Davonte fell in line easily with the plan.

The dumb fucker was so assured that he was untouchable that he didn’t even put up much of an argument when Damon presented the terms of the exchange.

Of course, Davonte didn’t actually plan to hand over The Underground to Damon, it was all smoke and mirrors.

We both knew that Davonte planned to kill Damon as soon as he produced me.

That’s where Terrance and Chantel came in.

And please, God, I hoped they didn’t fuck us in the end, because we were putting everything we had in their hands.

The address, an abandoned shoe factory, tagged with countless layers of graffiti, littered with trash left by vagrants and misfits, was the perfect place to commit a murder.

If I felt a tiny pinch of conscience at my part in all this, I squelched it.

I was doing this for Tommy, but also for myself.

Davonte was a sick individual. The world wouldn’t weep for his loss.

Maybe I was playing God, but what choice did I have if I wanted to survive on my own terms?

Besides, Davonte had created this karma, not me.

It was nearing dusk as we pulled up to the factory.

The atmosphere was creepy and I half expected a killer clown to emerge from the shadows to slice and dice all of us.

Clowns were fucking scary.

Whoever thought clowns were appropriate for kids’ parties had to have been on drugs.

I was babbling inside my own mind to take away from the fear lodged in my brain.

If I’d had anything in my stomach I would’ve crapped my pants with nervous diarrhea.

Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten much after we’d gotten the call from Terrance.

We were about to commit a crime.

Up until this point, I’d been the victim in Davonte’s game.

Now, I was an accessory.

I tried not to let fear scare me from my purpose.

A car rolled up and I instinctively reached for Damon’s hand, needing to hold onto him for courage.

He squeezed my hand gently, telling me silently that he was there and nothing would happen to me.

I took courage from his solid strength.

And even though I’d accused him of being no better than Davonte, I knew in that moment, he’d never been anything like Davonte.

Shame at being so blind curdled my insides.

Because unlike Davonte, Damon had no interest in spilling blood.

Even a rat like Davonte’s.

Davonte emerged from the car, walking into the waning light of the factory’s first floor.

Accompanied by his usual henchmen, Davonte was smug in his belief that he couldn’t lose.

“Damon,” he tsked, looking as if he truly were disappointed by Damon’s supposed failure. “You really should’ve just stuck with my offer. You could’ve made a lot of money at my side.”

“Cut the shit, Davonte. You were going to kill me as soon as I delivered Charlie.”

Davonte spread his hands as if caught. “Guilty. But if it means anything, I was actually considering having you on the payroll. You’re an impressive guy. Just having you around might’ve been enough to make some men piss themselves. But in the end,” he gently tapped his healing nose “I just couldn’t let your disrespect go unpunished.”

Then Davonte’s gaze fell to Damon’s hand gripped in mine and his lip curled as he processed the scene. “Well, well, well. Isn’t this cute? Let me guess…you’re in love? Have I gotten between two star-crossed lovers? How fucking tragic. I think I might puke.”

I wanted to spit at Davonte but I remained quiet, too afraid to make a wrong move. Where were Terrance’s guys that were supposed to intercept Davonte before things got out of hand?

In the movies, the bad guy got taken out by the sniper or a hail of gunfire.

But we weren’t in a movie and a bad feeling had begun to creep up my neck.

“Charlene, I was going to make you my wife,” he said to me with a feigned air of sadness. I couldn’t contain the revulsion I felt. Davonte’s gaze hardened at my obvious rejection. “Now you’re going to be my whore. I’m going to chain you to my side and let the lowest of the low fuck you raw. How does that sound?”

I felt the low rumble of rage coursing through Damon at Davonte’s taunt and I silently begged Damon to remain calm. Davonte’s men had guns. We had nothing at this point because it was starting to look as if Terrance had backed out.

We were alone.

Damon and I both knew it. We could feel it in our bones.

We’d been set up.

Maybe Chantel had turned on us and Terrance had lost interest.

Panic drove at my brain.

If I didn’t do something, Damon was going to try and fight his way out of this and end up dead.

I couldn’t fathom Damon dying for me.

Damon was a good man, even if he was rough around the edges.

He was my man, my brick wall.

And there was only one thing I had going for me in this negotiation — the fact that Davonte wanted me bad.

Maybe even bad enough to trade.

“I’ll go willingly with you. I will even marry you,” I said, disentangling my hand from Damon’s in spite of his furrowed brow of shock. I took a step toward Davonte, my throat aching from the unshed tears of misery that I wanted to cry. “I’ll give you everything you want in a wife…if you let Damon go.”

“I already told you, that offer expired,” Davonte said with a cruel twist of his lips, enjoying watching me beg for his mercy. “But I’m entertained by your attempt to resuscitate a dead deal.”

Damon gave a minute shake of his head but I was past the point of return. I had to make this work.

“Don’t be stupid. You have plenty of whores. What you don’t have is a woman who can elevate your place in society. I might not come from riches but I know how to act. I’ll be your arm candy if you just let Damon go.”

In spite of Davonte’s claim that I was spinning my wheels, my argument seemed to hit a chord.

“Just let him go?”

“Let him leave Detroit. That way, you never have to suffer his disrespect again and I will be faithful to you and our life.”

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. Was I really committing myself to a disgusting pig like Davonte for the rest of my life?

His expression turned sly and ugly. “Really? And what if I wanted to fuck you in the ass every night behind closed doors? Rip you wide open so that you couldn’t walk straight the following day? Would you still smile and act the adoring wife on my arm?”

I swallowed the true lump of fear and managed a nod. I could almost feel Damon’s rage billowing out from his pores. Lord help Davonte if Damon managed to get his hands on him. “I will be your loving w-wife in all ways.” I barely got the words out.

I was doing this for Damon.

“I don’t know, boys. Do you think she’s worth it?” It was a rhetorical question his men knew better of answering. This was all for show anyway. Davonte wanted us to squirm. I was already on my proverbial knees offering up my dignity…I couldn’t give much more.

Davonte’s cunning gaze flew to Damon. “Killing you might too kind for what you’ve done. Maybe the ultimate punishment would be leaving you alive so that everyday you knew that I was fucking your woman.”

Damon’s fists clenched but I stayed him with a look. I wasn’t going to watch him die. Not over me.

After a long, tension-filled moment, Davonte said in a voice brimming with satisfaction, “Well then, call me a softie but maybe you’ve persuaded me to put a ring on your finger after all.”

I shuddered and released a pent-up breath.

Davonte grinned, looking as smug as the Cheshire cat. “Come here darling, show me how much you plan to adore your loving and virile husband.”

Lord, give me strength.

I walked on unsteady feet toward Davonte, closing the distance until I was near enough for him to grab. I cried out as Davonte’s fingers curled onto my wrist, bruising the skin as he jerked me into his arms to smash his mouth against mine.

My first instinct was to bit off his tongue as he jabbed the thing into my mouth but I forced myself to stop struggling and accept it, if only to protect Damon.

Davonte twisted my breast as he grabbed at me, fingers digging into tender flesh. Then he made an obscene show of clutching at my mound, jamming his hand down my pants to roughly fondle what he wanted so badly.

I squeezed my eyes shut to endure the humiliation but the roar that echoed sounded inhuman.

Suddenly, there was a blur of motion and the ricochet of fired bullets hitting metal as Damon charged the men guarding Davonte.

Just like that first night, Damon tore through the thugs like a fist through wet paper.

Davonte shoved me away from him so he could grab his gun. I landed on the dirty floor and scrambled away, watching in awe as Damon broke bones and shattered faces.

Like a hot knife through butter.

Grunts, screams of agony, guns hitting cement from nerveless fingers, and Davonte shouting desperate, but ultimately useless orders…it was a symphony of destruction.

The violence was bloody and vile but watching Damon protect what belonged to him…a thing of beauty.

I wouldn’t apologize for the blood-thirst I was feeling.

I wouldn’t apologize for Damon’s actions in a moment of pure fury.

And when he got to Davonte…I didn’t even look away.

“You’re never going to touch her again, you motherfucker,” he promised Davonte seconds before he kicked the man’s trachea down to his ass.

Tiny bloody bubbles danced on Davonte’s lips as he gurgled his last breath, his fingers curling spastically, clutching at the life quickly leaving him.

Within seconds Davonte was dead, and we were standing in a circle of carnage.

I ran to Damon and he scooped me up, holding me tight as if his arms were the only thing tying me to this earth.

“I killed him,” Damon said, his voice shaking. “I fucking killed him.”

“Shhhh, I know, baby,” I crooned to him, kissing him softly, soothing the shock from his face. He’d killed every last one of them protecting me. “I know.”

I wanted to hold him for days, assure him that he’d had no choice but we didn’t have time to go soft.

Not yet.

Now it was time to get the fuck out of there. “C’mon, let’s go,” I urged. “We can’t be seen with these bodies. Someone is going to find them eventually and we need to be far from the scene when they do.”

Damon nodded and gripped my hand as we ran out of the factory, prepared to leave behind the evidence of what’d gone down.

But just as we cleared the factory grounds, another car rolled up.

The window rolled down and Terrance smiled from the backseat.

The expletive scrolled across my brain as Damon exploded in kind. “Where the fuck were you?”

And right then, I wasn’t sure that Damon wouldn’t end Terrance, too for leaving us to twist in the wind.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I would stop him.