Page 78 of Full Throttle

Laughing, I pushed off the wall. “Just keep Leon out of my races, yeah? I’d like a fighting chance.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. Lee is very impressed with you.”

My stomach flipped as my eyes widened a fraction. “What?”

She nodded as the door clicked open behind me. We both turned to find the man himself entering. At the sight of him, goosebumps spread across my skin and Amara straightened beside me.

Lee stood before us, his hoodie covered in blood.

His eyes went directly to his detective. “Butterfly,” he greeted, his voice filled with darkness.

“Leon…”

Before he addressed her again, his eyes cut to me. “Cain is back.”

My eyes dropped to the blood splatter on his neck. “Please tell that isn’t his.”

Lee’s jaw hardened. “Don’t be funny.”

“Nothing about this is funny,” I retorted, gesturing to him. “What the hell happened?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but Amara cut him off. “Badge off or on?”

Their gazes collided, and the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. When he didn’t answer right away, she asked him again. “Badge off or on, Lee?”

“Off, Amara.”

She nodded and looked to the floor, taking a second. When she looked back up, she took a step closer to me. “What happened?”

“Cain brought us a souvenir from Russia,” he stated plainly, walking over to the row of cabinets on the far side of the office, pulling his hoodie off, leaving his black undershirt on. His back muscles stretched under the fabric as he yanked the cabinet open. “Spent all afternoon with him,” he continued.

Amara and I shared a look.

When he turned back to face us, he was wiping the blood off his skin with a hand towel. “Xander and Cain brought back Ivan, Kavi’s second in charge—along with some pretty expensive cars.”

A pit formed in my stomach as I tried to picture the little boy I’d loved on the streets of Moscow.

“Where is Cain now?” Amara asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“On his way,” he answered, looking over to me, the blood cleared from his skin.

“Is he alright?” I found myself asking.

“Cain is Cain.”

“Right,” I muttered, looking to my feet. His secrets weighed heavy on my heart.

I thought I was finally fucking free…

I heard some movement, some whispers, and then, Amara walked by me. “I’ll see you out there,” she told me. A second later, the door closed, and it was just Lee and me.

“Dominique.” My head shot up at my full name, eyes burning from the sudden onset of tears. “We need to talk about Cain,” Lee declared.

That was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want to talk about Cain. I didn’t want to think about Cain. I didn’t want to cry about Cain.

I didn’t want to live without—

“Don’t,” I warned, my voice cracking.

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