Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 67966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Sit.” Evan pointed the gun at Thorn’s chest, then jabbed the barrel toward the chair in front of his desk.
Thorn sat, every muscle rigid. He wasn’t about to provoke him, not with Axel in the room.
His mind raced. The cameras had to have caught Evan coming inside. Maybe someone had seen him and was already calling for help. He just had to buy time. Keep Evan’s focus on him.
“Evan, what do you want?” he asked with a cautious tone.
Evan stalked closer, eyes wild, sweat beading his forehead, the stink of liquor and chemicals radiating from his pores. He pressed the muzzle of the gun against Thorn’s forehead.
Axel screamed.
“Shut him up!” Evan barked, snapping his head toward Axel.
The man holding him pressed Axel’s face into his chest, trembling as he tried to protect him. Axel’s muffled sobs ripped through Thorn like glass.
“Evan.” Thorn forced his voice to remain calm, gentle, coaxing, like he’d used a thousand times before with broken men. “You want me to apologize? Okay. Let me say this…I loved you. I still would if you hadn’t chosen the drugs over me. I didn’t put you out to punish you. I did it to protect everyone else here. You were endangering not only me, but them too.”
Evan’s hand shook violently on the gun. His teeth ground. “Lies. All you’ve ever cared about is them! Not me!”
Evan swung his gun toward Axel.
“No!” Thorn lurched, but the man guarding Axel stood like a wall.
“Maybe taking one of your precious gentlemen is the best way to make you understand,” Evan hissed.
“That bullet,” the stranger snapped, “will have to go through me first.”
Evan sneered, advancing, before he was shoved back hard.
Evan whipped upright and slammed the butt of the pistol into the man’s temple.
The crack echoed sickeningly against the walls. The guy crashed to the floor, pulling Axel down with him. The stranger was dazed and bleeding but still hunched protectively over Axel’s body.
“Stop!” Thorn shouted. “Leave them alone!”
But Evan was already spinning back, shoving Thorn into the chair so hard the wood cracked.
“Let me help you,” Thorn begged, hands lifted, palms out. “Let me get you into a facility, Evan. You’re a good man. It doesn’t have to end like this. I will always love you. I want to see you healthy again.”
For a flicker of a moment, confusion clouded Evan’s eyes. The gun shook in his hand as sweat poured down his face. But then his jaw locked and his eyes glazed over, hollow and haunted.
“I’m not falling for your lies. Not ever again.” His voice cracked. He leveled the gun at Thorn’s chest. “I’m sorry.”
The world tunneled in, and Thorn’s breath stalled in his lungs.
“Thorn, did you—”
Lucas stood frozen in the doorway, shirtless, black lounge pants riding low on his hips, a bottle of wine in one hand, lube and condoms in the other.
“Lucas, no,” Thorn begged with his eyes, shaking his head in terror.
Evan’s gun swung like a snake, zeroing in on Lucas. He blinked, then snarled, lip curling. “Don’t I know you?”
Lucas’s jaw flexed as he bared his teeth. “I’m gonna make you wish you didn’t.”
Evan cocked his head and glanced back at Thorn, then back at Lucas.
His voice was venom. “Maybe I’ll show you what it feels like to lose the man you love.”
Thorn’s chest seized, panic swallowing him whole. His heart battered against his ribs so hard he thought it might burst.
“Say goodbye to your knight in shining armor, Thorn.”
The cold certainty in Evan’s eyes told him he meant it.
Thorn was moving before his rational brain could stop it.
He leaped up, lunging toward Lucas, slamming into him just as three sharp cracks shattered the air.
Glass exploded. Heat flared across Thorn’s back, pain searing like fire tearing through him.
He hit the floor hard with Lucas crushed beneath him.
The world warped, voices muffled, and his lungs screamed. He barely felt himself being rolled onto his back, the pain white-hot and unbearable.
Lucas was hovering above him, frantic, and shouting something, but Thorn couldn’t hear the words.
His vision darkened at the edges, and the last thing he saw was Lucas’s wide, terrified eyes before the blackness pulled him under.
Belladonna Mansion
Axel’s Condo
Virginia Beach Oceanfront
February 18th, 7:28 a.m.
Axel drifted up from the dark like a swimmer breaking through heavy water.
For a moment, he couldn’t tell if the pounding in his head was real or just the remnants of a nightmare. Then the back of his head throbbed, sharp and persistent, and his muscles ached as if he’d been dragged up and down the jagged boardwalk.
Memory slammed into him.
Thorn. A gun. Gunshots.
He jolted upright with a pained gasp—
Strong arms locked around him, pulling him back against a chest that was warm and solid as stone.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re all right.”
The voice was deep, not Thorn’s, not Lincoln’s, but the way it wrapped around him, firm and steady, filled him with something he needed more than breathing in that moment. It overflowed with protection, stability, and tethered him to life.