Ride or Die (Rejects Paradise 4)

I shake my head, lowering my eyes to his chest. “Nic is never going to let this go.”

“I know,” he murmurs. “Which is exactly why you need to let me handle it. You’re too close to this, to them. You’re—”

“Colton, please,” I say, looking up and meeting his concerned stare. “I need you to go.”

“I … no. No way in hell. I’m not leaving you here.”

“Please,” I beg, allowing him to see my desperation. “They’re going to kill you if I can’t make you go, and without you … I just … I can’t. Please, just trust me to sort this out. I’ll come home as soon as I can.”

“Jade,” he whispers, pulling me in again. “I can’t leave you here.”

“You have to.”

He stares at me in horror as though I’m asking him to do the impossible. I press up onto my tippy-toes and brush my lips across his. “I love you, Colton. I promise you, when all of this is over, I will come home. I won’t let them break me.”

“You know that I can’t just stand back and let you do this.”

“You have to,” I whisper. “It’s already done. I’m a Wolf now.”

I step back out of his arms, and despite it only being a small space between us, I’ve never felt so far away. I take another step. “Babe, don’t.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

He groans, the frustration quickly taking over. He takes a step toward me, and I instantly step back again. “Fuck, Jade, please. Don't do this.” He rakes his hands through his hair, and I see the exact moment where he fears he’s losing me, but he should know better, that would never happen.

I take another step, and he holds his hands out, fearing that I’m going to go before he gets a chance to say everything he needs to say. “Wait, don’t go yet. Just … call me back, okay? We can talk about this.”

I shake my head. “I can’t. Russo took my phone the second I walked in there. I haven't been able to call anyone.”

He slips his hand into his pocket and glances over my shoulder at Snake. With his attention elsewhere, Colton quickly tosses me his phone. “Keep this on you and turn it to silent. Call me the second you can and we’ll work something out. I’m not just going to give you up like this.”

“Thirty seconds,” Snake threatens, making a show of playing with his gun. “Please, draw this out. I fucking dare you.”

Fuck.

I back up another few steps. “Please, Colton. Just get in your car and go. They won’t hurt me. I have a gun, and you know that I’m capable of protecting myself. I’ll be okay. I promise.”

He looks up at me, completely helpless, and as Snake pushes off the brick wall of the den, Colton lets out a sigh, his chances of getting me out of here quickly dwindling to nothing. “I fucking hate this,” he tells me, keeping a cautious eye on Snake.

“I know,” I murmur. “I’m sorry.”

With absolutely no choice left, he walks around to the driver’s side of his Veneno and watches me over the top of his car. Pain and heartache shine in his hazel eyes. “I’m going to fix this,” he promises me as the suicide door opens. “Mark my fucking words, Jade. I’ll fix this.”

“I know you will,” I tell him, needing to give him that tiny bit of hope to keep him going. “I love you.”

He clenches his jaw, and then just as Snake steps in beside me with his gun on display and a sick smirk on his lip, Colton tears me to pieces and drops down into his Veneno. The engine roars to life, and within a split second, he takes off up the road, his tires screeching along the tar.

“Well, well,” Snake says. “I don’t know whether you’re too brave for your own good or just fucking stupid. You know he’s never going to get you out of here, right? Once a Wolf, always a fucking Wolf.”

I clench my jaw and turn away, stalking back to the door, all while Snake’s booming laughter follows behind. “This is going to be fun.”Chapter 6Snake pushes me through the door with his gun pressed against my back, forcing me to move my feet faster than they can naturally go. I get over the threshold, narrowly avoiding throwing my elbow back into his junk. Now that I’m in and Colton is well and truly gone, I won’t be holding back.

I spin around so fast that he flinches, and I instantly knock his gun to the side, only being able to get one up on him out of sheer surprise. “Are you about done?” I demand, getting in his face. “You’re a real big man waving your gun around every thirty seconds. I wonder how fucking tough you are without it.”