You are where I wrote once upon a time, he is where I write happily ever after.”
In an instant, the boy I’d once known vanished. I tore at my hand but he kept it pinned.
“Let me go.”
With his other hand, West gripped the back of my head, holding me captive. Captive to the pain and helplessness in his eyes.
“You want me to be the villain?” he growled.
My heart dropped. “Don’t do this.” Be better.
“Fine, Story. I’ll be the fucking villain.”
He crashed his lips against mine. Ugly. Brutal. I struggled against him, and he forced his mouth harder against mine.
I felt the wetness on my cheeks first, then the salt hit my lips.
Tears—his.
Then West was gone, pulled off of me in what felt like a gust of wind. I had a split second to see his face. The tears reflecting in the black night, before he was yanked further away. Thrown to the sand.
Grayson.
Grayson had been the unseen force pulling West off me. He caged West, legs on either side of his torso. The wind whipped blond hair wildly around his face—his profile seen in carved and vicious glimpses.
An angry god dispensing justice.
“And the prince saves the princess.” West laughed. “But what are you going to do tomorrow? When nothing fucking changes?”
Grayson grinned, mean. “I don’t give a flying shit about tomorrow. All I care about is now. Seeing your bones break like you’ve been breaking her heart.”
“Grayson? How are you here—how did you find me?” Grayson rolled his neck at my questions, eyes laser-focused on West.
“Look away, Snitch.” His voice made my gut clench. Deadly.
“Grays—”
“Look away,” he growled, then slammed his fist into West’s face.
Fifty-Three
GRAY
The crunch of his bones against my fist, the splatter of his blood black on the sand. This moment was an inevitability come to its conclusion. From the minute I overheard her truth, to every broken look after. Her letters were kindling piling higher and higher.
Dear Atlas, I need you.
Snick. Flash. Boom.
Slam. “Stop.”
He’s right, it whispered. You’re bad, it whispered.
Slam. “Fucking.”
If I make a mistake, does that mean I’m not worthy of loving you anymore?
Slam. “With.”
I want him, but I don’t…want him. I want to carve the rust off my heart.
Slam. “Her.”
One final punch, and I curled my hands around his throat.
“Grayson!” Story grabbed my arm with both hands, using all her strength to keep me from ending his life. Hands still clenched around his throat, I glanced at her. Tears stained her soft hazelnut cheeks. My grip tightened.
For that alone, I could kill him.
Her raspy plea. “He’s not worth it.”
For months she’d kept saying that. She didn’t fucking get it.
Keeping one hand pinned on his neck, I caressed the other down her cheek. “You are worth it, Story. You.”
Her glance fluttered to the side, to West starting to gain consciousness again. Blood stained her cheek where my knuckle had been. His blood. Anger rose up in my throat again, hot and choking.
“So then listen when I tell you this isn’t what I want. I want you, I want us, a future where he is a distant memory. This?” She glanced at him again, swallowing. “He’ll be in our lives forever.”
I dug my thumb into his pulsing vein.
“Please,” Story whispered. “We’ve come so far. We’re almost there.”
I yanked my hand from his neck, shaking it out because the muscles still wanted to be wrapped around his throat. Story threw her arms around my neck, nearly tackling me.
I forgot West and just hugged her, fucking hugged my wife. I pulled us off the ground, gripped her tight beneath the hollows of her shoulder blades, until her heartbeat bled into mine. Knowing she was in my arms—mine and safe.
West’s wet and bloody laugh sounded beneath us. “You still need me.”
I think Story sensed the change. Maybe my muscles tightened, maybe my breathing changed. Or maybe she just knew.
Because she whispered, “Grayson.”
I pulled back to see her walnut eyes, using her to steady myself as I spoke. “You’re done, du Lac. Done with her. Done with here. Get out before my kindness wears off.”
“You need me.” West scrambled shakily to his feet, pulling my attention back. “Lottie might not be pregnant with your kid, but you still signed that postnup and I still have everything on you. I’ll destroy you. I’ll destroy your family. I won’t stop until my name is on everything you love.”
He sounded as unhinged as he looked, and the violent waves crashing only added to it.
I carefully put Story behind my body.
“No,” I said lightly.