Page 126 of The Finish Line
Every second I let my emotions make decisions is a second we can’t afford to lose.
I can hear the satisfaction in the sick fuck’s voice with his parting words.
“Don’t keep me waiting, Ezekiel.”
The line goes dead as his threat hangs heavy in the air, and I start at a dead run past the tree line, all the while paralyzed inside. I carefully go over every possible move, knowing that I’m fucked in every direction.
Once behind the wheel, I pull up the text, and my finger hovers for seconds before I slowly backspace until I’ve deleted it.
The decision’s been made for me.
She’ll need protection from the club moving forward. She’ll wake up marked, and she’ll hate me for it. Another unforgivable deception I’ll have to live with.
Hours later, I slam my phone down on my desk and sink into my chair in my Charlotte office, where I’ve been since I left King’s Garage, in an attempt to do damage control with Dom and Sean. I’ve spent nearly the entire day negotiating with a fucking madman in the bed I made years ago. I wired a significant amount of lunch money to keep the bully at bay, to keep him as far the fuck as possible away from my brothers, my club, and the woman I love.
And in doing so, I agreed to a new arrangement, one that will have me under his heel for some time to come. But it’s not my newly forced allegiance to him that’s eating me alive. If I can manage to get my club and relationships under control, then I can better figure out a way to deal with Antoine, even if it means declaring war and bringing him down. It’s the fallout with my brothers at our garage just hours ago that has me feeling defeated in a way I never imagined possible.
No matter what I do from this point, I already feel like I’ve lost everything.
She woke up hours ago, no doubt feeling violated in a way that’s incomprehensible to her. And I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there to attempt to explain myself or my reasoning for doing what I did. And at this point, I know they won’t matter.
Swallowing down the guilt, I scan the Charlotte skyline, my hands tied in a way they’ve never been. The helplessness I feel is inescapable, my fate and future sealed as Shelly comes in with another cup of coffee.
“Honey, you look like hell. Drink this.” She places the offering on my desk as Sean and Dom’s condemning words circle my mind, my jaw sore from the punch Sean threw as their parting words to me rip my insides apart. Shelly lingers at my desk, and I can feel her concern, her hesitance before she finally speaks. “I know this isn’t the time, but you have a call—”
“Take a message.”
“He said it’s urgent, regarding someone named Cecelia.”
Every hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I head straight to the blinking light on my desk and lift the receiver. “Did they give a name?”
She nods. “Roman Horner.”
That phone call and the hours after I’ve replayed so many times at this point, I re-live it vividly. From the meeting with Roman that changed everything I thought about him, to the two terrifying hours I spent speeding back to Triple Falls to try and get to her. To the minute Dom lay dying in her arms and down to the second our eyes held just after I ordered her never to return. In twenty-four hours, my life exploded, and a war began.
That night I truly lost it all. Every bit of my control, along with my brother, Cecelia, my club, everything that fucking mattered to me because I hesitated when making decisions due to my emotions. I can’t make that mistake again. I can’t hesitate. I can’t lose her because of it. I have to let the emotionless soldier—the monster that dwells inside me—take over if I want to gain the upper hand with Antoine.
I can’t let love make a single fucking decision for me.
There’s a storm brewing, and it’s one I can’t see, but I can feel it, just like I felt it all those years ago. I have to fucking figure out his intentions—his plays. And more than that, I have to be several moves ahead of him.
Without Palo, I’m a sitting duck. A phone call with Antoine isn’t going to convince me one way or the other. And without a word from him for the last month, I know it’s just a matter of time before he comes calling. This time, I’ll be ready. I’ve spent the last six years satiating his demands while trying to clean up my own fucking mess. My plans to rid myself of him are taking a back seat to the recovery of the club. I was intent on keeping him at bay while we rebuilt, and with Cecelia’s sudden arrival and my efforts to get back to her, I waited too fucking long to move in on him.
I never make the same mistake twice.
Because of love, I’ve made that declaration a lie.
And I’m a man in. Fucking. Love.
If it’s war this motherfucker is after, my peacekeeping days are long over.
Decision made, I stalk toward the house, and twenty minutes later, I speed out of the driveway in the Camaro.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Cecelia
“Order up, Cecelia,” Travis calls, just as I shoot off a text to Tobias. He’s been quiet all morning, which has me slightly on edge. I left him sleeping this morning and snuck away with a brief kiss to his lips, which he returned while attempting to pull me into him, still submerged in sleep.