Better When He's Bad (Welcome to the Point #1)(64)

I gulped and wanted to lean against Bax’s side, but didn’t want to set either Race or him off again. I was just going to have to comfort myself. Just like I always did.

I rubbed my arms up and down the soft fabric of the sweatshirt and looked back and forth between the two men. “So what now?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I came to find Bax. I can’t stay hidden, because sooner or later Benny is going to come after you to get me to make a move one way or the other. They’ll grab you to get me to come out of hiding; whatever Novak’s plan is, he wants me to be part of it. They know about the tape now. I told him if he ever came near you again after they knocked you around, I would send it to the feds. I thought that’s why they have been looking for me but now I’m not so sure. No one knows where the tape is besides me. Novak has cops on the take, he has eyes everywhere. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to figure out where his reach ends.” His blond head dropped a little and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t know who we can trust beyond Titus.”

We were all quiet, the weight of having to deal with any and all of Novak’s machinations heavy in the room around us. I could hear Bax’s steady breathing, could see the fear and anger stamped on Race’s face, and I thought Bax was right, I did deserve more than this in life.

Bax pushed off the counter and scraped his hands hard over his scalp. He looked at me and then at Race. “Give me the tape.”

I winced and Race scowled.

“No!” I screamed it out of fear for Bax’s safety, Race barked it out of indignation. Bax just shook his head.

“What other option is there? Novak already has a hard-on for me. He never would have involved you or Dovie in any of his machinations if he didn’t want to have me over a barrel. It’s my fault. I break the law. I steal shit and end up tied into guys like him. Neither one of you needs to suffer for it anymore. This is my mess, I’ll clean it up. Whether it’s about the tape and blackmail or something else altogether.”

I grabbed him. I couldn’t help it. I wrapped my hands around his biceps, but like when I thought he was going to run away from me earlier, I could already see the dark barriers folding down as he looked down at my panicked face.

“So what? You’re going to offer yourself up as the sacrificial lamb? That doesn’t solve the problem, it just places you in the line of fire instead of Race.”

“Yeah, Bax. I followed you willingly down this path. You didn’t have to drag me kicking and screaming. I knew it was wrong, knew the risks we were taking, and you already gave up enough in this nightmare. Novak is my problem.”

Bax swore and I think my heart started to fracture when he purposely untangled himself from my clutching grip.

“Novak is the Point’s problem.”

I gulped back all the sour things I was feeling, the bitter taste of Shane disappearing behind everything that was Bax right before my eyes.

“And you have to be the one to take care of it?” It was a stupid question to ask and I almost choked on it.

There was nothing in his eyes when he looked at me, he was back to that dangerous stranger that I was equal parts scared of and fascinated by. He pulled out the big guns, the ones that there was no way Race could argue against. I knew, just like that, the battle was over.

“I went to jail for you, Race. I spent five years hating you, being disappointed in you, and convincing myself not to kill you when I got out. I might understand why you had to do it, but that’s five years I won’t get back and you owe me for it. Give me the f**king tape and let me handle Novak. You keep your sister safe and make sure no more of this nasty shit blows back on her.”

I wanted to argue, wanted Race to protest, but he just nodded, and like that, everything shifted. I wasn’t Bax’s lover, his friend, or his partner in the shared goal of finding Race; I was just some girl and he was just some guy and this was the kind of life we lived in the Point. No one got a happy ending, and I should have known I was not the exception to the rule.

CHAPTER 13

Bax

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN Gus knew more than he was letting on. That old coot didn’t let anything get by him, and I should’ve been more clued in by the fact that he wasn’t more alarmed by Race’s disappearance than he was. As it turned out, my friend was hiding out in the apartment Gus kept above the garage for personal reasons. Reasons that involved more than one girlfriend and a jealous wife. Race had been right under Novak’s nose all along, so close it was really going to chap his ass when everything played out. Served the bastard right. That’s what happened when any one man tried to play God over so many other people’s lives. I couldn’t wait to laugh in his face and put my boot on the back of his neck.

Of course I was going to have to get the bitter taste of the last look Dovie had given me out of my mouth before I did anything. I could see it in her eyes; she wanted me to ask her to stay with me, to change my mind about going into the lion’s den. I couldn’t do it. Not only because she would be eaten alive if she tried to stay by my side, but because tonight I had come very close to crossing a line I never would have imagined myself crossing. She got under my skin, made me want to make things different, but that wasn’t going to be possible, so I put her in the passenger seat of Race’s cherry ’66 Mustang without a kiss good-bye and closed the door. I watched her eyes turn from the color of the forest to the color of the night sky, and it twisted something up inside my chest so hard, I thought it was going to take me to my knees.