The crunch of tyres on the gravel track that is the only way to get to the shack heralds the arrival of our first guests. The unfamiliar car doesn’t provide any clues to the identity of the occupants. It’s the van with the blacked-out windows that follows close behind gives them away.

My Aryan brothers are here. They bring my bargaining chip and a little extra something to sweeten the pot.

“Casper,” I greet Mark-Lee’s Lieutenant like we’re old friends.

He salutes me, Hitler-style, and it makes my skin crawl. But I don’t scratch the itch. Nope, like a good solider, I return the gesture with gusto. I feel Amber’s eyes burning a hot track over the back of my head. It makes me feel worse, but deals have been made that have permanently stained my soul. The layers of filth that coat me are thick and eternal. There’s no escaping that fact.

It was her decision to ignore the past two years. One that I’m certain she is regretting right about now.

I know because I spent most of yesterday fighting with my own remorse. When Harry told me that Jax killed Seb for double crossing him, I felt immense relief. One, because being dead meant he could never come between me and Amber, and two, it proved that she had been mine the entire time. Of course, the guilt had then set in for doubting her and I’d felt like a piece of shit for being happy that another person she loved was dead.

“Where do you want him?” Casper seems on edge and eager to get the hell out of here.

“We have two more guests to arrive. I need you to keep him secure until I say so.”

“Have it your way.” Casper clicks his fingers at the guys standing next to the black van. They open the side door and pull Jax out. He’s tossed to the ground in a bloody, moaning heap. Three heavy bags are thrown next to him. They get back in the van and the engine roars to life. It completes a three point turn on the narrow road, before revving hard to make it up the hill that leads back to the main highway.

The sound of the over-taxed engine is deafening in the silence of the morning. It drowns out my cursing as Casper heads for his own vehicle with me hot on his heels.

“What the fuck? We had a deal.” I protest again, louder this time.

Casper stops short. He points toward the hills. “Our deal didn’t include working with preppers.”

It takes me a second to realise what he means. He uses that hesitation to get into his car and drive away. I stare after him, jamming my hands in my hair when it clicks. He’s talking about the doomsday preppers that have the shack surrounded.

I spent a few hours last night with them hashing out a back-up plan in case Harry or Belinda decided to ambush us. Didn’t realise that the Aryan Circle has an issue with them. It makes sense, though. Both groups are as paranoid and crazy as the other.

Understanding his position is a cold comfort because my ignorance has just cost me half my army.

Here’s hoping it’s not a fatal error on my behalf.

“What do we do with him?” Amber asks from behind me. Turning to look at her, I see that she’s pointing at the crumpled lump on the ground that’s supposed to be Jax.

“Leave him there, I guess.” I shrug, not really caring about his condition. As long as he has a heartbeat when B gets here, I’m good.

Amber sends a pointed look in my direction. Looking everywhere but at her, I try to pretend I don’t see it. She gets the better of me, so I walk over to him and nudge him with the toe of my boot. It elicits a pain-stricken moan. That’s enough confirmation for me. I give Amber a thumbs up, and she stops glaring at me.

A dark-grey truck appears over the hill. A cherry-red sportscar struggles to follow it. I hasten to grab the three bags and run them back to the shack before they arrive. No one needs to know about my secret weapon until I’m good and ready.

Harry emerges from his truck first. He opens Belinda’s door for her and helps her out of her vehicle. Amber giggles at the sight of her outfit and I join in. Apparently, she didn’t get the memo about the remoteness of our meeting spot. Her spindly high heels and tight dress are as practical here as an ejection seat would be in a helicopter. 

“Harry. Belinda,” I incline my head as I greet them.

Belinda ignores me. She shoots a glare filled with hot hostility at Amber, then makes her way to Jax with tentative steps. Watching her walk on the gravelled surface in heels is akin to viewing a newborn lamb take its first steps. If I had time for jokes, I can think of a few off the top of my head that would piss her right off.

“How you doin’?” Harry asks Amber.

“As well as can be expected,” she replies. The coolness that has been present in her manner toward me all morning is evident when she addresses Harry. It would seem that I’m not the only person she’s doubting today.

You see, I know what Amber is thinking. She’s worried that I’m going to let her down by not holding up my end of her plan. Little does she know, but I have taken her recipe for revenge and added to it. Question is, is she going to be happy with what I’ve cooked up? She seemed abnormally concerned about Jax, and I’d figured she’d want him to hurt the most.

“Let’s get this over and done with, shall we?” I raise my voice so that Belinda can hear me. “We need your old files, B. Once we have them, you take him and leave.”

It appears that her spectacular disregard for anything but her own desires has survived the blow I dealt to her ego by outsmarting her, since she ignores me and continues doing her own thing. B hikes up her skirt and bends down as far as she can to examine Jax. If she wasn’t so annoying, I’d laugh. The woman is unbreakable—her ability to toll with the punches is second to none.

“What have you done to him?” Her voice is shrill. She plants her hands on her hips and scowls at me with as much anger as she can emote with all the plastic pumped into her face. “If he’s permanently damaged, so help me God—”

“Oh, shut up.” Amber snaps. Now, it her turn to glare at me. She places her hands on her hips and growls, “What do you mean, she can take him?”

I hold up a finger and grab two of the bags that Casper left behind. Crouching down, I unzip the first one and show her the contents. Harry moves forward to have a look and Belinda picks her way carefully over the rough track until she’s standing with us.

“That’s all the doses of Centrifuge that have been manufactured to date. I figured Belinda could take them with her and give Jax a taste of his own medicine.”

Harry and Amber exchange a glance, then break into smiles. Belinda nods, contemplation of the malevolent kind lighting up her plastic face.  “Well, it would be fitting consider he shot me and left me for dead. A little bit of payback never hurt anyone.”

I don’t have to check Amber to see if she’s on board with what I’m offering. She runs a hand under the back of my T-shirt and snuggles into my side for the first time today. The iciness she’s been emitting all morning has thawed, and I’m positive she’d purr with contentment if she could.

Belinda seems satisfied for the moment as well. She smooths the front of her dress down, then her expression changes from contentment to regret. Laying a hand on the side of my face, she pats me, before running her thumb over my lips. “It was wonderful knowing you. Another time, another place. Who knows what might have been.”

My mouth drops open. I don’t think I’ll ever get a handle on her delusions. Belinda snaps her fingers at Harry. “I’ve given you everything I have, now help me get all this into my car. My part of this charade is over.”

After I’ve loaded the two bags of Centrifuge into the trunk of her car, I help Harry move Jax into the back seat. He truly is a bruised and bloody mess. The Aryan Circle have had a bit too much fun with him over the past two days. I prod his cheek where dried blood has settled over a deep cut.

“That’s gonna need stitches.”

Belinda laughs. “Isn’t it fortunate that I’m here to nurse him back to health?”

Jax manages to open one eye a crack. He glares at Amber, who has followed us to Belinda’s sportscar. “Doesn’t matter where you run to, I’ll find you and make you—”

My fist makes an even bigger mess of his nose when it is driven into the pulpy mass that he calls a face. “Over my dead body you will.”

I slam the door shut and tap on the roof to let Belinda know she can leave. She lets her window down, a brilliant smile on her face.

“I wish you the best of luck,” she says. The She-Devil even sounds sincere. “May all your dreams come true because mine certainly have.”

She adjusts her rear-view mirror, so she can look at her passenger. He struggles to sit up, scrambling for the door handle with terror in the one eye he can open properly. Harry leans against the door to block his exit while Belinda presses the door lock button and reaches into her handbag. She pulls free a contraption that looks like a lightsabre. Amber drags in a sharp breath and steps away from the car, and I watch through wide eyes as B hits a button on the device and it crackles to life. Electrical currents flow through the end, like something out of a futuristic horror film, and I wince when she places it against Jax’s neck and zaps him until he passes out.

Tossing it on the passenger seat, Belinda gives a cheery wave, raises her window, and drives like a crazy person down the gravel track. The back of her sportscar weaves a couple of times, but she makes it over the summit eventually.

“That is one crazy chick,” I remark as we walk back to the shack.

“Amen to that,” Harry agrees.

“What do you think she’s going to do when the Centrifuge runs out and he regains his memory?” Amber asks.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Harry replies. “By the time she’s finished with him, I doubt that Jax will be able to recognise himself in a mirror—with or without Centrifuge.”

Amber shudders. She gives me a quick kiss on the lips and heads inside of the shack to get the boys ready.

“Do you have everything?” I ask Harry when Amber is out of earshot.

“New identities. New documents. Four one-way tickets to paradise.” Harry hands me a package. “My number is in there. Call me if you ever need anything.”

“I won’t.”

Harry purses his lips and nods. “Good.”

We regard each other with quiet respect. There’s so many things we could say right now, yet none of them seem adequate.

“I hope you’re prepared for the cost of the deal you made.” Harry says.

I shrug. “It is what it is. Winning comes always comes with a hefty price tag.”

“Well, payment will come due quicker than you expect. That’s just the way it—”

His warning is cut short when JJ comes out of the shack. Amber follows closely with Charlie asleep in her arms. “I think I’ve got everything so, I guess, it’s time to hit the road.”

“Make sure you keep an eye on the news between your flights,” Harry says. “The story is ready to run the second I get back to the city with Belinda’s dossier and it’s going to go global. My contact at the police department is primed as well. The arrests will come thick and fast once it hits the news. They’re all going away for a long time.”

Amber passes Charlie to me. She hugs Harry and kisses his cheek. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done.”

“It was nothing. They had to be stopped and it was up to us to do it.”

He claps me on the shoulder and ruffles JJ’s hair.

Standing together, hand-in-hand, we watch his truck head over the hill. Pure relief hits when his tail lights have disappeared from view and one thing becomes clear.

We have won.

I scoop JJ up with my spare arm and Amber steps into my embrace with her sons. I hold the three of them tight for a good minute, revelling in the boy’s innocent scent and Amber’s familiar perfume, before I let her go and finally utter the words I’ve been wanting to say since this nightmare began.

“Thank fuck, that’s over!”