Page 91 of Save Me

“We found them both? TannerandRhett? How?”

Ryan is the first to respond. “Tanner has spent the last two months hiding out down south, if you could call it ‘hiding out’… the estate our guys found him living at is bigger than most subdivisions.” Ryan scoffs, and Jax starts talking.

“And, as predicted, we caught Rhett coming back into the country after his little stint in Europe,” Jax says. “My guys were waiting at the airport after hearing he got on a plane in France with the destination set for back home. They trailed him until he was off the main roads, out of the busy city center, and ambushed him.”

I lean forward, holding onto Jax’s every word, waiting for what he’ll say next. A part of me hopes Rhett is dead already, a part of me hopes he isn’t and has to suffer the wrath that is about to be unleashed on him if he survived the ambush.

“Is he…?” I raise an eyebrow, my unspoken words heard by Jax.

“Yes, he’s alive… for now,” Jax says, his voice barely containing the rage simmering beneath the surface.

Both Jax and Ryan had wanted to be the ones to catch Tanner and Rhett, to physically be there when they made an appearance again. But I talked Jax out of it, wanting him here so I could hear exactly how everything was playing out. Perhaps that was selfish of me, perhaps I deserved it after what I had been put through, but I am happy to have Jax by my side right now as the wave of emotions comes crashing down on me at the idea of this almost being over. I swallow the bile that threatens to rise in my throat, as I shift in my seat.

“I want to be the one to kill him. To kill both of them.”

Jax raises his eyebrows, and I catch Ryan looking at him, a similar surprised expression on his face.

“You’re not a killer, love,” Jax says, not for the first time. I hear the flood of emotion in his voice, the concern and sympathy he has for me laced with the anger and violence he has planned for them.

“I could be,” I say quietly. “They deserve it. I deserve it. I want my voice to be the last thing they hear before they die.”

I want them to experience what true fear and helplessness feels like. I want them to know they deserve everything that happens to them after what they did to me.

“I get the anger, I do. I know you want revenge, and trust me when I say no one wants it more than me right now. But killing someone… it changes you. And I don’t know if you’re ready for what that choice will bring—”

“Tannerrapedme, Jax. He did that tome!” I yell, unable to help the anger and sorrow that mix in my voice. “And Rhett—” I huff a laugh, but it sounds all wrong. “All of this is because of Rhett. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. ‘They all signed their death certificates for being involved,’ that’s whatyousaid. You want them dead, and I want them dead too. So what’s the problem? What’s the difference if I’m the one who pulls the trigger, or—or however you’re planning on doing it.”

I didn’t realize I had been crying until Jax reaches over me, his brow furrowed with concern as he wipes the tears off of my cheek, before kissing my forehead. A gentle, tender gesture, a side of him that I know is reserved for me alone.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, love,” he says simply. “If you want to be the one to end them, if this is what will help make things right for you, then okay.”

“Jax, you can’t be serious,” Ryan starts before a glare from Jax quiets him.

“If this is what you need, then I’ll be here every step of the way supporting you. Webothwill,” he says, looking from me to Ryan who nods his head as well, albeit hesitantly.

“So what’s the plan?”

*

I lay inbed, exhausted yet unable to sleep, watching the sun rise slowly and the sky change from black to gray to all the pastel hues that I love to see, and desperately want to capture on a canvas.

We had stayed up late last night, the three of us talking about what is to be done, discussing the finer points of the plan now that we have finally found Rhett and Tanner.

Despite how many times we went over everything, despite the continuous planning, I still can’t figure out how I feel about all of this—my emotions too intertwined to make sense of it all just yet.

Tension I didn’t know I had been holding onto seemed to have dissipated when I heard they had both been caught, as if just knowing they were no longer out in the world, that they were no longer able to do this to anyone else, provided me with a sense of relief I didn’t know I needed.

They become different people when they drink… especially around women.The memory of Bryce’s words ring loudly in my head. They’ve treated women badly before, they had done this to me, and now they’d never be able to do it to anyone again.

I look to Jax, still sleeping next to me, and can’t help but admire the man beside me, the one who was a steady presence as I slowly pieced myself together. Not only saving me, but helping me save myself. I run a hand over his chest, over the heart shaped tattoo that filled in the final blank piece of skin.

“Ogling me in my sleep doesn’t count as resting,” Jax says groggily.

“I’m not ogling you,” I reply with a smile.

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