AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Every stolen moment is precious, a gem hoarded and treasured. I memorize the melody of his laughter, the sunlit warmth of his smile. I map the lines and curves of his body with desperate, reverent fingers, as if I can imprint him on my very soul.
"I'm going to build a life with you," I promise him one night, our naked bodies twined in the rumpled sheets, the silver light of the moon painting his skin in alabaster and shadow. "When this is all over, when Declan's rotting in a cell and we're finally free... I'm going to give you everything, Asher. A home, a family. My whole fucking heart, for the rest of our days."
Happy tears glitter on his lashes, his smile incandescent as he draws me down into a kiss that sears and consumes. "I want that," he whispers against my lips, his hands threading into my hair. "I want everything with you, Liam. Forever and always."
My heart swells, too big for my chest, a tangle of love and terror and fierce, unshakable determination. Because I will make that dream a reality, even if I have to crawl through oceans of blood and bone to do it.
Even if I have to become the monster I've tried so hard not to be.
But mere hours after that perfect, shining moment... my phone trills with an incoming call, the display flashing with Finn's number.
"What is it?" I answer, my gut already clenching with dread.
"Liam, fuck." Finn's voice is tight, panicked. "Declan knows. I don't know how, but he found out about our plan. And he's... Christ, Liam, he's put a hit on Asher. A fucking kill order."
The world tilts, the ground dropping out from under me. No. No, this can't be happening. Not now, not when we're so close...
"Where?" I demand, my voice a barely human rasp, my free hand already reaching for my gun. "Where's the hit going down?"
"The diner," Finn says, and I can hear the screech of tires, the roar of an engine in the background. He's already moving, racing to head off the threat. "Liam, you need to get there now. I'm on my way, but you're closer."
I'm out the door before he finishes speaking, my blood turned to ice in my veins, my heart a jackhammer against my ribs. The ride to the diner is a blur of red lights and blaring horns, my foot like lead on the accelerator.
Asher. My sweet, shining boy, in the crosshairs of my brother's wrath. Because of me. Because of my fucking hubris, thinking I could outsmart the devil himself.
I screech to a halt outside the diner, the neon sign flickering like a dying star. The plate-glass window is shattered, gaping like a wound, and the sound of raised voices, of shattering glass and splintering wood, echoes from within.
I'm out of the car and across the sidewalk in a heartbeat, my gun drawn, my finger on the trigger. I shoulder through the ruined door, my pulse a deafening roar in my ears.
And the scene that greets me stops my heart dead in my chest.
CHAPTER 8
ASHER
The shattered glass crunches beneath my feet as I stare down the barrels of the guns pointed at my face. My heart is a wild thing in my chest, fear and adrenaline surging through my veins like battery acid.
But I don't cower. I don't beg. Instead, I lift my chin and meet the cold, dead eyes of Declan's enforcers with a defiance I didn't know I possessed.
"We're closed," I say, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. "I'm going to have to ask you gentlemen to leave."
The bigger of the two, a mountain of a man with a scar bisecting his left eyebrow, barks out a harsh laugh. "Oh, we ain't going nowhere, princess. Not until we've delivered a message from the big boss man."
He takes a step forward, the muzzle of his gun never wavering from my head. I swallow hard, my mind racing, searching for a way out, a way to survive the next few minutes.
But before I can so much as twitch, the roar of an engine shatters the tense silence. Tires screech against asphalt, a car door slams, and then...
"Asher!" Liam's voice, raw and ragged with terror, with a fury so deep it shakes the very foundations of the earth. "Asher, where are you?"
The enforcers exchange a loaded glance, their free hands creeping towards the holsters at their hips. And I know, with a bone-deep certainty, that if Liam comes through that door, if he sees me like this... it will be a bloodbath.
"Liam, no!" I scream, desperation cracking my voice like a whip. "Stay back, don't..."
But it's too late. The door flies open, the bell above it giving a mocking jingle, and Liam is there, his gun drawn, his face a mask of barely leashed violence.
Time seems to slow, the moment stretching like taffy as Liam's gaze finds mine across the ravaged diner. I see the emotions flicker across his face like the frames of a film reel - shock, rage, a fear so potent it steals my breath.
And then the world explodes into motion and sound, into blood and bullets and the sickening crunch of bone.
