I climbed out of the car and stuck a smoke between my lips. I leaned a hip on the door and squinted at the ramshackle building.

“Your sister was born into the life, Race. You fell into it by accident because of me, but Dovie . . .”—I had to clear my throat—“she has the streets in her blood. I think spending time with me made her remember how tough she has to be to survive out here. She’ll be fine, just keep an eye on her. I’ll make sure nothing happens to her at the house this weekend.”

“I thought you were going to throw the gauntlet down with Novak?”

“Titus convinced me to give him some time with it.”

Race snorted. “And you actually listened? Maybe I should be asking what my sister did to you.”

“She makes me want to think that even the bad guy can be a good guy when he needs to be. She’ll be fine, Race. It can’t happen any other way or else I’m going to take this godforsaken city apart brick by brick in order to make it right.”

He was quiet for a long enough amount of time that I thought that maybe he had hung up on me. I started to make my way to the staircase that led to the inner sanctum.

“Well, shit, Bax. You’re in love with her.”

I finally lit the cigarette that was dangling out of my mouth and wished I had my hoodie so I could pull it up over my head.

“She matters more than I wish she did.”

He grumbled something at me that I wasn’t paying any attention to. “Hey, are you ever going to forgive me for what happened that night?”

The quick change in subject jerked me back to the present as I punched in the code to open the heavy steel door.

“Probably. It sucks, and doing hard time for five years isn’t something that’s easy to forgive, but you’re my only friend in the world, Race.” I blew out a cloud of smoke and squinted through the haze. “Someone needs to miss me when I’m not around anymore. Plus, I banged your sister, so that kind of makes us even.”

“Don’t say that crap, Bax. You seriously think Dovie is just going to move on, just pretend like you weren’t a part of her life? If so, you don’t know her for shit, and I knew it last night, even though it pissed me off, that there was more going on than you just hooking up with her.”

I flinched involuntarily at his harsh tone.

“It’s for the best. Look, I gotta go. I’m trying to hook up something with Nassir.”

“What? Why? I didn’t hand your ass to you thoroughly enough last night? You need another beating?”

I barked out a dry laugh and maneuvered my way through the narrow hallway that led into the club. It was bound to be empty this early, but I knew Nassir would be around. He did all his actual, legitimate business, what little of it there was, during the day.

“Gotta make a living somehow.”

“Dovie told me you cleaned Nassir out on the last fight, so don’t pull that with me, Bax. It’s been a while, but I rode shotgun with you for a long time.”

“Don’t tell Dovie that I’m gonna keep an eye on her this weekend. She’ll be upset.”

“No, she won’t, which is why you’re out there looking to get your ass kicked, isn’t it?”

“I’ll talk to you later, Race. I gave Titus a week. After that, I’m opening the gates of hell and everybody better be ready for what comes crawling out.”

“You would burn the entire city down just to spite yourself, Bax.”

“I would.”

“Then I guess some things never change, even with age and wisdom. Feel free to kick Nassir in the nuts for me.”

I hung up and stuck the phone in my back pocket. The answer to his question of what his sister had done to me was too long and too involved for me to try and break it down. I had always been a guy who was comfortable in my skin, in the knowledge that I was what I was, no more or no less. I made it day to day understanding the path I chose to walk in life only had a couple of tragic endings, but I had so few attachments, so few emotional entanglements, it had never mattered before. Now . . . now the idea of disappointing a certain redhead, of leaving her with the knowledge of just how destructive and terrible I could be, left an oily and thick feeling all over the inside of me.

CHAPTER 14

Dovie

I WAS GOING STIR-CRAZY. Five days catching up with my brother was nice, but spending it in the cramped, tiny apartment above Gus’s garage was not. I still wasn’t one hundred percent clear on who Gus was, Race seemed to gloss over the fact that the old mechanic ran Novak’s chop shop for him, but his loyalty was to Bax. According to Race, Gus had had a fling with Bax’s mom back in the day and had taken to both her young sons. Titus had already been older and not so interested in developing a relationship with the very married mechanic, but Bax was a different story. He took to Gus and his knowledge about any kind of automobile like a duck to water. Eventually the affair had petered out, but Race insisted that Gus viewed Bax more as a son than anything else, and there was no way he would compromise our safety by revealing our location because of their relationship. After all, Race had been hiding out here for over a month and no one was the wiser.

The apartment was even smaller than the studio Bax kept in the city, and as much as I honestly adored Race, I was tired of him being my only company. I was also sick of the endless grilling about my feelings for Bax. We were literally tripping over each other, and that, coupled with the heartache I was feeling, was enough to make me want to lose my mind. Luckily most of my teachers had agreed to e-mail me assignments for the week, so I was staying busy using Gus’s old laptop to keep up on my homework. Even with that minor distraction, I couldn’t shake the hollow feeling when I woke up in the middle of the night to reach for that hard body I had so quickly gotten used to being curled around, only to come up empty. I missed him. I knew why he was doing what he was doing, but that didn’t stop me from longing to be back with him—all of him. As much as I missed Shane, there was no denying I missed the gruff and harsh Bax as well. It sucked, and I was doing a piss-poor job of keeping my feelings from Race.

I was ready to get out of there, even if it was not the most advisable way to spend the weekend. Race mentioned that Bax’s brother had convinced him to hold off on taking the video to Novak, that he was trying to come up with a more delicate solution that would hopefully get Race and Bax off the hot seat permanently. He also let it slip that Bax was going back to fight for Nassir, which made bile rise up in my throat. Not only because I hadn’t heard a word from him in a week, but because I knew there was no way Nassir was going to set up a clean fight and he was just asking for trouble and looking to hurt himself. I hated everything about it, but I bit my tongue and refused to give in to the temptation of trying to call and reason with him. He made it clear that now that Race was back on the scene, I was my brother’s responsibility.

I made my way as quietly as I could down the metal stairs that led down to the locker room the guys who worked for Gus used. It was well after the legitimate part of the garage closed for daily business, but that didn’t mean the more lucrative and illegal part of the shop wasn’t running full steam ahead. The first few days I had been scared to come down the stairs, scared one of the mechanics would see me and rat us out to Novak, but whoever Gus was in the grand scheme of things, he was awesome at keeping our location secret. I hadn’t seen another human aside from him and my brother in days.

I peeked around the corner and saw Gus’s gray head bent over something on his desk in his office. After making sure the coast was clear, I tiptoed across the shop floor and knocked on the glass window until he looked up and saw me. He waved me inside and pushed back in his chair so his greasy boots were propped up on the edge of his desk.

“You ready to roll?”

“Yeah. I’m just going to take the bus. The Mustang is too memorable, and if anyone puts two and two together, they’ll realize I was probably with Race.” It was frightening how after only a handful of weeks with Bax, I could draw those kinds of lines between things with zero effort.

“Smart girl. Well, it would probably be smarter to just stay here, but I understand the need to show you’re not giving your life up.”

I blew out a breath that sent a copper curl twisting across my forehead. “I just can’t spend any more time with Race breathing down my neck. I’ll murder him.”

Gus laughed and folded his hands on his portly belly. “He’s been worried about you. Add in the fact you went and got all tangled up with Bax, and he has good reason. Those boys . . .” He shook his head and closed his eyes briefly. “Those boys could run this city if they wanted. Your brother is one of the smartest and most loyal kids I’ve ever come across, and he has an innate sense for when something isn’t right. And Bax”—he sighed—“that kid never got a fair shot, but he is about as ruthless as anyone I’ve ever seen. He has the tools, the mettle to get the dirty work done. Unfortunately, he also has a conscience buried somewhere deep down inside.”

I cleared my throat and shifted uneasily on my feet. “It’s not buried that far. I didn’t have to dig too far to get at it.”

The mechanic grinned at me, only it was full of sadness.

“You’re one of the few, then, little lady. You better pray that your brother and Titus get this all figured out before Bax gets impatient and stirs up a hurricane of vengeance. No one will be safe when that boy finally unleashes everything he’s been holding back for the last five years.”

I was surprised. I thought Gus was on Team Bax. The way he was talking now made it sound like the opposite.

“Race told me you were close to Bax.”

“I love the boy like my own, but I don’t mistake that for excusing what I know he’s capable of. God forbid you get hurt—or worse—in the middle of this shit storm brewing. Bax won’t care if it was friend or foe involved, he’ll destroy everyone until nothing is left but dust, and that includes your brother and his.”

I gulped a little. “I think you might have the wrong idea about what kind of relationship we had. He wouldn’t feel compelled to do that because of me.” After all, he had ditched me with Race as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

“Girly, the fact you had any kind of relationship with Bax is more than most people can say. A boy like that doesn’t get attached, because he knows all it’s going to lead to for the other person is heartache and loneliness. The only reason Race got through was because he was willing to go down in a blaze of glory right alongside him. Now you’ve gone and shaken the dynamic all up.”

I didn’t want to think that I was the only reason Race had managed to turn his life around and realized a life of crime wasn’t worth it. I also flat-out just did not believe I had any impact on the choices Bax chose to make one way or the other.

“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that for anyone. I’d like to have faith that Titus is a good cop and that he can figure something out. That seems like the best option for everyone.”

Gus snorted and let his feet thump to the concrete floor.

“Sure, until your old man decides you’re too much of a liability to his cushy life up on the Hill and goes slumming for another scumbag to take you out. It’s an endless cycle of people trying to clean up messes they should’ve never made in the first place.”

I didn’t know how to reply to that, so I just tucked my hair behind my ear and turned to reach for the door handle. “I hope the cycle ends. It’s exhausting.”

“You’re telling me, little lady. Keep your head up. Lots of dangerous people out there.”

I knew it . . . only the most dangerous one that was out there I wanted to find me. I nodded and whispered a good-bye over my shoulder.