Lance

There were few decisions in life where I could look back and definitely say that I’d made the right call. Turning that car around to come back to Tara and saving Bryan along the way was unequivocally the best decision ever.

Her whole body bucked with sobs, as she clung to her brother. He met my gaze over her shoulder, tears streaming down his battered face. He nodded once, and I felt that in my soul. That was him backing down, that was him finally relinquishing hold of Tara and letting her forge her own life. It meant something to me that he’d stood back to let Tara see me first.

I gave them time, and waited for them to finish murmuring some quiet words to each other. Bryan nodded his head to me, and she whipped around, her eyes wide in her face. “You saved him?”

“Something tells me he might have gotten out of that one on his own,” I said.

“Oh, now you’re modest?” Bryan gave Tara another squeeze before he helped her place her feet back on the ground.

“Fine, I saved your ass,” I grunted.

Reb’s voice carried across the clearing to us, something vile he hurled at the men holding guns on him, and I remembered. Like a shot of adrenaline, I remembered what that man took from me (Trent), what he’d tried to take from me (Tara), and what he tried to take from Tara (Bryan).

I strode toward Reb, my fists clenched at my sides. Bryan must have had the same idea, because he fell into step beside me, his face set, that eerie half-smile he wore that signaled his anger had simmered into deadly control.

We’d been tracking Tara and Reb from the cabin with the help of Castor’s men. We’d heard the engine of the ATV, then the gunshots, and I’d given up all pretense at stealth and began to sprint toward the sounds. What I’d found was Tara on the ATV, hair wild, eyes panicked, and Reb on the ground, cursing and bleeding.

I got a better look at him now to see she’d blown out a kneecap and shot a hole in his bicep. “Damn,” I muttered, taking a moment to be damn impressed with her shot.

Reb’s face was twisted in pain, but fear was knitted through his agony as well. And that fear was reserved for Bryan.

Bryan crouched on the balls of his feet next to Reb and cocked his head. I considered myself a decently tough guy but this calm, smiling Bryan scared the shit out of me. Reb was shaking, no longer cursing, instead staring up at his former best friend like Bryan was the grim reaper.

“What were those words again?” Bryan tapped his chin. “Ah yeah, I remember now. ‘Bryan’s about to be very dead in about twenty minutes.’” He grinned huge and pointed to himself with both of his thumbs. “Well, look who’s alive, motherfucker!”

Reb didn’t get to respond, because Bryan took his gun out of his waistband and smashed the butt down onto Reb’s destroyed kneecap. Just like that. With a fucking smile on his face. Reb howled in pain. I looked behind me to see Tara watching her ex-boyfriend, barely keeping it together as she wrapped her arms around herself. She raised a teary gaze to me.

I wasn’t going to fuck up my promise to her again. Did I want to see Reb suffer? Did I want to crush his windpipe with my bare hands? Fuck yeah. But Tara was close to shock. In the last twenty-four hours she’d seen me walk away, she’d thought her brother was dead, she thought a gang leader was going to kill her, her ex-boyfriend had basically stolen her, and she’d shot him.

I stepped toward her and gathered her into my arms. She melted into me, clinging to my shirt, burrowing into my body like she wanted to fuse to me. I stroked her hair. “We can leave if you want, let Bryan take care of this.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “Just hold me.”

“Always,” I answered, hoping like hell this meant she forgave me for not fighting for her. I’d regret walking away from her in that diner forever.

“—Took a fall for you. I told Castor I killed Trent, when it was really you.” Bryan was saying. Tara sucked in a breath at what he was saying. “I gave you territory, gave you soldiers, gave you all the money they brought in. I didn’t even ask for a percentage. And you do this?” His hand holding the gun lowered, this time the butt slamming into Reb’s bicep and his pained shriek made Tara shudder in my arms.

“You kept insurance,” Reb spat.

“Of course I kept insurance, you fucking dick. But you know me. I would have gone to the grave with that.” He shook his head. “Oh wait! How could I have forgotten introductions?” He rose to his feet and took a step back so Reb could see where I stood with Tara. “That there is Lance. You wanna know who he is?”

Reb’s nostril flared as he took in my embrace with Tara.

“He’s Trent’s brother!” Bryan started laughing, a crazy maniacal laugh that chilled me to the fucking bone, but Tara actually semi-smiled. These Drayers were fucking nuts.

He stopped laughing long enough to cock back his knee and send his boot flying right into Reb’s lower back. The man opened his mouth in a silent scream as he arched, then rolled with a whimper.

“So, before you die,” Bryan said, checking the clip of his gun. “You’re going to know that Lance met Tara in that shit hole town she was living. The same town where I kept a safety deposit box with the proof that you killed Trent Anders. Lance and Tara met and fell in love and now he’s going to be in her bed every night in a way you never got to be.” Bryan hawked a ball of phlegm and spat it onto Reb’s chest. “The way you’ll never be. In the first ten minutes I met him, I knew he was a better man than you ever were.” Bryan licked his lips and aimed his gun at Reb’s head. “Wanna spew more shit or should I end this now?”

“Drayer.”

A deep voice boomed from the trees, and I immediately whirled to place my body in front of Tara’s. A large man emerged from the trees, flanked by over half a dozen men, all holding semi-automatic rifles. The man who spoke was huge, maybe close to seven feet, his hair shot through with silver, and his face lined with age. I placed him in his fifties, but he was ripped as fuck, his chest fucking massive. He was like a Grizzly bear in human form.

“Castor,” Bryan said, lowering the gun.

This was Castor… holy shit. No wonder he ruled New Jersey’s criminal activity. Who’d want to go up against this guy?

“I told you there’d be a marker if I helped you find your sister,” he said.

I hadn’t been allowed in that meeting, but I’d seen Bryan when he left. I knew he’d agreed to owe Castor, and Castor wasn’t anyone you wanted to owe. Bryan’s expression remained still as he answered. “Yes.”

“I am calling the marker now.”

Bryan flinched. “What?”

“Ghost is mine,” he said softly.

That wasn’t what Bryan expected. Hell, it wasn’t what I expected either. I hadn’t come here to get revenge for Trent. I knew in my heart that the best thing I could do for the memory of my brother was to be happy. And to be happy, I needed Tara.

“You’re taking this from me?” Bryan asked.

“You wanted out of the life, yes?”

Bryan lips parted, and then he swallowed. “Yes.”

“So go, you’re free.”

“Already got a lot of blood on my hands, Castor. Hell, I killed one of Reb’s soldiers yesterday. Don’t do this for my conscience. That ship has sailed.”

Castor laughed. “Ah, but that was self-defense. This is…” he gestured to a Reb who had gone pale and listless with blood loss. “This is an execution. I think you’re trying to change down in Kentucky, yes?”

Bryan’s expression went deathly cold, and he took one step toward Castor and spoke through gritted teeth. “Don’t you fucking—”

Castor held up his hands. “I’m not in your life anymore, Drayer. Walk away, and I’ll forget you exist.” The man’s cold gaze sliced to us. “And I’ll forget everyone else in your life too.”

Bryan waited a beat before nodding. He tossed his gun to one of the men still training guns on Reb. He looked Castor square in the eye and said, “I’m out.”

He gestured to me and Tara. “Let’s go.”

We began to walk, because I didn’t really care to see what scene would happen next, and I really wasn’t too keen on Tara seeing it. Until I heard my name called. “Lance Anders.”

I turned around to see Castor watching me. Tara clung to my arm, her nails digging in. “Yeah.”

“Your brother meant a lot to my niece. She still hasn't moved on. I’d appreciate if you reached out, maybe gave her something of his to remember him. Give her closure. Yes?”

I’d give him that. For Trent. “Yes, I’ll do that.”

“Obliged.” Castor turned away from us, and that was our cue to leave. I couldn’t get out of the clearing fast enough.