Page 35 of Outlawed

I smirk. “I need him alive, but I don’t need him healthy.”

“Done. The question is, if I do this for you, what’s in it for me?”

“Really?”

“Fuck yes. I’m not going down without a fight, and if that means a little blackmail between us, then so be it.”

“Dammit, Austin. What do you want?”

“What do you think I want? I want you. That’s all I care about.”

“I don’t know if I can give you what you want.”

“You can. You’re just not done punishing me. I get it, but I’m not willing to let you go, even if that means you hate me.”

“Do you have any idea how fucking toxic this is?”

“Yeah, Cece, I’m well aware. Ask me if I care.”

I rub my eyes, trying to decide if it’s worth it. I could tell him to forget it and let Porter go. Shepard will pick him up and⁠—

“Fuck.” I can’t do that. I made a promise to Dawn to make it hurt, and I intend to keep it. If that means I have to debase myself to a man whom I want to stab fifty percent of the time, then so be it.

“Fine. You do what I ask of you every step of the way when it comes to Porter, and you never pose a risk to anyone I care about, whether that’s Riggs, Shepard, Hannah, or any of my friends, then you can have me too.”

“I could just take you for myself, fly you away to some tropical island where clothes are optional. You’d forget about everyone eventually.”

“You really don’t know me at all if you think that’s true.”

He looks disgruntled for a moment, making me wonder if he really thought I’d say yes to that asinine idea, but eventually he sighs and agrees. “Fine. But the second he’s dead, I want you on your knees with my cock in your mouth.”

I cock an eyebrow at him.

He folds his arms. “They’re in there, in your bed, in your body, in your fucking heart while I’m out here without you.”

“You know why it’s like this, Austin. Maybe it’s not fair to you, but you don’t get to tell me how to deal with my trauma, trauma you caused, whether you were coherent or not. So yeah, it’s not fair, but I’m not setting fire to you either, so it could always be worse.”

He huffs out a frustrated laugh. “Fine. When will I see you?”

“It will probably be a couple of days. I’m waiting for Shepard to get permission to exhume Porter’s body.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Because it’s fucking poetic to bury the man in his own grave, no?”

“I am so hard right now,” he mutters. I poke him in the ribs, but he grabs my wrist and pulls me close, sliding his hand down to feel his cock. “This is what I’m like every time I’m around you.”

“I have no control over the bond. That’s just something you’re going to have to deal with, no matter what happens between us.”

“It’s not just the bond. It’s you. Even if you had no powers, I would still want you. Don’t you get that? I don’t want anything else from you, Cece. I’ve taken more than enough. I want you to let me spend the rest of my life giving back.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Says who? The same people who would say a relationship between you and three men won’t work either? You just spent the night with a cop on one side of you and a gangbanger on the other. I think we can safely say the rule book has been thrown out the window.”

“Ex-gangbanger. Look, whatever happens, I don’t want your shit to touch Hannah. Bond or not, I will kill you.”

“I told you, I’m out of that side of things. When you’ve been in the game as long as I have, you realize there are much more lucrative things to sell than drugs and weapons.”