Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I throw the whiskey bottle, and it smashes into a million pieces against the wall, sending whiskey spraying across the floor and furniture like a geyser.
Reaching inside my cut for my lighter, I lean down so I am eye level with my brother, and I flick the flint so the flame glows between us.
His laughter stops when our eyes meet.
“You wouldn’t,” he says through his bloody and bruised lips.
“Watch me.”
I throw the lighter onto the spilled whiskey and it erupts.
Flames roar into the air and spread across the floor and up the wall.
I lean down so I can whisper into his ear. “This isn’t for all the evil shit you’ve done in your miserable life. This is because you touched her.”
There is a moment when the revenge you seek comes to you, and mine is in those few seconds when he looks up at me and I can see the fear in his eyes. He knows he is about to die. He knows he has lost.
The bar catches alight like a tinderbox, and within seconds, flames dance all around us. Liquor bottles catch alight and explode like fireworks, and I watch with a quickening in my chest as the flames grab onto everything.
Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I acknowledge the owner had this coming too. We all know where Seamus Doyle got the money to open this bar. He might have set it right in his mind. But selling arms to street thugs so they can kill each other, as well as the innocent people who get caught in the crossfire, is always going to bring you karma from a higher power. When he comes crying to the club about it, I’ll remind him about the seven-year-old girl who was killed when she was caught in a shootout between The Psychos and another gang. Using the guns he put in their hands.
Then I’ll remind him about the girls of a questionable age he liked to ply with drinks before introducing them to his bedroom upstairs. That was until he did a short stint in prison for it. He’s only been out a matter of weeks. But given time, there is no doubt he’ll return to his old ways. Because that type of poison runs deep.
But right now he isn’t my concern.
I climb to my feet and look down at Gaston slumped on the floor.
This is the last time I will see him. Because in minutes, the fire will eat up this bar and everything in it, and he’s too injured to escape outside.
Our eyes connect for the last time. “I will always choose her. Over everything and everyone. Most of all you.”
And then, turning away, I escape the burning bar and disappear into a night lit up by flames and sirens.
CHAPTER 52
BELLE
I’m in the dreamy state between sleep and wakefulness when Beast walks in smelling like smoke and liquor.
I sit up. He’s angry, and his knuckles are bleeding.
“What happened to you?” I ask, climbing off the bed.
He eats up the space between us and takes my face in his hands.
“No one touches you. Do you hear me? No one.”
Panic tingles in the pit of my stomach. He knows about Gaston.
“I was trying to be a good old lady,” I say.
He arches his eyebrow, but his face remains hard. “By not telling me that Gaston threatened you?”
“There was a lot happening at the time. I didn’t want to add more to your plate.”
“Add more to my—Jesus, Belle, none of that matters to me as much as you do.”
I swallow hard beneath his fiery gaze. “I thought I was protecting you.”
Only now does his face soften. “I don’t need you to protect me, little one. I need you to tell me if someone ever hurts you or makes you afraid so I can protect you. You are my priority. Nothing else comes before you.”
He claims my mouth in a kiss that is hard and hot, as if we’re sealing a pact.
When he pulls back to look at me again, a flicker of understanding passes through his expression. “It was Annika, wasn’t it?”
I’m not about to dump Annika in it or throw her under the bus, but clearly he knows she was involved.
“We both thought it was a good idea,” I say. “She didn’t tell Ryder for the same reason.”
“And about now he’s having this same conversation with her.” When I bite down on my lip, he senses my remorse and pushes a lock of hair behind my ear. He softens the stern edge in his voice. “It’s why you got so toasted that afternoon, wasn’t it?”
“We needed something to take the edge off.”
He shakes his head. “You should’ve told me. And I’m going to say the same thing to my cousin.”
“You will do no such thing. Her intentions were good. She tried to protect me from Gaston. Stood between me and him so he couldn’t touch me.”