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Chapter Nineteen

Jayden

I’d sworn to myself that I’d never work with the guys from Eagle Tactical.

Why?

Because I already owed them my life.

We’d served together in the military. Jaxson had pulled my ass out from behind enemy lines while I’d been shot, bleeding to death.

I should have died.

He should have left me to die.

Thanking him seemed inadequate after he risked his life, bullets flying at him. He’d been reckless, but selfless.

I wasn’t deserving.

He threw himself on the line. He could have died, and I owed him.

What did I do when we returned home?

I kept my distance.

I might have owed Jaxson my life, but I wasn’t going to risk his, not when my niece’s life was on the line. He’d already done more for me than I deserved. I couldn’t involve him. It was my burden to bear.

He had a kid, a daughter at home. It was no secret that he was a single father.

I wouldn’t risk his daughter not growing up with a father alone in the world.

And so, every time he offered me a gig with Eagle Tactical, I turned him down. It wasn’t out of pride. Though he probably thought that was the reason. It’s what I made him believe so that I could protect him.

Because deep down, he was still my brother.

Family protected each other.

And now I’d torn his family apart.

I walked the final distance up toward the gate and pressed the buzzer of the wrought-iron gates that protected the property of Don DeLuca.

It was the last place I wanted to be, but Don Ricci had made sure that I got what was coming to me.

Betrayal tasted bitter.

I bite down on my tongue, shoving down any and all emotion that showed conflict. I was doing this to save Skylar.

And I owed Jaxson my life.

“We’re even,” I said quietly into the microphone that I wore in secret. After this, I no longer owed Jaxson or any of my brothers anything ever again.

“We’ll see about that. Head down, be quiet. Quit attracting attention to yourself,” Jaxson said.

He was right.

I had to play this carefully. Talking to myself, or rather Jaxson, was going to get me killed.

I didn’t want to die. Definitely not today.