Trent followed.
Cutter fired.
A bullet struck Trent’s arm.
He didn’t slow. Didn’t feel. Didn’t care.
He stalked forward, to the edge of the water where Cutter stood.
Cutter lifted his gun and pointed it at Trent. “You’re no son of mine.”
“Thank fuck.”
Trent pulled his trigger before Cutter got the chance.
The shot rang out, and Trent stood there with his arm still lifted as the gun dropped from Cutter’s hand. As the man clutched at the side of his neck where he’d been hit.
One reason.
One reason.
That was all Trent had.
And he wouldn’t let this scum threaten that.
Trent watched as Cutter fell backward into the water.
It was the first time he’d pulled the trigger and felt no shame. No remorse. Not an ounce of it for the man whose blood ran through his veins.
He stood there staring as the sky wept around him.
As the realization that he’d failed his mom came crashing down.
He’d lost her.
Had lost Nathan.
And he knew there was no forgiveness for a sinner like him.
His soul cast to Hell.
Sorrow ripped through him. Knives and blades.
He only had one reason not to chase it down right then. One reason not to welcome his fate.
One reason to breathe.
One reason to live.
And Trent would live it for him.
Thirty-Six
Trent
Six hours earlier
I sped down the winding road, fucking hating that I’d had to walk out on Eden like that.
Only thing I wanted to do was slip back into the sanctuary of her bed. Into the warmth of her eyes.
Place I’d wanted to cling to forever because I knew it had to be a fantasy.
Something so good it couldn’t be meant for me.
Blips of trees and sky and earth blinked by as I made my way to the small town about twenty minutes on the other side of where Juna and I typically met hidden in the forest.
With each mile, the anxiety had built.
Steadily.
Viciously.
Violently.
Until I was nothing but a ball of crackling aggression.
My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I entered the tiny town off the beaten path.
That’s where Juna should have stayed.
Off the beaten path.
Hidden.
Forever out of sight.
After I’d put Cutter in the ground, we didn’t know what the threat would look like in LA. The rest of the Owls had disbanded, some joining Pillage of Petrus, others falling into the Demons. The immediate threat had been ended, but we’d made enough enemies along the way to know not to be fool enough to think that no one would ever come looking for us.
It’d turned out Pit hadn’t even been involved with Juna all that much.
Yeah, she’d hooked up with a bunch of their crew at their club bar.
Got on her knees for Pit, like she’d said.
Inserted herself in the middle of them and made it look like she was something to him when she hadn’t been.
Juna had confessed it.
That piece was a lie.
A bait.
A trap.
One I’d played right into.
Turned out, Juna had met Cutter in Vegas one night. She was looking for a way out and he was looking for a pawn. Someone who could worm their way into my life. Someone who could get close enough to dig out my loyalty to Cutter.
Considering there hadn’t been any in the first place, it hadn’t been hard to do.
“I think I’m in trouble, Trent,” she’d said on the phone back at Eden’s place. Panic had ricocheted through the words.
But she’d been trouble all along, hadn’t she?
Guessed I’d always imagined she’d be the one to bring it back to our doorstep.
And the fucking problem was I couldn’t trust her. Couldn’t tell if she needed me to stand up to take her back or if she was driving the knife she’d left in mine deeper.
If she was just luring me in.
Setting another trap.
“You gonna let her live?” It’d been Jud who’d asked it outside the hospital room the night Gage had been born.
There’d been plenty of reasons to end her.
Her betrayal.
Her lies.
The manipulation.
Fact she’d fucked me on my father’s dollar.
Was no secret the real reason Jud had asked it, though, his own hatred thick, although he’d left that decision up to me.
She’d gotten Nathan killed.
But she’d also come to stop it. Gave the warning hoping she might be able to thwart what she’d set into motion.
Most of all, she’d given the world the gift of Gage, and I’d already had so much blood on my hands I couldn’t take any more.
So we’d made this tenuous deal.
I got Gage and she got the money.
We got a second chance and she got hidden away.
One thing she’d demanded was she got to pick the city I raised him in—a place she’d said she’d visited when she was a child and had dreamed she’d raise a family there one day.
Far enough away from LA that no one would find us.
Redemption Hills.
And I’d started to think that maybe…maybe…I’d find redemption there, too.
Wasn’t quite sure how that shit was gonna happen when rage burned through my bloodstream.