defiant, but it wasn’t. It was raspy and breathy because he got my hand where he obviously wanted it and was making me stroke my clit while his thick digit went on a tour to find my G-spot.

“Mean it.” He rumbled the words against the side of my face, where I felt the soft brush of his damaged mouth. I had never experienced anything like this before. I couldn’t escape the drag and pull of it. I arched my back and moved my hand in tandem to his ministrations, never looking away from the velvet drape of his gaze.

I tossed my head to the side and he took advantage of the distraction to suck the tip of one breast into the scorching cavern of his mouth. I heaved up so hard that it drove his fingers harder into me and made me grind my own hand harder against aroused and ready-to-go flesh. This was out of control. I didn’t do things like this, especially not with guys like him, but when he switched his attention to the other breast and added another finger and growled at me to press down on my quivering little point of passion with my thumb, it was all over. I thrashed under him, forgot he was hurt, and used my unoccupied hand to claw at the back of his head where it was latched on to my breast. I lost it all . . . control, sanity, decorum, reality. It all went out the window and I was just a mass of nerve endings and boiling pleasure that couldn’t be contained. It spread all over us, across my hand and his, and I felt moisture build up in my eyes as I scrambled to catch my breath.

He pulled his head up and looked down at me, not with smirking satisfaction or any kind of gloating, but with longing and a hunger like I had never seen before.

“You are so sweet and tight and all shiny and new. Are you sure you’ve done this before?”

I yanked my hand free from where it was still lodged in my pants and put both palms on his chest to shove him off of me. He went, but not before swiping his lingering fingers over my clit one last time. It made me shiver and glare at him as I scrambled back into my clothes.

“I told you, Billy Clark when I was a teenager, and then there was a guy from the restaurant when I first moved here. I’m busy, and typically I’m not interested. We can’t all have strippers and hookers at our beck and call.”

He snorted and resumed his position on his back on the bed. I made a face when I saw that blood had worked through the bandage on his side.

“Sure you can. That’s what strippers and hookers are for. Come on, Copper-Top, I’m beat. Climb up here and go to sleep.”

I don’t know how he could just close his eyes and act like none of that had just happened. The front of his boxers was bulging and I could see a small wet circle on the fabric. I shoved frustrated hands through my hair.

“I told you to stop.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked down at him. He cracked open one eye and shoved his good arm under his head.

“You didn’t really want me to.”

I huffed out an annoyed breath. “You don’t get to be the judge of that.”

He sighed and let his open eye drift shut. “I do when you’re leaning into my fingers, one hand touching yourself, the other pulling me closer. I’m pretty sure you left half your fingernails in the back of my head. And ‘oh, Bax; please, Bax; more, Bax’ sounds a whole lot different than ‘stop.’ If I was more mobile I wouldn’t have needed your help. If you’re going to do this, Dovie, then commit; if not, then call your friend and take off. I don’t like rules, yours or anyone else’s. Like I said, if you want me to stop or you really don’t like something I’m doing, you need to mean it. Now, either come to bed and I’ll get up and take you to the store in the morning so you can buy groceries and whatever other girly shit you need, and I can buy a big-ass box of condoms, or go away. My head hurts, my side is on fire, and you are ruining a really nice buzz I have from getting you off with minimal effort and one working hand.”

I wanted to choke him. I stood there and considered whether or not I could actually get away with murder. I should call Brysen. This was out of my wheelhouse and there was no way I was up to going rounds with him like this. He said commit; I didn’t think I could. I was going to find my phone and call Brysen and leave him to his own devices. That’s right; I was going to do the smart thing and walk away. Only his eyes snapped back open and he levered himself up so he was sitting, and he snagged me around my waist, and pulled me down on the bed so I was sprawled across him. His breath was warm and seductive as it whispered across my face.

“Don’t be a pain in the ass.”

He stroked his hand all the way along my spine and I let my eyes drift closed. What on earth was I supposed to do now?

RACE AND BAX MIGHT have grown up together, but they were as opposite as day and night. And not just because my older brother came from a privileged background, and Bax was oh-so-obviously from the streets. It went beyond their light and dark looks as well. I woke up early again, mostly because I was surrounded by brawny, half-naked Bax and he had his hands tangled painfully in my hair. Even in sleep it was like he was struggling, fighting some unseen enemy, and that made my heart hurt for him. Race slept like a baby. He sprawled out, snored, and wouldn’t wake up if a bomb went off next to his head.

Grocery shopping with Bax was like a full-contact sport. He blazed through the aisles, throwing things in the cart at random with no idea or rhyme or reason as to what they went with or what they could make as a meal. He clearly had a sweet tooth because there was more candy in the basket than any grown man could possibly consume. Race made a list, broke it down in meals, and avoided the aisles that didn’t have the stuff he wanted in them. Not to mention the other shoppers. Bax ignored them, or glowered at them if they stopped to look at him too long. He was the one who had tattooed his face; I would’ve thought he would be used to it. It didn’t help matters that without his hoodie, there was no missing the smear of red high along his side on the fabric of his gray Henley he had pulled out of the back of the Runner. Race was affable. Liked to chat and flirted shamelessly with any old lady or teenage girl we went past. I was having a hard time figuring out how the two of them managed to have any kind of friendship, let alone a brotherhood that Bax had been willing to go to jail to protect.

I pulled up short when I realized we were in the pharmacy aisle and he was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. There were giant boxes of condoms in front of him and he was waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do about it. All I could do was stare at him. If he didn’t seem to be two different men, it would be easier. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the brute that bossed me around and tried to intimidate me, but the guy who held me at night and brushed my hair softly off my face I kind of had a major crush on. It sucked that they both inhabited the same battle-hardened, impossible-to-ignore body.

I sighed. “Just get them. Better safe than sorry.”

He laughed at me and then made a face and put a hand on his side. I had refused to use the superglue on his cut, but now I wondered if that was a good idea. The wound was still oozing blood and it obviously hurt him when he moved wrong. He tossed not one, but two boxes in the cart and wheeled around so we could go check out.

“I still think you should go see a doctor and get stitches. You were stabbed.”

He looked down at me. “I was sliced, not stabbed; big difference. It’ll be fine. That was a sharp-ass knife, it was a clean cut.”

I noticed a woman next to us in line giving him the once-over. He just seemed to have that kind of draw to the opposite sex. I rolled my eyes.

“How did Nassir know you were going to win? I told you he handed me that money before that big guy slammed you into the ground.”

He gave me a sharp look and then noticed the other woman checking him out. Where my brother would have smiled at her, maybe offered her a little wink or something, Bax just stared at her until she had no choice but to look away.

“I had to win because you were there.”

I handed him stuff as he tossed it on the belt. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You fight until one guy is down, like out, unconscious or dead. If I lost, then you would be in that club and Nassir would have served you up to the wolves. Benny, Novak, whoever he thought he could hand you over to, and get the most out of it. He knew I wouldn’t lose.”

I just looked at him like he had suddenly sprouted horns.

“That other guy had a knife. He could’ve won.”

“But he didn’t.”

I growled a little, which made him smirk at me. “I knew I should’ve ignored that text. How would Novak even get ahold of my number to set you up like that?”

He lifted a shoulder and handed a bunch of bills over to the cashier.

“Criminals always seem to have the information they need. Come on, we need to stop somewhere so I can grab a new hoodie and some T-shirts.” He rolled his gaze over me and a grin kicked up the side of his mouth. “You should let me buy you some pants that actually fit.”

I wanted him to keep his mind out of my pants altogether. I helped him haul all our stuff to the car.

“Where have you been staying? I mean, you have nothing at your mom’s house, and even if you’ve been bouncing from bed to bed in the weeks you’ve been out, you have to have someplace to land eventually.”

He looked at me over the trunk as he slammed it closed. “I have a place I keep in the Point. A crash pad where all my crap is at. I haven’t really been in a different bed every night. I tend to stick with tried and true.”

I gave him a chilly look as he pulled open the door for me to slide in. “I don’t think that makes it any better.”

He just shrugged again and closed the door. “A guy has needs, but so does a girl. She just needs the right person to make her hot enough to ask for them to be met.”

He wasn’t an overly talkative guy, which was a good thing. When he put his mind to it, he could spin words in a way that was hard to argue with.

“I’ve never met a guy I wanted to ask.” I muttered it under my breath, hoping he might not hear me. Of course he did, though, and just laughed at me.

“That’s because you haven’t figured out what it is you need yet. You will, though.”

I looked out the window and openly sulked as he drove us to a small outlet mall halfway between the heart of downtown and the street where the bungalow was located. I was going to be stubborn and sit in the car while he went in and got what he needed, but I should have figured out by now that Bax got what Bax wanted because he bodily lifted me out of the passenger seat and pinned me to the side of the car. I was pouting and he was laughing down at me.

“You can have as big of a fit as you want, Copper-Top. I think you’re cute when you pout.” He put his thumb on the center of my bottom lip and pressed down. I snapped at him with my teeth and then forgot my name because he bent his head down and kissed me.

His lip was still split on the bottom, so there was a weird scrape of raw skin mixed with the soft press of his mouth against mine. He forced his tongue in to tangle with my own, and unbidden, my arms ended up wrapped around his neck while he pressed into me. His teeth worried along the curve of my lower lip, and my heart started pounding with the press and retreat of his mouth. This was mimicked by the slight press of his lean hips where they were pressed against my own. I gasped and he took full advantage by pressing farther into me and twisting his tongue even farther with my own. Kisses shouldn’t make you want to crawl inside the other person, but oh man, his sure did.

When he pulled back his bottom lip, it was slick with moisture and blood. His eyes glittered like jewels and there was no pretending that I wasn’t pressing up on the tips of my toes as high as I could get to reach all of him or that my hands were clutching desperately at his broad shoulders.

“If I had to guess what you needed from me right now, what do you think that would be?”

I wanted to knee him in the groin, but he shifted just in time and clasped my hand in his much larger, more battered one.

“Let’s get some stuff and go put the groceries away.”

I had a sneaking suspicion “put the groceries away” was code for “break into that box of condoms.” I was getting run over by him, and I wasn’t sure if I should be thrilled or terrified by it.

CHAPTER 7

Bax

I NEVER MET A girl who was more stubborn, more complicated, or more fun to rile up than this one. She came by that redheaded temper naturally. I tried twice to get her to let me buy her a pair of pants that would actually fit her tiny waist and long-ass legs, but she just gave me a dirty look and wandered off. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was mad I wanted to spend blood money on her, or because she was pissed I didn’t like her tomboy look. It didn’t really bother me, I could see she was hiding in plain sight now, and I felt it was like my duty as a red-blooded male to get her over it. After getting just a peek at what she was covering up with all those ugly, baggy clothes, I knew it wasn’t right for her to feel like she had to blend into the drab and dreary of all that was the Point.

She wandered off to get a little breathing room and I added some plain black pants, a couple T-shirts, and a normal person-sized black sweater to the hoodie, jeans, and package of T-shirts I grabbed for myself. I was going to have to swing by my place in the city and grab some stuff if I was going to be hanging out in the burbs for the foreseeable future, and she was just going to have to deal with me trying to drag her out of her prickly shell. It was fun to watch her wind up so tight she looked like she was going to snap. I liked the flush under her freckles and the way her pretty pink mouth got all red. I liked the way her green eyes went almost black, and most of all, I liked how new and untouched she seemed, like everything I did to her, every way I touched her, was a new experience. It made all the other bad shit going on seem inconsequential.

I met her at the cash register and noticed she was refusing to look at me or talk to me. I laughed a little under my breath, which had the cashier passing a nervous look back and forth between the two of us. I wish I had snagged some lacy, frilly underwear to throw into the pile just to set her off, but it was too late as I grabbed the paper bag and followed her out of the store.

“What kind of chick doesn’t want to shop?”

She glared at me over her shoulder and tossed that fiery hair to the side. Man, I couldn’t wait to get my hands all tangled up in it and bury my face in it. It was like flames, red and orange, spinning and twirling around her pale face.

“This . . .”—she wagged a finger between her and me—“is already convoluted, scary, and out of control. You very well might want to hurt my brother, I have a sinking feeling you might end up hurting me, and none of that means you get to take me shopping like I’m your girlfriend or something.”

“You don’t have anything, Copper-Top.”

She made a face at me and I grinned at her.

“I have my pride. I have my brother. And I have enough sense to know that the deeper in with you I get, the worse off I’m going to be when you decide I’ve served my purpose.”

I just shook my head at her and went to move around her because she came to a screeching halt in front of me. I went to open the trunk of the Runner when I finally noticed what had made her go so still. I put a hand on the curve of her back and looked at the guy leaning against the side of my car. I swore out loud and handed her the bag and the keys.

“Give me just a second.”

She went to grab for me, but five years of anger and resentment had just surged to the surface. I heard her call my name, saw the guy’s eyes widen as he pushed off my baby and tensed for the blow that was coming from my wildly thrown fist. There wasn’t a lot of force behind it because my side was still jacked up and I could feel more blood start to leak out of the bandage. He shook his face and lifted a hand to work his jaw back and forth.

“Not even out a month and you’re ready to go back for assault on an officer?” I wanted to take that stupid badge on his belt and cram it down his throat. I made a move to lunge for him again, but a pair of tiny hands planted in the center of my chest and shoved me back.

“Knock it off? Are you nuts? Wait, don’t answer that because clearly the answer is yes!”

I looked down at her and back up at the smirking cop and felt my hands curl into tight fists.

“Dovie, this is Officer Titus King . . . otherwise known as the asshole that arrested me and let me rot for five fucking years.”

Titus gave me a steady look and then switched his attention to Dovie. I stepped around her and got back in his face.

“You have some nerve looking for me.”

He held up his hands in a helpless gesture and took a step back. “I heard you were out. I wanted to tell you that Gus has been asking after you since you went away. I thought maybe you would be interested in some honest employment for once in your life.”

“Oh, now you’re interested in helping me out?”

I wanted to get my hands around his throat and squeeze until his head popped. He sighed and put his hand on the butt of the pistol riding low on his hip. He was done letting me vent, the message was clear.

“You were caught red-handed, Shane. What in the hell was I supposed to do? You were in the car, you and you alone. Race wasn’t there, Novak, as always, had pristine hands and a rock-solid alibi, and it was just you, the Aston Martin, and enough incriminating evidence to put you away for a fuck of a lot longer than five years. You’re lucky that’s all you got. The owner of the car died. You do remember that, right?”

I wanted to punch him again, but Dovie didn’t need to hear all the gory details of what Race and I were into before it all blew up in our faces.

“Get bent, King. I don’t need this from you. I’m not on parole, I don’t need a babysitter.”

“You’re right, but you need a goddamn guardian angel the way you live. Go see Gus, Bax. For once in your life make the right choice. I don’t want to put you back in prison.”

I glared at him and tossed the bag in the car and inclined my head toward Dovie. “Get in the car, Copper-Top.” She opened her mouth like she was going to argue, but I just looked at her until she snapped her mouth shut and did what I said.

Once she was out of earshot, I stepped up to Titus. It was an even match; he was an inch taller than me but just as wide, and thicker with muscles used for protection and security rather than mayhem and destruction. We had the same dark hair and similar builds, but his old man must have had blue eyes, because where mine were as black as night, his were the color of the sky on a summer day. Sharing a mother hadn’t made us identical, but there was no missing we were related and shared blood when we were this close to each other.

“I’m going back to jail over my dead body, Titus. Know it.”

He reached out and clamped a hand on my shoulder before I could dodge it.

“That’s what scares the shit out of me, you prick. Mom’s barely hanging in there. Novak wants you dead, or worse, and I know he wants me dead. Race is in the wind, and what, you’re fighting again and running around with some chick who looks barely legal? You can’t stay out of trouble if you try, and I’m going to have to bury you. You think I want that?”

I shook him off and shoved him back with a hand on his beefy shoulder.

“I’m not scared of Novak. I’ll find Race and figure this all out. She’s totally legal and Race’s sister. I’m not running around with her, Benny trashed her place and is hounding her trying to find Race. Mom isn’t my problem, you are not my problem. You lost your right to worry about me when you snapped those handcuffs on me, Titus.”

I went to yank open the door when his words stopped me.

“So you’ll forgive Race, keep an eye on his sister, even though he’s the one that set you up, but you won’t forgive me for doing my job?”

I looked at my half brother, the only person in the world besides Race who had ever tried to save me from myself. Titus and I were never really close. There was a six-year age gap between us and he had always been one to follow the rules, to toe the line as much as anyone could when fighting for survival. When I was ten, he had decided to leave me and Mom and go live with a friend of his on the Hill so he could switch schools and get out of the slums. As an adult, I didn’t blame him, but as a kid, I felt abandoned and alone. My mom’s care fell solely onto my young shoulders and it didn’t seem fair Titus got to go live the dream, while I became a criminal to keep up and keep alive.

“Your job sucks, Officer King.”

“Detective King.”

“Blow me.” I opened the door and slid in next to Dovie. She was looking out the window and twisting her hands together. She wanted to ask me about all of it, I could feel it rolling off of her, but she kept her pretty mouth shut.

“Go see Gus, Bax.”

Titus’s voice was barely audible over the roar of the powerful motor of my car.

A drive that should take twenty minutes only took ten as I raced back to the little house in the burbs. Going there with Dovie made me hate it less each time I walked in the front door. She was like some kind of balm that made all the ravaged and torn pieces of my soul feel less raw. I plopped all the grocery bags down in the kitchen and looked at her where she was leaning against the fridge.

“We need to put this away.” My voice was harsher than normal.

She let her head fall back and I wanted to run my tongue all along the length of her neck.

“Tell me about the night you got arrested.”

“No.”

“Yes. I need to understand how Race set you up.”

“I don’t even understand it.”

“That cop, who is he to you?”

“No one.”

“Bax.”

I growled—actually growled—and stomped over to her. I put my palms on the freezer so that she was caged in my arms. I don’t know if I wanted to scare her, intimidate her, or just fall into those forest-colored eyes and leave the harsh reality of who I was behind for just a minute.

“I need to know,” she said.

Probably, but I didn’t want to be the one to tell her. She reached up between us and put her hands on both of my bristly cheeks. I couldn’t look away from the lure of the pleading in her evergreen-tinted gaze.

“Race called me that night and said Novak had a job. An Aston Martin Vanquish up on the Hill. I didn’t want to do it. Those cars are high end, which means security is top-notch. I told him no, not only because it was risky, but because we were supposed to be working on getting out of the game. Novak was taking bigger risks, calling on Race for more and more errands, and it was all getting too deep and too tangled.”

I was breathing hard and drifting back in time, even though she was trying to hold me on to the present.

“Race called me back a couple hours later and told me I didn’t understand. We had to get the car. We didn’t have a choice. Either I went or he was going to have to go alone. Race is great with security systems, with car alarms, the LoJack and the digital systems that cops can override, but he’s not a thief. He’s not a car guy, so if he had to go on his own, it would’ve ended badly.”

I blinked, trying to make sense of it still. “I should’ve asked, Why? Why that car? Why that night? Why it HAD to get done, but I didn’t want Race to risk his neck for no reason, so I met him on the Hill and went to work.”

I pulled away from her and walked over to lean against the sink.

“Race was weird, nervous and twitchy. I kept asking what was going on with him but he kept telling me we just needed the car, Novak was being really specific about it. We got in the gate, got through the security on the garage, and the car was there, all shiny and beautiful, just like it was supposed to be. I would be a liar if I didn’t say I was looking forward to taking it, to getting behind the wheel.”

I could still see the perfect black paint and smell the flawless leather interior. I let my head drop and closed my eyes. I had to rub the back of my neck to keep going.

“I told Race to do his thing, get me in the car, but he just looked at me. I knew something was wrong, that it wasn’t just a simple boost. Before I knew it, we’re in the house and forcing the guy that lived there, some rich old bastard, into the car and heading back down to the District to meet Novak. I kept asking what was going on, who the old guy was, but Race just kept saying he was sorry and that I didn’t understand. He kept saying over and over he would pay me back, but I didn’t know what he meant. We get to the meet-up spot, Novak is there, Benny is there, and the old guy is freaking out. I wanted to hand the keys over, get out and never look back, and the next thing I know the cops are there, like every cop in the damn city descends on us. Bullets start flying, everyone scatters, and Race vanished as I took off in the car.

“I remember my blood pumping, the smell of rubber burning, sirens, and the look of sorrow on Race’s face as I tried to outrun the cops. I would’ve made it too, would’ve disappeared in the night and gotten away scot-free but I was worried about ditching Race, distracted by the entire shit show, and I lost control, skidded, and slammed the car into a telephone pole, knocking myself silly and giving the cops plenty of time to catch up to me.

“I asked the cop that pulled me out of the car where Race was, trying to figure out what was going on. Over and over again I screamed at the cop why. Titus was the arresting officer, he’s also my half brother. He put me in the back of the police cruiser, told me the old guy was dead, I was getting arrested for grand theft auto and evading arrest, and I would be lucky if I didn’t have kidnapping and accessory-to-murder charges leveled at me. I asked to talk to Race. I needed to know how things had gone so bad, why we had jacked the old man, what was going on, and Titus just told me I would understand later. He’s the only reason I did a five-year term and not a fifteen.”

I cleared my throat and finally lifted my head to look back up at her. She had tears in her eyes and looked as uneasy as I felt. I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me. I did bad shit and got caught. That was just part of the game. It was the betrayal from the only person in life I had ever totally trusted that twisted me up and left a bad taste in my mouth.

“Titus knew where the deal was going down. Race called him. He sent me to prison on purpose, I need to know why. He let Novak kill that man, facilitated it. I need to figure out if he’s gone, turned into one of them or not. Race was working his own angle that night. I need to know what it was.”

She whispered my name and moved so she could squeeze herself between me and the counter, which was still littered with the groceries we never put away. She put one arm around my neck and the other over where my heart was thudding in my chest.

“He must have had a good reason. You’re his best friend. He didn’t become one of them, because he came after me as soon as you went away. It all has to be tied together. Race isn’t a bad guy, and I don’t think you really are either.”

She was wrong. Pressing her hard into the counter, I used my forearm to send the grocery bags flying to the floor. They rattled and clanged across the tiles as I grabbed her around her tiny waist and lifted her onto the counter so we were eye-to-eye and I could insert myself between her legs.

“You’re wrong. If he set me up because he was too stupid to get out from under Novak, or because he was scared or caught up in something nasty, I’ll destroy him and I won’t regret it.”

She didn’t look away from me, and like it was a sign from up above telling me I had done my time and deserved just a few moments with this precious, difficult girl, I noticed one of the boxes of condoms had survived the crash to the floor and was still on the counter within reach.

“So tell me, Bax, what reason could Race give that will make this all okay? Is there one? Really?”

I felt my jaw clench and the corner of my eye twitch. I had spent five years thinking that very thing and the only answer I had come up with that was acceptable was, “If it was all just Race trying to save me from myself, like he always seemed to be doing, I can understand that.”

“I don’t think you will—destroy him, I mean. I don’t think you could live with yourself if you did.”

She didn’t know me well enough to say that, but I was about to show her just how far and how fast I was willing to go when I wanted something. She had no idea the devastation I could bring with very little effort. I was good at it. I reveled in it more often than not.

I saw her suck in a breath as I hooked a finger under the top button of her top and popped it open. I lifted an eyebrow to see if she was going to say anything, and when she didn’t, I gripped both sides of her shirt in my fists and ruined it by pulling it apart. The tiny plastic buttons pinged off the appliances and the floor. She made a face at me that had her wrinkling up her freckled nose. How on earth had I thought she was boring? She was like sunshine and warmth all wrapped up in a porcelain package blessed with the greatest tits I had ever seen. I never would’ve thought I was a freckle guy, but damn, I sure liked hers.

“You know that was my only shirt.”

I tugged it down her arms and tossed the remnants out of my way. Her bra followed, leaving her bare from the waist up and looking like an ivory-skinned dream. I had seen a lot of hot girls in my time, girls who made a living based on how pretty they could look, how sexy they came across to the opposite sex, but none of them held a candle to Dovie and her primitive and untouched beauty.

“I threw a couple T-shirts in with my junk while you were pouting.”

I got my hands under the gap at the top of her too-big pants and worked the fastener open and got the zipper down. I felt the baby-soft skin of her abdomen quiver against the back of my battered knuckles, but she lifted her hips without a question when I urged her up so I could get the rest of her clothes off, leaving her totally naked and pinned to the counter in front of me. Her hands were resting on either side of her naked thighs, her green eyes were huge in her face, and she was chewing on her bottom lip hard enough that I saw a drop of blood. She was all kinds of virtuousness and way too good for all the things I was bound to do to her.

“You are going to regret this when I prove to you everything you think about me is wrong.”

She lifted a hand and traced the star next to my eye with the dull edge of her fingernail.

“No, I’m not. You are not a mistake.”

Maybe I would just have to show her.

I yanked her with greedy hands and very little finesse to the very edge of the counter so she was pressed up as tightly as she could be with my erection. I put my hands on her bare ass and kissed her, not like you kissed a woman you wanted to seduce, but like a woman you wanted to own and imprint yourself on forever. There was something heady, powerful about having her totally naked and at my mercy while I was still fully clothed and looming over her. I wasn’t into all that power and domination crap, but with her, man, I could play lord and master all day long if she was into it.

I got one of my hands wrapped in her mass of curly hair and bent her back over my arm so that all her softness was grinding into my hardness. I moved my tongue in and out of her mouth, used my teeth on her, held her still while I ate her up and sucked her in. She felt so good, so clean and pristine, I wanted to mark her up from her head to her toes. She whimpered a little when I got a little overzealous sucking on her bottom lip, and moved to wrap her long legs around my waist.

She tugged my shirt up and off over my head, letting it fall with hers to the littered and now messy kitchen floor. I saw her eyes immediately go to my side where blood was slowly leaking out from under the thick bandage she had put there earlier. I saw the hesitation flash in her gaze and caught her hand as she went to reach for it. I turned it palm side up and put a kiss there. She jerked her eyes up to mine as I closed her fingers over the gesture.

“Don’t. That’s just part of being me.”

She wanted to say something, to argue, but there was no way I was letting her get distracted from the point I was trying to make, or the point that was trying to poke out over the edge of my pants. I took her other hand and put it on the buckle of my belt. I didn’t give her a chance to go back to my injury. I pressed her back as far as she would go, arching her delicate spine across my arm where it was braced behind her and thrusting her flat-out perfect breasts up and into my eagerly waiting mouth. She was the sweetest thing I had ever had my lips on. I loved the way her nipples pebbled up on my tongue like a berry. I felt her fingernails dig into my scalp on the back of my shoulder. She said my name on a breathless murmur, and I didn’t even care that she called me Shane.

I moved my legs farther apart, forcing her legs open wider and got a hand down between us to see if she was ready for me. She was so small down there, all damp and coiled like she was ready to fire at the barest touch. She felt like silk and cream, I had to fight back a groan when she clutched down on my fingers. I ran my tongue across the hollow between her breasts, gobbled up her skin, put red sucking marks on every freckle I could find. By the time I got to the tip of her other breast, she was grinding against my stroking fingers and pulling me closer with her heels in my ass.

Her hair was engulfing the arm I was using to hold her up, and the hand I had put on my dick earlier had lost its way and was clutching at my ribs. I was going to send her over the edge, take her apart before I got to lose myself in her alabaster body. She snapped her eyes open and pulled on my chin with one hand until I looked up at her. I pressed my thumb down hard on her clit and watched her break apart right before my eyes. It was awesome. It was powerful. It gave me a rush that topped taking any car I could ever remember. She was just that delicate and fragile-looking under my broken hands. I never really cared about what I gave the chicks I was with before her, but for some reason, I felt like anytime she let me get my hands on her, I had to make it count.

“Shane . . .” Her voice was a whisper. Her eyes heavy-lidded and satiated. She roused herself enough to get her hands on my belt and work the heavy buckle open. She flicked it to the side and pulled the zipper down. I had to grunt a little and help her out because her body pressed up against mine and her little whimpers of pleasure had my cock ready to break free of the fabric on its own, and the teeth of my fly were its mortal enemy. I got my pants open and let her wiggle them down around my hips and ass along with my boxers. I was still way more covered than she was, but the checkered flags tattooed along either side of my groin were suddenly on display. They seemed to have her full and undivided attention, as did my raging erection, standing proudly between the two of them.

I grunted at her and bent her over so I could reach across her to get the box of condoms. When I leaned against her and all her wet heat pressed against my naked cock, I almost blacked out.

I swore and looked down at her. She lifted a rusty eyebrow at me and twined her arms around my neck. The hard tips of her breasts pressed into my chest and her thighs clasped me to her core like she was never going to let me go. I got out a rubber and ripped the package open with my teeth. It was a little tricky making room between where we were pressed together to get it all situated, but I really didn’t want to separate from where her body felt like it was trying to melt me into her, make me a part of her forever.

I put my hands flat on the counter on either side of her head where her hair was spread out around her like a blanket of fire. I watched her as I put just the tip in, just the faintest hint of my cock inside her fluttering opening.

A small grin kicked up the corner of her mouth and I wanted to kiss it off of her.

“This is the finish line?”

I had never been with anyone like her, felt like someone else was my very own. I knew I wasn’t her first, but when I pushed into her, seated myself into her burning core, I swore she was brand-new and all mine. She arched up against me and I didn’t have to worry about kissing her smile because she attacked my mouth like a wild woman. She slid her tongue along the roof of my mouth and clamped her legs around my sides, which was murder on my wound but drove me all the way into her, and had us both gasping at the burn and pulse of the contact. I pulled away from the bite of her teeth and buried my nose in the curve of her neck. The clasp and pull of her body had me losing control and thrusting into her so hard, I moved both of us across the countertop. She was totally splayed flat and her head was hanging off the other side of it.

I felt her hands dig into my shoulders, felt her chest heave against and retreat from mine. She was slick, and tight, grinding against me and fluttering all along my anxious dick. I had zero finesse, zero tact, and zero interest in anything but getting to the end. I bit the tendon in her shoulder where her vein was throbbing under my mouth. She threw her head violently to the side, muttered something way too nasty to come out of that too-pretty mouth, and I felt all her inner muscles clamp down on me and try and keep me from ever leaving her. That was it for me.

I grabbed her hips hard enough that there would no doubt be marks when I let her go, and pounded into her. I’d hooked up more than my fair share since getting my freedom back, but none of it was like this. I felt desperate, needy, wanting. I could feel every part of her—her skin, her mouth, her hair, her inner walls milking and working me over. There was no holding out, no making it last and making sure she got as good as I was getting. I said her name like it was a curse and pulled her back across the counter so we were plastered together, front to front. I kissed the living shit out of her as I came harder than I ever had in my life. I kissed her until neither of us could breathe. Kissed her until she was pulling at my ears to get me to let her go. Kissed her until I felt her start to shimmy and quake around my dick. Kissed her until I sent her back over the edge while I tried to get my wits and rationality back. I kissed her like I knew there were only a limited number of times she was going to let me do it, and I was going to make each one a memory.

It took a minute for both of us to catch our breath, to come back down. I pulled my head up from her neck and dropped my forehead down so it was touching hers.

“That . . .” My voice sounded like I was gargling with acid. “That is the finish line.”

She snorted out a cute little laugh and opened her mouth to reply when a phone trilled from somewhere on the floor. I sighed and pulled out of her. I situated myself as best as I could and reached down to the pile of discarded clothes. I handed her my shirt and dug around until I found her phone. She hopped off the counter and picked her way around the carnage of the groceries on the floor. I made my way to the bathroom to situate my junk and to look at my seriously throbbing side.

The cut looked like it was seeping and oozing, but there was a decent crust of a scab starting to build up on the edges of it. Since Dovie wouldn’t help, I popped the lid off one of the tubes of superglue and slimed the burning liquid over the nasty cut myself. It felt like pouring boiling oil on my skin, but the blood stopped as soon as the clear liquid started to dry. I was probably going to end up with a raging infection and it wouldn’t be gangsters or my life of crime that ended up doing me in. It would be gangrene.

I was washing my hands and throwing the wreckage of the bandage in the trash when she propped herself up in the doorway. My shirt covered most of her up, but it was hard to look away from those legs when I knew she was naked underneath.

“That was the group home I work at. One of the other monitors got sick and they need me to cover. I usually only stay every other weekend, but they need me to stay over tonight and tomorrow.”

That meant I wouldn’t see her until sometime Monday. Why that made me annoyed I didn’t know. I nodded at her and ran my hands roughly over my short hair.

“All right. Give me a minute to clean up the kitchen and I’ll take you. Like I said, I bought you some stuff to get by for a few days, so you can grab that and get ready.”

She gave me a look that I swore was colored with disappointment, but then she just nodded and turned on her heel.

“Cool. I’ll help you clean up.”

I watched her walk away. Somewhere in the part of my chest that I had long thought was an empty and hollow cavern, I felt a twist and a wrenching feeling that her walking away was something that I needed to get good with her doing . . . more for her sake than my own.

CHAPTER 8

Dovie

I DON’T KNOW WHAT I had been doing with Billy Clark all those years ago or with that loser from the restaurant, but it hadn’t been anywhere near the same level of what I had just done with Bax. I knew that sex was just a thing to him, a way to find instant gratification, a way to intimidate and control, but to me it was something different. I felt like I had a part of him inside me, burning, twisting, and throbbing in time with my heartbeat. I could feel the heavy weight of his dark gaze as he watched me out of the corner of his eye as he sped through town toward the group home. I didn’t know if he was waiting for me to freak out, demand an apology, or something else dramatic and probably more appropriate, but he was going to be out of luck, because all I really wanted to do was be back on the counter with all his intensity and focus centered on me. He was scary hot, and having him that close, being that intimate with him, was terrifyingly encompassing.

When he was nice . . . well, as nice as a guy like him could be, it was unnerving and I wasn’t sure what to do with him. When he was unhinged, angry, and all silent and broody, that’s when I knew to watch my step, keep my guard up, and prepare to do battle with him. I wasn’t sure what this new development between us meant, but I did know I had never felt as worshiped, as appreciated, as I had after he was done with me. I wasn’t anything particularly special in the looks department, but after that interlude on the counter with his midnight eyes picking me apart and putting me back together, I felt like the most beautiful girl in the world. Or at least in the Point.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and fiddled with the long ends of the sleeves of his shirt I still had on, bloodstains and all. I couldn’t explain why I didn’t want to give it up, but luckily, he hadn’t asked for it back.

“So Monday?”

These were the first words spoken since we got in the car.

I nodded absently. “Yeah. I stay tonight, work the entire day tomorrow, and stay tomorrow night. I love it. Those kids were all me at one point in time. I really want to get a degree in counseling so I can help kids like us, kids that had shitty parents, a crap upbringing, transition into foster care and adoptive homes. More often than not, they think they have all the answers and are unwilling to adapt. That’s the curse of the streets, I guess. Kids grow up too fast.”

He just grunted, but from the limited info I got from him so far, I knew it was true in his case as well. No kid just woke up one morning and decided they were going to be a car thief because it sounded fun.

“So your brother—” I was cut off when he turned to look at me with narrowed eyes.

“Half brother.”

“Uh . . . half brother . . . he doesn’t help you with your mom at all? Does he know about the house?”

I saw his jaw clench and a muscle start to tick. Too bad. He had seen me naked—been inside me—and that, at the very least, entitled me to a few hard questions.

“Titus has always been very rigid, very black and white on what equals good and bad. His dad was a major drug supplier, he got locked up when Titus was just a little kid. He never got over it. He wanted the perfect family, mom and dad who loved each other, no addictions, no troubles, and when he couldn’t get that in the Point, he wrote us off and found a new family. He doesn’t care about Mom because she doesn’t care about herself. And with me”—he sliced me a look that made me shiver—“he proved how much being my brother meant when he hauled me in.”

I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to the windshield. “It’s not like he had a choice. You’re a criminal, he’s a cop.”

“There’s always a choice, Copper-Top. Sometimes it takes balls to make the wrong one and deal with the fallout, but there is always a choice.”

I didn’t have an answer for that, so I just twirled a curl loosely around my finger and rode in silence until the house came into view. It was right in the center of the Point, run-down, bars on the windows, a sad-looking playground set out front. It didn’t look like much, but the love that was on the inside made it the most beautiful place I had ever been in my life. I turned to tell him thanks for the ride, to ask when I would hear from him, but he was out of the car and pulling my door open before I could.

I blinked as he offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet. I saw all the curious faces of the kids inside filling the dirty windows, but it didn’t matter. When he bent his head and sealed his mouth over mine, I drifted into him and let him take what he wanted. It was getting to be a dangerous habit, one that, if I didn’t get a handle on it, was going to leave me with nothing left of myself. He rubbed his tongue along the curve of my bottom lip and lifted his head, leaving me breathless and dazed.

“I’ll come get you Monday.”

I started to nod absently as he handed me the small bag that had my meager belongings in it. I shook my head to clear the haze of desire he kicked up just by being close, and put a hand on his forearm.

“No.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow at me.

“I mean, I have school Monday night. I don’t get out of class until ten.”

He didn’t like that. I could tell by the downturn of his mouth and the way the shadows moved in his eyes. He shook off my hand and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up around his face. I decided I hated it when he did that. It was like he was pulling armor into place and there was no Shane, only Bax.

“Call me when you get around to it, I guess.”

Something cold shafted down my spine and I bit my lip as he worked his way back to his side of the car. I tilted my head to the side.

“Bax?”

He paused before climbing back into the car and looked at me. All I could see was my nervous and unsure face reflected back at me out of those dark orbs.

“No Roxie or Honor this weekend, promise?”

It was a question, because really, what did I expect from him? It wasn’t like he was some kind of paragon of virtue and honesty. We stared at each other over the roof of the car for a long moment before he dipped his chin down.

“Call me.”

I gulped a little and nodded as I stepped up on the curb as he blazed away from me. I let out a pent-up breath and wondered if I would survive dealing with him long enough to find Race. It was like handling a grenade with a loose pin. I wanted to zig and every time I did, he managed to zag. It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

When I pushed through the front door, I was immediately surrounded by little bodies. The teenagers were too cool to show any outward excitement that I was there, but I could see the questions brimming in their eyes. Bax was hard to miss, and it was well known I didn’t date or make time for a love life, so I’m sure everyone wanted to know who he was and why I had arrived to work in his badass car when I typically took the bus in.

I maneuvered my way through the bodies and the barrage of questions to get to the kitchen, where Reeve Black was working on making the kids dinner. There were a total of twelve of them, ranging in ages five to sixteen, so it was no simple task, and she looked harried.

“Need a hand?” She jumped a little at the sound of my voice.

“Oh, thank God you’re here. Lindsey and Blake were helping but then everyone bolted because of someone at the front of the house. All I heard was ‘sweet ride’ and ‘hot guy’ . . . blah blah blah, you know how teenagers are.”

Reeve was a few years older than me. I didn’t know her whole story, but I think the bones of it were similar to mine. I didn’t know why she was as devoted to these kids as she was, but she was the heart and soul of this house. She also looked like she could make a fortune being a bikini model or some rich guy’s mistress, so I always wondered what she was doing slumming it with the rest of us average folks, but I never felt like it was my place to ask. Frankly she intimidated me with her long black hair and unwavering cobalt gaze. I think she saw more than she ever let on, and all I wanted to do was hide, so I tried to keep things between us totally professional.

“I got a ride in to work today. He does have a sweet ride and he is wicked hot in a very dangerous kind of way. They were right.” I put my stuff on the long dining table and started to roll up the sleeves of my confiscated shirt. “Put me to work. What do you need me to do?”

She handed me a pile of potatoes and told me to get peeling and scrubbing.

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

She said it casually, but I heard the question in her voice.

“I’m not. He’s a friend of Race’s. We’re both just worried about him and want to find him.”

“Oh. You never mentioned being close with any of your brother’s friends before.”

I never mentioned much of anything before, so I looked at her curiously. “I’m not. Bax is different. He and Race grew up together. He might be the only one who can get him out of this trouble he seems to have cooked up for himself.”

I jumped and looked up as the ladle she was stirring the sauce with clattered to the floor. I frowned and tossed her a towel.

“You okay?”

She muttered something under her breath and bent down to clean up the mess she had just made.

“Shane Baxter? You’re running around with Shane Baxter?”

I cocked my head in surprise and just continued to look at her. “‘Running around’ isn’t exactly what I would call it, but yeah, Bax and Race go way back. Why? Do you know him?”

She swore under her breath and moved off to the fridge, when a couple of the kids wandered in looking for juice. I thought maybe she was going to drop it when she walked over to the sink and took me by my shoulders so I was facing her. Her blue eyes were intent and so serious, I suddenly had a hard time swallowing.

“I know where you lived before here was no picnic, that you understand how places like the Point run, but at heart you are a good girl, a really sweet young woman with goals and aspirations that I admire. Do not”—she gave me a little shake that had my teeth rattling together—“let a guy that is poison like Shane Baxter anywhere near you. He will destroy anything and everything you have ever loved and will enjoy every second of it.”

I couldn’t formulate a response to that. Besides, it was already too late. If he was poison, I was beyond infected with it.

“What did he do to you, Reeve?”

She shook her dark head.

“Nothing, I don’t even know him, but I know of him, and I think that’s worse. His reputation is awful, Dovie. He steals, he fights, he hurts people, and everyone knows the only reason he didn’t get busted for murder was because his brother is a cop. Come on, Dovie, you really think Race is hiding from Novak? Isn’t it more likely he’s hiding from the guy he helped put away? Shane Baxter is bad news, and all you’re asking for hanging out with him is trouble with a capital T.”

She was partially right. Bax was nothing but bad news, but Shane . . . well, Shane could be sweet, thoughtful, and there was more going on with him than met the eye. Bax didn’t hold me when I couldn’t sleep, Bax didn’t grab me clothes, even though I was being a brat, and Bax wasn’t the guy I let touch and stroke me into mindless oblivion. That was all Shane. Too bad he inhabited the same body, because without his alter ego, Shane was a pretty great guy. But I wasn’t delusional enough to think he was all one or the other, I knew he was a complicated mix of both Shane and Bax, and there was no having one without tolerating the other.

I kept quiet and helped her finish dinner. We wrangled the kids together for an after-dinner movie and then fed them a healthy dessert before wrestling them all into bed. I had to explain no less than ten times that Bax was just a friend and that his car was not mine to ask for rides in. I also valiantly tried to explain to teenage girls that guys like Bax were not what they should be looking for, gorgeous or not. I don’t think I sold it very convincingly because really, who was I to talk about rational reactions to a guy that bled heartbreak and sorrow from every pore when they had seen him kissing the life out of me hours ago.

It was pretty late by the time we had the house settled and got everything cleaned up. It was my preferred way to spend the weekend; at least it used to be. When I lay down in one of the institutional little beds all the staff shared, I couldn’t help but wonder how my time would have been spent if I had still been at the little bungalow at the base of the Hill. Right on the tail end of that, I wondered if Bax would really keep it in his pants over the weekend. He didn’t owe me anything. It wasn’t like we were dating, or even really friends, and all I had to go on was his word, which was worth absolutely nothing. I couldn’t tell if that made me sadder for him or for myself.

I was staring at the darkened ceiling, wondering exactly how I got myself into this mess in the first place. I silently cursed my brother and whatever his motivation had been for setting this entire thing in motion, when the soft ping of my phone sounded. I glanced at the other bed in the room where Reeve was out cold and slid my legs silently off the edge of the bed. We had to do a bed check every hour, and we typically rotated on and off, and since this was my hour anyway, I figured I would kill two birds and check the message while I checked on the kids.

The little kids were all down for the count. The teenagers . . . well, they were teenagers and it was easy to tell they were faking being asleep, but since they were in the room and not out roaming the streets, I let it slide. I went out onto the front porch and clicked open the text messaging on my phone.

You have a good night?

I wasn’t expecting to hear from him until Monday, and by then I wasn’t sure I was going to want to talk to him. I felt like space away from him gave me some kind of breathing room to escape the Bax force field that surrounded him. Blowing out a breath, I sent my hair flying over my forehead.

It was alright. How about you?

It took a minute to get a response, not that I even really expected one. It was Saturday night, and he was wild at his best. I didn’t even want to think about what kind of shit he could stir up. It made my skin crawl and made me wonder how I had ever thought I could handle him. I was an amateur and he was a pro all the way.

Hit up some places. Asked some more questions. Race was asking about some rich guy doing business with Novak. I think I need to find out who the rich guy is. That might be the key to the whole thing.

Where are you at?

I shouldn’t have asked. It wasn’t my business and I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. I was right.

The District.

I bit my bottom lip and stared at the glowing screen of my phone. He had spent time in the District before me, and undoubtedly he would be right back there after me. I hated that I cared one way or another. While I contemplated what to say back, like he could sense my unease across the space that separated us, he sent me:

I’m headed back to my mom’s place. I went by my place in the city to grab some stuff. I told you I would be good.

I don’t think you know how.

Really? I thought I just showed you how good I can be. I guess I’ll have to step it up next time.

I snorted out a laugh and silently thought that if he stepped it up any more, I wouldn’t be able to walk. I had bruises on the outside of my thighs, hickeys chasing across my chest, and there were twinges in muscles I didn’t even really know I had until he had gotten ahold of me. Like they were mocking me, those checkered flags flashed across my mind, and I suddenly felt a little warm. I pushed my hair off my face and blew out a breath.

Thank you.

It was all I could think to say. I wanted to trust that he was being good, more because he wanted to than because I asked him to, but whatever the reason, I was grateful.

I get the feeling that you won’t let me put my hands on you if I put them on someone else. Right now that doesn’t work for me and I want my hands on you as often as you’ll let me put them there.

Well, hell, if that didn’t just make all my girl parts get all warm and tingly.

You scare me, Bax.

I know.

That was it. He didn’t send anything else and I spent a half hour wondering what exactly I was going to do when this ended up killing me or more likely making me wish I was dead.

THE NEXT MORNING THE kids were up early and I was exhausted because I had spent the entire night replaying the last two weeks and every encounter I had had with Bax over and over in my head. I shouldn’t have ever told him I was going to go to bed with him. What was I thinking? Like he needed an in. Like he needed any kind of encouragement. I should have stayed strong, never given in to the temptation and gone to the fight when I knew it was more than likely a setup. When I had asked him to lie to me, to tell me that I would be different than the other girls, it had taken me sideways when instead, he had done the opposite. I might not be important to him, matter to him, but he was honest enough to admit that whatever was brewing between us was significant and different.

I was getting the kids’ breakfast when one of the teenage girls, Blake, decided to grill me about Bax. She was a pretty girl, her story was sad and broke my heart. Her parents were way worse than mine ever had been, and the things she had seen at only fourteen made me hate the world we lived in. She was a prime candidate for going into a long-term foster situation, if only someone could teach her how to trust. I had talked with her at length, tried to make her understand not all grown-ups were going to sell their kids into prostitution because they owed their dealer money for drugs, but it was like talking to a wall, and frankly, I couldn’t blame her after everything she had endured.

She propped her tiny chin on her hand and blinked long lashes at me, despite my grouchy mood and warning look.

“So what’s up with the hottie in the hotrod? You go get a boyfriend on us?”

I frowned at her and helped a couple of the little kids with some cereal.

“No. I don’t have time for a boyfriend. You brats keep me too busy.”

“He kissed you like he was your boyfriend.” I winced because I forgot they had witnessed that. Reeve chose just that moment to walk in, and I didn’t miss the hard look she gave me.

“Guys like him . . .” I looked at Blake and purposely avoided Reeve’s glower. “When they kiss you they do it because they want to, not because you’re important or special to them like a girlfriend.”

She lifted an eyebrow at me, and it was easy to see how far beyond her years she was in the “yeah, right” look she leveled at me.

“When a guy like that kisses you, it doesn’t matter if you’re important or special. All that matters is that it’s you he’s kissing, and man, was he kissing the shit out of you.”

“Language!” Reeve’s voice was sharp as I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not like that. He’s friends with my brother.”

Blake sighed. “I wish I knew someone that had friends like that.”

That set all the kids . . . well, the girls, off on a tangent about their dream guys. Even when you grew up hard and had little faith in the world around you, every little girl still wanted her prince to come to her rescue, even if that prince had a star tattooed on his face and charged in under horsepower instead of on a white stallion. I let them chatter and ignored Reeve’s censure, even though it followed me heavily throughout the day.

I didn’t hear from Bax all day, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me. I would also be damned if I was going to let him know it bugged me that I didn’t hear from him at all that night or the next morning. After we gave the full-time staff the rundown of activities, I was walking out the front door with every intention of seeing if I could con Carmen and the boys into helping me set the apartment back to rights before my classes started in the evening. I couldn’t live in hiding forever, and the sooner I took my life back, the less likely I was to drown in the mystery that was Shane Baxter. I was going to take the bus when Reeve surprised me by asking me if I wanted a ride. Considering her chilly demeanor all weekend, I was hesitant to say yes, but sitting on the bus for a half an hour really wasn’t ever awesome, so I took her up on the offer.

It only took five minutes before her real motivation became known.

“Dove.” Her tone was stern and made me look at her. “I know we aren’t friends and I don’t really know anything about you, but I feel like I have to tell you; you need to watch yourself. I don’t think you know what you’re doing getting entangled with a guy like Bax. I know you love Race and believe the best of your brother, but if Bax is the kind of guy he keeps in his inner circle”—she shook her head and her dark hair slashed over her serious face—“you need to be looking out for yourself.”

I gave her a rueful grin and tucked my hair behind my ears. “I understand where you’re coming from, Reeve, but you don’t know Race and you don’t know Bax, even if his reputation leaves little to be desired. I’ll be okay.”

“I hope so. Guys like him . . .” She trailed off, and I turned fully in my seat to look at her.

“You said he would destroy me. I have no intention of letting that happen.”

“You sleep with him?”

I stiffened automatically, because like she said, we weren’t even really more than coworkers.

“Why?”

“Because you’ve worked at the home for a year and have never even mentioned going on a date with a guy, and yet this guy rolls into your life and all of a sudden you’re rumpled and sucking face in front of the house. That’s what they do . . . make you do things you normally wouldn’t. First it’s sex, and then it’s stuff like drinking or maybe a line of blow, and then the next thing you know, they have you so wound up and backward you’re willing to break the law for them. You turn into a pawn in their game, because, Dovie, that’s all it will ever be to him, a game.”

“Are you sure you don’t know Bax, Reeve? You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

“I told you I don’t know him, but I know of him and I know all about guys like him. I know what it looks like after they’re done with you. It’s ugly and almost impossible to come back from, and I would hate that for you.”

I would hate that for me too. “I don’t drink, my mom was a junkie, so there isn’t even a slight chance—regardless, if I let him in my pants or not—that Bax is getting me to do blow or anything else. As for the rest . . .” I let my shoulder rise and fall in a careless shrug. “Right now I need him, so I have to take the good with the bad. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t try and fool me into thinking he’s safe or that he has my best interest at heart. He terrifies me and I tell him that on a pretty regular basis, but he can also be sweet and gentle when he wants to be. I don’t know that I have any other choice but to play the game with him for now. He seems to be the only one that knows how to win it.”

His words about having the balls to make the wrong choice and being strong enough to deal with the fallout danced through my head.

“Just keep your eyes peeled, and if anything seems off, run.”

I nodded, because really, it was sound advice. If I had stayed away, I wouldn’t know what it felt like to have him touch me, to have him move over me with those black eyes burning into my soul. I wouldn’t know what it was like to want.

In my life I had never had much, never needed much. Sure, once Race came into the picture, things got easier. I felt more comfortable admitting that I wanted things, a family, someone to rely on, security, to finish school and help other people, but I had never wanted the way Bax made me want. Considering the kind of guy he was, that wasn’t only foolish, it was also bound to leave me, just like Reeve said, destroyed.

We finished the rest of the ride to my apartment complex in silence, her warning hanging heavy between us. I wanted to ask how she knew, what the story was behind her certainty that Bax was everything bad, but I think the reality of it would be too much to bear when I still hadn’t heard from him. I thanked her for the ride and promised I would keep my eyes open and do my best to watch my back. I don’t think she believed me, but as it was in this world, there was nothing more she could do, because I was my own person, bound to make my own mistakes.

Carmen and the boys were happy to see me and totally willing to help me salvage anything we could out of the trashed apartment. They grilled me about the damage, about Bax, and I had to promise Marco twenty times that I would remind him about the promised ride in the Runner. It took the entire afternoon, and most of my belongings ended up in the rusty Dumpster at the back of the building, but the place was somewhat habitable. I took the boys to McDonald’s for lunch while Carmen got ready for work. I still wasn’t sure about money to replace my books and stuff for school, but I decided I would just have to figure it out.

I was on the bus headed toward the community college when I finally heard from the boy who had been on my mind for the last two days. I wanted to ignore the message, knew I should call Brysen and ask her if it was okay if I just stayed with her until Race showed his face, but I couldn’t do it. The lure of that devil’s face with the star inked on it was too much.

I’ll pick you up from the school. I have shit to do tonight though.

That’s okay. I can stay with Brysen.

I said I’ll come get you.

Even though it was a text and not his voice, I could feel the irritation in his response. Maybe he hadn’t been up to no good when I hadn’t heard from him all day Sunday, or maybe he was just horny and keeping it in his pants was making him grouchy. I chewed on my bottom lip and contemplated the best way to handle the situation. I wanted to see him, wanted to be with him, but Reeve’s warnings about losing myself to him and the game were buzzing around under my skin.

Okay, but I have school stuff I have to do so whatever stuff you have to do needs to have me back at the house with time to do it.

You got it, Copper-Top.

That was it. No making fun of me, no arguing that there would be no time for homework because he would have me otherwise occupied, just you got it. I was never going to be able to predict what this boy was going to come at me with, and I wished that bothered me a whole lot more than it actually did.

CHAPTER 9

Bax

YOU LOOK TERRIBLE, SON.”

I couldn’t argue with the grizzled old mechanic. My face was still a wreck, my side was healing, but slowly, and there was no refuting that I had repeatedly gotten my ass kicked in the last few days.

I grunted and reached out to shake Gus’s hand. Everything I had learned about cars I had learned from this old guy. He ran a shop that was the legal front for the chop shop that handled all of Novak’s hot cars. The Runner wouldn’t be half of the beast it was if it wasn’t for Gus. Well, for Gus and for Titus dragging me with him to the shop after school for years before I realized I hated my half brother’s guts. Titus was almost as good with cars as I was. It was really the only thing we had in common; that and we both always looked up to Gus.

“I’m glad you’re out. Nobody around here appreciates classic American muscle the way you do. I can’t let half the idiots that work for me touch the pre-’76 stuff coming in. They don’t know what they’re doing with it.”

I laughed a little and took a drag on the smoke that was dangling out of my mouth. I had spent all day Sunday running around trying to put a face to the elusive rich guy Race seemed so obsessed with. I’d had no luck, and I was irritated that I wanted to touch base with Dovie, so I purposely didn’t. I didn’t need some girl floating around in my head, not with all the booby traps and nasty stuff that was already constantly in there. She was just supposed to be fun, an easy way to get my needs met until I got my hands on Race. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a lie I could sell to myself and it was more than my dick that wanted to see her tonight.

“I ran into Titus, he told me to swing by. He said you might need my help.”

Gus rubbed his greasy hands on his coveralls and lifted a bushy gray eyebrow at me.

“You listened to your brother?”

“Half brother, and no, I was going to swing by and see you when I got a minute anyway. I’ve been busy trying to find Race. You hear from him at all?”

He grunted and propped his booted feet up on the metal desk in the tiny office. His eyes shifted away from my own. “You need to cut Titus some slack. Man’s gotta work, and just because he does it on the right side of the law doesn’t make your brother a bad guy.”

I blew out a puff of smoke and crossed my arms over my chest. “You say that until he shuts you down for running a chop shop. It doesn’t matter if we have long-term history and that you’re tied to his family or not . . . he’ll put your ass in jail.”

“I run a legitimate business, son, and no one can prove otherwise. If Titus could prove it, he would be well within his right to lock me up, just like he did with you. Plus, he saved your ass from going upriver for the rest of your twenties. Maybe you should thank him instead of swinging at him.”

I snorted. “He ratted me out?”

“I got eyes, Bax. Titus is a monster, he isn’t gonna get a shiner like that from someone he didn’t let put it there. You wanna get your hands dirty, all aboveboard? I got a Stang, a Nova, a Chevelle, and a Hemi ’Cuda all looking to be rebuilt and polished up. They don’t have a thing to do with Novak. It’s a car guy’s heaven and I’ll pay you well to get them up to your standards. Plus, it’ll be an easier paycheck than letting Nassir use you as a punching bag.”

I rolled my eyes. “I need to find Race, and I’m not even started on Novak.”

“That’s not smart, Bax.”

“It doesn’t need to be. I’m tired of him playing puppet master for the entire Point. Someone needs to take him down, and I don’t have anything to lose.”

He sighed and closed his eyes so he could rub them.

“You have a brother by blood and another by choice who would be turned inside out without you. And your mom. Jesus, Bax, what do you think burying you would do to her? She would follow you into the ground.”

I finished the smoke and put it out on the heel of my boot. I was going to tell him it wasn’t my job to worry about any of that when he went on.

“And Race, he has that little sister he’s all tied up in now. What about her? You’re gonna bring the house down around a bunch of innocent people, Bax? Not even you are that careless.”

I frowned at him and shoved my hands in the pockets of my hoodie.

“What do you know about Dovie?”

“Race was frantic about her. Seems like his pops let it slip he had a little accident and the mom wouldn’t keep her mouth shut about it. The rich bastard wanted to make the whole mess disappear; typical Hill attitude. Race went crazy. I had never seen the boy like that.”

“After I got locked up, right?”

Gus looked at me and stacked his hands on his potbelly.

“A few weeks before. He was all about getting the girl, making sure she was safe. He was talking like you. Novak would pay, he was tired of Novak pulling strings, then things went south and he disappeared. I don’t know why he brought the girl back here, put her not only in his old man’s face but in Novak’s as well, but he must have had a plan.”

I couldn’t believe Race knew about Dovie before I went to jail. He had never said anything, never mentioned he was in trouble. It didn’t add up and I didn’t like the way everything was circling back to the redhead.

“Right before he disappeared, Race was flashing a picture around, asking a bunch of questions about some rich guy. You know anything about it?”

“Yeah. It’s his old man.”

I blinked stupidly and rocked back on my heels. “What?”

Gus kicked his feet off the desk and lumbered to his feet. “Race figured that the only person his old man would’ve asked to handle the dirty work was Novak. He was trying to put the two of them together the second he got back into town.”

“What exactly are we talking about when we say ‘dirty work,’ Gus?”

“You know Novak, Bax. What do you think?”

I swore and followed Gus back into the garage, where welders and air hoses made it impossible to talk. If Race thought his dad had asked Novak to kill Dovie, that made things even worse and more complicated than I thought. What in the hell kind of tangled mess had Race wandered into?

We stopped by a pile of rust that would be one badass ride with a little work. There was nothing like old muscle. I put a foot up on the bumper.

“She’s a sweet girl.”

Gus looked at me out of the corner of his eye and leaned on the fender. “The sister? How do you know?”

I just lifted an eyebrow, which made him shake his head. “Race is going to kill you. He loves that girl something fierce.”

“Well, he’s doing a shit job keeping her safe. Benny and his goons are all over her, and I’m the one running interference.”

“You run interference with what’s in your pants?”

“I told you she was sweet, and apparently she played a bigger part in Race going to ground than I thought. I need to figure this shit out. It looks like I might have to take a trip up to the Hill.”

“Be careful. Those people would like nothing more than to put you back behind bars. You took a lot of their really nice stuff.”

We shared a laugh that had very little humor in it. I pushed off the bumper and pulled my hood up over my face.

“I’ll help you get the monsters running, but that’s it. I don’t want anything to do with Novak’s business.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near Novak, Bax. Jail won’t be his answer to dealing with you this time around. Don’t be stupid, son.”

We shook hands and I tried to draw a picture in my head of all the info Gus had just given me. Race knew about Dovie. His dad wanted her dead. Old Man Hartman had asked Novak to kill her. Dovie was still around, Race had helped kidnap the old man the night I got arrested, and somehow that was all tied into him coming back to town and subsequently disappearing. He had to have dirt on Novak; something nasty if he felt safe enough coming back to the Point for a whole year before my release. I was starting to think he had purposely waited until I was out, until I was free to make his move, even if I didn’t know what that move was. One thing was clear—I was a pawn in all of it. I had given up five years of my life for someone else’s goal and that just pissed me off. I didn’t like to be used by anyone, ever.

I was running it over and over again while I drove to the school to get Dovie. She told me just to wait for her in front of the main doors and she would be out at ten sharp. Only she was already waiting for me when I got there, and my blood heated up when she yanked open the door on the opposite side of the car and slammed it shut with way more force than necessary. Her pretty mouth was screwed up in a pout and there was a flush under the freckles on her cheeks. She was upset about something and all I wanted to do was get her naked and play connect the dots.

“What’s up?”

She tossed her head back against the seat and fixed her eyes on me. I liked the way the green got darker and deeper when she was feeling something strongly. They did that when I made her come, too.

“College, even community college, is impossible with no books. I hate that Benny guy, I hate whoever Novak is, and I’m pretty pissed at my brother right now for dragging me into the middle of this.”

“You need money?”

I looked at her and she glared at me.

“Not from you.”

I made a noise in my throat and tried to remember why I thought I’d missed her the last couple of days. She moved a little and under her baggy plaid shirt I caught a peek of her creamy throat. There was a very visible hickey on the side of it, and it all came back to me in a rush, a rush that made my jeans suddenly too tight.

“Would you take it from Race?”

She begrudgingly nodded and crossed her arms over those breasts that I swore I would remember long after she was just a fraction of a memory.

“Well, Race isn’t here, so I’m the next best thing. Take the damn money so you don’t flunk your classes. Consider it going to a good cause.”

“I’m not a charity case.”

“Are you sure about that?” I liked to rile her up. It was fun to watch her get all huffy and puffy. “How was your weekend with the kids?”

She looked at me curiously, like maybe I was trying to set her up, but I really was curious. I didn’t know anyone in my world who cared about the future well-being of others. She was like a saint or something . . . a very sexy, very alluring saint.

“It was fine. Everyone was on good behavior, which is rare. They all thought your car was boss.”

I chuckled. “My car is boss.”

She moved some of her hair out of her face and bit her bottom lip. I wanted to replace her teeth with my own.

“Marco, my neighbor, said you promised him a ride. He asked me to remind you.”

“That little punk scammed me.”

She laughed a little as we got to the house. “You should still take him for a ride. It would make his day. He doesn’t have a lot to get excited about.”

I climbed out and followed her to the front door. “I’ll think about it.”

“What errand do you have to do tonight?”

“I already did it. I had to go see an old friend.”

She looked up at me with questioning eyes as I pushed open the door and let my arm linger over her head. I told her I would let her get her schoolwork done, and I had every intention of sticking to it, but if she kept batting those copper-colored lashes at me and looking at me like she wanted me to shove her against the door and have at it, I totally was going to.

“Did you find out anything about Race on Sunday?”

We went into the living room and I saw her surprise when she took in the TV and the computer that were now part of the furnishings. I had dropped a mint at the electronics store yesterday. I didn’t know how to work half the stuff, but if I was going to be crashing here, I needed the basics.

“No.” I wasn’t going to tell her about Old Man Hartman putting a price on her curly head. I don’t care how tough she pretended to be, hearing that her blood wanted her dead was bound to throw her for a loop, and I would just rather avoid the drama, at least until I had a clearer idea of what was going on. “You want something to eat?”

She made an incredulous face and flopped down on the couch. “You can cook?”

I lifted an eyebrow and smirked down at her. “I’m a man of many talents.”

I gave myself a mental high five when I saw a blush race up her neck.

“Sure, I can eat.”

“It won’t be anything fancy, but I can feed us.”

“Whatever. I’m gonna try and do my homework. Do you care if I use the computer?”

I shrugged and gave her the password to log on and went into the kitchen. When your mom was a drunk and your older brother was too busy trying to claw his way out of the muck and mire, you learned how to fend for yourself. I was never going to have a show on the Food Network, but I could throw together some stuff that would taste all right and keep us going.

I plopped a plate in front of her and turned on the TV. I wasn’t the type of guy who ever just lounged in front of the TV. I was always up to something, had somewhere to go or someone to meet. Maybe that’s why trouble had no problem finding me. I kicked off my boots, pulled off my hoodie, and settled in for as long as it was going to take me to wear Dovie down and convince her to go back to bed with me. Or maybe go down on me. Really, I wasn’t picky.

“This is good, Bax.” It made me grin that she sounded so surprised. I looked over at her and caught her watching me instead of looking at the computer.

“It was fend for yourself or starve around my house when I was little. I learned to make do.”

She swiveled around in the chair so we were facing each other.

“Is that why you started stealing? That’s how you fended for yourself?”

I put the empty plate on the coffee table and gave her a stony look. She was always trying to make me into something better than I really was.

“No. People had stuff that I wanted, so I took it from them. Cars, TVs, credit cards . . . I wasn’t stealing to make do, I was stealing because I wanted stuff that I was never going to work for.”

She made a face at me and turned back to the computer. “That’s not entirely true.”

I gathered up my plate and her now-empty one. I needed a smoke and to get laid, and not particularly in that order.

“What do you know about it?”

She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I know you love that car and you didn’t steal it. I know that you wanted to do something nice for your mom, so you used your talents, as felonious at they might be, to get her this house. It wasn’t all about taking stuff just because you wanted it.”

I wasn’t used to anyone else being able to pick my true motivations out from the smoke screen I usually threw up. I couldn’t say I liked it very much.

“I’m gonna step outside for a minute.” She waved me off and I grumbled at her under my breath. Spending time with this girl was more headache than it was worth, even if I could still taste her all across my tongue and feel her like she was embedded under my prickly skin.

I let the smoke of a cigarette fill and escape out of my lungs and tried to get a handle on my rampant thoughts. There was just too much going on. Everything with Race, Titus popping back up on my radar, this girl twining her way into the very fabric of who I was. I wasn’t sure I could handle any of it with barely a month of freedom under my belt. I wasn’t the kind of man who was big on self-discovery and personal growth, only right now it didn’t seem like fate wanted to give me the option of burying my head in the sand.

I flicked the cigarette butt into the gutter at the end of the driveway and walked back in the front door, pulling my shirt off over my head as I went. I figured I could at least take a shower and work out some of my pent-up frustration on my own if Dovie wanted to continue to be a good little schoolgirl. Man, if that didn’t just put images of her in a short, plaid skirt and shiny Mary Janes all up in my head. This chick was going to make me lose my mind.

“I’m gonna take a show—” I got cut off when I entered the room and was simultaneously attacked and shoved back over the edge of the couch by a redheaded flurry of activity. The cushions of the sofa scattered and my pants and boxers ended up clattering to the floor under her small and hasty hands. I grabbed her around the waist as she climbed on top of me, still fully clothed. She put her hands on the center of my chest and loomed over me, her hair a bright curtain closing us in our own moment.

“Why didn’t you call me on Sunday?” I don’t know how she could talk with my dick standing up straight between us, but she started pulling at her top, so I figured if talking to her would get her naked faster, I would struggle through it.

“Because I wanted to.”

She paused with her arms over her head and I took opportunity of her position to unhook her bra and set those awesome breasts free. The pink tips were already hard and she shuddered when I rubbed the pads of my thumbs over them. She responded sweeter than any girl I had ever touched before, like it was a special treat to have my hands on her.

“So you wanted to call me, which means you didn’t?”

“Dovie, I only ever call chicks to hook up, not to chitchat, so yeah, I didn’t call you because I wanted to.”

She giggled a little because I ran one of my hands down her front and circled her belly button with my index finger. I wanted to lick it and put my mouth on every inch of her, but I had to work on getting her as naked as I was first, and it seemed like all she wanted to do was catch up.

“You didn’t want to hook up?” She actually sounded concerned.

I groaned and grabbed one of her hands that was still on my chest and wrapped it around the erection standing like a pillar between us.

“What do you think?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and I groaned again. She was killing me with all her innocent seduction.

“I don’t want to want this, Bax.” Her voice was just a whisper of sound as I popped open the button on her jeans and got a hand under the waist of her panties.

I raised both my eyebrows at her, because as she said it, she started to move her hand up and down the straining length of my cock.

“I was going to let you study. I was on my way to the shower.” She whimpered when my finger hit its target, and she lifted up a little on her knees to give me better access.

She bent over so she could put her mouth on mine. I let her use those full lips and that clever tongue to kiss me until I was ready to roll her on her back and shove into her, whether she was ready for me or not. Between the soft glide of her hand up and down, and the pull and drag of her mouth over mine, this was bound to be over before she realized what she started. She pulled up and I immediately attached my mouth to the tip of her breast. I rolled the little pebble of pleasure across my tongue while she continued to work me over with her delicate touch.

“It was going to happen anyway. I almost jumped you in the car when you picked me up from school. I hate it. You make me feel out of control.”

Her words were punctuated with a squeeze at the base of my dick that made me grunt in surprise. I needed to get her pants off and get inside of her, like yesterday.

“Being out of control isn’t always a bad thing.” I tried to lift her up and off of me but the couch was narrow and she refused to let my erection go. I was pinned under her and captivated by those moss-colored eyes.

She suddenly climbed to her feet and let me go. I thought she was going to shimmy out of her baggy jeans and climb back on my lap so we could get down to business and I could make her forget all about not wanting to want this, but instead she dropped to her knees in front of me. I think my brain short-circuited, because the next thing I knew, my cock was sliding in between those lips that by themselves were enough to make me hard.

“Shit.”

I gathered a fistful of that flaming hair so I could watch her slide up and down on me and tried to regulate my breathing so I would last for more than a minute. There had never been anything in my life more beautiful than that face, with its smattering of freckles and sensuous mouth bracketed by those checkered flags. It was a mental image that I was glad came after being incarcerated, because if I had ever experienced all that was Dovie Pryce and her magical mouth before getting locked up, I never would have made it.

She swirled her tongue around the head, ran it along the throbbing vein underneath the side, and used her clever hands to bring me to the brink of exploding in her mouth within seconds. I told her to let me go, bucked up on the couch and used my hands that were lost in her endless waves of hair to try and pull her off of me, but it didn’t do any good. She was determined to see it through to the end, to get me as out of control as she claimed to feel around me.

The very tip of my erection hit her in the back of the throat and one of her hands disappeared between my legs. The only coherent thought I had after that, as the very edge of her teeth scraped over my most sensitive flesh, was oh fuck. I prided myself on keeping it together no matter what the situation was, and she had just undone me. She had taken me apart and left me scattered all over the place. I wasn’t sure what order I went back together in.

She ran her tongue over one of the finish-line flags and shook my grip loose out of her now messy hair. She got to her feet between my still-bent knees and I watched her with heavy-lidded eyes as she let her too-big pants fall to her feet so that she was clad in only her panties and the marks I had left all over her after our interlude in the kitchen. She bent over a little and put her hands on my shoulders and worked her way on top me, straddling my lap. I liked to think I had more stamina than the next guy, but she had turned me inside out, so even with those spectacular tits in my face, it was going to take me a minute to recuperate.

She squealed when I put both of my hands under her ass and got to my feet. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and we were eye-to-eye. I was taking her to bed.

“That was unexpected.”

The corner of her mouth tilted up in a grin and she laughed when I tossed her onto the bed. I hooked a finger under the leg of her panties and pulled the last garment keeping her from me out of the way. The trip down her long, pale legs was enough to get blood flowing in the right direction.

“I’ve never done that before.”

Just like that, all my pieces went back together in a better way than they had been before. Again, I felt like she was giving me something that was all my own, something I didn’t have to take just to feel like I had something of value. I placed a kiss on the quivering skin of her stomach and looked at her from under my brows. I pulled her legs apart and bent one knee so I could get between her folded-up legs and return the favor.

“You ever had a guy do this for you?”

Her head shook back and forth on the comforter and she curled one of her hands around my face so she could rub her thumb over the star on my face. She liked to do that when we were together like this, I had noticed.

“No. The last guy tried, but I thought it was too much, so I told him no.”

“It feels good. You should let someone make you feel good, Dove.”

Our eyes locked for a moment and I saw her chest rise and fall in a shaky breath. She moved her hand down and brushed her fingers over my mouth.

“You should let someone show you that being good isn’t all that bad, Bax.”

I dropped a sucking kiss on the inside of her thigh and made room for my shoulders between her legs.

“I’m about to be better than I’ve been in a long time, Copper-Top. You’re lucky.”

I wanted to make her crazy, to take her all apart like she had just done to me, plus my dick was back in the game, so as soon as I made her lose control, I wanted back inside her. Hell, I wanted to spend the entire night there, the rest of the week if she would let me.

She was honeyed everywhere, and all her slick pulsing inner flesh was no different. She was just so fresh and responsive. Every time I touched her, licked her, put openmouthed kisses on her little bud of pleasure, she reacted. There was no question she liked what I was doing to her, and when she started writhing under my mouth and started panting my name over and over again, it made me feel better than anything I could remember. I didn’t even register that she was gasping “Shane” and not “Bax.”

She was creamy and fluttery, all greedy inner muscles and clasping hands that were raking over my short hair. She was practically bowed up off the bed, her clit throbbing against my tongue every time I detoured to torture her with it. I could feel she was ready to go over the edge, she was moaning and restless against my mouth. I should push her over and eat her up, but I decided I needed to feel her, needed to be inside her when it happened. She was like some kind of redemption I never even realized I needed until we collided into each other’s lives.

I kissed her hard as I fumbled in the drawer of the bedside table for the stash of condoms I had tossed in there just in case. She kissed me back and twined her arms around my neck so we were plastered together, chest to chest and thigh to thigh. She was pressing against me, eager to get hers, which was hot on so many different levels. The fact that I could make this girl as greedy for me as I was for her was intoxicating.

“Come for me, little Dove.” I pressed all the way into her as she arched up hard against me and coiled her legs around me. Her mouth opened in a perfect little O of pleasure and those darkened eyes of hers danced between green and black as pleasure washed over the both of us. She was slick and soft where I was hard and hot. We burned against each other, melded in a rhythm that had her inner walls grasping at me and my hips involuntarily grinding into hers. It wasn’t frantic, but it was close. I wanted to be gentle with her, but there was no way—she felt too good, too tight and clasping.

We moved together like we were made to do it. All I wanted to do was make her feel as good as I felt, which wasn’t that much of a chore because she was already primed and ready to go. She tossed her head from side to side and dug her fingers into my sides.

“Jesus, Shane.” Her eyes fluttered closed and I kissed her right as she broke apart underneath me. I could taste the pleasure, the satisfaction I had given her on her tongue as it twisted and danced with my own.

I picked up the pace, was probably rougher with her than I needed to be, but it only took a minute after she found her release for me to find mine. I groaned into the hollow of her throat and buried my face in her endless fall of hair. I don’t know if this was what her intention had been when she ambushed me in the living room, but I had to admit I was a fan.

Her hand caressed my sweaty shoulders and I felt her trace the letters of my name that stood between my shoulder blades. She was rubbing the bottom of her foot up and down the length of my calf and I never wanted to move, ever.

“I changed my mind, Bax.” Her voice was raspy and she sounded as sated as I felt.

“Hmm . . . ’bout what?”

I started to suck on the ridge of her collarbone where my mouth had landed. All parts of her were like candy on my tongue.

“You don’t need anyone to show you how to be good, you’re so much better when you’re bad.”

She sighed in delight when I moved away from her neck and started to kiss behind her ear. Lucky for her I had no intentions of trying to be good anytime soon. Bad was what I was best at, it was what worked for me, and after that bout of sex, I was pretty sure Dovie could make bad work for her as well.

CHAPTER 10

Dovie

IT WAS THURSDAY AFTERNOON and the restaurant was dead. Brysen kept giving me looks as we stocked the tables and I kept ignoring them. My week had been a blur of activity. On Tuesday, I had to work and Bax had strong-armed me into letting him replace my schoolbooks. I thanked him for it all night long. On Wednesday, I had class, which was nice because I needed some breathing room from Bax. At this rate, I was going from sexual amateur to pro overnight with no room for me to catch my breath or process it while it was happening. Bax was out running around on Wednesday night, so I had told him I would just crash with Brysen. I thought he was okay with that until I got a call at three in the morning telling me he was outside my friend’s house and I had two minutes to get my ass out and into the car. I wanted to ignore him, wanted to make him stand out there and feel bad for dictating to me, but I didn’t. I was in the car and back at the house and under him all in less than twenty minutes. He just took everything over, and as much as I didn’t like it and was scared spitless by it, I couldn’t seem to stop it from happening either.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

Brysen pulled out one of the empty chairs at the table I was restocking and I was forced to look at her.

“You disappeared in the middle of the night with a guy I watched snap another guy’s arm in half with his bare hands and you don’t think I’m going to worry? Who is this guy, Dovie? More importantly, who is he to you? Because ever since he came on the scene, you haven’t been acting like yourself.”

My hair was back in a ponytail for work, so I couldn’t play with it like I did when I was nervous.

“I told you, he’s going to find Race.”

“When? It’s almost been a month and Race hasn’t made an appearance. I know you’re sleeping with him. Are you sure he isn’t just leading you on so he can get a piece of ass without having to work for it?”

It was a valid question, but Bax wasn’t the kind of guy who had to work very hard in order to get laid.

“It’s not like that, Brysen.”

“Then tell me what it’s like, Dove, because I’m worried about you.”

I sighed and pulled out a chair next to her. I propped my chin on my hand and looked her dead in the eye.

“I want him, Brysen.”

“Well, duh, he’s a babe. All guys with that wrong-side-of-the-law swagger are, but you’re smart enough to know he’s dangerous and that nothing with him is going to be permanent.”

“I am, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He just looks at me and everything inside me heats up, and if he touches me, it all boils over. I feel like I’m addicted to him or something. I know he’s bad for me, but I don’t care.”

“Dovie . . .” Her tone was warning. “You need to stop whatever it is you’re doing with him before you’re too far in. Wanting someone is different than needing them, and there is no way in hell you need anything that guy is carrying around. Stay with me until Race shows—or better yet, get the hell out of town until all of this blows over.”

I bit my bottom lip and just shook my head in the negative. I didn’t want to leave the Point, and not only because my brother was still out there somewhere.

“I can’t.” And she was wrong. When Bax got distracted and forgot to be Bax, all the things Shane brought to the table I very well could need from this point on. Bax made me crazy and sent my control out the window. Shane made my heart hurt and made the foolish, girly part of me want to make everything in his life better; make him forget five years of his life had been wasted behind bars.

She wanted to say something else, but just then the door opened and we were suddenly packed for the early dinner rush. I put it all out of my mind and worked on staying on top of my tables and making some decent tips. I was doing a pretty good job of it too, until I got a rowdy table of guys who were obviously from the heart of the Point. I think they were already drunk when they came in, and no matter how many trips I made back and forth between their table and the kitchen, I couldn’t get them to be quiet or stop trying to grope me. I was getting frustrated and short-tempered with them because I knew they were going to stiff me. Ramon the bartender refused to intervene because he was busy and . . . well . . . a giant pussy.

Brysen kept giving me sympathetic looks, but her hands were full with her own tables, so I was in the trenches on my own. I was keeping it all together, just wanting them to be gone, when all five of them got up and headed toward the front door before I had even dropped the check off. That made me see red, and without thinking that they were already loud and out of control, I hurried to catch them before they could leave me stuck having to pay the bill.

“Hey, wait a minute! You guys need to pay for your dinner!” I put my hand on the elbow of the guy closest to me and gasped when he not only yanked free but shoved me away with both his hands on my chest.

“Shut up. The service was lousy. We aren’t paying for nothing.” His cohorts chuckled at his boast while my face got hot with fury.

“Your service was fine. You have to pay.”

He took a step toward me and I backed up instinctively. I glanced at Ramon, but he was steadfastly ignoring the drama. What an ass.

“We wanted the hot blonde, not you. Fuck off, Red.”

He pulled back his hand like he was going to smack me and I flinched involuntarily. The last thing I wanted to do was try and explain to Bax why I was walking around with a black eye. I sucked in a breath and opened my mouth to scream, only I didn’t need to because all of a sudden the drunk was gone from in front of me and I was staring at the back of Bax’s shaved head. He grabbed the guy by the front of the shirt and hauled him through the crowd of his gawking followers. The guy was making gurgling noises and frantically calling to his friends for help the entire way.

“Crap.” I started to follow him out to the front of the restaurant when Brysen suddenly stopped me.

“Are you okay?”

“No. I have to go, Bax will kill him.”

“Let him. That jerk was going to hit you.”

I flinched. “I know.” But Bax didn’t need more blood on his hands because of me. I didn’t want to be that to him.

“Dovie,” Brysen called out to me as I rushed to the door. “Forget what I said. You deserve a guy who makes the rest of the world treat you right.”

There were raised voices, and it didn’t surprise me that not one of them was Bax’s. I had seen him in action. He didn’t waste time talking when he had a point to make. The guy who had raised his hand to me was unconscious, facedown on the asphalt of the parking lot. Bax had one of the drunken buddies on the ground next to him with the sole of his black boot on the back of the guy’s neck. The look of fury on his face was enough to keep the rest of the crew a safe distance away.

“Bax, let him go. This isn’t necessary.”

His black gaze shot to me and I shivered. I hated it when all I could see in it was myself looking back.

“He was going to fucking hit you. He’s lucky I don’t break his neck.”

One of the guys in the crowd held up his hands in surrender. “Dude, we know who you are, we didn’t know she was your chick. It was an honest mistake.”

That was the wrong thing to say because Bax removed his foot off the other guy and stalked toward the guy who’d just spoken. He made a really pathetic squeaking noise and tried to back up, but Bax snagged him around the collar and hauled him to his tippy toes while he got right in his face.

“So if she wasn’t mine it’s okay in your world to raise your hand to a woman? Why? Because they’re too small and scared to fight back?” He shook the guy so hard I heard his teeth snap together from where I was standing. “What about me? Why don’t you take me on, asshole?”

The guy looked like he was going to cry. “I saw you break that guy’s arm after he stabbed you at Nassir’s. You’re crazy!”

“Damn straight, and I wasn’t even pissed then like I am now.” He let go of the guy and sent him flying across the parking lot with a hand on the center of his chest. “When your buddy wakes up, remind him I have his wallet, so if he wants to get shit-faced and act like a douche anywhere else, I can find him again, and it isn’t going to end well.”

The remaining guys who were still mobile hobbled their injured and unconscious friend into the flatbed of a pickup and raced away from the restaurant.

“Bax.” He held up his hand and pulled his phone out before I could ask him what he was doing here, though I had to admit his timing was perfect. He might have called Race an altruistic bastard when we first met, but apparently he had some strong threads of chivalry running through the dark fabric that made him who he was.

“Titus, it’s Bax. Tell your drunk patrol to pull over a red pickup on the south side.” He rattled off the license-plate number without telling his brother thank you or good-bye. He turned those dark eyes on me and I felt like they were pulling me in. I sighed and walked over to wrap my arms around his waist.

“Did you have to knock the one guy out?”

“He had a glass jaw and he’s lucky that’s all I did. You don’t hit girls. In fact, if Benny’s nose wasn’t already broken, I would shatter it in retaliation for him knocking you around.”

“Not that I’m not grateful, but what are you doing here? I told you I was staying at Brysen’s after work tonight.”

“I have to run to Spanky’s and I figured I would let you know where I was going and what I was up to.”

A chill ran along my skin when he told me he was going back to the strip club.

“Why are you going there?” If he told me it was to talk to Honor again, I might hit him. I knew he wasn’t a stranger to the District or the girls there, but I didn’t have to like it. In fact, I was pretty sure in that very moment, I hated it.

“There’s a card game tonight and I want to see if a familiar face is there. I might have a line on the rich guy Race was asking about.”

There was more to it, I could tell.

“Can I go with you?” I fully expected for him to tell me no, to tell me I would just be in the way, but he cocked his head to the side and considered me silently for a long minute before answering.

“You gonna go home with me after?”

I shivered and ran my hands over my arms. “Yes.”

“How much longer until you get off? I think I might want to have a drink at the bar and chat with the dick who was just going to let that drunk idiot hit you in the face.”

“I’m almost done. I just have to finish a few more tables. Leave Ramon alone. I like this job. Normally it’s easy and I make good money. Ramon’s job is to look pretty, not play bouncer.”

He gave me a flat look and I rolled my eyes. Even though it was rewarding behavior that I didn’t really approve of, I used his arm as leverage to reach his mouth and planted a big ol’ sloppy kiss on his mouth. He tasted like cigarette smoke and the worst kind of enticement.

“Thank you.” It came out as a husky whisper.

“Life knocks you around enough as it is, Copper-Top. Dickheads like that don’t get to add to it. At least not while you’re on my radar.”

He followed me back into the restaurant and I looked at him over my shoulder.

“How long do you think that’s going to be?”

He cocked a dark eyebrow at me and the star next to his eye fluttered as his jaw clenched. “What?”

“Me on your radar? How long do you think that might last?”

We shared a long look that was only interrupted by Brysen telling me she had cashed out my last table for me, so all I had to do was clean the section and do my side work. I looked back at Bax and he was watching me in that way he had that made me feel like he was seeing right down into the very heart of what made me, me.

“So far you’ve been on there longer than any other chick I’ve ever met. Hurry up, I don’t want to miss who I’m after.”

I blinked at him like an owl. “You gonna tell me who you’re hunting?”

“No.” With that, he turned on his heel, his face a mask of displeasure as he walked up to the bar. He was probably going to scare Ramon into next week, but I couldn’t say a small part of me didn’t appreciate that he was doing his intimidation and threatening thing on my behalf.

Man, I wished having a crush on him was easier than it was proving to be. His dual personalities were hard to keep up with, and the more time I spent with him, the more reasons I found to appreciate all the badass, criminal tendencies that made up Bax as I did the softer, more tragic parts of him that made up Shane. The last thing I needed or wanted was to fall under the spell of both of them.

I blazed through the rest of the stuff I had to do, fueled partially by the desire to find out what Bax had up his sleeve, but mostly out of fear that he would pull Ramon across the bar and I would end up having to find another job. Brysen kept giving me these knowing looks that made me blush. There was no arguing he was hot, but having a guy go all gladiator for you was something else. I wasn’t used to being protected, even with Race I was still used to taking care of myself. Having Bax act like a buffer between me and all the bad things in the world was a potent aphrodisiac and zero help in making me keep my head on the level where he was concerned.

I pulled my hair out of the tie that held it and shook out the curls. I took off the baggy shirt I wore for my shift so I was left in one of the fitted T-shirts Bax had bought for me. I didn’t have any desire to walk back into Spanky’s looking like someone’s frumpy, put-upon girlfriend. They were simple fixes, but they must have been effective because when those devil eyes rolled over me from head to toe, there was no missing the spark of heat that flared to life in their coal-colored depths.

Ramon came around the end of the bar and stopped right in front of me. He put both of his hands on my shoulders and rattled off a flood of rapid Spanish I didn’t understand. He kissed each of my cheeks and apologized so profusely that Bax had to come free me from his overenthusiastic embrace.

“It’s fine, Ramon, seriously.”

“I should have paid better attention.”

“Things happen.”

“Never again.”

Bax put his hand on the back of my neck and guided me toward the front door.

“You better hope not.” His voice didn’t have any warning, just a tone of finality that implied it better never happen again or no one would ever find Ramon’s body.

We didn’t talk much as he drove to the District. He never really said too much, but when he did, I was learning it was important to listen. There was no missing the fact he was a man of action, but when he decided to say something, it was like the two halves of him merged into a whole.

“Why don’t you want me to know who you’re going to the club looking for tonight?”

His eyes darted to me and his hands tightened fractionally on the steering wheel as he maneuvered the powerful car through the busy street.

“Because if I’m wrong or he’s not there, I don’t want to upset you or get you all worked up for no reason.”

An apprehensive shiver danced over my skin. “Why would I get worked up? What does it have to do with me?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

I tried to wriggle more information out of him, but he just answered my questions with grunts and dark looks. By the time we pulled up in front of the club, I was a ball of nervous energy and frustration. Plus, I was less than thrilled to have another run-in with the girl who had slept with not only my brother but also my . . . whatever Bax was. I knew intellectually I had no claims, no rights about whom either of them slept with before I was in the picture, but that didn’t mean it didn’t make my head hurt and my eye twitch involuntarily.

The imposing, mahogany-skinned bouncer was standing sentinel when we walked in the door. He flashed a gold-enhanced grin at Bax and they exchanged some kind of complicated guy handshake. His eyes drifted over to me and his grin got bigger.

“Damn, girl. You don’t need lipstick to make a fella happy. You just need clothes your size.”

Bax grunted at him and put a proprietary hand on my lower back. “I told her those suckers were dangerous.”

Chuck laughed and I had to fight the urge to cover my arms over my chest.

“Ernie isn’t going to be happy you’re here. In fact, he told me your open invitation has been revoked per Novak.”

“He here tonight?”

“No. No one has seen much of him, but Benny’s been around way more than usual. They want her brother something fierce. Better keep her close, Bax. They figure out she can be used to draw Race out, they’ll take her.”

I shivered and leaned closer to Bax’s side. I didn’t like that Chuck was talking about me like I wasn’t there, but I liked what he was saying even less. I didn’t want to be a pawn in some criminals’ chess game.

Bax tucked me into the curve of his body and tilted his chin up.

“I think that’s why Race waited until I was out to go ghost. I think he knew they would have to get through me to take her, and that buys him time to play whatever hand he’s holding. Benny can fuck off and I welcome Novak trying to come anywhere near her. I would love to have one more reason to break his neck.”

He was always so violent. It should disgust me, make me want to run the other way. It didn’t. It made me feel like Benny and even the mysterious Novak would leave me alone because it wasn’t worth the trouble of tangling with him. Bax was a shield against the reality of living the kind of life I had no choice but to live.

Bax seemed more keyed up than normal. He didn’t have the hood of his sweatshirt up around his face and his eyes kept bouncing around the room and then back to me. The place didn’t look so much like a trashy strip club tonight as it did a trashy casino. There were tables and dealers, and the girls who typically danced on the stage were walking around in itty-bitty outfits, handing out drinks and sitting on the laps of old men while the scent of dirty money and choking smoke from cigars filled my lungs. I felt Bax tense from where I was plastered against his side and he bent down so that his lips were practically touching my ear.

“Okay, see the guy in the gray polo shirt?”

I scanned the crowd. They all looked like bankers and golfers, guys who were out cheating on their wives. I pinpointed the guy Bax was asking about and gave my head a little nod.

“Do you recognize him?”

Why he thought I would recognize the guy confused me, so I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on when the older man suddenly lifted his head like he could feel me staring at him. I felt like the very ground under my feet slipped away. I had never seen him before, didn’t know him from Adam, but I saw those eyes in the mirror every morning when I got up. He looked a lot like Race and clearly he was where my dark green eyes came from. But he was a stranger.

“Lord Hartman.”

It wasn’t a question and I saw a grim line flatten the older man’s mouth when he caught sight of who I was with. I stiffened up and went to pull away from Bax, but his hand tightened on my spine and his dark eyes pinned me in place.

“Don’t.”

“What do you want with him? Why did you want him to see us together?”

I was mad. I didn’t want him to use me. I wanted whatever was going on between us to be more than that. I was fooling myself. Now I understood why he had been so willing to let me come with him on this excursion tonight.

“Stop. He’s the one Race was asking about. Somehow he’s tied into Race’s disappearance and my trip to the joint. I wanted him to see that even with Race gone, someone has your back.”

“Why?”

“Because that rich asshole wanted you gone.”

I jerked away from him and moved so we were face-to-face. I felt all the blood bleed out of my face and I started to get dizzy. Yeah, I knew Lord Hartman had no use for me, didn’t particularly want to acknowledge that I was a living, breathing human being, but wanting me off the face of the earth seemed a little extreme. What bothered me most was the matter-of-fact, chilling way Bax gave me the information. Talking about a threat on my life should bother him, crack that icy exterior he always had, but there was nothing. His eyes were as black and as infinite as always.

“Great, so my brother is missing and the guy responsible for my birth wants me dead. This was a fun date, Bax. Can we go now?”

“No. I need to talk to him. I need to find some of the missing pieces, and he’s bound to have them.”

“I’m not going over there.” I hated that my voice squeaked in alarm.

He leveled me a hard look.

“I need to talk to him. Either you come with me or you fend for yourself until I’m done. Benny’s bound to show once someone lets him know I crashed the party, so you need to keep your eyes peeled.”

If only he knew how many times I had heard that very warning where he was concerned lately. I backed away from him like I couldn’t get away fast enough. I purposely avoided looking at the man who had already paid one person to get rid of me before I even took my first breath, and now it sounded like he was trying to finish the job. I made my way up to the bar and found an empty seat. The bartender gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. I looked younger than my twenty years but I needed something to calm my nerves, so I hooked a thumb over my shoulder in the general direction of where Bax was winding his way through the crowd.

“I’m with him.”

The girl gave me a “yeah, right” look but gave me a shot of Jack on the rocks while I tunneled my fingers in my hair and tried to sort out the live current of emotions flowing through me.

“Back again.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t bother to answer, but when the stacked stripper that had been rubbing up on Bax from my first visit here slid into the empty space next to me, I was forced to look up at her or appear like I was scared of her and hiding. “That’s surprising.”

I wished she’d looked run-down and tired like so many other strippers in the District, but now that she wasn’t naked and dry-humping Bax, I could see that she was startlingly lovely. I bet she made a fortune.

“Why is it surprising?”

She snagged a plastic sword from the bar and stabbed a couple of olives from the drink station. She popped them in her mouth and met my gaze directly.

“Because you looked scared shitless and disgusted when you left last time. Plus, Bax isn’t known for being available for a repeat performance, if you know what I mean. His dance card is full.”

I slammed back the whiskey and blew out a stream of fire that followed it hitting my gut. “We aren’t dancing.”

The pretty stripper laughed a little and pointed the end of the sword to where Bax had gone. “Oh, yes you are. You should see the death glare he’s giving me right now. If I didn’t know for a fact that he doesn’t hit chicks, I would be so freaked out.”

I rubbed my forehead and looked at her out of the corner of my eye. “What kind of name is ‘Honor’ for a stripper anyway?”

She took a couple of beers the bartender handed her. “Honor . . . on-her . . . get it?” She laughed a little. “My real name is Keelyn.”

I let my head drop back down. How did I end up here?

“I don’t know what I’m doing here.” I didn’t mean to blurt it out to her, she didn’t like me. She had been naked with the two most important men in my life and I didn’t really think she was any kind of ally, but the words just tumbled out. She tilted her head a little to the side and her artfully painted mouth kicked up in a grin on one side.

“When you are connected, even in the most basic way, to a guy like Bax, this is where you end up, honey. I know he makes the ride worthwhile, but the destination leaves a lot to be desired. Do yourself a favor and remember falling in love with a guy like him is about the stupidest thing you could do. It’ll make your life here even harder, and we all know how rough it is already just to get by.”

“I’m not going to fall in love with him.” I wished I’d sounded stronger, more sure of the fact.

She just gave me a look that was full of knowing and pity. Great, like I needed a stripper to feel sorry for me.

“Honey, you’re already halfway there if you forced yourself to come back here.”

“What’s going on?” Bax’s deep voice was hard and suspicious as his hands landed on my shoulders.

“Just making nice.” I sounded like I had been sucking on a lemon.

“Yeah?”

Honor laughed and sauntered away, making sure to shake her ass in Bax’s direction as she left.

“Yep. You have so many charming friends, Bax.”

He grunted at me and took my arm in his hand. “Let’s go before the welcoming committee shows up.”

I slid off the bar stool and my knees wobbled a little so he had to hold me up.

“Did he help you? Do you have all the answers?” Like there was ever a justifiable reason for wanting your own flesh and blood dead.

“Some of them.” I let him pull me out of the club like a rag doll. “Granted it took a little force and he doesn’t look so much like the king of the castle anymore.”

I looked at his hands and noticed that his knuckles were bloody. My stomach should turn at the thought of him beating the answers out of the man that was half of my DNA, but all I could feel was a solid ball of anxiety and disappointment. “Tell me.”

He looked down at me and sighed as he pushed some of my wild hair away from my face. “It isn’t pretty.”

“It never is.”

“Let’s go to the house.”

I recoiled at the idea. The cute little bungalow was so nice, so removed from all the ugliness that filled the Point. I felt like hearing all about my father’s plans to off me would somehow taint it.

“Let’s go to my apartment. I cleaned it and it’s closer.”

“Your furniture was trashed.”

I rubbed my arms and shivered even though I wasn’t cold. “Fine; let’s go to your place in the city.”

He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”

“Why not?” Maybe seeing his crash pad, I would get the idea that there really was no Shane, that he was always just Bax and I would never, ever be foolish enough to hand my heart over to that guy. Maybe he knew exactly what I was doing, because all his barriers snapped into place.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 11

Bax

I DIDN’T WANT TO know what Dovie thought about the place that I called home, but really it was just a place to store all my stuff and catch a few z’s in between all the stuff I usually had going on. It was a crap hole. A studio in an apartment complex that was only half a step up from her own. I actually had a security door that worked, but other than that, between the dirty hallways and loud, disruptive neighbors, the two places could’ve been on the same block.

I didn’t have much. Just a bed that hadn’t been made, ever, a flat screen that I was always amazed to see when I opened the door, a black leather chair that had rips in the arms, and posters on the walls that were of mostly naked chicks and badass cars. I liked the cars better than the girls most of the time. It was dirty, musty, and I felt like she was seeing inside of who I really was as she followed me in the door, those wide green eyes taking it all in. This was where I belonged; not that bungalow so far out of the city.

“Have a seat. You want a beer or something?”

She shook her head, those red curls slipping and sliding across her pale face. She surprised me by sitting on the edge of the bed instead of taking the worn-out chair.

“Who paid for this place while you were in prison?”

I looked at her over my shoulder and got myself a beer out of the tiny fridge. I didn’t like her here. She didn’t fit in, just like she deserved something better than that shithole she lived in at the Skylark.

“My mom.”

She made a noise in her throat and caught all of her hair in one hand and pulled it off of her neck. She looked so young, so lost. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t just let her go when I knew I was going to end up taking all of that shine off of her.

“What?”

She lifted her eyebrows at me and bit her lip. I wasn’t going to like what she had to say. I was starting to recognize that as her tell.

“Your mom . . . who can’t even pull it together enough to get sober and live in that amazing house you bought her somehow managed, for five years, to make sure the rent was paid on this place? And what about your car? That thing had to have been somewhere secure, somewhere expensive. You really think she was the one paying the bills, staying on top of things when you couldn’t?”

I glared at her and flopped down in the chair. It groaned under my weight as she continued to watch me unwaveringly.

“Who then? Race?”

She gave her head a tiny shake and fiddled with her hair. “No. He didn’t have any extra money and we were laying pretty low after he first came and got me. I don’t think he would’ve risked drawing Novak’s attention by taking care of your car.”

My eyes narrowed even more as she verbally led me to the only possible conclusion, which she was drawing.

“You think it was Titus?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Titus doesn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself. He dropped out of sight before I could figure out how to survive on my own and all he’s done since is make my life hell because I didn’t end up all perfect and law-abiding like he did. We didn’t have the same opportunities, and I think it’s bullshit that he thinks he can judge me for making do the only way I know how.”

She looked at me with emerald shadows drifting over questioning eyes. Just like always, she was trying to paint me in a better light than I deserved. The reality was much darker and uglier than I think she could handle.

“That’s not exactly true, Bax. Parents are supposed to love their kids, provide for them and guide them into adulthood. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen across the board anymore. Titus made the choice to let your mom go and build a life for himself; you made the choice to stick with her and provide for the two of you the only way you could. You could have let her go, just like she did the two of you. You could have given yourself other opportunities. It wasn’t entirely Titus’s fault.”

“I was a kid, Dovie. What were my options? Starve? End up in the system? Find some nice, rich family to take me under their wing like a charity case while my mom drank herself to death? You tell me how any of that would have been better than becoming a thief.”

She cleared her throat and I could have sworn there was a sheen of tears in her gaze when she looked back up at me.

“You wouldn’t have ended up in jail. You would have never had to sell your soul to Novak. You wouldn’t have to fight for Nassir and end up getting stabbed. I don’t know what the exact answer is, Bax, but I do know you made the choice to be a bad guy and you can make the choice not to be.”

I thought her point was moot. I had only ever been this way. It was how I survived, how I lived, and aside from getting out from under Novak’s thumb, it was a life I made work for me. It wasn’t my problem that she not only wanted but deserved someone better than me. I was going to have to exist here long after she was gone. She didn’t get to come in and dismantle my entire world for the short time she was a visitor in it, even though that was exactly what she was doing.

I needed a cigarette but she always gave me a look when I lit up inside, so I chugged back the rest of the beer and changed the subject to why we were here in the first place.

“Hartman wanted Novak to kill you. Your mom got locked up for intent to sell and blackmailed him. She wanted him to bail her out and get the charges dropped, which of course he had no control over. When he told her that, she lost it and told him she would tell the wife, that she would plaster it all over the society pages because that junk still mattered to people on the Hill. Hartman freaked out, tried to put a contract on you, only Novak is smart and has plenty of money. A rich man in his pocket was a much better tool.” I shook my head at her. “I don’t know how you feel about looking into where your mom is at, but I would bet good money she’s not breathing anymore or that Novak somehow arranged to keep her locked up and quiet in order to keep Hartman under his thumb.”

Her eyes darted away and then came back to me. She looked a little paler than normal, but she just waited patiently for me to keep going even though her chest was now rapidly rising and falling.

“Hartman wanted you dead, but turns out Novak wanted to keep me on the leash even more. I guess he knew I was getting ready to bail, so he told Race about you and the contract on your life. He also oh-so-generously gave Race a recording of the old man trying to arrange for your death. That’s how Race blackmailed your dad into claiming his parental rights and pulling you out of foster care. It’s also how he got control of his college fund, which he used to support you guys while you finished high school.”

I saw her shiver. I wanted to go wrap her up in a hug, but this was ugly, and offering her comfort wouldn’t make any of it easier to swallow. “What did Race have to give Novak in return?”

“My undying loyalty and some kind of guarantee that I would behave and follow the rules from here until eternity. The old guy Race pulled out of the house that night was in business with Novak. He was some retail giant, worth more money than you and I will ever see in our lifetime. He took Novak’s dirty money and made it clean. I guess he was getting ready to go to the feds because he was tired of being owned by a gangster. Novak wanted him out of the way and wanted me to be the one to do it. Race was supposed to grab the old guy, we were supposed to meet up at the spot, and I was somehow supposed to end up putting a bullet in his head. Novak was gonna tape it, use that as leverage to keep me tied to him or face serious jail time for murder and kidnapping, only Titus and the heat showed up and things went to hell.”

“Why did Novak think you would shoot the guy? What could he have done to make you go that far?” Her voice was quiet, like she was scared of my answer.

I sighed and threw my head back and closed my eyes.

“Because if I didn’t do it, he would’ve made Race do it, and he knew there was no way I would’ve let it go down like that. He had you as leverage to work Race like a puppet, and he had Race to pull my strings. The asshole didn’t get to be king of the city by being stupid.”

I had to say she was taking the news that she had narrowly escaped being the target of a murder-for-hire contract pretty well.

“So when you went away and Race was of no use anymore, why would he come back? What is this all about? Why is Race so sure he can take Novak down and why is he flashing pictures of Lord Hartman around?”

“The old bastard had no clue about any of that, but if I can read between the lines, I think I know.”

“So?”

“I told you a rich guy on the hook is better for a guy like Novak than money any day, and his launderer died the night I got busted. Not in the way he intended, but the guy still got smoked. That means Novak was in the market for someone else to spit shine all his dough, and nobody is better for that than someone he already has a bunch of dirt on.”

“You think Novak is blackmailing Lord Hartman to launder his money?”

“I do.”

“And you think Race figured that out and that’s why he brought us here, why he threatened Novak, and why he was asking all those criminals if his dad had been around?”

She was quick. “I do,” I said again.

I lowered my head so I could look her in the eye. She was messing with her hair and worrying her bottom lip.

“Just ask, Dovie.”

I saw her chest rise and fall under the thin material of her T-shirt. I had to admit, she always impressed me with her self-reliance. She never just folded.

“What does that mean for me, Bax? How does it all end for us?”

For me, it ended in blood or more time behind bars. For her, I would like to promise that it ended with her back at her crappy apartment, waiting tables and finishing school so that she could help kids like she wanted, but I wasn’t going to lie to her like that.

“Your brother has always been the smartest guy I have ever known. He not only blackmailed the old man for his college fund, he made him set up a trust with you as the beneficiary on it. There’s over a million dollars in it, and if anything—and I do mean anything—happens to you, the money in the trust gets donated to that halfway house you work at.”

Dovie blinked at me in stunned shock and whispered, “But what good is that? Lord Hartman can just change the terms anytime he wants.”

I shook my head. “No. Race made sure it was rock solid. The only person that can add or subtract anything to the trust is Lady Hartman, and for her to do that someone would have to tell her not only about the old man’s wandering dick, but about you too. Race has it locked down. He firmly has your piece-of-shit father by the balls.”

As for where that left us and the rest of the mess trying to suck us under, I told her as honestly as I could. “Everything else depends on what Race has. The only reason they haven’t snatched you and dragged you in to draw him out is because I’m in the way. He knew I wouldn’t let them use you to get to him. As for Hartman, if your mom is out of the way, and with me and Race circling around you, I can’t imagine he would be dumb enough to try anything with you. Plus Novak is the only guy he could ask and look how that turned out for him last time. Novak isn’t big on favors and right now you are far more useful in terms of him getting to Race and whatever Race has. That’s the threat we have to worry about.”

“Are you using me to get to him, Bax? Is that what all this is really about?”

I sighed and felt the vein in my temple throb. I looked down at the broken chains circling my wrists and then back up at her. I didn’t know the answer to that anymore.

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“I need to find Race. I like you, like getting you naked even more, maybe more than I’ve liked anything in my life up to this point, but at the end of the day, whoever is responsible for taking five years from me is going down. I know that won’t jive with you if it ends up being Race, and after I’m done with Novak, there won’t be anything left, so I don’t know what this is, Copper-Top.”

She got up off the bed and walked over to where I was sprawled in the chair. I just watched her until she was standing in front of me. Her hands hung loosely at her sides and her eyes were wild and full of fear and something else I couldn’t name. She was the epitome of everything good that came from bad people and a bad place. She was like a flower that grew out of the impenetrable face of a cliff wall. How she maintained that softness, that care, was a mystery to me and I hoped to God she found someone willing to kill for her in order to protect it after I was long gone.

She sighed so hard I felt the depth of it from the space that separated us. She bent over so her hands were on each of my knees and we were eye-to-eye. I couldn’t help but let my gaze wander down the now gaping neck of her shirt, but when I jerked it back up to hers, it was almost impossible not to get lost in that dense forest of green.

“Titus didn’t just happen to be there that night, Bax. Put the pieces together. Race was stuck between his loyalty to you and Novak holding me over his head. Call your brother.”

“Half brother.” The correction was automatic, which made her roll her eyes at me.

“Ask him about that night. I bet you anything that Race was the reason he was there. Race did set you up, Bax, but he did it to save you.”

I felt my heart rate drop and then thunder right back up so that blood and something else was rushing in my ears. “What do you mean?”

Her hands slid up my thighs and she leaned even farther over, so that her full lips, that mouth I wanted to just let make everything better, was a breath away from my own.

“He was always looking out for you, trying to save you. You don’t think in Race’s mind the option of sending his best friend to jail for five years versus watching you commit murder and forcing you to be Novak’s dog for eternity was the lesser of two evils? He was stuck. Maybe he asked Titus for help and that’s how the meet-up got busted. You made it worse by running, but that doesn’t surprise me.”

I wanted to recoil, to let the fury that had simmered under the surface of my skin for the last five years loose, but she was the only one close enough for it to land on, and I knew she deserved better than that from me. I was going to push out of the chair, I needed a minute to process this, to get my brain to stop spinning, but she didn’t give it to me. She closed the last fraction of space between her mouth and mine. Her lips, soft and welcoming, made everything else screaming at me go quiet. She always somehow managed to do that to me.

It was just a featherlight touch, so brief and delicate I could have imagined it had she not pulled away and lifted her hands to either side of my face. She held me in place while we watched each other. Her thumbs brushed under each of my eyes and her mouth kicked up in a sad half grin.

“The first time I saw you, I thought these eyes were empty. That there was nothing in there. I couldn’t understand why Race thought you were so trustworthy, so worth coming back to this awful place for. Now when I look into them, I can see everything he was trying so desperately to save.”

Something felt like it was squeezing me alive from the inside out. I couldn’t breathe, and suddenly this dingy apartment was the last place on earth I wanted to be.

“And what’s that, Copper-Top? What’s in there that you think makes me different from any other two-bit criminal you’re going to run into in the Point?”

She let go of my face and took a step back. She absently rubbed her arms as she considered me with a heartbreaking expression on her lovely face.

“We’re more than the sum of our parts, Bax. If we weren’t, I would be a cold-blooded murderer or a junkie. You talk about making the hard choice and living with the outcome . . . why don’t you try it? Try to live beyond the scared kid who had to steal so he could feed himself and his mom. Try to look past the bitter young man who is mad at his brother for leaving him behind and purposely doing the opposite of what he does to prove a point. There is more to who you are than the bad things you have done.”

I felt her words crawling all over me like angry ants. I shoved out of the chair so hard, I thought I heard a snap. She was just watching me and I had to get away from her for a second.

“I need a smoke. I’ll be back.”

I wanted to think I was smooth enough, had a tough enough shell, that she couldn’t see me running, but the truth of it was reflected in those leafy eyes. She turned her back on me as I stormed out of the door.

I had the cigarette lit before my feet touched the sidewalk out in front of the apartment building. I flipped my phone around and stared at the darkened screen for a long minute while the smoke filled my lungs. For the second time that night, I called Titus. Just like the first call, he answered on the first ring.

“Shane.”

I didn’t bother to correct him. “The night I got busted, did you know what was going down? Did Race tell you Novak was trying to put me on the hook for murder?”

I heard him swear, heard some background noise as he obviously excused himself from whatever cop business he was doing. I squinted into the night and tried to figure out how I had gone, in the blink of an eye, from thinking I had all the answers to being so clueless.

“I didn’t know the whole story. Race told me if I didn’t have a SWAT team at the warehouse that night that you were going to be fucked, that Novak was going to own you forever. He said you were both trying to get out, and that Novak didn’t want to let you go. I didn’t know about the kidnapping or the murder. It was all just a shit show. I think Race was trying to mitigate the damage, but he didn’t do anyone any favors by keeping us all in the dark. If you hadn’t run and got caught in the Aston Martin, chances are you would’ve never seen the inside of a cell.”

He sighed and swore again. Apparently foul language ran in the family.

“We tried to pin the murder on Novak, but there were too many people there and too many conflicting stories. He has too many people indebted to him, willing to do time for him, for us to make a case.”

“Race was trying to protect his sister. That’s why he kept it all quiet. Novak was holding her over his head, but he didn’t plan on Race going to you because he knew how I felt about you.”

“Well, you’re a grown-ass man now, Bax. Get over it. We’re family, and whether I agree with your choices or you with mine, we are all the other has.”

I snorted again and that tightness in my chest started to spread.

“Now you want to be family? What about when I was too young to take care of myself and actually needed you to give a shit?”

A long-drawn-out silence met my outburst and I could almost feel regret and something else coming across the phone connection.

“I was just a kid, too, Bax. I was bound to make mistakes. I was only trying to survive.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe in and out steadily before I chucked my phone into the street. I didn’t want to relate, but here, in the Point, survival was the only language we all spoke fluently.

“Did you take care of the Runner while I was locked up?”

He gave a dry little laugh that held anything but humor. “No, Gus did. I just made sure I paid the storage fees on it.”

“And the apartment?”

“Jesus, Bax. I know you hate my guts, but did you really think I was going to throw your ass behind bars and not make sure you had a place to go when you got out?”

I didn’t know what to say to any of that. Titus and I had never seemed to be on the same block, let alone the same side of the street. I didn’t know how to process all this new information.

“You need to be careful. All of this stuff with Race and Novak isn’t over, and for now they’re leaving the girl alone because they don’t want to tip their hand. But if Race doesn’t show soon, all bets will be off.”

“She stays out of it. Novak can come after me anytime he wants. I welcome the opportunity to let him know what I think of his plans.”

There was another sigh. “Bax, I don’t want to put you back in jail, or worse yet, have to identify you in the morgue.”

Now it was my turn to laugh without any kind of humor. “Funny how those are the same options I see. I never thought we would agree on anything.”

“That girl cares about you, Shane. You really gonna just keep living your life like it doesn’t matter?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut like I could black out all the new insights I was forced to take in tonight.

“I don’t know, Titus, I’m just going to keep living it the only way I know how.”

“Learn from your mistakes, little brother. That’s all you can do. I gotta go, there was an armed robbery at a bar in the District.”

I didn’t bother to say good-bye, I just put the phone back in my pocket and meandered back upstairs. Now I didn’t want her here. Dovie saw too much, got too close to the heart of things. When I pushed open the door, I had to do a double take. In the fifteen minutes I had been outside, she had stripped and remade the bed, vacuumed the floor, wiped down the TV, straightened up the little kitchenette, and piled all the discarded clothes and junk on the floor into one pile by the closet. It looked like a normal person lived there, not like a place that was used primarily for sex and sleep.

I scraped my hands roughly across my head and made my way over to where she was lying on the bed. I sat down on the edge and looked down at her. She shrugged her shoulders and gave me an “oh well” look. I reached out a finger and moved one of her curls away from her face.

“You can clean it up, but that doesn’t change what it is, Dovie.”

“Are we talking about the apartment or you, Bax?”

I moved my finger down so I could run it across the plush pout of her bottom lip. “Either or. I’m not going to ever be a good guy, Copper-Top.”

She caught my hand in her own and it made my blood go hot when she put a soft kiss right in the center of my palm. “No, you’re not, but that doesn’t mean you always have to be a bad guy either. Why can’t you just be a little bit of both?”

Because for me it had always been all or nothing. Just like this situation with her. I could keep tabs on her, make sure everyone knew that I would jack them up if they messed with her and that they’d better not lay a finger on her, but no. Instead I was having a hard time figuring out where she started and I ended, and she was starting to look like a reward for all that I had missed in the last five years. Just like everything else in my life, going all in meant when it went bad, and when it was all over, there was a good chance it would leave me wrecked. I didn’t want to think about it anymore, didn’t want her to keep looking at me like she saw more to me than there was, so l leaned down and kissed her. I didn’t have to think about right or wrong when she made everything better.

CHAPTER 12

Dovie

THIS WASN’T WHAT IT was normally like when we were together like this. There was a level of intensity in him, a strand of danger that would have scared me had I not seen the struggle he was fighting in those fathomless eyes. I didn’t know if it was the location, the chat with his brother, or the idea that Lord Hartman was heartless and all shades of evil that had him so impatient and edgy, but whatever it was, I could feel the lash of it across each part of my flesh that he exposed with rough hands. He was trying to make a point, to teach a lesson. Only I don’t think he knew which one of us was supposed to be learning it, so instead of fighting him, instead of adding fuel to the fire, I just went still. I was naked and he was still fully clothed, a position I seemed to find myself in a lot around him.

I laid my hands flat on the clean sheets I had just put on his mattress. I kept my eyes locked on the swirling black void in his eyes and refused to move, to give him any kind of reaction as he moved over me. His mouth was too hard, his hands were too rough, and it was the first time since I decided I could handle the trouble he represented that I actually felt like I was in over my head. I had just learned I had narrowly escaped a professional hit on my life thanks to dear old dad; Bax should be coddling me, trying to soothe me. Instead he was trying to push me, trying to scare me into begging him to stop. I wasn’t going to play his game, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of winning it either.

I felt the scrape of his teeth across the sensitive skin of my neck as he bent over me. He pulled his shirt off by the collar and I fixated my gaze on the pulse thundering at the base of his throat. I wanted to kiss him, to let him know it would all be all right, but I wasn’t going to lie to him. If he kept this up, as soon as it was over, I was leaving this apartment, leaving all the darkness and danger that was Bax and taking my chances on my own. I knew Race wouldn’t let me down. I just had to stay alive long enough for him to let his plans play out.

The hard planes of Bax’s chest pressed against the soft curves of my own. My body reacted. How could it not? I wanted him, had wanted him from the get-go, and now that I knew the way he used his mouth, the way he used his hands when he wanted to bring pleasure and light instead of pain and darkness, there was no way my nipples weren’t going to perk up, no way my skin wasn’t going to pebble in arousal, and no way my core wasn’t going to go slick and hot when he gathered both of my lifeless hands in his own and pulled them up above my head.

He used his jean-clad knee to force my legs apart and settled himself in the cradle of my hips. I just stared up at him, pleading with my eyes for him to stop. He wasn’t Shane, he wasn’t Bax, he was just a cold stranger who didn’t care that this was all wrong. I focused on the star on his face. It should be ugly, should make him look ridiculous, but right now I felt like it was my only navigation in a pitch-black sky.

He was waiting for me to stop it, waiting for me to tell him to do the right thing. I could feel him shaking, and not because he was turned on, but because he was forcing himself to hold on to me, to threaten the tenuous threads of the fabric that was holding us together. He was quaking in such a way that had those chains inked around his wrists been real, they would have been rattling and clanking together. I didn’t utter a protest when he pressed his lips to the crest of my cheek and drew them along the ridge until he reached my mouth. I was going to have bruises around my wrists from how hard he was holding me, and I could feel his heart thundering against my own.

His lips settled firmly over mine. It wasn’t a kiss so much as it was an assault. I was pliant. I was still. I refused to give him what he wanted, even when I was tempted, because it felt so good when he ran his tongue along the sealed seam. I wanted him, just not like this.

His chest heaved and billowed against mine, and belatedly I realized the normally insistent erection that was typically trapped between us by this point was missing. He didn’t want to be doing this any more than I did, but I wasn’t going to stop him. He had to stop himself, or really, all there was in Shane Baxter was badness, and whatever part of him I thought I saw when his guard was down, when he kissed me, when he looked at me like I was his reward, was only going to be a figment of my imagination.

He growled against me, his mouth too hard, too fierce, and I couldn’t stop the single tear that slid out of my eye. We were so close together that he felt the tear when it touched his cheek.

“Tell me to stop.” He whispered it against my mouth, the same conversation we had the first night he put those diabolical hands on me.

Last time I had given in to the demand, even though I didn’t mean it.

“No.” I whispered it right back.

“Tell me to stop, Dovie.” His fingers opened and closed in a spasm around my wrists and I had to flinch a little. I saw his reaction flare in the velvet color of his eyes. He didn’t want to hurt me, but he couldn’t stop it either.

“No.”

“You can make everything better.”

He sounded so lost and my heart broke for him. He was a guy who was never going to have a chance at a typical life. There was never going to be a desk job in his future, no simple road with redemption at the end. He was always going to be a guy who had a criminal record, was too wild, too rough not to have a reputation that went along with his ragged persona. He was equal parts Bax and Shane, one was never going to exist without the other, and he was just going to have to find the balance between the two. I didn’t mind helping him figure it out, as long as he didn’t destroy me in the process.

“So can you, Bax, but if you do this, I’m done. There is no going back.”

His eyes flashed at me and my hands were suddenly free and he was levering himself up off of me, the muscles in his arms and shoulders shaking.

“Isn’t that the point?”

He was going to run, I could see it clear as day. He didn’t know what to do next and he was going to bolt. He wanted to make me be the one to do it, so that his conscience was clear, but I hadn’t cooperated and now he was going to go out and unleash all that turbulent emotion on an unsuspecting city. I was tempted to let him.

“Bax . . .”

I thought he was going to get up and head for the door, but he surprised me by twisting at the waist and trapping me back between his stripped torso and the bed. This time when he kissed me, it was for real. His lips moved across mine with force, but not in a way that was punishing. When he demanded entrance this time, I let him have it, and even went as far as to wrap my arms around the strong cords of his neck. His tongue danced with mine, his teeth scraped with the intent to arouse not to punish, and his hands were shaking when he used them to push all my hair back off of my face. His black eyes burned into my own, and I saw an eternity of regret and remorse flood the dark pools.

“You’re a nice girl, Dovie. You should be anywhere but here with anyone but me. This shit with Race and Novak, your old man being the scum of the earth . . . you deserve so much more than all of it. Your life should look different than this, and sooner or later you’re going to hate me.”

I put my thumb on the center of his bottom lip and sucked in a breath when he pulled it into the moist cavern of his mouth.

“Or maybe the opposite of that.” His eyebrows shot up and he used his tongue to swirl around the edge of my thumb before letting it go with a pop.

“Don’t do that, Copper-Top. It would be the worst mistake you ever made.”

He was the second person today to tell me that exact same thing, only I wasn’t sure it wasn’t already too late. There was just something about him, something there that made me want to believe that in the long run, all the bad that made him who he was could be dealt with, could be loved, as long as it came with the fleeting glimpses of good like he was showing me now.

“I’m only twenty, Shane. I have a lifetime to make good decisions. Might as well get the bad ones out of the way now while I still have time to learn from them.”

He caught the hand I had put over his heart and looked at the pale skin that had faint red marks circling it in the shape of his fingers. He put his lips to the center of my wrist, right where my pulse was hammering in time to his.

“I hurt you and made you cry.”

I sighed because I knew he was right. “You also protected me, stood up for me, and made me feel beautiful and secure, which is a lot more than I can say for most people in my life. With you, taking the good with the bad just goes hand in hand.”

He shifted so that his big body was braced above me. He bent his head and placed a whisper-soft kiss on my collarbone. My body reacted instantly. I ran my hands along the ridge of his rib cage, careful to avoid his still-raw knife wound. He was so solid, all parts of him real and strong. When he wasn’t being his own worst enemy, he was the most rigid and stable being I had ever encountered in my life, which was in contradiction to the restless and careless way he lived his life.

“Is that why you call me ‘Shane’ every time I take you to bed?” His mouth landed on my breastbone. I think he was purposely ignoring the begging, plump peaks of each breast. How we had shifted gears so fast I wasn’t sure, but like with everything that came with him, I just held on for the ride.

“I call you ‘Shane’ because you’re different when we are together like this—softer, less scary. I feel like all day long Bax is who you have to be to survive this life you’ve chosen to live, but Shane is who you choose to be when you let your guard down and leave it all on the streets.”

I ran my fingers over the prickly softness of his shaved head, taking a second to rub the smooth surface of his scar.

“I’m not going to pretend I don’t like it when you’re Shane better, but Bax has his place and I can deal with him, just not in bed.”

He moved lower and kissed each one of my hipbones where they jutted upward as my belly hollowed out at the contact. He dipped his tongue into the little indent of my belly button and put a kiss that left a mark on the path of freckled skin that trailed to the apex of my thighs. He was still lying between them, so there was no cover, no protection from either his burning gaze or his questing mouth and hands.

“It’s just me, little Dove, no more and no less.”

His breath hit the damp slit that was getting achy and ready for him to take things up a notch. It made me shudder and my fingers dug into the side of his head, which had him grunting in response.

“Just you is a whole hell of a lot more than most people bring to the table anymore.”

His head dropped and everything else fell away. He had the ability to make time stand still and all the awful things that swirled and invaded everyday life just evaporate into thin air with the stroke of his tongue and the scrape of his teeth. It wasn’t the first time he had used his mouth to make love to me, but there was something in it this time, something in him that made it different. He was trying to apologize, trying to make amends for purposely trying to freak me out earlier. He was reverent, he was sweet, and oh, good Lord, was he thorough and intently focused on making sure I felt what he was doing in every other part of my body. I was so emotionally strung out that I almost shoved him away, but it felt too good and I knew there was no way he was going to let me go anyway.

He sucked hard on my clit and used his fingers to mimic what I wanted him to do with that erection that only moments ago had been insistent against the side of my thigh. When he swirled the flat of his tongue around that tightly wound-up bundle of nerves, I knew it was going to be over before he even really started. He was relentless. He was ratcheting me up so high and so tight there was nothing I could do but scream his name as I broke under the tension. I felt everything inside me let loose and I went limp as he continued to run his tongue along saturated folds and oversensitized flesh. He pulled his fingers out and used them to trace random patterns across my knee and upper thigh.

I struggled to get my eyes back open to look up at him. He was rising to his knees and working on the button to his jeans. I swore there would never in my life be anything hotter than Shane Baxter getting naked and ready to work me over. My lazy heart picked back up when the top of those flags made an appearance. The look on his face after he got me off was always the same mixture of male satisfaction and appreciation, like I had given him some kind of gift by letting him make me come. It always did something to the very core of me to realize that to him it was something special, that I was something more than what he was used to.

He shoved the denim off over the hard globes of his ass but not before handing me a foil wrapper and telling me to get to work. I was lethargic, sleepy from the orgasm and the emotional turmoil of the night, but I wanted to put my hands on him, wanted to cross this last bridge in the place that had made him go so dark on me. I was all the way in Bax’s world now, there was no more pretending I was just biding my time on the fringe until Race showed his face.

I got the latex over him, took a minute to appreciate the heated length and the weeping head, but he was done making nice, and even though I was still extrasensitive and not really all that responsive, he slid into me. It was a tight fit and made both of us gasp. He held himself up over me on rigid arms and stared down at me while I worked my legs up around his waist and my arms across the broad expanse of his tattooed shoulders.

“You okay?”

That he asked meant everything and shook the last of the lethargy out of my blood. I arched up against him and dug my heels into his ass to get him to move.

“Better than all right.”

He swore and I saw some of the shadows move out of his eyes. He sank all the way into me and I felt consumed by him. Every part of him was hot where we touched, and the drag and pull of his unyielding flesh against my quivering inner muscles had me spiraling out of control all over again. He set a pace that was brutal and all about achieving the ultimate pleasure. We weren’t connecting on any other level than physical. Too much had been bared tonight, and this was the only way it could be.

He kissed me hard and I clutched at him to stay anchored to this bed in this place, otherwise I would fall away and I didn’t know that I could find my way back. He ran a hand down my bowed spine and gripped my ass in a desperate hold. Our chests rubbed together so hard that my already aching nipples actually hurt at the contact and our mouths slammed together repeatedly. It was almost violent—the unhinged and desperate way we were moving together.

He whispered my name against my puffy and swollen lips and I knew he was going to reach the end before me. If it was possible, his thrusts became more frantic, his hands greedier, and I thought I was just going to have to hold him through the storm, when all of a sudden that sneaky hand that had been clasping my backside snuck between my legs and hooked around my clit. I saw stars and then I think I blacked out for a few seconds, because he kissed me again and then my head exploded.

I heard him groan and felt some of the tension work its way out of his big body, but I was in another world. I was in a world where I was just a girl and he was just a guy, and we didn’t have problems like gangsters, murderers, and missing brothers hounding us at every turn. In this world, we were just allowed to be happy and wrapped up in each other and the reality that this had a time limit on it didn’t exist.

He dropped his forehead to mine and I had to focus really hard to hear what he was saying to me.

“I never considered you might end up being the one who hurts me before this is all said and done, Copper-Top.”

I sighed and tugged him down so I could wrap myself up in him.

“We could just try not to hurt each other, Bax. That’s how people who like each other normally operate.”

“Like that’s going to work for us.”

I ran my fingers over each defined ridge of his spine. I sighed again and nuzzled into the curve of his shoulder. “Sadly, no.”

“We have this right now. I’ve learned to appreciate the good while you got it.”

I yawned and tried to snuggle into him, even though he didn’t seem to want to turn the thinking off.

“With us, that’s all we can ask for.”

He muttered something into the wild waves of my hair but I was too spun out emotionally and physically to keep up with him anymore. I closed my eyes, and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was him telling me that amongst all the things he thought that I deserved, someone better than him was at the top of that very long list.

I wasn’t sure what woke me up a few hours later. We were on our sides facing each other. He had one arm curled around my shoulders and I was using the inside of his other arm as a pillow. I had my free arm tucked along his ribs and had thrown one of my legs over his lean waist at some point in the night. There was barely any space between the two of us. His naked chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm, like he was still sound asleep. But when I pried my heavy eyes open, the first thing I saw was his wide, dark eyes focused unwaveringly on my face.

I was going to ask him what was wrong, what had caused us to wake up, when I noticed the even darker muzzle of a gun pointed right at Bax’s temple. I woke up because we were no longer alone in the crappy apartment and a looming figure had a gun pointed at Bax’s head. I sucked in a breath and opened my mouth to scream in reflex when the armed shadow suddenly moved and a faint glow of moonlight highlighted the familiar face and glinted off of golden-blond hair. I was going to snap my brother’s name and ask him what in the hell he thought he was doing, but I never got the chance because Bax was suddenly a flurry of activity. Like he had done from the get-go, he put himself between me and whatever the perceived threat might be.

He rolled over so fast it almost toppled me to the floor. I screamed at him to stop, terrified Race would fire the gun by accident, but neither one of them was listening to me. Bax grabbed the barrel of the gun my brother had pressed to his head and shoved it up and back toward Race’s startled face. I knew now that Race wasn’t any kind of saint, but there was no way he was going to be a match for Bax. Maybe before his best friend had been sent to jail they were an even match, but now Bax had five years to fuel his fury. Five years of loss to pay Race back for, and it didn’t seem to matter that he was buck naked.

They both emitted a sound that was more animalistic than human, and the next thing I knew, the gun was lying on the bed next to me and they were trying to rip each other apart with their bare hands. I scrambled to my feet and put on the first thing I could find, which happened to be Bax’s hoodie. I zipped it up and snatched the gun up before either one of them could remember it existed. I called first Race’s name and then Bax’s, only to be ignored by both of them. The sounds of heavy fists hitting flesh and the coppery scent of blood soon filled the small space. I didn’t even try and warn them when the brawl moved from the space near the bed closer to the TV stand. The flat screen was no match for two furious men, both over six feet and apparently intent on destroying each other.

I winced when Race landed a solid blow on Bax’s already battered ribs and then had to squeeze my eyes shut when Bax retaliated by slamming his elbow repeatedly into Race’s cheekbone. They were both bloody, and even in the dark I could see the cold looks of fury on both of their faces. It wasn’t going to end unless I did something about it. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that something should be. I shoved my hands through my hair, closed my eyes, and screamed as loud and as long as I could. If their battle hadn’t drawn the attention of the neighbors, my bloodcurdling shriek surely would. I screamed until my throat was raw, until hot tears burned down my face, until I thought I would pass out from the lack of air in my lungs, and I didn’t stop until a pair of arms wrapped around me and pulled me close. Since the chest I fell against was bare and slicked with blood and sweat, I knew it was Bax who had collected me and not my brother.

I forced myself to look over Bax’s shoulder to make sure my sibling was still breathing. He was, but he didn’t look happy, and as soon as Bax pulled away from me, Race threw him his jeans and barked at him to get dressed if he was going to be so close to me. Bax flipped him off and fished around in the pocket of the hoodie I was wearing for his smokes. He looked at me when he spoke and not at Race.

“I’ll be back in a minute. If the neighbors called the cops, I’m gonna tell Titus it was a false alarm.” He cut a warning look at my brother. “If she’s crying when I get back, I won’t stop next time.”

“Who are you to threaten me over my sister, Bax? You were supposed to protect her, not fuck her.”

Bax growled and made a move like he was going back after Race, so I put a hand on his forearm and reached up to wipe off a trickle of blood that was trailing out of his nose with the edge of my thumb. I shook my head, and with my eyes, I pleaded with him to let it rest. It must have worked because he stuck the end of the cigarette in his mouth and headed toward the door.

“Well, maybe you should have left written instructions with someone before you dipped out, leaving her on her own to deal with half the Point trying to get their hands on her in order to get to your stupid ass. Sorry, as usual I wasn’t in on your goddamn plans, Race, so I just made up my own rules as I went along.”

“That’s what you always do, Bax, and look where you ended up.”

I saw Bax’s jaw clench and his hands curl into fists.

“Not without some help, Race.” His eyes lifted to me and it made my heart sink to see that all those swirling shadows were firmly back in place. “I’ll be right back.” I wasn’t sure if that was a threat to my brother or a promise to me, but either way it raised goose bumps all along my arms.

When the door closed with a fierce bang, I flipped on the overhead light and finally looked at my older brother. He had flopped into the worn-out chair and looked about as haggard and spent as its threadbare fabric. He was a big guy, not as bulky as Bax, but wherever he had been, he hadn’t been taking very good care of himself over the last month. His cheeks looked hollowed out, he had an unkempt scruff decorating his handsome face, and his eyes, identical to my own, were far too dark. In addition to the weight loss and general disarray of his clothes and normally perfectly styled hair, there was now a gaping wound on his cheek, his eyebrow was split open, and there were rusty smears of blood along the back of both of his hands.

I sighed and walked to the tiny kitchenette to get him a damp rag to clean up with. “Where have you been?”

“What are you doing in bed with Bax, Dovie? Do you have any idea what he’s capable of, what kind of guy he is? I never would have left you alone had I thought you would be dumb enough to end up sleeping with him.”

I gritted my teeth and tossed the rag to him. I narrowed my eyes at him as I propped myself up on the counter and watched him.

“You left me alone after I got the crap kicked out of me and told me to wait for him, Race. Who are you to show up now and judge what’s happening here?”

His eyes, so like mine, flared dark with anger and guilt. “I had to leave you. They would’ve just kept coming and I had to figure out who I could trust.”

“They would’ve grabbed me to get to you, Race. Do you even care about that?”

He shoved his hands through his golden hair and started to pace in front of me. “Of course I care. Every move I’ve made has been to keep everyone safe. I knew Bax would find you. Would stand between you and Novak.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled him with a look. “What if he hadn’t? What if he had gotten out of jail and taken off? That’s a big risk you took with my life without talking to me about it, Race.”

“I know Bax.” His gaze drifted to the rumpled bed. “At least I thought I did.”

“I thought he was like your brother, your best friend. Isn’t that why you told me to trust him if he showed up? Even if he was scary, even if he seemed dangerous, you told me to trust him.”

“That was before I knew he would sink so low to pay me back.”

“What are you talking about?”

He lumbered to his feet and started pacing back and forth. “I never thought he would sleep with you to get back at me for sending him to jail.”

I sucked in a breath so hard it hurt. I shook my head and frowned at Race. Even though I missed him, was worried about him, I wasn’t going to let him waltz in and start getting things all tangled up.

“He didn’t. He didn’t know about the setup until tonight when he cornered Lord Hartman. He suspected you had something to do with it, were involved somehow, but he called Titus tonight for the real story. He took me to bed way before that, Race.”

“Jesus, Dove, I don’t need details.”

“Then stop being an idiot. You pulled a gun on the only person in the world who gives a crap where you’ve been and if you’ve been okay besides me.”

“I wasn’t expecting to find you naked, in bed with him.”

“That justifies putting a gun to his head after everything he’s already been through?”

Race’s eyes flicked up at me and then he squeezed them shut and shoved his fists into them.

“You’re in love with him.”

I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Maybe a little bit. Regardless, he’s been here and he’s done what you intended him to do. Benny, Novak . . . none of those guys have gotten close to me, and they want to because whatever you have going on is making everyone very nervous, Race.”

The door to the apartment swung open and Bax stalked back in looking no less pissed and battered than when he left. His face had fared better than Race’s, but his knife wound was all broken open again and the scab looked like something out of a horror movie. He made his way over to where I was standing. He put a finger under my chin and tilted my head up and looked at me hard.

“Okay?”

“Fine. You need to rewrap up your side.”

He looked down where he was steadily leaking blood and shrugged. “It won’t kill me.”

He took a position similar to my own and crossed his arms over his chest and glared at my brother.

“So, Race, why don’t you tell us what you have on Novak that’s enough for him to want you alive, even though you threatened to take him down? Why don’t you explain to your sister why you brought her back here, knowing everyone was going to be all over you?”

Race muttered something under his breath and folded back into the chair. He clasped his hands in front of him and looked at something on the floor between his feet.

“The night I grabbed the old guy, I knew there was no way you were going to kill him and no way Novak was going to let him live. I set up a bunch of wireless remote cameras on the meeting point.”

Bax shook his head. “Smart bastard.”

Race heaved another sigh. “Yeah, only the footage is blurry. You can tell it’s Novak, you can see him pull the trigger, but then everything kind of went crazy because you took off in the Aston Martin. I was supposed to stick around and give the footage to Titus, and Novak was supposed to go away for murder, only none of that happened. After you went to jail, Novak told me if I didn’t scram he was going after Dovie and after you behind bars. I told him he didn’t want to mess with me, but I didn’t want to tip my hand too early. When I knew you were getting out and could protect yourself, I knew it was time to come back.”

He tossed his head back at the ceiling and looked up at the peeling plaster while Bax shifted restlessly next to me.

“I was all set to turn the footage over to Titus when my idiot father decided to let me know that he had been laundering all of Novak’s money for the years I had been gone. I didn’t keep in touch with my parents too much until Dovie and I came back to the Point. I didn’t know how tangled everything had gotten. I didn’t know how to take Novak down without dragging my dad through the quicksand with him.”

Bax grunted at that and asked coolly, “What does your old man have to do with anything? He tried to put a hit out on Dovie so what do you care if he gets swallowed in quicksand?”

Race swore.

“Not the old man, but my mom. She probably wouldn’t survive having all of this unravel on her. Dad in jail for RICO and Dad’s illegitimate kid shoved in her face. Not to mention Novak would probably kill her just to keep me in line.”

“Why did you bring Dovie back here? Why risk it if you were safe in another city?”

“I was never going to be safe. Novak was always going to use me to hold over your head. He’s not stupid, Bax. He knew the first thing you would do when you got out of jail was try and find out answers. He knew you would come after me. I came back to show him I wasn’t scared, no matter how awful this place is, it’s still my home. I wanted him to know his time was running down and I wanted to be closer to Titus because right now he’s the only person I trust.”

He looked at the bed and then glared at me. “I couldn’t leave Dovie alone, so she had to come with me. I was just waiting until she was older, out of high school. I wanted her to have enough time to find her footing here before the shit hit the fan. I feel like everything has been stuck in suspended animation, everything just on pause waiting for you to get out of prison. It’s like time has been standing still and everything comes down to you and Novak, to this moment.” He gave Bax a really pointed look, which had him shifting uncomfortably. “Plus I knew that if something happened to me, you would be here, Titus would be here. She doesn’t need to be alone in her life anymore. There is family here in the Point, as hard as you might try to forget it.”

“What do you mean you didn’t want Dovie left alone? You left her alone after Benny kicked the shit out of her.” Bax sounded furious about it and Race had the good grace to flush and look at me with remorse. I knew how my brother’s head worked. He was always trying to pull things apart and figure out what made them run. This situation was no different. To Race, I was a cog in the wheel of whatever Novak’s big picture was. It should offend me, make me mad, but by now I was getting kind of used to being a means to an end for men playing dangerous games I didn’t fully understand.

“I know and I’m sorry. But something strange happened when I marched into Novak’s compound, something that changed the course of what’s going on here.”

I could feel Bax stiffen even with the space between us and could feel the heat of anger blazing off of him. “What happened?”

Race’s green eyes flashed between the two of us and then landed heavily on his friend. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. I walked in there yelling about a hidden tape with an execution on it. Threw around words like ‘feds’ and ‘lifetime behind bars’ and Novak just looked at me like I was an annoying fly buzzing around his head. He knew I was confident moving back here, that I felt like I had leverage. And I thought they roughed Dovie up to find out what I had because you were getting released, but then I walked out of the compound without so much as a scratch. It didn’t add up. We both know I should’ve ended up with a bullet between the eyes.”

I gasped at the graphic image and Race shifted his gaze to me with a wince. “I only meant to stay away for a day or two, to see how things were going to play out. I crashed with Carmen for a few nights, paid Lester a few bucks to be on alert, and imagine my surprise when there was no Benny, no Novak. It didn’t make sense, so I wanted to dig further into it. Something else is working and I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what it was. It’s like a giant game and the only person with the rules is Novak.”

His gaze went back to Bax and he sighed heavily.

“I feel like you’re the prize right in the center of the game board, Bax. I just don’t know what moves Novak is making to collect you.”

I gulped and wanted to lean against Bax’s side, but didn’t want to set either Race or him off again. I was just going to have to comfort myself. Just like I always did.

I rubbed my arms up and down the soft fabric of the sweatshirt and looked back and forth between the two men. “So what now?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I came to find Bax. I can’t stay hidden, because sooner or later Benny is going to come after you to get me to make a move one way or the other. They’ll grab you to get me to come out of hiding; whatever Novak’s plan is, he wants me to be part of it. They know about the tape now. I told him if he ever came near you again after they knocked you around, I would send it to the feds. I thought that’s why they have been looking for me but now I’m not so sure. No one knows where the tape is besides me. Novak has cops on the take, he has eyes everywhere. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to figure out where his reach ends.” His blond head dropped a little and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t know who we can trust beyond Titus.”

We were all quiet, the weight of having to deal with any and all of Novak’s machinations heavy in the room around us. I could hear Bax’s steady breathing, could see the fear and anger stamped on Race’s face, and I thought Bax was right, I did deserve more than this in life.

Bax pushed off the counter and scraped his hands hard over his scalp. He looked at me and then at Race. “Give me the tape.”

I winced and Race scowled.

“No!” I screamed it out of fear for Bax’s safety, Race barked it out of indignation. Bax just shook his head.

“What other option is there? Novak already has a hard-on for me. He never would have involved you or Dovie in any of his machinations if he didn’t want to have me over a barrel. It’s my fault. I break the law. I steal shit and end up tied into guys like him. Neither one of you needs to suffer for it anymore. This is my mess, I’ll clean it up. Whether it’s about the tape and blackmail or something else altogether.”

I grabbed him. I couldn’t help it. I wrapped my hands around his biceps, but like when I thought he was going to run away from me earlier, I could already see the dark barriers folding down as he looked down at my panicked face.

“So what? You’re going to offer yourself up as the sacrificial lamb? That doesn’t solve the problem, it just places you in the line of fire instead of Race.”

“Yeah, Bax. I followed you willingly down this path. You didn’t have to drag me kicking and screaming. I knew it was wrong, knew the risks we were taking, and you already gave up enough in this nightmare. Novak is my problem.”

Bax swore and I think my heart started to fracture when he purposely untangled himself from my clutching grip.

“Novak is the Point’s problem.”

I gulped back all the sour things I was feeling, the bitter taste of Shane disappearing behind everything that was Bax right before my eyes.

“And you have to be the one to take care of it?” It was a stupid question to ask and I almost choked on it.

There was nothing in his eyes when he looked at me, he was back to that dangerous stranger that I was equal parts scared of and fascinated by. He pulled out the big guns, the ones that there was no way Race could argue against. I knew, just like that, the battle was over.

“I went to jail for you, Race. I spent five years hating you, being disappointed in you, and convincing myself not to kill you when I got out. I might understand why you had to do it, but that’s five years I won’t get back and you owe me for it. Give me the fucking tape and let me handle Novak. You keep your sister safe and make sure no more of this nasty shit blows back on her.”

I wanted to argue, wanted Race to protest, but he just nodded, and like that, everything shifted. I wasn’t Bax’s lover, his friend, or his partner in the shared goal of finding Race; I was just some girl and he was just some guy and this was the kind of life we lived in the Point. No one got a happy ending, and I should have known I was not the exception to the rule.

CHAPTER 13

Bax

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN Gus knew more than he was letting on. That old coot didn’t let anything get by him, and I should’ve been more clued in by the fact that he wasn’t more alarmed by Race’s disappearance than he was. As it turned out, my friend was hiding out in the apartment Gus kept above the garage for personal reasons. Reasons that involved more than one girlfriend and a jealous wife. Race had been right under Novak’s nose all along, so close it was really going to chap his ass when everything played out. Served the bastard right. That’s what happened when any one man tried to play God over so many other people’s lives. I couldn’t wait to laugh in his face and put my boot on the back of his neck.

Of course I was going to have to get the bitter taste of the last look Dovie had given me out of my mouth before I did anything. I could see it in her eyes; she wanted me to ask her to stay with me, to change my mind about going into the lion’s den. I couldn’t do it. Not only because she would be eaten alive if she tried to stay by my side, but because tonight I had come very close to crossing a line I never would have imagined myself crossing. She got under my skin, made me want to make things different, but that wasn’t going to be possible, so I put her in the passenger seat of Race’s cherry ’66 Mustang without a kiss good-bye and closed the door. I watched her eyes turn from the color of the forest to the color of the night sky, and it twisted something up inside my chest so hard, I thought it was going to take me to my knees.

Race watched the entire thing with a frown, and when I told him if anything happened to her I would hold him personally responsible, instead of getting offended or hostile, he just nodded his head solemnly and told me, “I understand, Bax. Be careful.”

There was no such thing as careful when playing Russian roulette with a guy like Novak, so I didn’t bother to respond. I lit up a cigarette and watched as the taillights disappeared around the corner. It was already close to dawn and there was no going back to bed, not after having a gun in my face and the ensuing tussle with Race still thudding in my blood. Plus I felt like I was choking on the disappointment I could feel bleeding off of Dovie as she walked away. I couldn’t pretend like she didn’t matter, but I also couldn’t pretend like I didn’t know she needed something better than what I would end up bringing her way. She didn’t need to spend one second of her time visiting a grave or the penitentiary, and those were about the only two options she was going to get if we kept going the way we were together.

I dug my phone out of my back pocket, and for the third time, which was more than I ever had in my entire life before, called my brother. He didn’t answer right away, so I finished the cigarette and went back up to the now thoroughly trashed apartment. I hadn’t really wanted to hurt Race, but no one was going to pull a gun on me and get off lightly, even if I could understand his displeasure at finding me naked and totally wrapped around his sister. That wasn’t anything a big brother wanted to walk in on.

I was stripped down and getting ready to rinse the entire night away in a scalding shower when my phone decided to ring from the other room. Sighing, I wrapped a towel around my waist and went to answer the callback.

“Now what?”

Titus sounded annoyed and I couldn’t really blame him. He had called off the cavalry when the neighbors had reported the disturbance earlier. He was pissed Race had shown up out of the blue, and even more pissed when I told him about the nine-millimeter wake-up call. I think he was starting to regret forcing this brotherly-bond thing when he knew good and well it only mattered to me as long as I could use it to my advantage.

“I have the flash drive.”

I didn’t think he was going to need any more information than that, and I was right. I heard him suck a breath in.

“Race gave you the video?”

“A copy of it. It’s stored on a hard drive somewhere in Gus’s shop, which is where he’s been this entire time, by the way.”

Titus swore. “Shoulda known that old bastard knew more than he was letting on.”

“That’s what I said when he told me.”

“So you’re going to turn the video over to me so I can arrest Novak.” It wasn’t said as a question.

I scowled at my ragged reflection in the mirror over the bathroom sink. Every single week since I had been let out, I had managed to find myself in some kind of physical altercation. My life was violent, filled with blood and uncertainty, and there was no place in it for a girl like Dovie, even if I already felt like there was a hole where she had been.

“I’m going to take Novak down.”

Silence met the bold declaration, but I expected nothing less. My brother was a law-abiding citizen, a cop, a man who saw things clearly as right or wrong, which is why we could never really operate on the same wavelength. His world was all solid shades of black and white; mine was a muddy gray, tinted with vibrant shades of red and green. Red for blood, green for dirty money.

I was surprised he didn’t immediately launch into a lecture or give me the runaround about how it was the law’s job to handle Novak, to protect the Point. Instead he grumbled something foul and asked, “Wanna grab breakfast in a couple?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Sure, why not.”

We made plans to meet at a diner close to the precinct Titus worked out of, and I finished trying to wash Dovie’s memory and scent off of my skin. The cut on my side was open again and Race had gotten a couple good blows to my ribs, so I was moving a little slower than normal. It wasn’t until I went to get dressed that I realized Dovie had left still wrapped up in my new hoodie. I didn’t want to admit that the idea of her holding on to something of mine made something in my gut settle down. I had never really been possessive of anything in my life, aside from my car and my friendship with Race. Whatever I was feeling for Dovie trumped all of it. It felt like hope and promise and all the things in life I had never imagined would apply to me.

I found a place to leave the Runner where I thought it would be inconspicuous and not draw attention to either me or my brother. Titus was already seated in a booth at the back, a plastic menu covering his face. He flicked the edge of it to the side when I sat down across from him and grunted a greeting at me. He looked tired and older than his twenty-nine years. His bright blue eyes were rimmed in red and his dark hair looked like he had used motor oil and a ceiling fan to style it. He had also ditched his cop wear of a pressed white shirt and tie. The guy sitting across from me looked like he could give me a run for my money in the pit at Nassir’s—or be found riding shotgun next to me in one of my boosted rides. We always kind of looked alike, apart from the eye color, but now there was no denying we were built from the same stock. He looked just as rough and dangerous as I typically did.

The waitress came over and Titus asked her to just leave the pot of coffee she was holding. He ordered a massive breakfast and I just got some bacon and eggs. I wasn’t hungry, I was anxious to get the ball rolling.

“What’s up, Officer King?”

He cut me a look. “Race beat the crap out of you. You got a wicked bruise on the side of your face.”

“I know. He got me in the ribs even worse. Can’t say I blame him. I was all over Dovie, and there were no clothes involved.”

“What’s the story with you and her anyway? She doesn’t really strike me as your type.”

I chomped on a piece of the bacon and gave him a considering look. “How would you know what my type is, Titus? It’s not like you were around when I finally figured out what girls were for.”

He looked at me and frowned, his mug of coffee stilled halfway to his mouth. “Just because I wasn’t around didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping tabs on you. If I hadn’t kept a finger on the pulse of the felonies and misdemeanors of the infamous Shane Baxter, your ass would’ve been in prison a lot sooner than when you turned eighteen.”

I’d had run-ins with the law on and off since I was old enough to remember, but really, luck had always been on my side. Sure, I spent a month or two in juvie and was way more familiar with the back of a squad car than anyone should be, but my record was mostly clean, except for the last big fuckup that had kept me on lockdown for five wasted years.

“Why? Why interfere? Why pretend like I mattered when you were off being supercop? Those two things don’t seem to go hand in hand.”

“Because you’re my little brother and have always been a pain in the ass. I wondered all the time if things would have been different if Mom had managed to get her shit together when you were younger. I wonder if you had never been forced to steal, forced to break the law, if you would’ve just finished school and ended up a regular douchebag like most twenty-three-year-olds.”

I snorted. “Doubt it.”

Titus smiled around the coffee mug. “Yeah, I doubt it too. So about the girl?”

I grunted and leaned back in the booth. “She’s sweet and hot. She grew up the same way I did—rough—but it didn’t seem to touch her at all. She’s as loyal as I have ever seen one person be, and right now she’s right in the center of this mess with Novak. I sent her off with Race because I don’t know where else she’ll be safe. Once I let Benny know I have the video, he’ll tell Novak and all the dominoes are going to start to fall.”

“Shane . . .” I was getting real tired of people calling me that. I felt like every time they did, it was chipping away at the solid steel armor that was Bax. “I need you to take one second and look at this from the other side of things for once in your life. I know for you it’s easier to go in with guns blazing, ready to cause a riot, but I’m telling you that isn’t how things are going to work out.”

I flicked my gaze away from him and looked out the grimy window of the diner.

“As soon as Novak knows you have the tape, he’s going to try and destroy everything you care about, and I’m not talking about the Runner.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t think anyone qualifies for that list.”

“You’re an idiot.”

I scowled at him. “Fuck you.”

“Mom, Race, Gus, me, and now the girl. That’s a long enough list to put the ball solidly in Novak’s court. You might not see it, Bax, but you do not exist in the world unaffected by those of us who love you despite yourself.”

I just stared at him. I couldn’t argue his point. I thought it would be me and Novak in one epic showdown, but the reality was probably much gorier, with a far higher body count than I was seeing.

“So what then, Titus? I just hand the video over, and you and the boys in blue waltz in and arrest him for a murder that happened over five years ago? We both know some slick lawyer will get him off before it even goes to trial, and then he’ll just get rid of anyone and everyone who can speak out against him. You tell me how this ends on the side of all that is good and right. The only way to deal with a man like Novak is to get your hands dirty. You know that, Titus.”

“I do, and I also know those hands do not have to be yours, Bax.”

“If not me, then who?”

“I’m not so sure of the answer to that question just yet. You and Race need to keep your heads down, keep the girl out of Benny’s hands until we can come up with a plan that gets everyone out alive. You think you can sit on it for a few days?”

I didn’t want to, but in the harsh light of day, there was no denying he was right.

“Novak knew Race had the tape, he knows about the setup. The only reason Novak hasn’t done anything is because Race’s dad is laundering his dirty cash, and Race doesn’t want his mom dragged into the gutter with the old man, who, by the way, tried to hire Novak to kill Dovie.”

Titus’s eyes flared with a blue fire, and I saw his hands curl into fists on the top of the table between us.

“Who are these people? How did we end up in a place where people’s lives are nothing more than moves on a chessboard?”

I lifted a broad shoulder and let it fall. It made my battered ribs scream at me in protest. “It’s the Point. That’s how it’s always been. You were lucky to make it out before it poisoned you like it did the rest of us.”

He blinked at me and opened and closed his mouth. Then he just gaped at me. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

I tilted my head to the side. “Believe what?”

“That I got out. That I went and lived up on the Hill and nothing from the Point ever touched me. Like my mom wasn’t still a drunk, my brother a thief, and my old man doing life for drugs and murder? You think moving to a place with a different zip code made everything else just go away and turned me into a different person? You’re wrong, Bax. Being a poor kid with a messed up home life in the Point just makes you one sadder story out of a million. Being the poor kid and the charity case on the Hill makes you a freak show and a target. I knew every day I didn’t belong, knew I was never going to be anything more than some schmuck from the ghetto that everyone looked down on and pitied.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. For the longest time I thought Titus had left me, left us, to fend for ourselves. I never thought about his side of things. Like the rest of us, he had done what he needed to do in order to survive. Just like Dovie had so eloquently tried to point out to me. Thinking about her made my stomach drop and that open place in the center of my chest twist up and release like a car accelerating at full speed. She hadn’t even been out of my life for a full day, and I could already feel the loss, which made sending her off with Race the right thing. If I had to do time again, there was no way I would make it with Dovie Pryce living under my skin. The absence of her while I was on the inside would make me go crazy.

“And yet you managed to come out of it a verified good guy with a shiny badge and everything.” I didn’t bother to keep the sarcasm out of my tone.

“What else was I supposed to do? You were always in trouble with the cops, my dad is a goddamn drug kingpin and killer . . . the only way to separate myself from all of that was to become a cop. There aren’t enough of us out there who can walk on both sides of the street. I can. I know people from the Hill are just as crooked, just as twisted, as people from the Point, and a broken law is a broken law, I don’t care who is breaking it. I put criminals in jail, Bax. You know that better than anyone.”

“Is that how you see me, Titus? I’m just one more criminal in a city overrun with them?”

He sighed and pushed his empty plate to the side. “No. You’re my little brother, but you’re also an asshole who has a penchant for getting into the worst kind of trouble. I wish you weren’t so good with cars, especially the ones that don’t belong to you, but I have never blamed you for doing what you had to do back then.”

“I wanted out, you know?” I fiddled with the edge of my fork. “That’s why Novak was trying to set me up for the murder of the old guy who owned the Aston Martin. It was getting old being yanked around. Sure, the money was nice and the cars were enough to leave me with a hard-on for days, but I knew it was going to go bad. I wanted out before I took Race down with me.”

“Why couldn’t you have wanted out before you went down? Bax, come on, you gotta start thinking about the big picture.”

“What does that mean?” I knew I sounded defensive, but I couldn’t help it. This was probably the longest conversation I had ever had with my brother and I didn’t need a lecture.

He waved a hand in the general direction of my face. “Just look at you. What do you think comes next for a guy with a fucking tattoo on his face? Where does that kind of choice end you up, Bax? What comes next for you? More car theft, more fighting, something else that’s going to put you in a body bag? You need to start looking at what comes after.”

The star was so much a part of me that I couldn’t imagine looking in the mirror each day and not seeing it, but he had a point. It wasn’t like I thought about what putting ink on my face was going to mean for me as an adult or what kind of opportunities it would limit me to, which were just what he said, being a thief and a thug from here on out. I scowled and tossed the fork down on the table.

“What exactly do you think comes after, Titus?” I put my palms flat on the table and leaned closer, so we were staring intently at each other. For the first time, I saw the same core of steel that ran through me reflected back in my brother’s bright blue eyes. “This is my life. This is the Point. Even if we figure out a way to get a handle on Novak, some other piece of shit is going to rise up and take his place. You think I’m going to wake up one day and decide I want to be a banker or a stockbroker? I don’t know what fairy tale you’ve been reading, but that isn’t mine. I’m a criminal, it’s what I know how to do.”

We stared at each other for a long moment until he swore and dug in his pants for his wallet. He tossed some money on the table between us and climbed to his feet. He looked worn out and sad.

“I was hoping the redhead mattered enough that maybe your opinion on that would’ve changed. I saw the way you looked at her. A man doesn’t willingly walk away from a woman who puts that look in his eyes. Give me until the weekend. Let me see what I can come up with regarding the tape. Keep your head low and try not to antagonize Benny or Novak.”

I sucked in a breath between my teeth. “A week is all you’re gonna get. If I have to handle this bloody and messy, I will.”

He lifted a black eyebrow at me. “I know, that’s your whole problem, little brother. I’ll be in touch.”

I watched him walk away and tried not to feel a twinge of envy when he climbed into a perfectly restored ’69 GTO. I had built a pretty strong foundation of hatred based on the belief that Titus had abandoned me when I was younger, and that we had nothing in common after he became one of the Hill elite. When he had arrested me five years ago, I was convinced he was trying to teach me a lesson, to prove that he was better than me, but now I wasn’t so sure. Just like I wasn’t so sure what my life was going to look like if I managed to make it out of this confrontation with Novak alive and a free man. I was so certain that this was the end of the road for me that I never had given a second thought to what might come next.

Irritated that Titus had managed to get so expertly under my skin, I slid out of the booth and headed to my own car. I was going to go find Nassir and have him set up another fight for me. I had too much energy, too much stuff buzzing around under my skin, and I needed a physical way to burn it off. Otherwise, there was a pretty good chance I was going to throw caution and good sense to the wind and say “the hell with it,” and go find Dovie and bury myself inside her until it burned us both alive. Inherently, I knew that was a far more dangerous option than letting Nassir find some ’roided-up meathead to take a few cheap shots at me.

I was racing down the mostly empty streets, since it was still too early for most of the city to be up and active, when my phone rang. Since only a few people had the number for the disposable unit, I answered it without looking.

“Yeah?”

“What did you do to my sister, Bax?”

I choked back a laugh and wheeled the car to a spot in front of the rickety-looking building that held all Nassir’s dirty little secrets.

“I don’t think you really want me to answer that question, Race.” He didn’t, because I could recall with startling clarity every touch, every kiss, every whimper and moan that I had elicited out of her pretty mouth over the last few weeks.

He swore at me. “That’s not what I meant. She used to be reasonable and understanding. The group home wants her to come in this weekend and I told her it was too dangerous right now. She won’t listen. She agreed to get her shift at the restaurant covered and skip school for the week, but she won’t relent on the group home. Before I left, she used to just take my suggestions and roll with it because she knows I always have her best interests in mind. So I repeat, what did you do to her?”

I climbed out of the car and stuck a smoke between my lips. I leaned a hip on the door and squinted at the ramshackle building.

“Your sister was born into the life, Race. You fell into it by accident because of me, but Dovie . . .”—I had to clear my throat—“she has the streets in her blood. I think spending time with me made her remember how tough she has to be to survive out here. She’ll be fine, just keep an eye on her. I’ll make sure nothing happens to her at the house this weekend.”

“I thought you were going to throw the gauntlet down with Novak?”

“Titus convinced me to give him some time with it.”

Race snorted. “And you actually listened? Maybe I should be asking what my sister did to you.”

“She makes me want to think that even the bad guy can be a good guy when he needs to be. She’ll be fine, Race. It can’t happen any other way or else I’m going to take this godforsaken city apart brick by brick in order to make it right.”

He was quiet for a long enough amount of time that I thought that maybe he had hung up on me. I started to make my way to the staircase that led to the inner sanctum.

“Well, shit, Bax. You’re in love with her.”

I finally lit the cigarette that was dangling out of my mouth and wished I had my hoodie so I could pull it up over my head.

“She matters more than I wish she did.”

He grumbled something at me that I wasn’t paying any attention to. “Hey, are you ever going to forgive me for what happened that night?”

The quick change in subject jerked me back to the present as I punched in the code to open the heavy steel door.

“Probably. It sucks, and doing hard time for five years isn’t something that’s easy to forgive, but you’re my only friend in the world, Race.” I blew out a cloud of smoke and squinted through the haze. “Someone needs to miss me when I’m not around anymore. Plus, I banged your sister, so that kind of makes us even.”

“Don’t say that crap, Bax. You seriously think Dovie is just going to move on, just pretend like you weren’t a part of her life? If so, you don’t know her for shit, and I knew it last night, even though it pissed me off, that there was more going on than you just hooking up with her.”

I flinched involuntarily at his harsh tone.

“It’s for the best. Look, I gotta go. I’m trying to hook up something with Nassir.”

“What? Why? I didn’t hand your ass to you thoroughly enough last night? You need another beating?”

I barked out a dry laugh and maneuvered my way through the narrow hallway that led into the club. It was bound to be empty this early, but I knew Nassir would be around. He did all his actual, legitimate business, what little of it there was, during the day.

“Gotta make a living somehow.”

“Dovie told me you cleaned Nassir out on the last fight, so don’t pull that with me, Bax. It’s been a while, but I rode shotgun with you for a long time.”

“Don’t tell Dovie that I’m gonna keep an eye on her this weekend. She’ll be upset.”

“No, she won’t, which is why you’re out there looking to get your ass kicked, isn’t it?”

“I’ll talk to you later, Race. I gave Titus a week. After that, I’m opening the gates of hell and everybody better be ready for what comes crawling out.”

“You would burn the entire city down just to spite yourself, Bax.”

“I would.”

“Then I guess some things never change, even with age and wisdom. Feel free to kick Nassir in the nuts for me.”

I hung up and stuck the phone in my back pocket. The answer to his question of what his sister had done to me was too long and too involved for me to try and break it down. I had always been a guy who was comfortable in my skin, in the knowledge that I was what I was, no more or no less. I made it day to day understanding the path I chose to walk in life only had a couple of tragic endings, but I had so few attachments, so few emotional entanglements, it had never mattered before. Now . . . now the idea of disappointing a certain redhead, of leaving her with the knowledge of just how destructive and terrible I could be, left an oily and thick feeling all over the inside of me.

CHAPTER 14

Dovie

I WAS GOING STIR-CRAZY. Five days catching up with my brother was nice, but spending it in the cramped, tiny apartment above Gus’s garage was not. I still wasn’t one hundred percent clear on who Gus was, Race seemed to gloss over the fact that the old mechanic ran Novak’s chop shop for him, but his loyalty was to Bax. According to Race, Gus had had a fling with Bax’s mom back in the day and had taken to both her young sons. Titus had already been older and not so interested in developing a relationship with the very married mechanic, but Bax was a different story. He took to Gus and his knowledge about any kind of automobile like a duck to water. Eventually the affair had petered out, but Race insisted that Gus viewed Bax more as a son than anything else, and there was no way he would compromise our safety by revealing our location because of their relationship. After all, Race had been hiding out here for over a month and no one was the wiser.

The apartment was even smaller than the studio Bax kept in the city, and as much as I honestly adored Race, I was tired of him being my only company. I was also sick of the endless grilling about my feelings for Bax. We were literally tripping over each other, and that, coupled with the heartache I was feeling, was enough to make me want to lose my mind. Luckily most of my teachers had agreed to e-mail me assignments for the week, so I was staying busy using Gus’s old laptop to keep up on my homework. Even with that minor distraction, I couldn’t shake the hollow feeling when I woke up in the middle of the night to reach for that hard body I had so quickly gotten used to being curled around, only to come up empty. I missed him. I knew why he was doing what he was doing, but that didn’t stop me from longing to be back with him—all of him. As much as I missed Shane, there was no denying I missed the gruff and harsh Bax as well. It sucked, and I was doing a piss-poor job of keeping my feelings from Race.

I was ready to get out of there, even if it was not the most advisable way to spend the weekend. Race mentioned that Bax’s brother had convinced him to hold off on taking the video to Novak, that he was trying to come up with a more delicate solution that would hopefully get Race and Bax off the hot seat permanently. He also let it slip that Bax was going back to fight for Nassir, which made bile rise up in my throat. Not only because I hadn’t heard a word from him in a week, but because I knew there was no way Nassir was going to set up a clean fight and he was just asking for trouble and looking to hurt himself. I hated everything about it, but I bit my tongue and refused to give in to the temptation of trying to call and reason with him. He made it clear that now that Race was back on the scene, I was my brother’s responsibility.

I made my way as quietly as I could down the metal stairs that led down to the locker room the guys who worked for Gus used. It was well after the legitimate part of the garage closed for daily business, but that didn’t mean the more lucrative and illegal part of the shop wasn’t running full steam ahead. The first few days I had been scared to come down the stairs, scared one of the mechanics would see me and rat us out to Novak, but whoever Gus was in the grand scheme of things, he was awesome at keeping our location secret. I hadn’t seen another human aside from him and my brother in days.

I peeked around the corner and saw Gus’s gray head bent over something on his desk in his office. After making sure the coast was clear, I tiptoed across the shop floor and knocked on the glass window until he looked up and saw me. He waved me inside and pushed back in his chair so his greasy boots were propped up on the edge of his desk.

“You ready to roll?”

“Yeah. I’m just going to take the bus. The Mustang is too memorable, and if anyone puts two and two together, they’ll realize I was probably with Race.” It was frightening how after only a handful of weeks with Bax, I could draw those kinds of lines between things with zero effort.

“Smart girl. Well, it would probably be smarter to just stay here, but I understand the need to show you’re not giving your life up.”

I blew out a breath that sent a copper curl twisting across my forehead. “I just can’t spend any more time with Race breathing down my neck. I’ll murder him.”

Gus laughed and folded his hands on his portly belly. “He’s been worried about you. Add in the fact you went and got all tangled up with Bax, and he has good reason. Those boys . . .” He shook his head and closed his eyes briefly. “Those boys could run this city if they wanted. Your brother is one of the smartest and most loyal kids I’ve ever come across, and he has an innate sense for when something isn’t right. And Bax”—he sighed—“that kid never got a fair shot, but he is about as ruthless as anyone I’ve ever seen. He has the tools, the mettle to get the dirty work done. Unfortunately, he also has a conscience buried somewhere deep down inside.”

I cleared my throat and shifted uneasily on my feet. “It’s not buried that far. I didn’t have to dig too far to get at it.”

The mechanic grinned at me, only it was full of sadness.

“You’re one of the few, then, little lady. You better pray that your brother and Titus get this all figured out before Bax gets impatient and stirs up a hurricane of vengeance. No one will be safe when that boy finally unleashes everything he’s been holding back for the last five years.”

I was surprised. I thought Gus was on Team Bax. The way he was talking now made it sound like the opposite.

“Race told me you were close to Bax.”

“I love the boy like my own, but I don’t mistake that for excusing what I know he’s capable of. God forbid you get hurt—or worse—in the middle of this shit storm brewing. Bax won’t care if it was friend or foe involved, he’ll destroy everyone until nothing is left but dust, and that includes your brother and his.”

I gulped a little. “I think you might have the wrong idea about what kind of relationship we had. He wouldn’t feel compelled to do that because of me.” After all, he had ditched me with Race as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

“Girly, the fact you had any kind of relationship with Bax is more than most people can say. A boy like that doesn’t get attached, because he knows all it’s going to lead to for the other person is heartache and loneliness. The only reason Race got through was because he was willing to go down in a blaze of glory right alongside him. Now you’ve gone and shaken the dynamic all up.”

I didn’t want to think that I was the only reason Race had managed to turn his life around and realized a life of crime wasn’t worth it. I also flat-out just did not believe I had any impact on the choices Bax chose to make one way or the other.

“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that for anyone. I’d like to have faith that Titus is a good cop and that he can figure something out. That seems like the best option for everyone.”

Gus snorted and let his feet thump to the concrete floor.

“Sure, until your old man decides you’re too much of a liability to his cushy life up on the Hill and goes slumming for another scumbag to take you out. It’s an endless cycle of people trying to clean up messes they should’ve never made in the first place.”

I didn’t know how to reply to that, so I just tucked my hair behind my ear and turned to reach for the door handle. “I hope the cycle ends. It’s exhausting.”

“You’re telling me, little lady. Keep your head up. Lots of dangerous people out there.”

I knew it . . . only the most dangerous one that was out there I wanted to find me. I nodded and whispered a good-bye over my shoulder.

The bus ride was torturous and took forever. I had gotten spoiled being ferried around town in muscle cars that moved at the speed of light. I was going to have to get used to going back to the way things were, where I only had myself to rely on. I was happy to have Race back in my life and I appreciated the sacrifice he had made on my behalf, but I couldn’t get past how readily he had offered up Bax as the sacrificial lamb. It was like everyone in his life knew he was bound to ultimately self-destruct, so whatever he had to endure before then was just his penance to pay. I didn’t like it one bit. For all his faults, and Lord knew there were too many to count, he was also a loyal friend, a devoted son, and a man capable of compassion and kindness, even if it didn’t come naturally to him. He deserved better than the dark role of destructive hooligan everyone seemed to want to automatically cast him in. I knew there was more to him than that, even if no one else did.

When I got to the house, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. The kids were happy to see me, and so was Reeve. I don’t know if it was because I showed up on my own power and not with Bax that had her demeanor more cheery toward me, but whatever it was, I was grateful. Dinner went off without a hitch and only the teen girls asked where the hottie with the badass car was this week. I blew them off and we all settled in for game night after dessert. They were such good kids and they deserved to have a life where they didn’t have to worry about where their next meal was going to come from or if their parents were going to put them out on the streets.

Blake and Lindsey both complained of a tummy ache not long after we started the game of Monopoly. Reeve agreed they could be excused as long as they went right to bed and didn’t mess around on the computer or with their phones. They disappeared and I let myself enjoy the simple pleasure of having the one thing in my life that hadn’t drastically changed since the invasion of Shane Baxter.

Reeve and I put the little kids to bed and alternated showers, and before I knew it, the night was almost over. Since I was still wide-awake with too many things chasing each other around in my head, I told Reeve I would take the first round of bed checks. She readily agreed since she had spent the day at her other job as a hairdresser and looked worn out. I was going to use the ancient desktop computer that was set up in the family room to work on the last of my homework when my phone dinged with a text message. Figuring it was probably Race just checking in with me, I glanced down at the screen and went still when I saw the name of the sender.

You got two loose chicks running from the hen house, Copper-Top.

I blinked dumbly at the screen and didn’t bother to write him back. I hit the call button and went out onto the front porch.

“What are you talking about?”

I didn’t even give him a chance to say hello. I was both elated and taken apart by the sound of his voice.

“Two girls just hopped out of the upstairs window and are standing on the corner a block over from the house. Just thought you would want to know.”

“Where are you? The windows have alarms on them.”

He laughed and it sounded bitter. “Come on, Dovie. These kids don’t want to be locked up in that house twenty-four/seven, even if it’s the best place for them. They get creative and learn ways around the rules. I’m gonna scoop them up and drop them off.”

“Bax—”

“See you in a second, Copper-Top.”

My heart was thundering in my chest, and a mixture of joy and rage was making my blood almost too hot to be comfortable under my skin. Five minutes later, the bumblebee-painted car came to a screeching halt in front of the house and Blake and Lindsey came shuffling out of the back. I crossed my arms over my chest and gave them both the evil eye. Instead of looking chagrined or ashamed, they both looked defiant and annoyed. Bax followed them up to the steps and lifted an eyebrow at me. I ignored him and focused on the girls.

“How did you get past the alarm?”

They both just glared at me and I sighed.

“Do you really want me to write this up? Do either of you want this in your case file? This house is based on good faith and the honest desire to learn skills that will make you seamlessly fit into a family. If you don’t want to be here, there are plenty of other kids in the Point who would appreciate the opportunity to get off the streets and have a roof over their heads.”

They shared a look and then looked between me and Bax. “We just wanted to go to a party. Some kids up on the Hill are having a huge kegger because their parents are out of town. Being stuck in this house every day, being reminded that no one wants us, is boring and it gets old, Dovie.” Blake’s voice cracked and Lindsey reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

I opened my mouth to tell them I understood, that we would talk about it later, but Bax beat me to it.

His voice was cold and there was no apology in it when he told them, “Do you have any idea what happens to girls like you when you try and mess around with kids from the Hill? You’re nothing but trash to them; they would use you, humiliate you, and then throw you away the second they were done. The only reason kids from the Hill invite kids from the Point to a party is so they have someone there they can hurt and use with zero repercussions.”

I saw both the girls shiver, but Lindsey narrowed her eyes at him and snapped, “Like kids from the Point are any better? All anyone out here cares about is looking out for themselves.”

Bax nodded. “Damn straight, that’s the only way you’re going to make it out alive.”

“All right, enough. You two go in and wake Reeve up. Tell her you’re sleeping in our room since you disabled the alarm in yours. Tell her I’ll be in shortly.”

They looked at Bax and then back at me. “We were just trying to have some fun.”

Bax snorted. “Fun has no place in this life. You might as well learn that now.”

Blake bared her teeth and pushed past me to the front door. “Your boyfriend is a dick, Dovie. You could do better, even if he is hot.”

I waited until the door slammed closed and I could hear Reeve’s irritated voice coming from the living room before making my way down the steps so I was standing toe-to-toe with Bax. I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye, and when I did, all I could see was a darkness deeper and more liquid than the night sky.

“What are you doing here, Bax?”

“Nice sweatshirt, Copper-Top.” I hadn’t taken it off since the night I walked out of his apartment with it on—not that I was going to tell him that.

“Those girls have a rough enough time as it is. Sooner or later, they’re going to age out of the system and be on their own. You don’t have to remind them that life is always going to be an uphill battle. They should get to enjoy being teenagers.”

“Why? We didn’t.”

“And look how disgustingly well adjusted and happy we are.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “What are you doing here?” I was going to keep asking until he gave me an answer.

“I was just in the neighborhood.”

“Yeah, right. I’m fine. No creepy-crawlers are coming out of the woodwork. You don’t need to be bothered keeping an eye out for me. I hear you have better ways to spend your time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m hiding out in a tiny little apartment with Race while you’re arranging another fight with Nassir. Seems like you couldn’t wait to get back to right where you were. How’s Roxie? I’m sure she’s back on the agenda as well.”

I didn’t want the hurt I was feeling to come through in my voice, but there was no stopping it. I felt like he had cast me off, and it stung.

He looked at me like I was speaking to him in French. “What are you talking about, Dovie? I haven’t seen Roxie, and what I have going on with Nassir is keeping me from making a mistake we’ll both regret.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, not sure I believed him. “What kind of mistake?”

He threw his hands up in the air and tilted his head back so that he was practically yelling at the midnight-colored sky.

“Jesus, Dovie, are you serious right now?”

I was confused. I didn’t understand what his choice to suffer at one of Nassir’s rigged fights had to do with me. I wanted him to spell it out for me, to let me inside that complicated mind that had too many twists and turns for the average person to follow. He made it simple for me. He let loose a flurry of nasty swearwords and then closed the sparse distance between the two of us.

His hands slid into my hair at my temples and his mouth crashed down on mine with the force of everything that made him so dark and dangerous to begin with. I wrapped my fingers around those chains inked on his wrists and kissed him back. He was scary, he was overwhelming, and he was everything about this life that I wanted to get away from, but when he rubbed his tongue along the seam of my lips asking for entrance, it felt more like welcoming him home than it did like kissing him back. I groaned against the pressure and the bite of teeth on my lower lip. He was trying to eat me up and I had no desire to stop him. I missed him so much.

I felt his fingers curl around the back of my skull as he tried to pull me closer, but the front door swung open and Reeve’s heavy footsteps thudded behind us. I reluctantly pulled away and glanced at her over my shoulder. She looked mad.

“I put the girls in our room and looked at the alarm in their room. They cut the wires.”

I nodded and felt Bax try and untangle himself from my hair. I refused to let go of his tattooed wrists.

“Give me a couple minutes, Reeve. I’ll be in shortly.”

“He shouldn’t be here, Dovie, and he shouldn’t be here with you.”

“Just give me a minute.”

I heard her sigh and the door close behind her. Bax pulled at his hands but I still didn’t let him go. I could feel his pulse fluttering under the gentle pressure of my fingertips.

“I gotta go, Copper-Top, while I still can.”

I bit my bottom lip and looked up at him with beseeching eyes. “Did you miss me at all this week, Bax? Did you roll over and reach for me at night? Did you wake up and wonder why you were alone? Did you think about me at all when you went to see Nassir? Do you even care that it’ll break my heart if something happens to you in one of those dirty fights?”

My voice broke and I could feel a veil of moisture slide over my eyes.

“Do you want the truth, or do you want me to lie to you?”

I sort of hated and loved how he liked to throw all our earlier conversations back in my face.

“Lie to me.” I whispered it and he yanked me against his chest and buried his nose in the top of my head. I felt his chest expand and fall against my cheek.

“Not one time. I didn’t think about you one single time this entire week. Is that what you want me to say? Will that make you realize this isn’t what you want and most definitely not what you need?”

What it did was fill that hollow part inside of me that had been gaping and yawning open since he had sent me off with Race. I let go of his wrists and reached up to wrap my arms as tightly as I could around his neck. I saw his Adam’s apple slide up and down in his throat in response.

“Take me somewhere?”

“What? You can’t leave, you’ll get in trouble. The babe with the black hair clearly hates my guts and she’ll turn you in for ditching the kids.”

I blinked at him. As much as I loved the kids and appreciated my job here at the home, the time I had with him was fleeting and precious and I wasn’t going to be foolish and squander it.

“Don’t care. I want to be with you.”

I did, so bad. I felt like I had a fever. My skin was too tight, my breath was coming in short, hard pants, and all I wanted to do was melt into his dark gaze. For a second, I thought he was going to argue, to once again try and push me away from him for my own good, but he didn’t. He ran his hand from the back of my neck to the curve of my ass and gave the rounded flesh a smart smack with the flat of his hand.

“All right, rule breaker, let’s go.”

He gave me a quick, one-armed hug and hauled me off to the Runner. I slid into the passenger seat just in time to see Reeve shaking her head at me in the reflection of the front window. I would regret it later. Right now all I had was this moment and this man who was so hard to hold on to.

We drove in silence for a solid ten minutes, leaving the city behind. I didn’t want to ruin the mood, didn’t want to make him question his choice to take me away, but my curiosity got the better of me and I had to know. “Where exactly are we going?”

I thought he would’ve just taken me to the apartment in the city since it was the closest to the group home, but he was winding the noisy car up into the mountains well past the Hill and a world away from the Point.

“I know this place. When I was younger and people still thought they could beat me in a street race, we used to come up here and let the cars run full-out. It’s quiet and the ride up there is quiet, peaceful even. I figure since neither one of us knows what life is going to look like in the next few days, I can give us one nice memory to take away from it all.”

I wanted to tell him how sad that was, how depressing it sounded, but I knew coming from him, he was telling me that I mattered. For him, that was as close to an admission that I mattered as much to him as he did to me as I was likely to get. I just kept my mouth shut, put a hand on his hard thigh, and let him take me up somewhere in the night.

The drive really was lovely. Well, what I could see of it as it raced by in a dark blur out the window. The trees were eerie shadows in the dark, and the rumble of the giant motor was almost enough to lure me to sleep. I had too much tension, too much desire coiling inside me, to fully relax. I wanted to tell him just to pull over to the side of the road and let me jump him, but he seemed focused on the final destination, and I wanted to let him have that.

He finally pulled to a stop twenty minutes later. The car rumbled to a stop and he turned to look at me in the deathly silent interior. He reached out and used a finger to push some of my curls out of my face. “Come on.”

He opened the door and I followed him out. I was glad I had his hoodie since this high up the night air was a little chilly. When I rounded the hood of the car and stopped next to where he was leaning, I felt the air rush out of my lungs. The view was amazing. The lights from the Point and the Hill twinkled like little stars that had been forced down from the sky. From up here, none of the ugliness that lurked down below could be seen. It was like this place was untouchable.

Bax put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. I felt his lips brush across my forehead and I smelled the barest hint of the last cigarette he had smoked.

“Race and I used to come up here and get high. This bluff is the perfect spot to line two cars up and then race down the mountain. I won the title to more than one sweet ride up here.”

I put my arm around his lean waist and buried my nose in the crook of his neck.

“What about girls? Did you bring all of your conquests up here?” Jealousy was evident in my voice but I didn’t care. I hated the thought of him cuddled up with some random girl before that magnificent view, and I wasn’t scared for him to know it.

“Conquest implies I had to work at it. Back then it didn’t matter. Chicks were interchangeable, and the idea that I had to put any kind of effort into getting laid never even occurred to me. So no, Dovie, you are the only girl I’ve ever brought up here.”

He shifted me around so I was pressed up against the hood of the car. His hands were pressed on the cold metal on either side of my hips.

“When I finally finished this car, got the restoration done and got it back from Gus’s paint guy, I swore that I had never seen anything more beautiful. I thought the Runner was my reward, my trophy for being such a badass. I barely had her for a week when I ended up locked up.”

He leaned more fully into me, making me spread my legs so he could wedge himself between them. He put his hands on my ass and gave me a little boost so I was actually sitting on the hood with my legs wrapped around him.

“Are you going to try and tell me that changed when you saw me? That I was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen?”

He grinned down at me, his teeth flashing white in the dark. “No. I thought you were ordinary. I didn’t understand why Race was risking everything for you.”

Well, that was a bit of an ego diffuser, but there was no escaping the heat burning down at me from his gaze.

“And then you opened your mouth. All that love, all that loyalty, all the innocence, even though life had kicked you around time and time again, and all I wanted to do was let some of that sweetness and light touch me. I’ve never had very clean hands, but the first time I touched you, that first gasp out of that perfect mouth, the first time I thrust into you, God, Dovie, you made me feel like I was the king in a land of second chances.”

I was stunned. He wasn’t much of a talker in the best of times, but man, when he put his mind into it, he had a way with words that was incomparable. I wanted to tell him how I felt about him, to give him some kind of reason to think before throwing himself to the wolves, but my heart was in my throat and no words were getting around it. Besides, he was unzipping the front of the hoodie and using one of his hands to push me farther back so I was laid out on the hood of his prized possession. I shivered more at the look in his eyes than at the night air popping across my skin as he yanked open the buttons on my flannel shirt. His progress was stopped by the hook of my bra digging into my back, but he maneuvered me enough that he could get it open and loose enough to shove out of his way.

The contrast between the brisk air touching my naked skin and the heat inside the suction of his mouth was enough to make me gasp. I dug my hands into his scalp and arched my back up off the metal under me. I muttered his name as he dragged wet kisses across my chest and treated my other breast to the same treatment he had lavished on the first one. I wound a hand around the back of his neck and held him to me like I was never going to let him go. When he finally lifted his head after sucking and licking and biting all of me that was exposed, I yanked him down to my mouth for a kiss that left no doubt how I felt about him.

Every single bit of fear, love, panic, passion, unease, and everything else he always churned up inside me tasted bitter and sweet as I begged him with my lips and tongue to let this matter enough for him to make better decisions. I pulled desperately at his long-sleeved T-shirt until his naked chest was pressed against my own, his heart telling mine a story as they thundered against each other.

He was so beautiful, dark and wild, just like the night around us. He kissed me on the side of the neck then sank his teeth into the soft skin of my earlobe and chuckled into my ear.

“Normally I think it’s pretty cute you dress like a dude, but in the current circumstance, I think I would be willing to sacrifice my left nut for you to be in a short-ass skirt.”

He trailed his strong fingers over the quivering skin of my belly and stopped to slide the button on my jeans out of the loop. He kissed my shoulder and used his arms to lever himself up and off of me so he could take a step back. His eyes trailed over me and I saw his breath shudder out of his lungs. He gave his head a shake.

“I didn’t think there was anything in the world that could make this car better. I was so wrong.”

He was going to make me cry. “Shane . . .”

He hooked his thumbs under the edge of my jeans and my panties and yanked them down my legs at the same time. Being that exposed to the air suddenly made me shiver, but he was only gone as long as it took him to shove his pants down around his hips and cover himself in latex.

“I think my greatest fantasy just became you in nothing but my hoodie. Copper-Top, you are the prettiest thing I have ever seen.”

I wanted to be his fantasy. I wanted to be his reason for him to get past the fatalistic attitude that seemed to be his default. I wanted him to want me enough to let Bax take a backseat once in a while so I could enjoy everything Shane brought to the table. He lifted one of my legs up and wrapped it around his uninjured side while I curled both my hands up around his broad shoulders. I loved the feel of his muscles as my hands moved across his back, I loved the way his eyes blazed all his intensity and determination into mine. When he first slid into me and my body reacted by clasping down on him, hard, it was him who let out the first gasp.

My skin pebbled up, but not because I was cold anymore. I was on fire, everywhere we touched, all the places on the inside where he dragged and pulled on sensitive flesh, I felt like I was going to combust. He kissed me again, used his tongue to mimic the motion his hips were making below. The double stimulation was a lot, my body was already primed, my heart already open, and when he took my hand and put it between us, it only took the simplest touch, the lightest pressure from my own fingers to push me over the edge. I called his name into his mouth and felt him increase the leisurely pace he had initially set.

He put a knee on the bumper of the car and I felt him lean fully into me. I dug my fingers into the bunched cords of his neck and held on as he thrust and pounded into me like he was trying to imprint me forever onto the paint job of his car. He sealed his mouth over mine and groaned into my mouth as he reached the point of no return and released himself into the night and my welcoming body. There had never been a moment in my life when I had felt such rightness and such peace. I hugged him to me and rubbed my cheek against his prickly one.

We stayed like that for a long time, until the chill of the metal from the car made me start to shiver against him. He groaned as he pulled out of me and helped me situate myself since it took more work than him just pulling his pants back up. He pulled me back to the edge of the hood and zipped the front of his sweatshirt back up. Then he bent down and kissed the corner of my mouth.

It made me want to cry because even though he didn’t say it, I could feel it in him again. That was Bax letting Shane kiss me good-bye.

CHAPTER 15

Bax

DOVIE DIDN’T SAY A word when I took her back down the mountain to the group home. I made the drive last longer than it normally would and simply enjoyed the quiet and the feel of her hand on my thigh. The gnawing need to hurt something, or, more accurately, to let something hurt me, had faded to a dull throb in the back of my neck. I still didn’t want her to be part of this life, didn’t want her to look at me and see things I would never be able to be, even if she made me want to. At least this was a proper good-bye, and while she still looked sad and disappointed, she also seemed to have a quiet kind of understanding settled around her. She wasn’t pushing or asking me for things I couldn’t deliver on.

When I pulled up in front of the house, the first rays of dawn were just starting to crack on the horizon. She turned in the seat and I thought she was going to ask me not to leave her, tell me that we could figure things out between us, but she didn’t. She just leaned across the space separating us and pressed her lips softly against the star forever dancing on my temple. It made my breath lock so hard in my throat, I thought I was going to suffocate.

“Take care of yourself, Bax. It would break my heart if something happened to you that was avoidable.”

The warning was clear. I was my own worst enemy and she knew it. There was plenty in this life that could end up destroying me, and she was finally seeing that instead of passing it by. I was actively seeking it out.

The door closed with a soft thud and I watched her until she disappeared inside the house. I tossed my head back against the headrest and squeezed my eyes shut. There was no air and there was no light. I called Race and told him I was taking off and let him know that he was going to have to either convince her to come home for Saturday night or watch her himself. There was no way I could do it and not go to her, not put my hands on her again. Plus I had the fight Nassir set up, and there was no way I could be in two places at once.

Race sounded sleepy but told me he would make sure she was safe, and I had no choice but to believe him. I called Titus, who was even less thrilled with the crack-of-dawn wake-up call than Race had been, and told him he better have something figured out no later than Monday or I was taking matters into my own hands. I was feeling reckless, untethered from everything, and in the very dangerous mood to make some shit go down. He yawned at me and told me to chill out. He said he had some people working on it and he should have an answer for me by Monday. I hung up on him and forced myself to go to the bungalow at the base of the Hill.

I couldn’t stand not knowing why Novak was ambivalent about the tape and had let Race go without as much as a scratch. I hated waiting on the razor’s edge for the other shoe to drop. I wanted to know what Novak was planning, what his next move would be. I wanted to go after him and throw everything on the table and see which one of us came out the victor. I was worried that he was going to get tired of the cat and mouse, of dangling the carrot, and the threat, right in front of my face and make a move before I could strike first. Even with Dovie hidden away and safe with Race, I had to admit I was terrified that Novak would find her before I took him out, and even though I was still pissed at both Race and Titus, I had to admit that I had some serious concerns Novak would go after them just to show me that he could. My baser instincts were screaming for blood and vengeance and they were all I could hear. The noise seemed so much louder than it ever had before, now that I really might have things . . . and people to lose.

The apartment in the city just didn’t feel right when I was there alone. This place didn’t feel right either, but it didn’t make my skin crawl. When I stripped and lay down on the bed Dovie had made the last time she was here, my mind quieted down enough that I managed to fall into a shallow and fitful sleep. My dreams were full of sad green eyes, the endless sight of iron bars and blood, the smell of gasoline, and a hollow ache that felt like it was going to swallow me up. I woke up in the early afternoon covered in sweat and shaking. I had always lived a fairly unpredictable life, never gave much thought about what it would mean for me to see the next day, and now that it was almost a certainty that I wouldn’t see it, I was starting to have regrets.

I regretted my mom was never going to be more than a drunk and never see this house I had bought for her. I regretted ever dragging Race into the darkness. Our friendship had started out based on violence, and it was going to end in violence, and that sucked. I regretted hating my brother for so long. Granted, I was never going to forgive him for arresting me that night, but I could see more clearly now that we were all the products of the choices we made, and for him, putting me in jail was the bad choice, but it was the only one he could make. Titus wasn’t my enemy, but he wasn’t on my side either, because my side was losing, and he saw it.

Then there was Dovie. I should be drowning in regret where she was concerned. I should be beating myself up for ever touching her, for pushing her into giving in to me. I should feel bad for turning her life upside down when I never had any intention of sticking around to help her when everything was over. My soul should be shredding from touching something so pure, so lovely, and knowing I left black smudges all over it. I didn’t feel that way, though. When I thought about her, all I could feel was light. The short time she had been a part of my life had given me room to breathe. She did more to set me free than walking out of those prison gates ever had. If someone as sweet, as careful with herself as Dovie, could see something inside me worth caring about, then there wasn’t only blackness. She was right; I was more than the sum of my parts.

I wished this knowledge could change the path that was already laid out before me. Just like my destiny had always looked like my options were very clear to me—jail because I would kill Novak, or the morgue because Novak was going to kill me. I hated that now there were so many moving parts and so many other lives at stake. But no one was going to get caught in the cross fire if I could help it. This was a showdown that had been brewing for far longer than I think anyone could really understand. I didn’t have a plan, any rhyme or reason to how it should go down. All I knew was that I needed to face off with the bastard and only one of us was going to make it out of the confrontation alive.

I spent the rest of the day hanging around the house. Titus called me twice, both times to tell me things were eerily quiet on the streets and it was making him nervous. I didn’t know what to tell him, so I told him he should go by and see Mom when he got a chance, which made him balk. I had only seen her the one time since I got released, and even with all her problems, she had never disavowed me or sold me out when it would have been so easy for her to do. One of us, Titus or me, needed to let her know we weren’t giving up on her, and since my future was so nebulous and uncertain, it was going to have to be him.

I tried to call Race and ask him what he was going to do about keeping an eye on Dovie that night, but the call went right to voice mail. Too restless to stick around, I did what I did best and drove. I got in the Runner, opened the throttle, and took off. I didn’t have a destination in mind, I just needed the growl of the engine and the feel of all that horsepower vibrating to keep me in check. I was not going to give in to impulse. I drove until I was almost out of gas, until I was lost and my mind was numb. I drove until the sun fell out of the sky and I needed to head back to the city and get to Nassir’s. I called Race again on the way in, but he didn’t answer and cold shards of apprehension slid down my spine.

I called Dovie because, really, she was the one I was ultimately worried about, and felt my heart constrict when her voice came across the line.

“Hello?”

I just breathed out a sigh of relief and hung up on her. She was fine; that was all I needed to keep moving forward.

I parked the car in front of the warehouse and tried to give myself a mental pump-up. I didn’t need the money, no longer needed to feel the smack of bone on bone or feel the sting of fists to the face in order to get my head straight, so there was zero motivation for letting someone pound on me now. I hated that Nassir, in all his oily grandeur, ultimately profited from my rash decision-making process. He was just as bad as Novak when it came to pulling strings and treating people like game pieces. They all needed to go down. The Point needed to be burned and purged so people like Dovie and the kids she was trying so hard to save got a fair shot at making it out. I would burn with it in the end if that’s what it took.

I wound my way down the hallway that led to the open floor of the club. Had I not been so twisted up on the inside, I would have noticed something was off. There were no screaming bettors, no thumping electronic music, no smell of weed and booze, and the heavy desperation and greed that always seemed to perfume the air in the club was missing. By the time I made my way to the old factory floor, it was too late for self-preservation. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I came to a grinding halt in the center of the floor.

The lights were on, so a swirl of neon slashed across Nassir’s face as he grinned at me.

“Fight’s canceled. Something came up.”

I snorted and watched as the man standing next to him grinned at me. When the red neon light cut across the harsh contours of his face, it revealed the fiend that he truly was.

“Nassir told me you were looking for some action. I think you have enough on your plate without looking for a fight, Bax.”

When most people think about a crime boss, a master criminal, a cold-blooded killer, they think of a guy who looked like Benny. A slick suit. Some flashy jewelry to let people know just who they’re dealing with clad in a pair of five-thousand-dollar shoes with blood on the soles. Novak was anything but. He was big—bigger than me. He had wavy black hair that was too long and fell into eyes that were the same hollow and endless black as my own. I had never seen him dressed in anything other than jeans and a T-shirt with boots on. He had the city in a chokehold and he looked like as much of a thug as I did.

I crossed my arms over my chest and forced my breathing to slow and my eyes to go flat. I could taste the need for his blood, for vengeance, burning up my throat. But Novak never made a move without thinking twenty steps ahead, and the fact that he was here and not hiding out, safe in his insulated compound, spoke volumes.

“What do you know about what’s on my plate, Novak?”

He laughed and crossed his arms over his massive chest. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nassir take a few steps back and the same hallway I had just come down was suddenly full of Novak’s guys. Benny led the charge, the smile on his face enough to make my nerves start to shudder under my skin. Whatever was going on wasn’t good.

“Haven’t you figured out by now I know everything, son?”

I balked and felt my hands curl into fists that hurt at my sides. “Don’t.” My voice sounded like it was rattling through a bucket of rusty nails.

“What? This isn’t the family reunion you wanted? I was ready to offer you the entire world, and you spit on it. What kind of ungrateful bastard are you, Bax? Not one of my blood, that’s for sure.”

I tried to breathe through it, tried to get the pressure and the fury to go back in my gut, but they were pushing too hard and too fast to control. Before I could stop it, I lunged at him, ready to get my hands around his throat and never let him go. I was brought up short when Benny suddenly had the barrel of a gun shoved into my side. Novak shook his head and clicked his tongue at me.

“That’s always been your problem. You act without thinking, Bax. Really, it’s too bad. You have it in you to follow in your old man’s footsteps, to be even more ruthless than I ever was. I could have taught you how to be a legend.”

I felt the bile rise up and I reached down to shove Benny back. I wasn’t scared of him or of the gun.

“Be like you, Novak? I would rather die.”

His black eyes squinted at me. “That’s most definitely an option, son.”

“Stop saying that!” I was unhinged. My brain was going to break apart.

“I should’ve taken you from your mom the first time I saw you get behind the wheel of a car. You’ve always been able to make things run harder and faster than anyone else. I could have doubled the size of my empire on your back if you had been willing.”

“Willing to do what? Kill, maim, blackmail, extort, rape . . . I was already a thief, so what was pushing me just a little further, right? You wanted me to be tied to you in a way I could never escape, because blood was never thick enough to do it. I want to fucking kill you, but I won’t.” I let a breath out and felt my lungs deflate. “You can see what it feels like to sit in a cell and watch your life fade from one day to the other. It doesn’t matter what you do to me, Novak, but you, you’re done.”

He laughed and took a step closer to me. I shoved his hand away when he reached out to put it on my shoulder. I grunted when Benny cracked me over the back of the head with the butt of the gun. I felt the skin give and a trickle of blood work its way over my scalp and down into the collar of my shirt.

“The video? Come on, Bax, you know better than that. Do you really think I would have let Race live this entire time if I was scared of that video? Get real. Race is alive because of you, his sister is alive because of you, and your annoying cop brother is alive because of you, Bax. You get your stubbornness from my side of the family tree, but you get your foolish loyalty to those who care about you despite yourself from your drunk of a mother. My blood might not be enough of a motivating factor to keep you where I want you, but theirs is.”

Just then, a man in a patrolman’s uniform came down the hallway. Some of Novak’s muscle moved to the side and Benny walked over and squatted in front of Titus where he was forced to his knees by the hands of the obviously dirty other cop. His blue eyes were blazing as he looked up at the young cop standing behind him. I knew what it felt like to want to kill; I had no idea that my brother, in all his protecting of justice and what was right, was capable of that same kind of rage.

“Officer King, it’s been a long time.” Novak sounded so sure, so cocky about thinking he held all the cards. My jaw clenched shut as Titus’s gaze snapped from his betrayer to the city’s most feared criminal.

“How many dirty cops you got on the payroll, Novak?”

“Enough. How does it feel to be on your knees, in your own handcuffs, in front of me, Titus? Your mother sure knew how to foster illusions of false hope in you boys.”

Titus’s gaze swung to me and I felt my knuckles crack even harder as my fists turned into steel balls at my sides.

“Shut him the fuck up, Shane.”

We both swore as Benny got to his feet and used his knee to crack Titus’s jaw shut. My brother’s head snapped back at the impact and a spray of blood shot out of his mouth. I narrowed my eyes at Benny when he laughed as Titus groaned and let his head roll loosely on his shoulders.

“When I’m done with you, I’m going to make you wish the only bone I broke was your nose, asshole.” I made sure Benny knew it was a promise and not a threat.

Benny snickered and shoved Titus over onto his side with his foot.

“You always had a big head. You’re nothing special, Bax. If you weren’t his blood, you would’ve died in the joint just like every other worthless thief we’ve put there over the years. You always got a free pass and you should appreciate it.”

I cut a nasty look at Novak and motioned to Titus. “What’s that supposed to prove? He locked me up, let me rot for five years, just like you did. I owe him even less than I owe you. You think you’re going to drag him in here, threaten him, and I’m going to roll over and play nice? You don’t own me, Novak, and you never will. Kill him, I don’t give a shit.”

It was a lie, a bald-faced lie, but I refused to give Novak the upper hand. Blood was going to paint the Point in rivers of red, and as long as Novak was one of the ones bleeding at the end of the night, I didn’t—couldn’t—care about anything else.

Novak shook his head and moved around me so he was standing in front of Titus.

“You thought you had me, cop. Just like Race thought he had me five years ago. A legend doesn’t die that easy.”

Titus worked himself up into a sitting position and spit out a mouthful of blood.

“Good thing you’re just a man, then.”

“I am the man who runs this town. I’ve known what you had cooking up since the second Bax got out of prison. Race is a smart kid, but he’s just a kid and he doesn’t have what it takes to see things through to the end. Not like he does.” Novak hooked a thumb over his shoulder and I growled. I didn’t want this man’s admiration or praise in any way.

“So what now? You threaten Titus, you gloat that you knew about the video all along, you shoot us both? What’s the plan? Because only one of us is leaving this building still breathing.”

He laughed. “So arrogant. So sure of yourself. It’s a shame you had to waste all that passion behind bars for so long. It gave you too much time to think, broke down some of that armor living the life had built up around you.”

He lifted a hand and Nassir came around the side of the bar dragging a very unhappy, struggling redhead with him. I couldn’t look her in the eyes. This was the very thing I had been trying so hard to avoid.

“They shot Gus and Race.” Her voice broke, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her settle down and sort of just fold in on herself. “They hurt him so badly, Bax. I don’t think he was breathing.”

Nassir shoved her in Novak’s direction and I couldn’t stop myself from cringing when he grabbed her by her throat and shook her. I heard Benny laugh and it took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to murder him with my bare hands. He put his arm around my shoulders like we were pals and I went stiff. I finally clapped my gaze on Dovie’s and something inside me shattered into a million pieces that were sharp enough to make all of us bleed.

“She’s a fiery one. I can see why you like her so much.” Benny’s words landed heavy on the cement surrounding us and I could hear Dovie’s panicked breathing and my brother swearing and struggling, but I never took my eyes off of Novak.

He pulled a knife out of one of his pockets and the blade snicked out with a hiss that made fury boil so hot under my skin, I was surprised I wasn’t melting into the barren ground under my boots. Dovie’s green eyes widened a fraction and flicked from me to the blade. I wanted to scream at her that this is what my life looked like. This is what had ultimately been waiting around the bend for me, and for her, by association, because beyond all odds I cared for her . . . so much. I could see that knowledge and the power it gave him glowing out of the soulless pits of Novak’s eyes. If there ever was such a thing as bad blood, I was full to the brim with it because of this man . . . my father.

“What are you willing to do for the sister, Bax? You went to jail for the brother, defied me, walked away from all I had to offer you. Something tells me you would give anything for her to be safe.”

As long as I lived, as long as Dovie and even Race drew breath, Novak knew he would have a way to control me, a way to make me do whatever he wanted. Like a bolt of lightning from the sky, I realized the only way to take the power out of his hands was to eliminate what he desired. He was right that I would do anything to keep her safe, and there was only one option and for once it didn’t feel like making the hard choice at all.

I wasn’t a guy that could typically not see the forest for the trees, and right now all that glorious, gleaming green was all I could focus on. It was clear what had to happen. I either watched Novak torture and mutilate the one person in this world that had offered me love, kindness, and a second chance at being a redeemable human being . . . I either gave him the satisfaction of watching me suffer as he killed the only person I was ever going to love . . . or I took his power away. Men like Novak didn’t know what to do when they were stripped of control and I was hoping that was just enough to let Dovie get away from him. Novak’s obsession with having me under his thumb crossed over the border into insanity, and if I took that step, took away the one thing he wanted so desperately, I felt like it might just throw him off his game enough to buy my brother and my girl some time.

Sure, there was a good chance Dovie would end up dead after I destroyed the one thing Novak wanted more than power. But I told myself there was also a chance Titus could pull a trick rabbit out of his hat and get both himself and Dovie to safety. Either way, if I made the ultimate sacrifice, took away the prize that Novak was playing with such fragile and tender lives to win, I wouldn’t be around to see those I cared about fall at his hands, and that was a victory in itself. Not to mention I got to firmly fuck up his “own-Bax-forever plan” while doing it. I looked sideways at Benny, who was practically licking his lips in gory anticipation. I jerked my attention back to Novak when Dovie suddenly screeched in earsplitting pain. The razor-sharp edge of the gleaming knife looked so wrong against the pale expanse of her chest. The ruby-red trickle of blood that followed its journey made time stand still. I was not a man who believed in self-sacrifice, believed in the greater good, but for this young woman, for this good-hearted, strong, beautiful girl, I would give up everything. And I would make the world a better place in doing it. Even in a place like the Point, there could be too much bad, and with me out of the picture maybe that would level the playing field a little for the good people down in the trenches. People like Titus and Dovie. It wouldn’t be a sacrifice, it would be a courtesy.

I reached up and grabbed the arm Benny had tossed across my shoulders and pulled until I felt his elbow pop. Idiot. When he was screaming at me, I punched him as hard as I could in the kidneys and rammed my knee up hard under his chin, making his teeth snap together and blood start pouring out of his mouth. We struggled until I could get my hands on the gun he was gripping in his opposite hand. Novak was yelling, Dovie was crying, Titus was screaming at me to knock it off, and I knew there were no less than six or seven weapons pointed at me by the time I stood back upright. For good measure, while Benny was groaning and rolling around on the ground at my feet, I kicked him as hard as I could in the ribs.

Dovie was crying and scared, and I was going to make Novak pay for all of it. He narrowed his eyes at me and I watched as that fucking knife trailed the opposite path up the other side of her chest, making more blood and more rage.

“What are you going to do, son? I got your girl. I got your brother. I got Race and Gus. What moves do you think you have left? You think you can get a shot off before one of my guys shoots you where you stand?”

Dovie was crying so hard, the tracks of her tears were leaving trails through the blood that was now soaking the entire front of her chest. I wasn’t sure she could see me clearly, but I knew she heard me when I whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

“Shane . . .” Her tone was broken and lost.

“Bax!” My brother, on the other hand, sounded furious and apparently understood me and my motivations way better than I ever thought he did. “Stop!”

I met my own dark eyes as I stared right at my father, right at the future that could have been mine if I had just been a little worse. I lifted the end of the gun I was holding loosely in my hand until it was resting snuggly under my chin. This was the only way out for a guy like me. You didn’t come from bad blood, live a bad life, do bad things, and get to go out as a hero. No guys like me went out making the last bad choice one could ever make and hoping those you left behind were somehow good enough to get out of the mess you left behind.

“What the fuck!” Novak sounded pissed, and Titus sounded like he was trying to take the entire bad-guy army on by himself.

“You want me so bad that no one is safe while I’m still around. Shooting you doesn’t make anything better for anyone, but this . . . this solves a lot of problems. Everyone is safe and eventually Titus will throw your ass in jail, old man. This means I win and you fucking lose.”

Novak narrowed his eyes and I kicked a groaning Benny once more for good measure.

“You won’t do it.”

I lifted an eyebrow and tried to ignore the way Dovie was screaming at me and struggling in Novak’s hold. She was bleeding everywhere and my brother’s voice cracked from the way he was yelling at me.

“For her, I will.”

Novak swore and looked at me and then down at Dovie. I don’t know what his next move was going to be, but the gun felt solid and real in my hand, and if that was what it was going to take to make sure she got the life she deserved, a good life, a chance to get away from this madness, then I would pull the trigger.

“Something is different about her, Novak.” Nassir was an asshole and I was going to make him bleed for bringing her here, but he had Novak pausing. “He’s not bluffing. He’ll pull the trigger for her.”

“No, no, no, no . . . Shane, no, please stop!”

That’s why I thought I was sure I could love her, could die for her. Even when things were the worst they could get, she was worried about me and not what this nightmare ultimately looked like for her.

“Please . . . you can’t do this to me.” She sounded so sad, so scared, but I knew an apology wasn’t going to cut it this time.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and cast a quick look over at my brother. He was on his knees, bleeding from all over his head and one eye was swollen shut, but he was still struggling with the two huge guys holding on to each of his arms. His eyes were locked on mine and I’m pretty sure he had tears mixing with the blood on his face—just like Dovie did.

“This is a mistake you can’t unmake, Shane.” I could barely hear him. I think he broke his voice screaming at me.

“It’s the only way out, for all of us. He’ll never stop. He’ll hurt anyone and everyone he can if he thinks it’ll get me to come to heel.”

“We won’t let him. I won’t let him.”

“Too late, Titus. Look at her. You think he let Race live, or Gus? You think that even if I agree to be put on his leash from here until eternity that he’ll let you and Dovie go? He’ll kill everyone that matters to me and make me watch. That blood will be on my hands forever. No, this ends here and now. He wants to break my world apart . . . well, I’m about to shatter his legacy into a million bloody pieces. He can have my blood on his hands forever.” I understood it now. I was Novak’s end game. I was where everything started and ended for him. Yanking me around, playing games with me . . . it was the only thing that brought him any kind of pleasure, and with me gone, with my life over, the game would end. Dovie, Titus, Race, and even my mom . . . they would cease to have any kind of value to Novak if I was no longer part of the equation.

I saw Novak shove Dovie away. She careened sideways and landed in a heap on her side next to where Nassir was standing. I wanted to rip his arms out of the sockets when he reached down to help her to her feet, but Novak was prowling toward me, that knife covered in Dovie’s blood flashing in his hand.

I took a deep breath, remembered the way her eyes flashed at me, the way she felt so new and so wholly mine, and flexed my finger on the trigger. Novak reached for me, Dovie screamed my name so loud I was sure I heard the sound of windows breaking, and just as I prepared to do the only thing I could think of to fix this situation forever, I was plowed into from the side like I’d gotten hit with a freight train. The gun in my hand went spiraling out across the naked concrete floor as I groaned and rolled over to look into the wild eyes of my older brother. He was dripping blood all over my face and I couldn’t even complain when he drew back his fist and punched me square in the mouth. There wasn’t a lot of force behind it, and just as I was about to ask what the hell was going on and how in the hell he had freed himself from his captors, a single gunshot echoed throughout the cavernous warehouse.

The acrid scent of gunpowder burned my nose as I rolled over at the same time Titus did. Both of us watched with frozen eyes as a bloom of wet, sticky blood spread steadily across the center of Novak’s shirt. He lifted shaking fingers to the wound and gave me one last look before slumping to the ground in an undignified heap.

Before anyone could react, there was suddenly a bright light filling up the room and the sound of more breaking glass.

“Nobody move! FBI!” I jumped to my feet before Titus could say anything and tackled Dovie to the ground much in the same way that he had done to me. I was immediately covered in her blood and could feel her shaking violently against my chest. I had to use all my strength to pry the hot metal of the gun out of her fingers. As soon as I did, she curled them in the material of my shirt. I looked over her head at Nassir, who had dropped on his knees next to us, with his hands behind his head, at the order of the black-clad SWAT team that was suddenly swarming all over the building. I narrowed my eyes at him in warning and he just gave his head a shake.

“You and the girl, on your knees. Hands behind your head,” the fed barked in a no-nonsense tone.

“She’s hurt.”

“Bax . . .” Her voice quivered as I rolled off of her. I put the gun on the ground at the fed’s feet and looked at her. I kissed her hard and then laced my fingers behind my head and assumed the position I was all too familiar with.

“I shot him,” I said to the fed.

“You shot Novak?” he replied.

I grunted when Dovie opened her mouth to argue, but she was bleeding badly enough that the cop inclined his head to the paramedics that were rolling in a stretcher.

“Forget him. He’s DOA. She needs some attention. Why did you shoot Novak?”

I felt the corner of my lip curl up in a sneer as I saw Titus making his way over to where I was. He looked at the gun, then up at me, and then over to where they were strapping Dovie to the stretcher, and shook his head.

“It was a family disagreement.”

The fed opened his mouth to say something, but Titus interrupted. “That’s my brother.”

“The one with the record? He just admitted to shooting Novak.”

Titus shook his head again. He looked like he was about to pass out. “Come on, Kruger. It was like ten on one. Clearly it was self-defense. Novak was a piece of shit.”

“Look, King. You brought us the op and agreed to hand it over to us. We don’t have people in Novak’s pocket. We’ll do a full investigation and see where the chips fall.”

Titus ran a hard hand over his hair and looked down at me. I just shrugged. If I had to go back to prison to keep Dovie safe, so be it. She was worth it and that was a light consequence compared to the single other solution I had come up with. I didn’t care if I never saw the light of day again as long as she got to live the life she was supposed to.

“Novak was torturing Bax’s girlfriend, his goons were beating the shit out of me. They probably killed his best friend. Can you blame him for pulling the fucking trigger?”

“Look, King, this is a goddamn mess. We got a dead body, kidnapping, dirty cops, coercion, money laundering, assault, attempted murder, and every other crime that can be committed. We need time to weed through it all or else some other slimeball will be right back in Novak’s place tomorrow.”

I heard Nassir snort and I was tempted to reach for the gun. Another fed dressed in full SWAT gear got behind me and roughly pulled my hands behind my back. I felt the handcuffs, cold and so final, snap over the chains I already had inked there.

Titus swore. “I’m sorry, Bax.”

“It’s cool. A heads-up that you actually had a plan would have been nice to know, though.”

“The feds took forever to get back to me. I knew there was a dirty cop working the inside, I just didn’t know who it was. I don’t know how they found Dovie and Race. I figured they were going to grab me and bring me in. I swear I didn’t know he had your girl.”

I was roughly yanked to my feet and Titus reached out a hand to steady me as I wobbled a little.

“I’ll get you out as soon as I can.”

I lowered my eyebrows at him as cops and feds rounded up all of Novak’s thugs. I almost laughed when they put the cuffs on Benny, who was screaming about suing the government.

“I don’t care about me. Make sure Dovie keeps her mouth shut and keep an eye on her. If Race didn’t make it . . .” I trailed off as I was hauled away from my brother.

“Shane—”

I interrupted him. “I mean it, Titus. You keep her as far away from me, as far from this, as possible.”

He didn’t get a chance to respond because I got pulled in the opposite direction. Once I was outside, the night was alive with people and commotion and red and blue lights swirling all around. I let the cop drag me to an unmarked car and waited while he yanked the back door open. I looked over the roof of the car just in time to see the paramedics open the back of the ambulance. Dovie was still on the stretcher, and some force that ultimately tied us together made those moss-colored eyes flash open and lock on mine.

There was no getting around the fact I was hooked up in cuffs and getting arrested. I saw the panic overtake her, saw her start to struggle, but she was already weak from loss of blood. I really wished I had been the one to pull the trigger. She said my name and I’m pretty sure she mouthed “I love you.” All I could do was watch as they loaded her into the ambulance and shut the doors. All those sharp, pointy pieces that were loose inside me finally formed one razor-sharp blade and dug right into the center of my heart. I would do it all over again. Offer my own life, give up my freedom for her. There was no other way to repay her for finally setting me free, free from everything, even if I spent the next twenty years behind bars.

CHAPTER 16

Dovie

I SAW THE COP behind Bax put a hand on top of his head and shove him into the back of the car. Even though I was bleeding and hysterical, I still saw Bax grin at me before the ambulance doors closed and I had a paramedic hanging over me. I was crying and trying to shake my head. I was mumbling a mix of “I love you” and “I’m the one who did it,” but it all sounded like gibberish. The next thing I knew there was a prick at the bend in my arm and an IV was inserted. Whatever was mixed in the clear bag dangling over my head made my already fuzzy mind weave in and out of consciousness. One thing that was still startlingly clear behind the haze and murky gray was that Bax had been willing to end his own life to try and set the rest of us free. And now he was back in handcuffs because of me. Be he good or bad, Bax couldn’t seem to keep his infuriating self out of trouble.

I couldn’t believe it had been twenty-four hours since he’d dropped me back off at the group home. After Bax left, I had spent an uneasy night with Reeve’s judgment and disapproval hanging over me. I got that she didn’t think Bax was a good choice, but if it was the last I got of him, then I wasn’t going to let anyone taint it. Sure enough, the next morning, I was summarily suspended from the group home by my supervisor for leaving my post the night before. I wasn’t sure whether suspended translated to fired or not, and I felt really bad about leaving the kids high and dry for a few stolen moments with a man who was like trying to hold on to smoke, but I refused to regret any of the decisions I had made where Bax was concerned.

Reeve had tried to explain why she had done it for my own good, but I didn’t want to hear it. I’d tried to call Race to come and get me, but he never answered. I’d been tempted to call Bax, but things with him were so intense, so precarious, I didn’t want to wind the spring up even tighter. In the end, I’d decided taking the bus would just have to suffice. Only I’d forgotten the world was out to teach me every hard lesson I hadn’t already learned.

I hadn’t even made it to the bus stop before a black SUV was screeching to a halt next to me on the sidewalk. My instinct was to run, to flee, but there was nowhere to go. If Novak wanted me, he was going to get me and I might as well make it as easy on myself as possible. I wasn’t stupid. He wanted me so he could get to Bax or Race. He wouldn’t do anything to me until he had either of them, or both of them, where he wanted them.

I looked at the two thugs, noticed one had cracked-open knuckles and a split lip. I twisted my hands together and forced myself to swallow the bile that rose up in my throat.

“Is that Bax’s blood?”

The thug looked at his hands and then looked back up at me with a smirk. “No. That bastard bleeds black. Think closer to home.”

Which had made me gag and had tears filling my eyes. I couldn’t think about Race hurt, maybe dying all alone.

“Is he still alive?” My voice was the barest of whispers, which had made both the thugs grin.

“He might be. The old man, not so much.”

I just closed my eyes and tried to think of a way that any of this could end without people I loved dying. I didn’t see any way for that to happen.

The rest of the ride after they had pulled me into the SUV had been silent. I could smell fear and anxiety pouring off of me, could feel silent tears running down my face, and when the SUV stopped and Nassir appeared to pull me out of the backseat, I was such a mess I couldn’t stand on my own two feet. He had to yank me up and he gave me a hard look.

“This is why they say love kills, honey. You need to pick your boyfriends more carefully.”

I had just looked at him numbly and blinked eyelashes that were sticky with moisture. “He’ll kill you.”

Nassir had sighed and started to drag me through the empty club. I could hear the echo of voices, could hear Bax’s low and so very angry tone. I was scared, but something inside of me knew that as long as he was still alive, Bax would do everything in his power to try and get us out of this as unscathed as he could.

“He’ll kill everyone. You have no idea who you are actually dealing with, little girl.”

The rest of it had happened in slow motion. I was handed off to Novak, a living, breathing carbon copy of the troubled young man I was in love with. Even if I hadn’t heard him call Bax “son,” I would have known. They had the same hulking build, the same bottomless black eyes, and even though he was a couple decades younger, Bax had the innate aura of a man you did not want to mess with, just like his father. It was shocking, but not nearly as much as the sight of Titus, beaten and held in the circle of bad guys. There were no heroes left to come riding to the rescue, and the bad guys most definitely had the upper hand.

When Novak grabbed me around the throat, it had taken everything I had not to panic. I couldn’t stop crying and I’m sure I said Bax’s name over and over again. It was the only prayer I could think of at the time.

The knife hurt when it had cut me open. The sting sharp and real. I had to scream, even though I knew Novak did it solely to get a reaction out of Bax. I wanted to be stoic and strong, but the blood was warm and heavy and the coppery scent was making me dizzy. When the blade had moved to the opposite side of my chest, I thought I was going to pass out. Bax was starting to fade in and out of my vision, and whatever was being said around me was just ghosts of words that meant nothing. Being held by Novak, watching my blood roll over his fingers, I suddenly understood there was a difference between bad and evil.

Everything stopped, the room went still, and all I could hear was Titus screaming his brother’s name. I would never, not ever, be able to forget the sight of Bax with that gun pointed up under his chin. It was crazy and desperate, just like him. He was looking at me, asking me to understand why he had to do it, while I begged and pleaded with him to stop. I would never be able to go on if he forced me to watch him die by his own hand. It was a raw, brutal kind of violence that would literally destroy me.

I heard Nassir swear and say something about Bax being an overly dramatic fool, and the next thing I knew, he was pulling me away from Novak by my wrist as a shower of glass from the industrial skylights above us came showering down. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but Titus had gotten free and tackled Bax to the ground, sending the gun flying in the direction Nassir had herded me.

The ugly black pistol that had been poised to end the life of the man I loved stopped just inches from the toe of my sneaker and I just stared at it. I had so much blood leaking out of me I wasn’t sure I could stay conscious much longer, but now I had enough strength left, enough anger and disgust at all this man had put me and those I loved through, that I had pulled away from Nassir and bent to pick it up.

I heard the handsome criminal tell me no, tell me to let the feds handle it, but I saw Novak moving toward Bax and Titus, thought of my brother possibly dead, and felt my own life force steadily pouring out of me. I pulled the trigger. I didn’t aim, didn’t care where the bullet hit, I just wanted to make him stop.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground, surrounded by Bax’s heat, and he was kissing my stunned mouth. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, that I wasn’t scared of going to jail for him like he had done for Race, but he wouldn’t let me talk or argue when he pulled the gun out of my frozen hands. We were pulled apart by men dressed in scary black tactical gear. Bax laced his fingers together and put them behind his head. It made me shiver how familiar with the routine he was.

I was struggling to make my lethargic limbs respond when I heard him tell the fed, “I shot Novak.”

I wanted to argue, to tell them that it was me, but the next thing I knew I was being lifted and strapped to a stretcher and a paramedic was asking my blood type and talking about stitches and plastic surgery. I couldn’t follow. I wanted Bax. I tried to keep my eyes on him, but he was getting handcuffs snapped on and I was getting rolled out into the night. It wasn’t until he gave me that grin, that small twitch of his lips letting me know he would go back to prison, would sacrifice his life in another way for me, that I got hysterical.

I was sure the paramedic sedated me because when I finally woke up, finally shook the fuzz out from between my ears, I was in a hospital, my chest was bandaged up like a mummy, and I had tubes and wires sticking out from me all over the place. I didn’t know what time it was, or how much time had passed, but I knew I needed to find out about Race and talk to someone about Bax. I wasn’t going to let him go back to jail for something he didn’t do.

I tried to lift a hand to touch my chest, but a gruff voice from somewhere off to my right made me stop. Not to mention, the slightest movement made my upper body feel like it was ripping apart at the seams.

“I wouldn’t do that. You have more needlework on you right now than a quilt.”

I shifted my eyes and squinted until Bax’s older brother came into focus. He looked terrible. His face was a mess, twin black eyes, a swollen lip, and it looked like he had his own set of stitches running across one of his cheeks and near one of his ears. Beyond that, he looked tired, and if the dark scruff shadowing his face was any indication, he hadn’t been home in a while.

“How’s Race? Where’s Bax? How long have I been in here?” I had a million questions and they were all tumbling out in a slurred rush.

Titus groaned and climbed slowly to his feet. He was cradling his ribs as he walked to my bedside.

“You lost a lot of blood . . . a lot. You needed a transfusion, but on the way here in the ambulance, you went into shock. You almost didn’t make it.”

I gasped and looked down at my tightly bandaged chest. I knew it had hurt, that the knife felt like it was cutting into the very heart of me, but I couldn’t believe I had almost died.

“Race took a pretty bad beating. He’s got a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder and they were worried about internal bleeding because of the severity of his injuries, but all in all, he’s actually in better shape than you at the moment. He was discharged this morning while you were still out of it. He was taken to a safe house by the feds, but now that you’re awake, I’m sure he’ll be here in a flash. He was really hard to handle when he heard how bad your condition was.”

I was so relieved that Race was okay I started to breathe a little bit easier, until Titus kept talking.

“Gus didn’t make it. They shot him in the gut and left him to bleed out. I’m sure it was Novak’s way of paying him back for double-crossing him, for letting Race hide out right under his nose this entire time.”

I gulped. I didn’t really know the old mechanic that well, but he was important to Bax and he had gone out of his way to keep my brother safe and offer us shelter in the storm. It wasn’t right. I cleared my throat a little and asked Titus to hand me a glass of water.

“I’m a little out of it, but not so much that I can’t tell you are avoiding telling me where Bax is.” If he had been willing to die for me, shouldn’t he be here when I narrowly escaped death myself?

Titus’s hands curled around the rails of the hospital bed, and even under the black and blue coloring his handsome face, I could see the ghastly white of his pallor.

“Listen, Dovie.” He sighed heavily and peered at me intently out of his swollen eyes. “You can’t say anything about what happened to Novak.”

“What? No way. I’m not letting Bax go back to jail for something he didn’t do.”

Titus swore under his breath. “You don’t have a choice. I knew Novak was going to have his guy on the inside grab me. I knew there were dirty cops in on all his action. I called the feds the day Bax handed me the flash drive. Getting Nassir to agree to help was a little trickier because that guy doesn’t do anything for free. I had him set up the fight, knew Bax would show, knew Novak would grab me and take me in, but I have no clue how he found you or Race. The feds have a good case against most of Novak’s crew, including the abduction of you. You can’t start telling people you shot Novak in the back. It would ruin everything and Bax would come unglued. Do you understand me?”

I tried to shake my head, but it hurt so bad, I had to squeeze my eyes closed and concentrate on breathing.

“There was a room full of people. Everyone saw me shoot him. Bax gave up so much for my family, for me, already. He can’t go back to prison.” I didn’t feel like I could make it without him.

Titus sighed again and let his head fall forward. “I’m not going to let him go back, but right now he’s an ex-con caught up in a seriously tangled federal investigation. If you try and get involved, try and sacrifice yourself for him . . . Jesus, Dovie, can you imagine the kind of self-destructive shit he’ll pull to keep you out of trouble? He’s in love with you, he was going to kill himself so you would be safe. Do you really think he’s going to stand by and watch you sit in a cell while the feds try and figure out who is to blame? Fuck no.”

I let my head fall to the side and felt my heart thud in my chest. “He’s locked up?”

“For now. He’s in a federal holding facility while the feds decide who is who and what charges to level at all the players. They need you and Race to testify, and chances are they’ll cut a deal with Bax in exchange for his testimony as well.”

“I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted him to stop.” My voice was so soft, I wasn’t sure I actually spoke the words aloud.

“I don’t care what you meant or didn’t mean. I’m glad the bastard is gone. It’s the only way Bax has any kind of shot at living a seminormal life.”

“He never even told me Novak was his father.”

“Because he hated it. When he was a little kid, Novak spent a lot of time denying Bax was his. He called my mom a whore, pretty much ruined her. She was never great, but I think that made her hit the bottle even harder. When Bax got a little older, started getting in trouble, started boosting cars like it was effortless, all of a sudden Novak sees the heir apparent to his criminal kingdom. At first Bax thought it was cool. Guys like Benny handing him wads of cash and having anything and everything handed to him was addicting. It wasn’t until he got popped a couple of times and Novak kept pushing him to go harder, make bigger deals, take more risks, that Bax realized what he was doing. Novak never wanted to claim him as his son, but he sure as shit wanted to mold him into a carbon copy of himself. Novak hated that he could never fully control him. Honestly, Bax’s stubborn, go-to-hell attitude is the only thing that kept him free of Novak’s grasp, plus I think that’s why Novak wanted him so bad. Novak couldn’t handle his own kid’s defiance.”

We stared at each other for a long, tense moment. I flinched automatically when he reached out and brushed a knuckle across the pristine white bandage that was covering my entire chest.

“He talks about sometimes having to make the hard choice. I know you don’t want to let him sit behind bars for something he didn’t do, but if you care about him, if you love him like I think you do, then that’s what you’re going to have to do. Right now I’m ninety percent sure I’ll have him out in a week or so. If you go storming in and throw yourself on the pyre, he’ll do something stupid to try and save you, and we’ll never see him again.”

I gulped and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to believe what he was saying, but I could hear the logic and truth behind his words. Whatever issue Bax had with him, Titus really did have his younger brother’s interest at heart.

“Can I go see him when I get out of here?”

A bitter laugh broke out, and even behind his battered eyes I could see frustration and sadness.

“He won’t even see me. He’s locked up, back in jail; that’s the last place on earth he’s going to want you to see him. You’re just going to have to be patient, Dovie. Let this play out.”

I would have nodded in agreement, but letting Bax control the way it played out meant giving him the option of walking away from me. I knew it. He didn’t want me to see it—the violence, the vengeance, the vitriol, the vileness that worked in his life—but now I was going to have a giant V stitched across my chest to remind me of it every day anyway. I was just going to have to show him that that the V also represented victory, value, vividness, vitality, and maybe even virtue, which he would never believe. I was in love with him, both sides of him, and I wasn’t going to let him go.

“I won’t do anything stupid, but you better get him out, Titus.”

“I will. I promise.”

He told me good-bye and swore he would stay in touch. He also told me there was a federal agent posted outside the door, so if anyone else was planning on trying to kill me in the next day or so, it would be slightly more difficult. I think normally I would have appreciated his dry humor, but I was tired and I was sad and the only person who could make me feel better was so far out of reach that it made it impossible for me to think things were finally on the upswing.

I passed out as Titus was closing the door and didn’t wake back up until a nurse came in to check me over. She ran down a mile-long list of do’s and don’ts with the wounds on my chest. Apparently they were far worse than just a superficial cut on the surface. I had over a hundred stitches holding me together, and underneath the gauze and bandage, it wasn’t very pretty. Again she mentioned I was going to have to look into plastic surgery and I wanted to laugh and tell her I was from the Point, we didn’t do things like plastic surgery. We wore our battle scars loud and proud and showed the rest of the world they could try and take us down but we survived anyway. I wasn’t sure if it was the painkillers working through me or not, but I also thought a badass scar made it more understandable how a boy with a star tattooed on his face could love me back.

She told me I had a visitor waiting to see me. I assumed it was just Race checking up on me, so I told her to send them on in. She nodded and mentioned that the guard at the door would have to approve them coming in first, which I thought was odd since my brother was supposed to be under protective custody as well. I asked her to find me some food and she laughed and told me she would see what she could do about getting me fed.

I heard muted voices outside the door and rolled my head on the pillow when the door creaked open. I was stiff all over, and now that I was more awake and aware, I could feel the tightness pulling across my skin and the individual burn of the threads holding me together. I groaned and tried to get more comfortable. I balked in surprise when I saw that it was Reeve who came to stand by my bedside.

“What are you doing here?”

She wouldn’t look at me directly, but she reached behind me to adjust the pillows I was lying on until I found a more comfortable position to relax in. She was twisting her hands together, and even though I was still slightly doped up, I could tell she was out of sorts . . . distracted and fidgety.

“Reeve, why are you here?”

“You know how I know guys like Bax are bad news, how I know they can destroy your life without thinking?”

I scowled. “You don’t know anything about the kind of man Bax is. You have no idea what he was willing to do to keep me safe.”

If she was just here to try and talk me out of being with him again, I was going to find my way out of this hospital bed and smack her.

“My sister.” Her voice cracked and she had to take a second to clear her throat. “She’s a couple years younger than me. She was a straight-A student, class president, the apple of my parents’ eye. We were best friends.”

I couldn’t figure out what she was getting at, but I didn’t have anything else to do but let her tell me her story.

“Her senior year of high school she met this guy . . . a guy a lot like Bax. Good-looking, charming, and messed up in all kinds of really bad and dangerous things. He just overwhelmed her. It took a month for her to start skipping school, three for her to start ignoring me and start constantly fighting with my parents, and then six months in, she was doing drugs and stealing. By seven, she had dropped out of school, was working as a stripper, and I didn’t even recognize her anymore.”

She was crying silent tears and her hands were curled into fists at her sides. “He left her when she refused to start turning tricks for him, but he didn’t just dump her, he beat her to death. She died strung out and alone because of him.” She gulped loudly and stared intently at me. “The reason she didn’t want to prostitute herself out was because she was pregnant. He killed her and her baby because she wouldn’t fuck strangers for money. She was only eighteen.”

I felt bad for this girl. It was a heartbreaking story, but Bax wasn’t like that. “I’m sorry for your loss, Reeve, but what does that have to do with me or with Bax?”

She shook her head a little and her eyes got really big in her face. “You’re so nice, you have such a big heart. I couldn’t stand the idea of him doing to you what happened to Rissa . . .” She trailed off and turned her head to look out the window. “I was mad when Rissa died. I think I went a little crazy. The guy that screwed her up, he was evil, and the only way to fight evil is with evil. If you ask enough people in the Point, they eventually tell you about Novak.”

I felt my heart start to drop and my breath go still in my lungs.

“Look at me, Reeve.”

Her midnight-blue eyes clapped on mine, and even though they were shiny with tears, I knew, just knew in the bottom of my gut, that she had something to do with Novak’s goons pulling me off the street.

“I’m not asking you to forgive me. I just wanted to explain. Novak took care of the guy that destroyed Rissa, but he always asks for a price. For a long time he never came calling, never bugged me about money or working it off. I thought I was just lucky. Rissa’s killer was dead, a victim of his own horrible lifestyle, and I would work myself to death to help those in need so I could pay the world back for being vengeful and wanting blood.

“Benny showed up at the group home the first day Bax dropped you off. He spun this big story about what Bax was doing to you, how he was using you to get revenge on Race. The time to pay Novak back had come. They wanted to know when you were going to be alone and if I knew where you were staying, because they knew you weren’t with Bax anymore. I got you suspended. I called the home administrator and told her you took off with Bax. I told them you would be walking to the bus stop alone and that you mentioned someone named Gus. I don’t think you were even aware you let the name slip, but it was all they needed. I tried to tell myself I was helping, that anything that got you away from that guy was for your own good . . . but I knew. Inside I knew they would use you, kill you, and I gave them the info anyway.”

I should want to string her up, want blood for blood, and who knows? Maybe if things had gone differently and Bax had pulled the trigger, I would indeed want all of that, but right now, all I could feel was pity. Reeve had wanted an evil man dead that had hurt someone she loved, and I had made an evil man die because he was going to continue to hurt and torture those I loved. We just stared at each other, I don’t know if she really wanted redemption or some kind of validation from me, but she wasn’t going to get it.

“My brother almost died because they found him. A very nice, decent man didn’t make it because you handed over that location. I’ll heal from the knife wounds, they hurt but not nearly as much as watching the man I’m in love with hold a gun to his own head because he was that desperate to get me out of that warehouse alive. I understand what happens when you make a deal with the devil, Reeve, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you don’t deserve your time in hell for paying him back.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it again. She blinked back the last of her tears and her mouth twisted up in a sardonic grin.

“I quit the group home. I’m going to the cops to tell them what I’ve done. I don’t know what that means for me, but it’s the right thing. I got so lost in what I was doing, in revenge and hate, I don’t even know who I am anymore, and that’s exactly what I was trying to prevent from happening to you. Only you seem more like yourself than you ever have before.”

“Having all kinds of people trying to kill you can really be eye-opening, and Bax . . . well, let’s just say he makes me understand that there is who we want to be and who we ultimately have to be in order to make it in this life. Finding the right blend of those two parts of ourselves is really the only thing we can strive for. When you go to the cops, you might want to avoid a detective named Titus King. He’s Bax’s brother, and if he knows you gave away my location, it might not go so hot for you.”

“I’m so sorry, Dovie. I know I screwed up and I hate that someone as honestly wonderful as you had to pay for it.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “I can pay my dues as long as the reward is worth it in the end.”

Her smile went from sardonic to sad. “You think your reward is Bax?”

“I think my reward is happiness, and I can’t be happy without him, so my reward is living in a place where that happens.”

“It’s never going to be easy. Giving everything you have to someone like him . . . he could end you.”

I would have shrugged, but by now the pain meds were wearing off, I was starving, and moving anything but my eyes and my mouth caused bolts of agony to run under the entire length of my skin.

“Some boys . . . they are just better when they’re bad. Bax is one of them and I’m starting to think my brother might be one of them, too. I just have to be good enough for all of us to balance it out.”

She laughed a little and I saw genuine remorse on her beautiful face. “If anyone can be that good, it’s you. I wish you the best of luck, Dovie. I really do.”

“You too, Reeve.”

I should’ve probably warned her that once Bax was out of jail, once he knew she was the reason Novak’s creeps had known where to grab me, she might want to keep an eye out. I could look past it, but something told me he would be much slower to forgive.

The nurse came back in and offered me some Jell-O and the blandest broth I had ever tasted. I was tired again, but the fed at the door mentioned Race was coming in with his own protection detail, so I forced myself to stay awake.

When he finally showed up, it took everything I had not to burst into sobs at the sight of him. He looked like he had been run over by a truck, and the worry and concern in his moss-colored gaze had to reflect the emotion in my own.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” His deep voice sounded like rocks rolling down the side of a cliff.

“You too. You look about as good as I feel.”

He limped over to the side of my bed and gingerly picked up my hand. He turned it over and put his fingers on my pulse. It was a little thready and weak, but it was there.

“You almost died, Dove. I’ve never been so scared of anything in my life.”

I curled my fingers around his and gave them a gentle squeeze. “I’m okay.”

“And Novak is no more. I wish I had been there to see the look on his face when Bax pulled the trigger.”

I opened my mouth to explain, to try and lay out what really happened, but Titus’s voice rattled around in my head. The hard choice felt an awful lot like lying.

“Did you know Novak was Bax’s dad?”

His blond head dropped a little and I saw his chest rise and fall with a deep inhale and exhale. “He never said anything about it, ya know? Never came out and told me, but when I first saw the two of them together, there was no missing it. They fucking look exactly the same, have the same eyes. I asked once and he left me up on the Hill without a ride home, so I never asked again.”

“What’s going to happen now, Race? What are we going to do?”

He squeezed my hand and that grin that always made me feel like everything would be okay lit up his face.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“Bax won’t let us come see him.”

“That, Dovie, is a fight you might have to battle on your own. I believe he cares about you, as much as he has ever cared about anyone, but he doesn’t know what that looks like long term.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll just have to show him.”

Race snorted and had to sit down. His injuries weren’t as severe as mine, but he most definitely wasn’t in tip-top form.

“If he breaks your heart, I’m going to kill him.”

“What if I break his?” I had to laugh a little, which I instantly regretted, as it felt like acid was being poured across my chest as Race groaned and shoved his fists into his eye sockets.

“This is going to suck for me, isn’t it?”

“Come on, if anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s us.”

“I don’t know about Bax, but you, Dovie, you deserve the best of everything.”

He was right, I did, and I was going to get it, even if my “everything” was going to make me work for it.

CHAPTER 17

Bax

THREE MONTHS WAS NOTHING compared to five years. I could do three months locked up standing on my head. Well, I could’ve done it without blinking if I hadn’t actually had something to lose this time. I spent every day, every minute, every second, breaking down and dissecting what could have happened differently. Even though I refused to see him, to see anyone but the feds that were hounding me over and over again, Titus bullied his way in. I knew Dovie had almost died. I knew she was having a really hard time sitting by while I was locked up, and I knew it broke her heart every time she tried to come and see me and I told the guards to send her home.

There was nothing that could be done about it. I didn’t want her to see me in convict orange, didn’t want her to fold and try and tell the feds she was really the one who had put the bullet in Novak. So even though it tasted like dust and ash all along my tongue, I refused to see her, and after about the fifth time, she stopped coming. So I lay awake at night, stared at a cement ceiling, and turned it over and over trying to think of all the ways I could have done better by her, could have prevented her from ever being a part of any of it. The answer was really simple when I broke it down. I should have kept my hands off of her, left her alone. That way, at least, had she gotten tangled up with Novak, it would have fallen on Race’s hands, on his conscience, not mine.

The feds had wanted to keep me locked up for a lot longer. My reputation was preceding me, and the fact that I had bad blood was not lost on them. Only I was way more useful as a witness and I had enough dirt on the rest of Novak’s operation that eventually, they had had to cut a deal that involved time served and probation. Titus was pissed. The fed he had turned the case over to was dragging his feet on getting me sprung, and Titus knew it. He said it was because I refused to go into protective custody. They wanted me to move, wanted me to go play house in some nice, quiet suburb and change my name until the case went to trial against the last of the crew, but I refused. I didn’t know how to live anywhere but in the Point, and I had never been the type to hide.

Really, now that Novak was gone, I was probably the scariest guy left on the streets, and I was still mad enough about Dovie getting hurt, about Gus getting murdered, about Race having to give up his life and taking a beat-down, that I didn’t think anyone was going to be brave enough to try and take me on.

I didn’t just think about all the ways I should have done better by Dovie. I thought about her mouth, her pale, freckled skin, and the way her hair twisted and turned like it had a life of its own. I remembered the way her eyes glowed from dark green to bright jade when I was inside of her, the way she called me “Shane” when she was turned on, and the way she used “Bax” to remind me that she thought there were two sides of me and one scared her on the regular. It sucked that she was right to be afraid of him, because he had caused her nothing but hurt and trouble. And it extra sucked because there was enough of Shane in me to know that now that I had been out for two weeks, the best thing was just to forget her and let her live a safe and happy life away from everything Bax brought with him.

Two weeks of freedom. Two weeks of spinning my wheels and trying to figure out what my next move should be. So far, all I had come up with was getting super drunk pretty much every night and blatantly looking for a fight whenever anyone so much as looked at me sideways. I was being reckless and stupid. I knew it and I couldn’t stop it. In all of my life, whatever had been handed to me, I had just accepted it as part of what living hard and rough meant. I was never dissatisfied, knew I had done my fair share of really fucked-up shit that I needed to atone for, but I had never been unhappy or felt like I was missing something. Now I did, and I hated it. I felt carved out, felt wrong, and just on the fine line of keeping it together and not going all-out crazy.

I was at my shithole apartment in the center of town, and about halfway through a handle of cheap whiskey, when my brother walked in without knocking. Somewhere along the line I had subconsciously dropped the “half” every time I thought about him as my sibling. And considering he was the only real tie I had to what I wanted most, I tried to play nice as best as I could, even though I still had some issues with the way he had let the whole show play out with Novak.

“What are you doing here?”

At least that’s what I meant to ask, but I was pretty wasted and my tongue didn’t feel like it was working right.

Titus took one look at me and sighed. He walked over to where the giant handle of whiskey was sitting on the floor by the bed and scooped it up. I should have protested when he dumped it down the sink, but I didn’t have the energy or the fortitude to get into it with him.

“A lawyer contacted me today.”

“So what? Lawyers have been crawling all over my ass since I got out.”

“That’s because you’re a star witness, and if you go and do something stupid to ruin what little credibility you have, it can put Benny and the rest of Novak’s crew back on the street. They’re trying to make you keep your nose clean.”

I swiped a hand across my face and bared my teeth in a ferocious facsimile of a smile. “All clean, big bro.”

“You’re acting like a dumb-ass.”

“Whatever. What do you want, Titus?”

“Gus’s estate is getting closed in the next few days. He left pretty much everything he had to his wife. But the garage and the cars . . .” Titus’s blue eyes were sharp as he stared at me. “He left that to you.”

My head was fuzzy and I tried to sit up all the way, only to have the room tip on its side and my stomach start to roll in protest.

“The garage . . . it’s yours. You just need to get your stupid shit straightened out and go sign off on the paperwork. I guess the lawyer handling the estate has been trying to get in touch with you, but apparently, you don’t want to talk to anyone.”

I closed my eyes and threw an arm over my eyes. I smelled bad, I felt bad, I looked bad. I was bad.

“Nothing to say to anyone.”

“Really? Maybe a phone call to your best friend to tell him you’re happy he made it out alive? A call to your mom to let her know you’re out of lockup? A call to your girl to let her know you miss her and that you’re sorry for being an ass? Jesus Christ, Bax. You should see her. It was almost impossible to get her to agree to keep her mouth shut, and then you go and break her heart on top of it. She thinks you blame her, thinks you won’t talk to her because you had to go back behind bars for her. You need to make things right with Dovie. No one is ever going to love you the way that girl does. Go home, Bax. Fix this, make a life for yourself for once.”

“I almost got her killed.”

I wasn’t sure I said the words, but I felt them, tasted them, and lived with them like a lead weight on my chest every minute of every day.

Titus sighed and I heard the old chair creak as he lowered his body into it.

“Yeah, well, that was a perfect storm of bad timing. Yes, she is vulnerable because of you, because of Race, but isn’t it better to keep her close rather than let her face it on her own? Just because you aren’t physically around her doesn’t mean anyone, and I mean anyone, is going to forget the lengths you were willing to go to set her free. Pointing a loaded gun at your head sends one hell of a message, Bax. Everyone in that warehouse got it loud and clear.”

My chest rose and fell, air rushing in and out of my lungs, but I didn’t feel like I was breathing. I didn’t feel like I was anything. “She deserves better.”

He snorted and I had to turn my head and crack an eye to look at him. “She was sold out to Novak’s guys by someone she considered a friend, her own father put a hit out on her, she has a junkie mom, a brother who plays with fire, and she’s in love with you . . . yeah she deserves better, but this is what her life looks like, Bax. There is no better, there is just making do and being happy with what you have. She’s a good girl, she’s lived with all the same darkness, the same struggle, as you have, and yet she manages to still be soft, still manages to see the good in guys like you and Race. Don’t fuck this up, it will be the worst decision you have made to date—and holy hell, have there been a lot of bad decisions made on your part over the years.”

I halfheartedly threw a pillow at him, but he just caught it and chucked it back at my head, making me wince when it landed with a thunk on my tortured skull.

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re my brother. Because even if you don’t see it, you deserve better, too. Do something with the garage. Do something with the girl. Do something with your life, Bax. This time, you can’t blame being the bad guy on not having any other options.”

His words landed on me like physical blows. I was drunk, but even under the blanket of booze and denial, I couldn’t hide from the truth of his words.

“What if I take the garage and do something with it you won’t like?”

He groaned and shoved to his feet. “Are you seriously telling a cop you plan on running a chop shop?”

I would have laughed if I didn’t think it would make me puke. “No, I’m telling my brother I might not have the most illustrious plans for the future. You think you can handle that?”

“I’ll handle it the same way I always have. I love you, Bax, but if you break the law and I catch you, I will put you back in jail. Now that you know what it’s like to be behind bars when you have something to lose, I’m hoping going forward that it might be enough to keep you on the right side of the law.”

I cracked a grin and slowly swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I looked around the sad little apartment and realized it was the last place I wanted to be.

“At the very least it makes me motivated to not get caught.”

“You are an epic pain in the ass. You know that, right?”

Getting to my feet was a little bit trickier than just sitting up. I needed all the coffee in the Point and a shower the temperature of Satan’s hot tub to get my head working right.

“I have been told that a time or two. Do you know where she is? Did she go back to that crap apartment across from the diner?” I figured the “she” didn’t need any further explanation.

Titus shook his head and moved toward the door. “I think she was tired of me harping on her to keep her mouth shut about the shooting. She took the news about her friend sending Novak’s boys pretty well, but I think it still stung. I haven’t talked to her since you got out. Race is still staying in the loft above the garage, but she isn’t there.”

A sharp and icy sliver of rage worked its way through the boozy haze.

“Who was the friend? The blonde from the restaurant?” Dovie didn’t have very many friends, or people she was close to, so the suspects were limited.

“No. They worked together at the group home, but before you get all worked up and think about doing something idiotic, you should know the feds scooped her up as a material witness as well. She took them up on the offer to relocate so you can’t get to her.”

I glared at him, even though it hurt like a bitch. I swayed a little on my feet, which totally ruined the badass, threatening look I was trying to throw at him. “But you can.”

He lifted an eyebrow at me and pulled open the door. “I could if I was so inclined, but you should know by now, people make bad decisions all the time. Those decisions shouldn’t be used to define them forever.”

I snorted and rubbed my hands over my face. I didn’t even feel like a human.

“You’re just saying that because she’s gorgeous and has those big blue eyes.”

“I’m saying it because her actions almost got Dovie killed and forced me to watch my little brother hold a gun to his own head. Do I want to throttle her for that? Yes, but I also know what it’s like to feel like you’re trapped by something bigger than you and more powerful than you with no way out. I knew Novak was never going to just let you go and I pussyfooted around the law and tried to be the good guy, play it legal all along. Looking back . . . maybe I wish I had been just a little bit more like you. Maybe I could have saved everyone a whole lot of heartache by breaking the rules.”

“It’s not in your makeup, Officer King.”

“I dunno about that, Bax. We do have half of the same DNA. Good luck with your girl.”

The door closed behind him with a soft click and I tottered into the bathroom to try and drown some of the drunk out of me. It took longer than it should have. By the time I got out, the water was cold and I had wrinkled fingers. I had to run a razor over my face and brush my teeth, twice, to even get to a semirespectable state. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sober, but most of the fog had cleared and I was coherent enough to dig my cell out of the drawer it had been living in since I got out, and call Race.

It rang for a long time and I didn’t think he was going to answer, which made my heart start to thump and tick an unsteady rhythm in my chest. I could drive all over the town until I found her, and I would do it if that’s what it took, but I had wasted enough time and I just wanted to go to her.

“So you made it?” He sounded annoyed and I couldn’t say I blamed him.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“You’re an asshole. You get that, right?”

I let my head fall forward on my neck and stared at the carpet between my feet. “I just got the same thing from Titus. Yeah, I get it.”

“Look, dude, I get you not wanting her to see you all jailed up. And I even get staying away for her own good . . . it actually makes me want to kick your ass less, but this total freeze-out, not cool. You really hurt her.”

I blew out a breath. “Well, where is she at so I can go unhurt her?”

“It doesn’t work that way. She almost died, almost watched you die, and Novak messed her up pretty good. All she wanted was you, or to at least do right by you, and you stonewalled her. I don’t know that she wants to see you anymore.”

I snapped my teeth together and felt my blood start to heat up to the point that there wasn’t any way for the whiskey not to burn out of it.

“I have to talk to her, have to try and make it right.”

He sighed. “What do you know about making anything right?”

It was a valid question, but I wasn’t going to point out he was the one who had set in motion the events that had led me to his sister’s front door in the first place.

“I know that Dovie is right. I know that being with her changed me, and being with me changed her. I’m never going to be a great guy, Race, but I sure as shit will do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad ever happens to her.”

He gave a bitter laugh that made me want to punch him in the face through the phone.

“Aren’t you the worst thing that could happen to her, Bax?”

I growled, actually growled at him, and clenched my hand around the phone. “Help me out or don’t. I’ll track her down on my own, Race. And like it or not, I’m going to make this happen with your sister, so you can be on board, or you can get run over by it. You’ve been like a brother to me, but I have no problem taking you down if you get in my way with Dovie.”

He laughed a real laugh and it skittered across my skin. “Good, because if you hurt her again, I’ll rip your intestines out and string you up with them.”

“Where is she?”

“Where you should have been the second you got sprung from the feds. Go home, Bax. It’s about time you knew what that felt like.”

Before I could question him any more, he hung up on me and left me with blood ringing in my ears, and boiling steadily under the surface of my skin. I struggled into a pair of jeans and pulled on a long-sleeved thermal. I shoved my feet into my boots and headed out the door. When the wood thudded shut behind me, I knew I wasn’t ever coming back here. This seedy apartment in the worst part of the Point belonged to the guy I used to be. There were still large chunks of him ingrained in my being, but now there were bigger parts of the guy I wanted to be for Dovie. Sure, that guy wasn’t going to wear khakis and go to a nine-to-five job, and there was a really good chance I hadn’t seen the last of the inside of a jail cell, but the guy I was now wasn’t convinced that was all there was to my future anymore was bars or a body bag, and that gave me something I had never had before . . . hope.

I made the trip to the little house at the base of the Hill in record time, even though speeding after two weeks of steady drinking was probably an awful idea, and a DUI was the last thing I needed. I wasn’t surprised to see the lights on when I pulled the Runner into the driveway. I had tried to give this house to my mom to let her make it a home, to try and make up for the shitty hand she had been dealt in life, but she had never appreciated it, never been able to get out from under the demons and addictions that held her captive. Leave it to Dovie, to sweet, strong, unbreakable Dovie, to take this place and turn it into what it was always meant to be . . . a home.

I opened the front door and just stood there for a second. She had been busy in the months I had been locked up. Instead of just the bare-bones furniture I had left, the place was now decorated. There were pillows on the couch, a rug on the floor under the coffee table, and the walls were no longer boring beige. It looked lived in and comfortable; it looked like her.

I did a double take at the sight of the candles she had burning on one of the end tables and made my way into the kitchen to see if I could find her there. I don’t think I had ever been in a house that had candles in it. That just seemed so out of the realm of the life I lived, I was having a hard time getting my head around it.

The kitchen was empty, but stocked full. The cabinets had food, the fridge was full, and she had put place mats on the little dining room table. I let my gaze rake fondly over the kitchen counter, dirty thoughts of having her splayed out and begging dancing behind my eyes. Five years without sex was no joke; three months without sex, when you had just figured out who the person you wanted to have sex with for the rest of your life was, was flat-out torture.

I called out her name as lightly as I could. I didn’t want to scare her, and if she really didn’t want to see me, I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to run away from me. But if she did, I would chase her down and make her listen to me, make her realize I couldn’t do this anymore without her. This life was always going to be brutal and dark, and she needed to be the one bright spot in it.

I walked through the kitchen to the back of the house where the master bedroom was. When I got closer, I could hear soft music coming from the under the closed door. I knocked lightly before twisting the knob and walking in. The big king bed that had been covered in plain sheets now had a charcoal-and-black comforter on in, and pillows that looked like they had been professionally fluffed up. There were lamps on the end table that looked like they were made from chrome and metal, and she had hung dark drapes over the window. There was a bloodred rug that covered a huge section of the hardwood floor that should look gaudy and harsh, but just added an edge to the dark furnishings. It looked like a sexy and dark retreat. The rest of the house looked like her, but this space she had decorated with me in mind. It was heavier, it looked a little mean, and I loved everything about it.

Once the initial shock wore off, I heard the water running in the attached bathroom. I took a deep breath and walked over to the open doorway. I was going to freak her out just showing up out of the blue like this, especially if she was naked and vulnerable in the shower. I debated waiting for her to finish, thought about calling out to her to let her know I was there, but in the end I just walked into the bathroom, already pleading my case.

“Copper-Top? I’m so sorry I wouldn’t see you when I got locked up. It was a dick move and I was being a coward, but please hear me out.”

It was steamy and she had a radio on playing some kind of rock. The mirror was fogged over and my chest got tight when I noticed that in the steam she had written:

I BAX

The glass door to the walk-in shower whipped open and I was faced with a naked and wet Dovie who didn’t look at all surprised to see me. Her bright hair was a red curtain down her back and draped over her shoulders. Her eyes were big in her face as she blinked the still-running water out of them, but all I could see was the scar arching over the top of each of her perfect breasts. Instead of a V, it almost looked like a crudely etched bird in flight. It was still pink and looked freshly healed. It was big and not all together ugly, but there shouldn’t have ever been any situation where her perfect skin was marred with such violence and ugliness.

“It’s about time you showed up. If you were a no-show by Monday, I was coming to find you. Welcome home, Bax.”

I jerked my head up from her chest to meet her eyes. I think she had tears in them, but it was hard to tell with the water and the steam separating us.

“What? Titus and Race both told me you were over it.”

She lifted her hands over her head and ran them along her long fall of hair. Some of the blood thundering in my head raced below my belt.

“They were just trying to get you to pull your head out of your ass. I was mad you wouldn’t see me, and I felt awful you were sitting in jail for something you didn’t do, but I understood it. I understand you, Bax. Eventually you’re going to have to accept that.”

I took a few steps closer to the shower. There was water leaking out onto the floor and my boots squeaked across the tile as I got close enough to touch her. I didn’t, not yet, but I made sure she could see what I was feeling in my eyes.

“I would never want this for you. Me, this life, the messed-up shit that comes with it, but I missed you. I care about you and can never repay you for what you did for me. You set me free. I would die for you . . .”

My voice trailed off and I got a little choked up. I reached out a finger, I should’ve been embarrassed it was shaking, that I was shaking, and I touched the very center of her scar where it dipped in the crevice of her naked breasts. Her chest rose and fell in a heavy breath, but her eyes were steady on mine. In fact, she seemed a hundred times steadier than me.

“I know you would die for me, Bax.” Her voice was just above a whisper and all I wanted to do was pull her to me and never let her go again. “What I need to know is if you are willing to live for me? I know you’re always going to be this guy who lives a dangerous life, who takes risks and pushes limits left and right. I can deal with all of that—hell, it’s part of what makes you so irresistible. What I can’t handle, what breaks my heart, is that you live every day like it’s your last, like it doesn’t matter if you don’t make it to the next one. It does matter. It matters to me, it matters to your brother, it matters to Race—but it has to matter to you, Bax. You have to understand that you matter.”

I let out the breath I was holding and took another step closer to her. The water was splashing on the sleeve of my shirt as I reached up to grab both of her cheeks in my palms.

“Are you scared of me?” It was the start of the questions I had asked her what felt like a lifetime ago. Her answer didn’t change, but this time when she answered, she was holding back a smile that made my heart hurt.

“Terrified, but I kind of like it now.”

“Do you trust me?” My voice broke. I had never really trusted anyone but Race and now there was her and my brother and just all kinds of new things making my life so much more complicated and undeniably fuller.

“With my life. I trust all the parts of you, Bax. You need to know that.”

“You going to go to bed with me?”

That made her outright laugh and she reached up to curl her hands around my wrists.

“As often as I can and anyplace in between when the mood strikes.” The rest of the blood racing around my system went solidly south.

I dropped my forehead so it was resting on hers and the water from the showerhead was cascading down around us. I was making a mess, but I didn’t care because I had her, and she was my home.

“Do you love me?”

The words sounded so foreign, but so right, when I was saying them to her. She brushed her full lips across mine and the last three months without her faded away.

“Do you want me to lie to you or tell you the truth?”

I smiled against her mouth and kissed her back twice as hard as she had kissed me.

“Lie to me.”

She reached up and put her arms around my neck and took a step back, dragging me all the way into the shower stall with her. The water was lukewarm at best, and it made me shiver. So did the fact that she started to impatiently pull the tail of my shirt up over my head. A task made increasingly difficult considering I was now soaked head to toe and the material was clinging to me.

“Of course not. You’re the last person in the world I could love.”

Even though she was just playing my own game, it still stung and made me scowl down at her. She lifted an eyebrow at me and put her hands on the sodden leather of my belt.

“Want the truth?”

I nodded and grunted a little when she finally managed to get the front of my heavy pants open. The water was going to ruin my boots but I didn’t care because she gave a little hop and I had her in my arms and was pressing against her and the back of the shower wall. She was slippery and warm. I didn’t even need her to tell me the truth; I could see it shining out of the forest that colored her eyes.

“I didn’t want to love you. You’re not the kind of guy who is ever going to be easy on my heart. You take things to the extreme and I don’t love how easily you slip between Bax and Shane.”

I ran a hand down her side and curled it around her hip. She locked her ankles around my back and arched into the light touch. All I had to do was lean forward just a little and I would slide inside her, but then there would be no more talking and I needed her to finish what she was saying. Needed it more than I needed to push my way home.

“But you also make me feel safe and cherished and you make me feel like the entire world has to get through you to get to me. There is just something about that that makes all the other stuff incidental. I believe from the bottom of my heart that we can make each other happy. I’m never going to ask you to be a good guy, Bax, because I fell in love with you just the way you are. Bad.”

I blinked at her and bent down to seal my mouth over hers. She tasted like toothpaste and redemption. She tasted like mine. I rubbed my tongue across hers, sank my teeth into her bottom lip, and pulled her hips just close enough that I could use the angle I was holding her at to sink all the way inside of her. She gasped into my mouth and I groaned into hers. I felt my fingers tighten on to her skin and she burned all along the exposed length of my cock.

The fact that I was inside her, that we were together with nothing—both literally and figuratively—between us anymore seemed to hit both of us at the same time. Her eyes got huge in her face and I felt everything under my skin start to buzz. I pulled back and dropped a kiss on the end of her nose. Her fingernails dug into the back of my neck and her freckles stood out in stark relief across her milky-white skin.

“You know where I’ve been this time.”

“I just want you. I missed you. Missed this.”

I throbbed inside of her, felt the way her body paid testament to her words, and I think it made me even harder. Her chest was pressed intimately into mine and I could feel the tiny points of her nipples stabbing into me, slipping along with water trailing between us.

“I don’t know how love works, Dovie. I don’t know how to be anything other than this, but I know the only thing that gives me hope is the idea of you and me. I know I’m not the ideal, not the dream guy, but no one will ever fight for you the way I will. I promise you that you will always have the best parts of me I have to give.”

“I know, Bax, and I know that’s how you love me. Now, can you please get your ass in gear and MOVE? Three months was way too long.” She leaned forward and ran her tongue along the shell of my ear, which made me shiver, and not just because the water was now cold as hell. She whispered in a husky voice that just turned me inside out. “I need you to make me come.”

“Shit.” Of course I was in love with her. Who didn’t love a good girl who could get bad when the mood struck her?

I slid my hand around her hips and grabbed her under her ass so I could heft her up and sink more fully inside her damp heat. I braced a hand on the slippery tile next to her head and buried my face in the curve of her neck. She tightened her arms around my neck and I felt her drop kisses all along my shoulder as I thrust inside her like I had no control. I didn’t. She felt so good, felt like where I should always be, that I just lost all sense of being and ground into her, moved along her until I heard her whimper, felt her inner walls start to spasm around my quivering dick. It wasn’t just sex, it wasn’t just making love, it was her imprinting on me, and me on her, with nothing between us ever again. It was a primitive claiming of another person in the most basic way possible.

I lowered my hand from the wall and tangled it in her hair. I pulled her head back and tapped her lax mouth with mine. I breathed my life into her as I felt my body start to release into hers. She brought a shaking hand around to the front of my face and rubbed my cheek. She tapped her middle finger along my star and wordlessly mouthed my name as I pumped into her until I was empty and spent.

It took the last of the strength I possessed to reach behind me and crank off the freezing water as we just stood there, replete and soggy.

She put a kiss on my shoulder then walked around me to climb out of the shower. She made a face when she saw the mess on the floor, but just walked around it to fish some towels out of the linen closet. I just stared at her, trying to get my head around the fact this was all real. She was here, she had given me a place to call home, and she was going into it wide-eyed, with no illusions about who she was going to be crawling into bed with each night.

I climbed out of the shower and sat on the toilet to struggle with my boots. I’d just got one off when she came back in, wrapped in a towel, and handed me one. I ran it over my head and looked up at her.

“Gus left me the garage.”

She leaned a shoulder on the doorframe and lifted a rust-colored eyebrow at me. “That’s sad, but kind of fitting. What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Whatever you decide, I’m behind you.”

I got the other boot off and tossed it with a thud onto the floor. I had to do a little wiggle and shake to get the damp denim down my legs, and by the time I was done, her eyes were glowing bright green at me again.

“What if what I do isn’t exactly on the up-and-up?”

She came back into the bathroom and took the towel from my hands. She wrapped it around my waist and used the tip of one of her fingernails to trace the top of one of my flags.

“Three months apart was a really long time, Bax. I just want you to consider that when you make whatever choices you make. I love you and I’m not going to tell you what’s the right or wrong thing to do, but you need to remember now that what you do ultimately affects me too.”

I closed my eyes briefly and pulled her against my chest. “All right, Copper-Top.”

She smoothed her hands along my sides and grasped my hand. “What do you think of the house?”

“It looks like home. It looks like you, and I love the bedroom.”

She giggled a little and I followed her to the big bed. It just took a little nudge and she was sprawled on her back, the terry cloth between us long gone. I braced above her and grinned down at her.

“I want to spend every night in here with you.”

“That was the plan.”

“I don’t know how this happened, Dovie, but I will always be grateful Race put you directly in my path.”

Her mouth hooked up on one side and I bent down to trace the puckered skin of her scar with my tongue.

“Things have a way of working out, Bax. You just need a little faith.”

I lifted my head up and stared down at her. She was just so lovely, so optimistic and full of goodness, and kindness. She was the only way I was ever going to find some sense of rightness in this ultimately backward and wrong place we existed.

“I don’t need faith, Dovie. I have you.”

And I did have her, over and over again, because I was making up for lost time, and because she was beautiful, and mostly because I felt like another person was truly mine, and that she was choosing to be here with me. No matter how bad it got, or what kind of road I might end up taking us down, she was in it with me for the long haul. I had never done anything right or righteous to deserve her, but now that I had her, I wasn’t letting her go and I was going to make a conscious effort to live a better life, knowing she was my reward and she deserved to have some good, even if she could handle all the bad.

CHAPTER 18

Dovie

6 months later . . .

I HAD A BUNCH of schoolwork spread out on the table in front of me, Brysen was sitting on the couch next to me, and we were gossiping about Ramon’s new boyfriend. I had cut back on my class schedule a little, so getting my associate’s degree was gonna take a little bit longer than I planned, but I had picked up an extra shift at the restaurant in order to squirrel money away for when I had to transfer to the actual university in order to finish my degree. Bax told me repeatedly he would fund the rest of my schooling, he had money left over from his real-life game of Grand Theft Auto and the garage was doing really well. But starting school and getting my degree was something that I had always planned for myself and wanted to achieve on my own, so eventually he quit offering. He paid all the house bills and gave me money on the regular anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t kill him to let me have this one thing for myself.

I still worked at the group home. In fact, after Reeve’s quick exit, they had offered me a promotion. I was tempted to take it, but every other weekend away from Bax was already pushing it, so I had turned it down. It hurt a little to say no, but every time I came home after not seeing him for a few days in a row, he was sporting a new bruise or busted-up knuckles, meaning he was out getting into trouble while I was away. He didn’t come right out and say he was still letting Nassir set up fights for him, just like he didn’t openly admit all the cars he had coming in and out of the shop weren’t there by their owners’ request, but for the most part he was keeping his nose clean. Well, as clean as a guy like Bax could.

Titus was keeping an eagle eye on him and he was pretty invested in making sure he stayed out of jail for my sake, so I didn’t pry, and I wasn’t really too worried about those kinds of speed bumps.

Speaking of the devil, he came wandering out of the backroom pulling his shirt on over his head as he went. He wasn’t as bulked up as he had been when I first met him. He was leaner now, less intimidating in sheer size, but that didn’t mean he had lost any of his badass swagger. I didn’t miss the little sigh of appreciation that left Brysen’s parted lips as Bax bent over the back of the couch and placed a stinging, hard kiss on my mouth.

“Gotta finish the rear end on the Hemi ’Cuda. The garage is empty tonight and Race has plans. I’ll be back in a bit.”

I ran my thumb across the star on his temple and gave him a softer kiss. “See ya later.”

He ran a hand over my hair and pulled one of his thousand hoodies on as he headed out the door.

“Is it okay to tell you that he is equal parts terrifying and hot?” Brysen asked.

I snickered and tossed the pen I was holding onto one of my books. “Yeah, because it’s true.”

“I don’t know how you do it. He’s so . . . dark. It’s like it just oozes out of him.”

He wasn’t always dark, in fact lately he was the one having to pull me into the light. I didn’t feel bad for shooting Novak, he was an awful man and what he put Bax and my brother through made me glad he was gone, but being the one to pull the trigger had changed something in me, made me have a touch of the dark, and without Bax around, there was a good chance I might have just slipped into it.

“He’s a lot to handle. Good thing most of the time he makes it worth my while.”

“Is he still pretty close with your brother?”

She still wasn’t the biggest fan of Race’s. I wasn’t sure what that was all about considering they hardly spent any time around one another, but it didn’t matter enough for me to really investigate. Race was stirring up enough trouble on the back end that worrying about who liked him and who didn’t would make a full-time job.

“There are some serious trust issues working between the two of them. Race doesn’t love us together and Bax doesn’t love that Race isn’t living clean. Ultimately they are best friends and have each other’s backs, but Race sent Bax to jail, and Bax is screwing Race’s little sister, so it can be tense.”

Race had taken his knack for numbers and his newfound understanding of the underworld and picked up where Novak had left off. My brother was running numbers like clockwork. Considering Lord Hartman no longer had an in with the criminal underworld, and there was no longer a threat to my well-being, he had cut Race off . . . no money whatsoever was coming in from the Hill, and Race was too resourceful to let that stop him. If he was going to be a bookie and a loan shark, he was going to be the best, most affluent one the Point had ever seen.

If Bax was still operating outside the law, he was being far more hush-hush about it than my brother was. I tried not to worry about him, but Race was taking big chances, making a name for himself, and not in any kind of good way. Something had happened to him; he was being bold and brazen and trying his best to take up the mantle that had just been shaken off of Novak.

“I can see that causing some problems between two hardheaded guys like that.”

Testosterone wasn’t something I was lacking in my life for sure. Between Bax, Race, and now Titus, who was always popping in and out, I had never felt more secure, more protected, and never more loved and valued than I did now. It wasn’t always an easy road to travel. There was a lot of testosterone, a lot of attitude, a lot of quiet conversations that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but there was also a sense of moving forward. It was with eyes on the future, and what could be, and not on the past, and what all of us had left behind.

“Life is rarely boring, that’s for sure.”

She gave me a little grin and climbed to her feet to collect her things. She was already enrolled at the university and only had a year left before she got her degree. Occasionally, she liked to drop in and study because she said living at home as an adult was ridiculous. I didn’t get the whole story, I knew she worked, had her own money, but for some reason she still stayed at her parents’ fancy house at the base of the Hill. I liked Brysen a lot, we spent more time together now that I wasn’t living in the inner city, but I didn’t know her all that well and I was starting to think that was by her design.

“Well, you look really happy and I’m glad everything worked out for you. I’ll see you at work tomorrow, okay?”

I nodded and walked her to the front door. I saw her gaze slide over the sexy muscle car parked in the driveway and she gave her blond head a shake.

“I can’t believe he gave you that car. If a guy handed me a ride like that, it would earn him blow jobs every night for a year.”

I laughed and tilted my head to the side. “He said everyone knows it’s his car, so no one would mess with me if I was driving it. It’s also fast . . . like crazy, scary fast. He told me I attract too much trouble and I need to be able to outrun it all.”

She laughed a little and walked to her own BMW that was parked behind the Runner.

“Silly. Doesn’t he see you ran headfirst into the biggest trouble you could find and then never wanted to let it go?”

I just shrugged in response and waved at her as she turned around and headed back down the road. I loved the car, loved that it showed how much Bax cared about me, and I had indeed thanked him quite vigorously in the front seat, in the backseat, and maybe again on the hood. I liked driving it, it made me feel like I had a part of him with me, surrounding me. I also got to give Marco his promised ride, which only kind of thrilled him because he told me I drive like a girl. The kids at the group home also loved that I could tool them around town in the sleek and loud car, so it was thrilling for more than just me.

Giving me the Runner meant Bax was working on building his own new car. He had commandeered the Hemi ’Cuda Gus had left him and was working overtime on building it into a black-on-black, chrome-dipped monster of engine and steel. It was twice as loud as the Runner, looked twice as mean, and I knew the motor in it was nowhere near street legal. It was a car that screamed “Bax,” but it was also a project that he was using to honor his mentor’s memory and legacy.

We had talked briefly about Gus passing away, but as with everything that happened in the Point, Bax just took a deep breath, let it out, and moved on. I knew he missed the old mechanic, knew he was hurt by the loss, but on the streets, living this life, there was no time for grief, so I cried for both of us and let him hold me until it passed.

I was walking back into the house when my cell rang. We still used disposable phones, still paid for everything in cash, so even though we had a house in the burbs, safe at the end of the Hill, we were still living like we had our backs to the wall and things could go bad any second. I didn’t know if it was always going to be that way. I liked to think after some time things would settle down, some of Bax’s edge would dull, but I loved the man for who he was, so if pins and needles were what it took to be with him forever, then I was signed on to suffer.

“Hello?”

“Dovie Pryce?”

I looked at the number because I didn’t recognize it or the older woman’s voice on the other end. “Yes?”

“My name is Maggie Dawes and I’m the managing partner of the Kids’ Crossing housing project where you work. I’m one of the liaisons for Social Services.”

My stomach dropped. I was thinking she knew about my ties to Bax, about what my brother was up to, and was going to fire me. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out between my teeth.

“Sure, what can I do for you?”

“Well, we just had a full-time position open up. We need someone to be an advocate between the kids and the workers coming in from the city. The group home where you work so far has had one of the highest success rates of placing troubled kids with appropriate families. According to your directors, all of the kids’ success can be directly related back to you. The kids trust you, they are honest with you, and as a result, we feel you would be a perfect fit for this new position.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and just blinked at it. “Uhh . . . I’m still in school. I don’t have a degree in social work or anything yet.”

“You’ll be working under a certified counselor. It’s a great opportunity, you can use the job as part of your clinical hours once you start working toward your actual degree.”

I gave my head a shake. It was what I always wanted, to help others, to save them from the circumstances that I had almost been lost to. “How would my schedule change?”

“Nine to five. No more overnights at the home. You would be involved more on the administrative end, but still have plenty of face time with all the kids . . . too many kids, frankly. Take a few days to think on it, and get back to me.”

I just gaped like an idiot, glad it was a phone call and she couldn’t see me looking like a fool.

“Oh, and Ms. Pryce . . . I should mention it comes with a fairly substantial pay raise. Have a nice night.”

I just stood there inside the door, numb and shocked. I thought I had gotten everything when Bax finally came home, thought all the sacrifice, all the bad things, had led to him and me being together, and that they were the price we had to pay to find just a smidge of happiness in a world that could be so ugly and cruel. This opportunity to give back, to make a difference, was so much more than that.

I wanted to jump up and down, wanted to scream and dance around the house as pure, unfiltered joy started to flow through me. Really I wanted to celebrate, and the only person I wanted to do that with was all the way across town. I bit my bottom lip and thought about him telling me he had the garage to himself tonight, and that Race was out doing something that would probably end him up in jail or dead. I let my gaze drift over to where Bax stashed all of his hoodies. An idea started to percolate, words from another night, words breathed across my skin, and I grabbed one off the hook.

I wasn’t bold enough or blatant enough to put the hoodie on with nothing underneath. That pushed my good-girl boundaries too far, but I did ditch my jeans for a cute pair of boy-cut panties and nothing but a stretchy tank top to keep some modesty. I figured my Chucks would just have to do and it wasn’t like I was going to have to work that hard to seduce Bax anyway. That was one of my favorite things about him. He took me any way I came, and always seemed to treat me like I was his favorite present of all time. It would be fun to surprise him, to make his dark eyes glow in appreciation. It wasn’t often I felt like I had the upper hand with him. This was a good way to remind him I could give as good as I got.

I made it to the garage in no time. The Runner really was the best gift he could have given me. I knew the code to the garage bay and poked it in on the keypad. Bax and Race had turned Gus’s old, run-down chop shop into an ultramodern, fully operational, high-tech automobile palace. There were new lifts, all new machines, and every kind of car you could imagine sprawled from one end of the space to the other. Mixed in between the muscle cars Bax was restoring and the expensive luxury cars that were there for purposes unknown, there was a bunch of cars parked along one back wall that looked like they just belonged to everyday Joes.

Bax was bent over the open hood of the ’Cuda, his whole upper half bent in the engine compartment. I don’t think he heard me because he didn’t lift his head. The back of his T-shirt was lifted up, flashing the flurry of black birds that danced up along the center of his back and ended up swirled and intertwined with his name that arched across his shoulders. He wanted me to get the scar on my chest looked at by a plastic surgeon, he told me it hurt him every time he had to think about watching Novak put it there. I told him I had earned it, I had earned him. I wanted it there to remind him of what we had to lose, of what could happen if we let things get away from us, if we took the fight we needed to keep us together for granted. I had survived, so had he, and we made it out together. The birds that covered his back served the same purpose, only I had to admit his markings were a far prettier sight.

I tiptoed up behind him and softly trailed my fingers along the exposed skin above the top of his jeans. He jerked around in surprise and I laughed at the scowl on his face. The wrench he had in his hand rattled to the cement ground.

“Hey. What are you doing here?” I saw his eyes sweep over me from head to toe. My legs were bare under the hem of his hoodie where it hit me at midthigh. One of his dark eyebrows danced upward and the corner of his mouth kicked up in a grin.

I cocked my head to the side and lifted an eyebrow back at him. “What’s up with the used-car lot over there? Those aren’t your usual flavor.”

His gaze skated over the line of cars and he sighed. “You want the truth or you want me to lie to you?”

I rolled my eyes at him and stood on my tiptoes so I could wind my arms around his neck. His big hands settled on my hips and he pulled me so I was cradled between his legs where he was leaning against the car.

“Truth.”

“People who gamble don’t think. They throw money around, take risks, and don’t have long-term plans. The only way gambling works is if the person has something to lose. Race is playing a pretty dangerous game, but he’s smart. Way smarter than Novak ever was. Dead men can’t pay debts, broken men can’t go to work, but take a guy’s ride and he knows you’re serious. Pay up or your car goes bye-bye. Those are the cars waiting for their owners to pay up.”

“And those cars got here how, exactly?”

He grinned down at me now, mischief sparking in the center of his obsidian-tinted gaze.

“Just consider me a repo man of sorts. I didn’t steal them to chop them up. I just borrowed them to help your brother out.”

“And if the owners don’t pay up?”

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law. So far everybody wins.”

“Until someone turns you in.”

“The Point doesn’t work like that, Copper-Top. Bad places have bad people and bad people have bad vices. Race is taking a risk, but he’s filling a need that was always gonna be there. I’ll keep an eye on it, Titus isn’t stupid and isn’t going to let it get out of hand, but for now it’s working and let’s just leave it at that. Now, why don’t you tell me why you are in the garage, half naked, looking all shiny-eyed and happy?”

I pressed my mouth to his, made him let me tangle my tongue with his, and used my leverage to press even closer to him. I would never get over how solid and sturdy he felt against me. His fingers tangled in the ends of my hair and I heard him sigh softly against my now damp mouth.

“I got offered a promotion at the group home today. A great job that will let me really help the kids, more money, and no more weekends away. I wanted to celebrate, so really I wanted you.”

He nodded his head at me and I squealed a little in surprise when he bent and picked me up. I curled my legs around his waist and leaned against him as he started to walk toward the office at the back of the garage.

“That’s awesome, Copper-Top. Congratulations. You really were born to make a difference for those who need you.”

“Where are you taking me?” I decided to nuzzle the curve of his neck, happy that he shivered a little in response.

“I put more cameras in this place than all of London has. There isn’t a corner of the lot or the building not on a live camera feed. Normally a little show-and-tell wouldn’t bother me, but considering your brother has all the access codes, I doubt that’s a show he wants to see, especially if you don’t have anything on under this sweatshirt. The office is the only place not wired up.”

I appreciated his consideration, because what I had in mind most definitely didn’t need my brother’s or anyone else’s input.

The heavy metal door closed behind us with a clang and Bax wasted no time pressing me up against it and working the zipper on the front of his hoodie down. His dark gaze glowed at me and the way his throat worked up and down made me think this was possibly one of my most brilliant ideas ever.

“I couldn’t do just the hoodie and nothing else. That’s just too bad for me.”

He chuckled a little and bent down to kiss me softly on the mouth. It made me sigh, and the way he worked his hands up over the edge of my ribs made me gasp out loud.

“Dovie, you’re my girl. Nothing is too bad for you.”

That made me laugh, which quickly turned into a groan, and he had the heavy material off of my shoulders and the tank top off of me in a few twisting, flexing moves. I tugged at his T-shirt until it cleared the top of his head and we were pressed together, chest to chest, our hearts beating the same excited, aroused rhythm. My nipples pebbled up in eager anticipation and my legs tensed automatically around his waist. He dropped his head and ran his tongue along the raised ridge of my scar. He did that every time we were together like this. I wasn’t sure if it was to make sure I knew it didn’t take away from how beautiful he found me, or if he was trying to take the memory away. Either way, I always liked it and it made me rake my hands along his cap of short hair.

“I like these.” His fingers dipped inside the leg of the panties I had put on. I shivered at the gentle touch.

I kissed the star on his face and used my teeth on the lobe of his ear. “I like you.”

He laughed, something he was getting slightly better at. “Good to know.”

Then there was no more room for joking or thought, because his fingers went from outside my panties to inside, and all I could do was feel. He was just so intent, so focused, and read my body so easily. He touched me just right, had me gasping his name and shamelessly grinding between his hard body and the door in seconds. I was greedy, wet, and desperate for him. I locked my ankles over the top off his ass and let my head thunk back against the door. My eyes went half-mast, and I watched him watch me as he wound me up.

My inner walls pulled at his talented fingers, my legs quivered around him, and by the time he relented and roughly swiped his thumb over my clit, there was no holding back the flood of release he had unleashed. I leaned forward and sealed my mouth over his, told him I loved him, and tried not to slide down the door as he used his free hand to tenderly stroke and caress the tip of one breast. He always did that, got me off, tore me up, and then turned sweet and gentle until he was ready to push me past all my limits again. I didn’t even protest when he ripped the panties out of his way, even though that meant I was going home bare-assed under his hoodie.

“My fantasy. You in a hoodie and nothing else. You really are something special, Dovie. I don’t know what the point would be without you.” I didn’t know if he was talking about the place or the point of us, but I guess either fit.

I kissed along his collarbone. Worked happy hands between us so I could get his belt open and free the part of him that I needed. He was so hot and hard in my hands, so ready, always so ready for me. I stroked the length up and down, watched his eyes go even darker, and saw the pulse in his neck start to get erratic.

“You are something special too, Shane. Don’t ever forget I know that.”

He groaned when I squeezed the head and tilted my pelvis up so that just the tip of him hit my entrance. We both stilled just a little at the contact, but as always, it was perfect. He half sank in, half let me pull him in, and the next thing I knew, we were sliding, moving, thrusting, and grinding all kinds of hot and heavy against the door to his office. It wasn’t graceful or pretty. In fact, I think I lost a chunk of hair in the hinge of the door. But it was raw, it was spontaneous, and he always made it feel special.

He groaned my name into the bend of my neck when he came, dug his fingers into my hips, and I clamped down on him and tossed my head from side to side as the second wave of pleasure overtook me. When it was over we sort of folded in on each other, and I ended up straddling him on the floor while he collapsed on his back still buried inside of me. He sighed and ran his hands over the still-trembling skin of my thighs. I put both hands on his chest and leaned down so our faces were almost touching, my hair a fiery curtain around us.

“I love you, Shane Baxter.”

“I love you, Dovie Pryce.”

He didn’t say it often, so when he did, it always mattered a little more.

“And I love it when you call me Shane right before I get you off . . . every single time.”

That made me laugh, which made me lean down and kiss him some more, which led to him getting hard again, which led to some more uncomfortable garage sex, this time on the floor of the office.

There were two parts to all of us, things that made us who we were, showed where we came from. I liked to think my parts were equally divided between good and bad, where Bax’s were bad mixed with a little more bad. But somewhere inside him Shane lurked, and Shane had just enough good to make me think we had forever. Or at least as long as a place like the Point was going to give us, and at the end of the day, I was happy with that, as long as it had me and him together.

Better When He’s Bold . . . Race’s story coming soon . . .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

OH READER, IF I could come to each and every single one of your houses and tell you thank you, give you a big ol’ smooch and squeeze you with all my love, I would. You saved me. You gave me something to strive for, to believe in, and healed my broken heart. The love I have for you is endless and runs very deep. Thank you for sticking with me after Rule and his horrible editing the first time out of the gate. Thank you for letting me try new things and giving me the opportunity to stretch my little writer wings and go crazy. I promise with every word I put on the page I’m not only doing it because I love it, because it’s always something I wanted to do, because it’s a part of me and drives me . . . I do it for you too. I want to give you a great story to say thank you. I want to enthrall you and make you fall in love every single time. I want you to always know that I’ll always do my absolute very best to not only stay true to myself but also to stay true to you. Thank you, reader . . . thank you a million times over.

As always, please feel free to contact me by any of the millions of ways that exist out there in the world. I do love to talk to readers.

Thank you to everyone who made me feel like a one-trick pony or a one-hit wonder. That was good for me and made me learn a lesson and open my eyes. I’ve never been the type of person who allows herself to be pigeonholed or forced into someone else’s box. Rules are made to be broken. I’ve never been scared or worried about doing things my own way, but learning this writing game has had some bumps and I needed a reminder about that. I took some really negative emotions I was working with based on feeling misunderstood in my storytelling and created an amazing place. A place that is dark and twists and turns in so many directions it makes me dizzy, even though I know where it’s going. So thank you for shaking me up and reminding me that the only person I can be creatively accountable to is myself.

Thank you to Amanda Bergeron (world’s greatest and most patient editor . . . ever) and Jessie Edwards, plus the rest of the team at HarperCollins. I never thought I played well with others, but this team and these wonderful ladies really do make this a dream job. I love working with them and I’m honored every day that I get to say I’m published with HarperCollins. It’s a crazy thing. There is no way to describe the way my heart beats faster and my head gets a little fuzzy when I walk into a store and see an actual book on a shelf. If it wasn’t for Amanda, that wouldn’t be possible, so she’ll forever hold a place in the history of my life . . . a superawesome special place.

Thank you to Stacey Donaghy of the Donaghy Literary Group: http://www.donaghyliterary.com/. She makes me laugh. She talks me off the ledge. She verbally kicks my ass when I get all wound up and ridiculous. She always tells me that my hair looks great! She believes in me and tells me I’m brilliant. She is the driving force behind me being able to put books in readers’ hands. I couldn’t ask for better representation and a better creative support system. She told me Bax was great even when I thought . . . ehhh, he’s too much. Like my editor, Stacey will forever hold a special and esteemed place in the journey of my life. I wouldn’t be where I am without her, and she deserves all the praise and admiration I can heap on any one person.

Thank you is never enough to say to my folks. They really are the best and I never, ever could ask for anything more. I’m so happy I get to experience so many amazing opportunities with them. They are the most fun and most supportive parents a gal could ask for. I just love them to the moon and back.

I try and find something to thank my bestie for every single day. She is my therapist, my confidante, my coconspirator, my sounding board, my teacher, my role model, my shopping buddy, my shoulder to cry on . . . she is my true north. She’s just my favorite of all the things and my life is better because she is in it.

Thank you to my book bestie. She’s a riot. She has a good soul. She’s sweet and takes things too personally, which makes her the absolute opposite of me. She’s just a doll and I wouldn’t be able to put any kind of book out in the world without her looking at it first. She gets it. She gets me and more often than not I wish I had listened to her when she suggested I change something and I didn’t do it. She’s really good at making sure I know what my priorities are when it comes to telling a great story and I adore her for it.

I had a wonderful lady named Carolyn Pinard help me get Bax’s story all spit shined and pretty. The difference she made on my manuscript is indescribable. THERE WERE COMMAS! Yes—commas in one of my books . . . who woulda thought? Anyway, check her out if you need any editing or final spot checks before submitting to an agent or a publisher. She’s awesome to work with and she just moved to Colorado, so now she doubles as my drinking buddy as well: carolynpinardconsults@gmail.com.

The ladies at Literati Author Services—http://literatiauthor services.com/—get a big thanks as well. I like to do things my own way, want things to work how I want them to work, and that means I need a PR and marketing team that can bend and move with me. Karen, Michelle, and Rosette are awesome at it and they are another group who just get it, just get me. They make the business side of my writing life go round so I can focus on getting the words on the page. I can’t say enough good things about them and how easy and pleasant they are to work with.

Thank you blogger nation for making the book world go round. Thank you for introducing new readers to our books. Thank you for leaving thoughtful, heartfelt reviews. Thank you for sharing covers and helping release day be amazing and huge. Thank you for loving books and supporting authors just because you love to read. Thank you for being DIY and having so much passion. Thank you for the criticisms that, when they are done right, make me strive to be better and go farther. Thank you a million and one to those of you who have been there from the very, super-early beginning. Thanks to those of you who have crossed over from blogger and reviewer to friend. Thank you for being fun, and engaging. Thank you for giving me a chance to do my thing, and even if all of you don’t love it, it’s still totally awesome and amazing that I got to do my thing in the first place.

And as always thank you to my furry family: Duce, Pistol, and Charley. I’m always excited to come back home and get slobbery kisses and be covered in love and dog fur. They make my heart happy.

Oh, and thanks to the hottie I drove past on the Harley that one day who had a tattoo on his face that totally made what Bax looked like solidify in my head . . . yum .

Content

Better When He's Bad
Welcome to the Point - 1
Jay Crownover

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 Bax

CHAPTER 2 Dovie

CHAPTER 3 Bax

CHAPTER 4 Dovie

CHAPTER 5 Bax

CHAPTER 6 Dovie

CHAPTER 7 Bax

CHAPTER 8 Dovie

CHAPTER 9 Bax

CHAPTER 10 Dovie

CHAPTER 11 Bax

CHAPTER 12 Dovie

CHAPTER 13 Bax

CHAPTER 14 Dovie

CHAPTER 15 Bax

CHAPTER 16 Dovie

CHAPTER 17 Bax

CHAPTER 18 Dovie

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS