Hard to Fight (Alpha's Heart, #1)(60)

He’s too busy screaming in pain to try to fight anymore, so I get off him and turn to Raide. He’s managed to get his guy down, even with a sore arm. He’s got the man’s arms pulled tightly behind his back, his face pressed to the floor. “Grace, get me those cuffs from his belt.” I rush over and take the cuffs. I snap them on the goon’s wrists and Raide lets him go.

“Let’s get out of here.”

We both rush toward the door. There’s another man lying just near it. He’s got blood trickling from his head and he’s out cold. He must have been hit by the bookshelf. We don’t stay to study him, we just run out of the room. We’re in an old, run-down house. Raide pushes me behind him as we move, making sure no one else is present.

When we get outside, there are two cars lined up. We run toward them and just our luck, they left their keys in one. Why not—it’s secluded out here. We must be a fair way out of town because all I can see is thick trees, a long dirt road, and the crappy old house. Raide swings the passenger door open and I quickly get in. He jumps into the driver’s side and we skid out of there before I’ve even pulled my belt on.

“You hurt?” Raide asks as we bump down the dirt road.

“No,” I say, running my hands over my body. “You?”

“No.”

His voice is tight, so I glance at him. He’s got blood running down his arm, where he was shot. “Raide, you’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Can’t stop and worry about it now.”

I can’t argue with that. “What are we going to do?”

He looks over at me for a second, and what I see in his eyes scares me. “We’re going to end this.”





Chapter Twenty-eight

By “end this,” I figure he means kill Dean.

He has that look on his face. He’s angry, he’s hurting, and he looks like he’s more than ready to make his sister’s killer pay. I know I can’t talk him out of this, it wouldn’t matter what I say, he’s made up his mind. He made it up long before I came along. He doesn’t say anything else to me, and because my body is exhausted, I find myself drifting off to sleep.

I swear before I’m in complete darkness, I hear Raide say, “I’m sorry, baby.”

I must sleep a good long while; either that or we were closer to our part of town than I thought, because Raide is waking me with a soft hand to my cheek. I let my eyelids flutter open and I see him looking over at me. We’re still in the car, and he’s got a pained look in his eye. God, did I sleep through it all? Has he already gotten to Dean? I sit up quickly and I immediately see we’re not near Dean’s hangout. Not even close. We’re at … my work.

“Raide,” I whisper, “why are we here?”

I can see Don, Vance, Julio, and York standing on the sidewalk. It hits me like a sledgehammer to the heart: Raide is turning himself in. He brought me back here. He risked everything, gave up his revenge, and brought us both back here. He sacrificed … for me.

No.

“Raide,” I croak. “No.”

He reaches over, cupping my jaw. “You said I was selfish, because now I have you in my life, I should be fighting for it. You were right. I can’t go away for killing him, Grace, because that means losing you. This is me not being selfish. This is me doing the right thing.”

“But—,” I say, and tears burst from my eyes and trickle down my cheeks. “But we don’t have Dean, if we don’t find him—”

“Then I’ll go away for a long time,” he says gently. “But, baby, it’s still the right thing.”

Reality hits me and I lunge at him. “No, we can find him. We can find him, Raide. We have a chance to fix this. You don’t have to do this. I was wrong, we can fix this. You don’t have to do this.”

He pushes me back and stares into my eyes, but I’m crying so hard, I can hardly see him.

“No, baby, this is me fixing this. I’m trusting them. I’m trusting you. I’m trusting Kelly.”

The door opens and Don leans in. “Time to go.”

“No!” I cry, reaching over and taking hold of Raide’s arm. “No, please. We just need more time.”

“You’ve had your time, Grace,” Don says softly. “We have to take him in.”

“No!” I scream. “He didn’t do this, Don. He didn’t.”

Don gives me a truly pained look. “I have to do my job now, and you have to let me.”

Raide turns to me. “Hey, look at me.”

I turn my broken eyes to his. I thought I wanted this. I thought it was for the best. I thought it would fix everything. He wasn’t supposed to go down for this. I was supposed to help him and I failed. If we don’t find Dean, I might not see Raide for a long, long time. Why did I ever think bringing him in here was the best idea? What have I done? I’m going to lose him. I can’t lose him.

“Baby, look at me.”

I blink and his amber eyes come into view.

“We’re going to figure this out, but even if we don’t, you need to know—”

“Raide, no,” I rasp.

He leans in closer. “You need to know I love you. You need to know you changed me. You need to know that this … this is me showing you that I’d give it all up. For you. For me. For Kelly. We’ll come out the other side, you’ll see.”