me at his words. It wasn't even the threat of them that terrified me. It was the brutal truth of them. I knew him. I knew what it was to be his and I knew how close he'd come to owning me that way once before. He hadn't managed it then because I didn't have enough good left in me for him to corrupt. But now? With my boys back in my life and my heart beating for the taste of freedom all four of them had been offering me. I knew it wouldn't be the same. And I knew he wouldn't be the same. If I agreed to this, he really would own me. And I had no way of knowing how long it would take for him to destroy me just the way he was promising to.
"So what's it to be, sugarpie? Your soul or your sinner boys? Because I'm going to be taking at least one from you tonight."
My pulse thundered as I bit my tongue on the answer I knew I was going to give. The only one I could give. Because when it came down to me or them, I knew who held more value. And it wasn't the girl no one ever wanted to keep. It wasn't the one who had already escaped death once before and had stolen a taste of happiness she'd never been owed. In the question of me or them, it was always going to be them. After all, they were the only things in this world that had ever held any value to me anyway. And I would never trade them for anything.
P anic burned along the inside of my bones as I stared at Rogue, seeing the fight go out of her, seeing her accept the offer Shawn was making. But fuck that. I’d die before I let her walk into that house with him. And if that was really what it was going to take then so fucking be it.
The men pressing in around me, Fox and Maverick were stifling, hot bodies and guns everywhere. But I’d clocked the grenade clipped to the belt of the sweaty dude whose face looked like a granola bar the moment he’d appeared and now he had his machine gun pressed to my side, I was ready to go all in on my death wish.
“Rogue!” Fox called to her. “Don’t agree to anything.”
“I’ll stay here so long as you let them go,” Rogue said and panic cut into me.
“No!” I barked.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, sugarpie. Take her inside, boys,” Shawn called, jerking his chin at one of his men and they caught hold of Rogue’s arm, dragging her toward the door.
“Let them go - that was the deal!” she shouted at Shawn.
“Yeah, yeah, lemme just say goodbye first, sugarpie,” he said, strutting towards us with a smirk. “Hey boys, so this is what a winner looks like.” He did a twirl and his men chuckled like he was hilarious.
The sweaty guy’s eyes slid to him and I acted in that single second of opportunity, yanking the grenade from his hip and pulling the pin in the same moment.
I threw it at Shawn as hard as I could and the motherfucker snapped out a hand, catching it from the air before launching it away from himself with a curse.
“Move Killian!” the sweaty guy cried as the grenade flew towards a man standing beside Shawn’s white SUV and Killian tripped over his own feet as he tried to escape. The grenade hit the car window and exploded with a boom, destroying the car and engulfing Killian in a huge blaze of fire that spiralled up towards the sky, the blast knocking us all flat to the ground and making my ears ring.
“My baby!” Shawn wailed over his car.
I’d been ready for the explosion, recovering faster than most and snatching the sweaty guy’s gun, turning it on all of the men surrounding us as I unleashed a spray of bullets with a roar of fury.
One asshole aimed his handgun down at Maverick’s head and Fox kicked his wrist as he lay on his back, sending the weapon flying just before I gunned the asshole down and he hit the dirt in a pool of blood. Fox dragged Maverick up by the scruff of his neck and all three of us twisted around with stolen weapons in hand, hunting for Shawn and our girl. I couldn’t see our enemy, but Rogue was being dragged