raced to the very end of the jetty, his grief pouring from him as he watched me go and my own pain sharpening to the point of breaking me as I refused to turn back.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice stolen by the wind as I left him behind alongside my heart and the only hopes I'd ever had of claiming some kind of true happiness for myself. "I love you," I added, my words for the four men who had stolen my heart before I even understood what that meant, the four keepers of my soul and the only things that had ever brightened my dark existence so that I could see up out of the gutter. They'd given me a taste of something that someone like me never should have tried to claim. And now I was giving them a chance to find happiness without me tainting everything around them.
The water spread out darkly before me and I fixed my gaze on the lights of Sunset Cove in the distance. I was almost there. This was almost over.
I was a dead girl walking, and it was time I returned to my grave.
“S top it you fucking idiots!” I dove onto Fox’s back, trying to pull him off of Maverick as the bastard tried to lock his hands around his throat.
I rolled us hard so Fox landed on top of me and I locked my arms and legs around him as he started thrashing to get up. Maverick shoved to his feet, spitting a wad of blood from his mouth as he panted, advancing towards Fox once more.
“Let him go, Johnny James,” he snarled. “This fight is long overdue.”
“I’m tired of this bullshit!” I barked. “Rogue’s had enough of it too, haven’t you pretty girl?”
We all turned our heads, looking for her but the room was empty and Mutt was in the doorway, yapping at us like he was calling us every swear word in dog language he could think up.
“Rogue?” Maverick called, striding to the door and Mutt savaged his ankle. “Watch it, you little beast.”
Mutt barked again, looking from Maverick to me and Fox and my arms and legs went slack around my brother.
Fox pushed to his feet and I followed, bruises throbbing against my skin as Fox stalked after Maverick to the door with tension in his posture. Mutt barked more furiously, backing away down the corridor, and growling when we didn’t go after him.
“He wants us to follow him,” I said in realisation, striding straight towards the little dog. “What’s up, boy?” My pulse skipped unevenly at his strange behaviour. Where had Rogue gone off to?
“Is it Rogue? Is she okay?” Fox asked gruffly, appearing at my side half a heartbeat before Maverick appeared on my other.
Mutt turned into the stairwell and started running and I broke into a run too, my heart beating unevenly, sensing something was wrong. Maverick and Fox charged along beside me, the three of us sprinting full pelt down the stairs and through a corridor towards the exit.
Mutt barked more furiously as he sped outside and we tore after him through the compound and towards the jetty as a crash of thunder sounded in the sky.
My breaths came heavier as I spotted the boats way out in the water, moving away towards the horizon and Maverick spat swear words as we ran up the jetty to where Mutt was now pacing back and forth. He stared back at us, yapping angrily and the three of us came to a sudden halt in front of him, staring down at the phone before the dog. Rogue’s phone.
We all stooped down to grab it, but my hand closed around it first, my gaze locking on the video waiting to play on the screen, Rogue’s empty expression staring at me through the glass.
A sickness twisted my insides as an ominous prickle ran along my spine. I stood upright and Fox and Maverick’s shoulders jammed tight against mine as they leaned in to look at the screen and with a horrible sense that my entire world was about to end, I pressed play.
“Well," Rogue began, her expression cold and hard. "If you're watching this now, then you already know I'm gone. And don't worry, I won't be coming back. I got what I wanted from each of you and as much as I'm sure you won't want to believe it, it was this. Your destruction. Your pain." A smile danced around her lips and ice