Page 19 of Marked By The Filthy-Mouthed Grizzly
I close my eyes, not wanting to hear the answer. I want to be back in the restaurant with a fun cocktail in my hand and that beautiful smiling face gazing at me, my mind swirling with ideas of the future and all of the possibilities. Not…here. Not…this.
“I’m so sorry, Erica,” he says with a crack in his voice. “I killed Knox.”
I start shaking all over. I feel like I’m going to be sick. “And Mace?”
He shakes his head like he can’t believe this is happening. “Adrian killed Mace.”
Everything goes numb.
My head goes blank as if my brain has stopped working.
I can’t move. My muscles feel paralyzed. This can’t be happening.
“Erica,” he whispers as he reaches for me.
I flinch and back away from his outstretched hand. “Don’t touch me.”
“Erica, please,” he begs. “They really left us no choice.”
I have to get out of here. I have to go.
“I…” I begin to say, but there are no words. Nothing left to say.
So, I turn and run. I flee back to the restaurant and hop into a waiting cab.
“Drive,” I beg as tears fill my eyes. “Just go.”
The driver looks at me through the rearview mirror and then takes off.
When he turns the corner I catch one last glimpse of Magnus standing alone in the dark street, head low, looking like his heart just shattered.
Well, that makes two of us.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Erica
Maybe this is a bad idea…
I’m parked across the street from the Rourke’s Warhounds’ headquarters and it doesn’t look good.
It didn’t exactly screamwelcomingwhen I was a kid either, but now it just feels... darker. More dangerous. I’m not a kid anymore. I know the evils that some men are capable of.
The sagging porch is cluttered with beer cans and busted-up lawn chairs. The small patch of grass on the side of the building is wild and unruly. A couple of motorcycles are parked out front, oil stains beneath them like bloodstains on the concrete. The front door is half open, and music is thudding faintly from somewhere inside—some angry rock song I don’t recognize.
I swallow hard, gripping the steering wheel with both hands as I sit frozen in the driver’s seat.
“This is a bad idea.”
I think about what Magnus would say if he knew I was here. He’d probably toss me over his big broad shoulder and carry me away like a protective brute.
A part of me longs for that. But a larger part of me doesn’t think I can ever see him again. How can I be with the man who killed my brother?
A spark of defiance hits me and I burst out of the car with my heart pounding.
Take this, Magnus, you murdering asshole.
I head to the entrance with one thing on my mind—getting Mace’s silver watch.
