“Was she?” Lake spent hours with Mitch, and in that time, I knew he talked. At this very moment, I probably knew less about my mother than she did, but it didn’t mean she knew her enough to proclaim her innocence. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t interested.

“But—”

I cut her off, causing her to jump at my harsh tone. “There is no such thing as innocence. How many mothers do you know who would let their child be taken without even trying?”

“So you killed her because of it?” she snarled.

“I didn’t know she was my mother when I put the fucking bullet through her fucking skull.”

She shook her head and looked away. “Are you even sorry for it?”

“I don’t regret what I can’t fix. She’s dead.” I felt my breathing quicken and my palms grow steady. I needed out and fast. “You don’t come back from that.”

I stood up and rushed for the door. She quickly caught on to my intention to leave and attempted to stop me.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m done talking.”

“But what about Mitch? He knows where you are now. He knows where all of us are.”

“I know.” My hand was on the door, ready to escape, but I couldn’t resist looking at her one more time. “You were almost killed because of me. I do regret that, which means I can fix it.”

“How are you going to fix it?” I could hear the suspicion in her tone.

I opened the door and finally forced out the words that before had been caught in my chest where a heart was supposed to be. “I’m letting you go.”

I quickly closed the door causing it to slam. I wouldn’t be able to look into her eyes and follow through. My fist gripped the doorknob once and finally let go. It was done. I could walk away now.

I should have known she wouldn’t let me.

I was barely five feet from the door before I heard her voice full of pain shout at me.

“So that’s it then?” Those in the hallway, along with time, stopped to watch us unfold.

I reluctantly turned back. It was a mistake I would regret for the rest of my life. When I looked into her eyes, I saw something I hoped never to see—even when I hated her.

“That’s all I’m willing to give you.”

I felt her indrawn breath even from a few feet away. She hardened her jaw but still, the tears glistened, ready to spill over and mark me forever.

“You torment me for ten years, fuck me silly for the past two months, and make me fall in love with you. Then, if that’s not enough, you almost get me killed because of your asshat dad, and you think you can just walk away because you think it’s the right thing to do?”

“I don’t give a fuck about what’s right.” At least that was true. If I cared about what was right, I wouldn’t be having thoughts of running away with her and stealing her future forever. “It’s safer this way.”

“Says who?”

“Says my brother who is lying in the hospital fighting for his life because of me!”

Fuck. I didn’t mean to yell at her. I didn’t care that I had just revealed my real relation to Keenan.

I wanted the blow to be as soft as possible. I did enough damage to her.

A part of me knew it wouldn’t be easy, but my mind told me she would only be happy if I were out of her life permanently.

“So you’re going to walk away from him, too?”

No, just you, baby.

Keenan’s blood tied him to me and to the danger that followed me. There was no reversing it.

“If that’s what it takes,” I lied. “He’s still out there.”

“Because you chose to save your brother’s life!”

How did she know?

It was dark. Dust was everywhere. Those moments when I couldn’t find her in the dark were the scariest of my life.

No, she couldn’t know.

“You love your brother, Keiran…” She moved closer, making me feel like cornered prey. “…and you love me or else you wouldn’t care.”

Love? Did I love Lake Monroe?

Oh, fuck no.

I couldn’t.

It wasn’t possible.

I shook my head in denial and turned to go.

My back erupted in pain as something hard and round hit and bounced off it. Before I could determine the source, she was on me, pushing with desperate hands. Tears clouded her vision before trailing down her face. I wanted to kiss every single one away. I wanted them gone. I wished I’d never made her cry.

“You don’t just get to walk away.”

She beat on my chest, and though her hits weren’t strong enough to do physical damage, I felt every single one and fuck if it didn’t hurt.

“You don’t get to leave.” All I could do was move back from the onslaught of Lake at her weakest and most vulnerable.

“You can’t,” she whispered out of breath. Her body trembled uncontrollably. I needed to stop her before she hurt herself.

I lowered my lips until they were centered right above hers. I would miss kissing those lips.

“I… don’t… want… you.”

I went too far.

I pushed her away.

Literally.

I had to watch her fall and know I couldn’t do anything to break her fall. The laughter that sounded around us brought forth a murderous rage. I had to leave before I made things worse.

As I turned to go, I spotted Quentin standing nearby, watching silently. I locked eyes with him and silently sent him an order.

Help her.

Chapter Two

Keiran

November

I’m going to wring her fucking neck.

Of course, it probably wasn’t the poor fuck’s fault whose neck I currently had my hands wrapped around. He just happened to be in my line of fire when I grew sick of smelling her, feeling her, and seeing her stupid fucking eyes taunting me in my head when I couldn’t have her.

Fuck.

I squeezed harder.

“Inmate 960, let go of the other inmate, now!” I heard the command loud and clear behind me, but couldn’t care less. They were all scared to come in here so they talked shit behind the safety of the bars. Pussies.

“Come on, young blood, you don’t want to give them a reason to keep you in here. Keep it together,” the gruff voice of a well-respected, older inmate said.

Right, I was locked up again.

Only this time, I wasn’t in juvie.

I was heading to the real deal if this shit stuck.

Prison.

I wouldn’t see the light of day for a very long time, and she could escape me forever.

Funny how that last one made me want to let go. Only I was a second too late as I felt the electric volts pass through my body just as I let go of my cellmate’s neck. My muscles locked up, and all I could do was grunt as I hit the floor, counting the seconds until it was over. It lasted ten seconds but felt more like ten lifetimes. I guess I deserved that. I looked over at the form of my still gasping cellmate as he tried to catch his breath.

My calves where they hit me burned, and I felt a little weak in the knees when I tried to stand. I let out a laugh when I remembered a promise a certain someone made me when I entered here for the first time.

I guess she kept her promise in a roundabout way, and I wondered what made me hard more—thinking about the feeling of her pussy or the fact that she finally fought back.

Dash said my obsession with her was unhealthy. He might be right, but it didn’t mean I had to give a shit. She was mine. But when I saw her face again, I wondered who really owned who. I willed my erection away by thinking of any and everything other than her.

“Somebody get him out of there,” one of the guards ordered. I prepared myself for a fight because the one thing I hated was someone thinking I could be handled. When the guard cautiously bypassed me and grabbed onto Billy, my unfortunate cellmate, I relaxed.

I probably shouldn’t have attacked him for simply admiring a picture but three minutes ago, you couldn’t have told me it wasn’t justified. It was who he was admiring in the picture that set me off. It was the picture of her I swiped the morning after our date.