Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Wyn

You’re the only one he’ll listen to.

I glance at Lux for guidance, and she just shrugs at me. Awesome. So helpful.

Pushing out a breath, I step around Christian and walk toward the small group of people. Everyone parts to allow me through, and Lucas watches me carefully as I approach.

I step up to him, and he towers over me, making me feel small. Vulnerable. Not just physically. Emotionally, this guy has me tied up in knots, too. He’s not the only one losing it. But for me, the turmoil is happening inside.

I pull in a breath and glance at the people surrounding us. “Can you give us a second?”

I mean, seriously . Shit.

Lucas flicks his chin, and everyone immediately disburses, walking several yards away, to the lawn at the front of the house. They’re still watching us, but it’s less obvious, at least.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I look up at him impatiently. “I heard you were being problematic.”

He laughs faintly and tilts his head back. “I think my brother is afraid I’m going to throw myself off this cliff…”

We’re near enough to the edge that I can look down, and it’s a steep, rocky fall to the beach below. I glance up at him, emotion clogging my throat, my breath held. “Are you?”

He smiles down at me sardonically, his head tilted back slightly but doesn’t say anything. His hands flex at his sides like he wants to grab me. He doesn’t.

“You can’t be here, Wyn.”

I shift on my feet. “Your brother asked me to come talk to you.”

The corner of his mouth curls up into a half-smile, but there’s no amusement in his expression. “Talking won’t help this, ” he says, gesturing between us. “You’ve decided you can’t deal with me.”

Is he serious? This is about me rejecting him somehow? Anger flares in my chest, and I take a step toward him. “Are you fucking kidding me, Lucas?” My voice is raised but constrained so the others can’t hear what I’m saying. “You fucking killed someone. Someone you said you loved. How am I supposed to feel safe around you? What happens if you get angry at me ?”

He grabs me abruptly and pulls me into him. I gasp, but I don’t try to pull away. I know better than to try that. He dips his head, so we’re nose to nose. “I’d rather die than hurt you. I’d give my fucking life to protect you, Wyn.” When he shakes me, I gasp again. “Please tell me you know that.”

The urgency in his voice, the anguish on his face…I’ve never seen Lucas like this before. This strong, powerful guy, who is always so sure of everything—he looks terrified right now. Terrified that I won’t believe him.

I don’t answer him, though, because I don’t know what to say. All I know is that I shouldn’t be with someone like Lucas. I shouldn’t love him. But I do.

“Lucas, I?—”

A car screeches up the street, stopping abruptly in front of the house, cutting off my words. There’s a low wall that separates the house from the street, so I don’t see who it is until a figure walks through the wrought iron gate. It’s Gabriel.

He saunters up the walkway, swaying a little, unsteady on his feet, and when he gets within a few feet of Christian, Ash, Jackson, and the others, he spreads his arms. “I’ve arrived. Shall we go inside?”

“Oh, fuck this,” Roman says, grabbing Lux by the arm and dragging her toward the house. “I can’t have Lux mixed up in whatever this is. We’re out.”

Lucas’ grip on me loosens, and he steps forward, placing himself between me and Gabriel, who’s twenty or so feet away from us. He holds his arm out to prevent me from rushing ahead of him—not that I would.

“Go inside with Roman and Lux,” he says to me, and before I can even respond, he’s walking toward the front lawn. “You have some real balls coming here, calling a fucking meeting,” he calls out to Gabriel.

I’m rooted to the spot as Gabriel turns toward Lucas, hands raised in surrender. “I came to respond to this—” He pulls a black envelope from his jacket pocket and holds it up. It must be the invitation to his tribunal.

“You can say your piece at the trial,” Lucas responds coldly.

Gabriel lowers his hand, and his features darken. He shoves a finger in Lucas’ direction. “And where’s your fucking tribunal, hm? What’s the punishment for shoving a Burning Crown member into an oncoming train?”

“Lucky for me Justin Welch wasn’t a Burning Crown member.” Lucas says, his voice low and menacing. “Funnily enough, he was actually a Shadow and Ash guy, just like the witness. Strange, right?”

Gabriel seems to realize where this conversation is headed, because he backs up a little, his gaze darting to the other faces in the group. “You’re the one who wanted to meet up with me that night, dude. Do the rest of the Sacred Sons know that?” Gabriel spits back. “When you texted me that night, I knew something was up. You’d been acting weird, and we hadn’t met down at the tracks since we were kids. So, I sent someone else in my place. And thank God I did, because otherwise, I’d be a pile of pulverized flesh right now.”

Lucas pushes up on Gabriel, venom dripping from his tone. “Oh, look who's suddenly remembering shit now.”

When Gabriel came back, he never did explain how he got amnesia. I’m guessing it was a tactic so he wouldn’t have to explain where he’d been. But I knew he was lying. I knew it.

Gabriel smirks. “Yeah, you know what I remember? I remember how fucking jealous you were that I had Wyn. Admit it. I had the one thing you couldn’t have, and it drove you crazy. That’s why you wanted me dead. You couldn’t accept the fact that I was the one fucking her.”

Lucas lunges at Gabriel, but with Christian and Jackson in the middle of them, he doesn’t make contact. Christian shoves Gabriel’s chest. I’ve never really seen Christian pissed, and seeing it now is unsettling. “Is it true, Gabriel? Did you set Lucas up?”

Gabriel doesn’t answer Christian’s question. Instead, a dark smile stretches across his face. “You know, Shadow and Ash, wanted me. They fucking wanted me. Unlike my own fucking family.”

“What are you talking about?” Christian asks.

“When the senior counsel rejected me as a Sacred Son,” Gabriel says, backing up, pointing at Christian, Lucas, and Jackson. Even in the near darkness, his eyes look bloodshot, like he’s on something. “Not one of you stepped up to vouch for me. Not one.”

His angry gaze shifts to Lucas. “And honestly, if you hadn’t fucked up my chances at a surfing championship, I wouldn’t have even needed your fucking endorsement. I would have been celebrated and welcomed into the Sacred Sons with open arms.”

Lucas says nothing.

“So, yeah,” Gabriel continues. “I saw the way Lucas looked at Wyn the night of her initiation, so I claimed her.” He shrugs with a self-satisfied laugh. “I knew it would fuck with him. And I was right, wasn’t I? It turned him feral. So fucking feral that he’d try to kill his own cousin.”

I’m rooted to the spot, but my heart is beating so fast I start to feel a little dizzy. Gabriel used me as a weapon against Lucas? And why, because of a fucking accident that happened when they were sixteen?

“But, you know what?” Gabriel says, hand on his chest. He sways again. “I’m willing to look past the attempted murder thing if we can forget this whole fucking tribunal.”

Lucas glares at Gabriel, his features hard, like there’s a war raging inside him. I’d kill to know what he’s thinking right now. “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” he says, deathly calm.

Gabriel shifts on his feet, his eyes darting between each Sacred Son. “Okay, okay, what if I could give you information about Shadow and Ash?” His voice is hurried and slightly panicked. If it comes to a tribunal, he knows he’s fucked, because once he’s kicked out of the Burning Crown, he’ll no longer be protected. “I was on the inside. I know how they operate. Let me stay in the Burning Crown, and I’ll give you everything I know.”

God, what a fucking cunt. It doesn’t surprise me that Gabriel betrayed the Burning Crown in the worst possible way, and yet, still has the balls to come crawling back. He’s only ever looked out for his own best interests.

Before Lucas can respond, the loud rumble of the mufflers fills the otherwise quiet street. Seconds later, several motorcycles pull up in front of the house, and several large guys walk through the gate.

There are at least two-dozen of them, and they look menacing, like a horde of modern-day Vikings. Each guy is tall, dark, and heavily tattooed, wearing jeans, boots and leather jackets.

Panic rises in my throat. Who are these guys? And why are they here? Whatever the reason, it can’t be good. They’re not here to sell us Girl Scout cookies, that’s for sure.

Lucas takes one look at these guys, walks back over to me, and grabs my arm. “Get inside. Walk around the side of the house, and go in through the back door,” he says. “Do it now.” Then he turns back to the strangers, walking across the lawn to confront them. “Can I fuckin’ help you?”

Oh, hell, no. I’m not going inside. Not when Lucas is stepping up to these guys. I’m careful to keep out of his line of vision as I follow him to the front lawn, then stand with the rest of the group, but a little off to the side, so I can see what’s happening.

One of the guys steps forward. He’s tall with dark hair and dark eyes, and his face looks like it was chiseled by a master sculptor. But the beauty of his features is marred by the tattoos snaking up his neck and the side of his face, along his hairline. It makes him look slightly demonic, and that sends a fresh dose of fear rushing through my bloodstream.

The guy’s unsettling gaze falls on Gabriel. “We heard you’d be here,” he says with a smirk. “You want to explain what the fuck you’re doing at Rush House?”

Gabriel takes a step back, holding one hand up protectively. “Nah, Sin, listen, it’s not what it looks like. I swear...”

Sin tilts his head to the side. “Really? ‘Cause I think this is exactly what it looks like. Let me guess, you’re trying to weasel your way back into the Burning Crown.”

Gabriel doesn’t even try to deny it. How could he? Why else would he be here?

Sin’s gaze shifts to Lucas, and he flicks his chin toward Gabriel. “Before you take this sick fuck back, you should know he’s been planning to take you down for a while now. He wanted to provoke you, frame you for his murder, then disappear to Brazil with his mom. Once you were convicted, she’d bring a civil suit against you for wrongful death and drain your bank accounts dry. It was a pretty ambitious plan. We were impressed when he brought it to us.”

My God. What the fuck? I knew Gabriel could be bitter, and cold, but to plan all that ? Goddamn. That’s next-level crazy.

“And you were more than happy to orchestrate all that for him, weren’t you?” Lucas’ jaw tightens. “You provided the witness, the Gabriel look alike, the surveillance footage…”

“All’s fair in love and war, right?” Sin shrugs. “But when you weren’t arrested, well…” His hard glare shifts back to Gabriel. “This cunt got impatient and went off script, rising from the motherfucking dead. Next thing you know, people start asking questions, and suddenly, our secret society isn’t so secret anymore...” He shakes his head slowly. “That shit doesn’t fly with us.”

The two dozen guys behind Sin shift, moving closer to their leader in an obvious show of force. I swallow, fear knotting more tightly in my stomach. My God, what are they going to do?

Lucas lifts his hands, like who the fuck cares? “I don’t give a shit about what flies with you,” he says, his tone hard. “This shit is between you and Gabriel. Now, you can leave and get off our private-fucking-property.”

Sin hooks his thumbs in the pockets of his dark jeans, and glances down, laughing to himself. After a second, he glances back up at Lucas. “See, I’d love to do that, but Gabriel isn’t the only reason we’re here tonight. I haven’t forgotten that you killed my cousin…”

“Tyler was a member of the Burning Crown, and he fucked with Roman’s chick. He knew the risk he was taking, and he did it anyway,” Lucas bites back.

Tyler? As in, Tyler Savano? The creepy motherfucker who threatened Lux a few months ago? I remember hearing about his body being found. Like so many others over the years, he was found at the bottom of a steep cliff, and his death was quickly ruled a suicide. But everyone inside the Burning Crown knew the truth. He’d fucked around with the Sacred Sons and met with the consequences.

Sin’s eyes narrow menacingly. “See this is the thing—You have your rules, and we have ours. You killed my family, and now you and your rich-boy society have to answer for that. We tried to get to you through this dumb cunt—” He points to Gabriel, “—but he fucked that up, so I guess we’ll have to settle our score the old-fashioned way.”

Lucas takes another step forward, his hands balled into fists at his side. “Great, name a time and a place, and we’ll be there.”

Oh, no, no! What in the fuck is happening right now? Lucas is seriously going to square up with this dude? I can’t just stand by and let him do that, so I step forward and open my mouth to say something—but that movement catches Sin’s eye, and suddenly, that dark gaze is turned on me .

Oh, shit.

His gaze rakes over me, a sardonic smile touching the corners of his lips. “Aren’t you the girlfriend?”

Umm…? I feel like I shouldn’t answer that. Instead, I glance sharply at Lucas, who is already moving toward me. Before he can reach me, one of the Vikings grabs me from behind.

I yelp, my back colliding with the rock-hard chest behind me. There’s something cold pressed against my throat, and my eyes lock on Lucas. He stops dead in his tracks, hands up to show he’s unarmed.

“She has nothing to do with any of this…” Lucas says carefully. “Let her go, or I swear to God…”

The dark threat in Lucas’ tone sends a shiver down my spine because I know what he’s capable of. These guys may think he’s just some spoiled rich boy, but I know the ruthlessness behind that facade. I know how much he enjoys the violence.

Sin looks between Lucas and me, and laughs. “Oooh, what’s this?”

He walks over to me, which causes Lucas to practically come out of his skin. Sin places the tip of his finger under my chin, tilting my face up, so I’m forced to look at him. His eyes are dark, empty. There’s absolutely no humanity in those soulless orbs. “I thought you belonged to Gabriel, but it looks like you might be whoring yourself out to his cousin, too. How lucky for me.”

Adrenaline pumps through me, and my heart thuds painfully against my ribcage. I can’t see it, but I suspect it’s a knife at my throat, because every time I move, even just slightly, there’s a sharp pinch where the metal meets my skin.

“I hate to disappoint you,” I say with a level of attitude I absolutely cannot afford. “But I don’t belong to anyone.”

Sin laughs, pulling his own huge knife out of his waistband. He uses it to point at Lucas, who is barely keeping it together at this point. “Have you told that to this dude? Doesn’t look like he’s gotten the memo.”

A surge of defiance spikes through me, and I spit in his face.

Fuck him.

I’ve never spit on anyone in my life, but the wad of saliva hits his cheek before I can even think twice. I immediately regret it, because his expression twists into something even darker, angrier, and I get the sense that I’ve just poked a very mentally unstable bear.

He wipes the spit from his cheek with the back of his hand, then lunges at me, the blade in his hand gleaming under the dim moonlight. In that split second, I brace myself, squeezing my eyes shut, because there's no possible way to avoid what happens next. Just when I expect the cold metal to slice through me, I hear a grunt and a heavy thud .

I open my eyes to see Lucas and Sin on the ground. As they grapple with each other, Sin raises the knife, and plunges it into Lucas’ chest. It happens so quickly, all I can do is watch, horrified, my breath held.

That’s when chaos erupts—both sides attacking each other violently. But all I can see is Lucas, lying on the grass as Sin pulls his knife free, and moves to stand up.

The guy holding me loosens his grip, and I break free, rushing to Lucas. He’s lying on the grass, unconscious. With mayhem surrounding us, I kneel beside him, and stare at his face, disbelieving. I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening.

Someone appears beside me and jumps into action. It’s Ash. He pulls his shirt off and places the wad of fabric over Lucas’ bleeding wound. Then he grabs my hand roughly and places it over the makeshift bandage. “Hold this in place and apply as much pressure as you can.”

I blink down at Lucas without really seeing him.

“Hey,” he says, snapping at me, his tone urgent. “Look at me. I need to know you’ve got this.”

I glance up into his eyes and nod. My limbs feel heavy, but I follow his directions.

“Good,” he says, pulling away to punch a number on his phone. “You’re doing good.” Then he stands up and holds the phone to his ear. He starts talking to someone on the phone, but I can’t hear what he’s saying. Everything just kinda goes silent. The only sound I can hear is my own labored breathing and the slow, heavy thud of my own heartbeat.

Tears pour down my face as I glance down at Lucas. “Please, please don’t leave me, Lucas,” I whisper, choking on the words. “ Please. ”

Still no movement from him, nothing.

Nothing.

He looks dead. Maybe he is dead. The knife sliced into his chest. Not into his shoulder. Not into his stomach. Nowhere survivable. And the blood…there’s so much of it, the T-shirt is already soaked.

The only reason I’m not completely losing it right now is because I have a job to do. Lucas needs me, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting him down. So, with tears blurring my vision, I push on the wound harder, which does seem to stem the flow of blood.

Ash has walked away, and I glance up, searching for him amongst the chaos of violence. That’s when I see Gabriel. He’s about thirty feet away, on his knees, and Sin is standing behind him with his knife held against Gabriel’s throat.

Gabriel’s terrified gaze locks on mine for a split second before Sin pulls the blade across his throat. The motion is so smooth and so quick that I don’t even realize what’s happened until Gabriel grabs his throat and I see blood pour down his hand.

Holy fuck.

But his hand can’t stop the bleeding, and he’s only able to remain upright for one second, maybe two, before his body falls limply onto the grass.

Oh, my God. Are they planning to kill everyone?

I’m still staring at Gabriel, panic gripping my heart, holding it still, when Sin yells something. His crew immediately disengages, and they all walk hurriedly through the gate and back to their motorcycles. A riot of engines rev, then they take off, and they’re gone.

Silence. There’s so much silence, and time slows to an agonizing crawl. It feels like hours before I finally hear sirens wailing in the distance. My vision is hazy, and I watch numbly as firemen and paramedics pour through the front gate and rush toward us.

The paramedics set their equipment down and say something to me, but I can’t hear them. Their voices are muffled, and their faces are blurry. Their tones are urgent, though, and my brain struggles to latch on to just one word.

“Wyn,” Ash says sharply. I turn my head, and his face is close to mine. “You need to let go so the paramedics can help him.”

I shake my head, emotion clogging my throat. Letting go of Lucas feels like stepping off a fifty-foot cliff. It feels unsurvivable. Like, as soon as this connection is broken, the life will drain out of both of us.

But Ash is stronger than me, and he physically pries my hand off Lucas’ chest, then tugs me aside, so the paramedics can rush in. They surround Lucas with their equipment, swallowing him up, and blocking my view.

I’m soaked with blood, my hands, my clothes—and now Ash is soaked too—but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. He holds me tightly, murmuring words of comfort that don’t comfort me at all. All I can hear is Lucas’ voice on repeat inside my head.

I’d give my fucking life to protect you, Wyn. Please tell me you know that.

Well, now I know. I just pray the price of that lesson isn’t Lucas’ life, because, honestly, I don’t want to live in a world where he doesn’t exist…