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He grabbed the duffel bag off the floor, slinging it over his shoulder with a practiced motion, then turned toward the door.

“I’ll meet you outside,” he said, his tone flat. No warmth. No remorse. Nothing.

I stood there, barely holding myself up, as the silence between us thickened. Joey was already halfway to the door before I could even blink, his back to me. Just like that, he was gone.

I could almost see it. A flicker of regret in his eyes. Maybe? Or maybe it was just the weight of what he’d done settling in. Or perhaps I was juststillseeing what I wanted to see. But the moment passed before I could confirm it. He didn’t stay long enough for me to know if it was real or just the reflection of a man who’d gone too far and didn’t know how to fix what was broken between us.

I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. I forced myself to start pulling my clothes back together. My hands were shaking so badly it felt like the smallest tasks were too much for me. The fabric felt wrong against my skin. Everything about me felt wrong.

My palms ached from the burn of the concrete wall. My cheek was raw and scraped, the evidence of his force still marked across me. My knees were also sore and bruising, and they were already starting to swell under the fabric. I knew it would hurt tomorrow. Hell, it would hurt for days.

But none of that mattered. Not really. I was numb. I was just trying to breathe and make sense of the mess inside me,but there was nothing to latch onto. Everything I wanted and thought I needed had crumbled the moment Joey touched me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to demand answers. To make him see how much this hurt. But I knew he wouldn’t hear me. He hadn’t heard me all along.

My throat closed up as I swallowed back the tears, the deep, ugly truth that had started to sink in. I didn’t know if I’d ever get back to what we were. And I didn’t know if I wanted to. But I also couldn’t stop hoping, couldn’t stop wanting him. Even though what he’d become was nothing like the man I loved.

I took a deep breath, but it only made the ache inside me worse. I wiped the wetness from my eyes, steadying myself as best as I could. I couldn’t let him see me like this.

The door to the gun range felt miles away as I slowly made my way out. Each step felt heavy, like the weight of what had just happened was pressing me down and holding me in place. I was so small in this moment. And the more I tried to move forward, the more I realized I was walking toward nothing.

I didn’t want to be here but didn’t know how to leave.

By the time I stepped outside, I was already feeling the hollow ache deep in my chest, the one that would likely stay with me for days, for weeks. The ache that reminded me that I chose to stay. Joey was already in the car, his hands gripping the wheel, his face hidden in the shadows, making it impossible for me to read him. I slid into the seat, breathing through the hollow space inside me that had once been filled with hope. With love. With the sound of Joey laughing against my neck and telling me I was the only good thing in his world.

That version of him felt a million miles away. And I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.

Chapter Thirty Seven

Craig

Joey was holed up in his room when I got back from dealing with the body at the safe house. I made a quick call to let Az and Leighton know before searching for Victoria. After everything he’d done, my skin itched at the idea she’d had to spend any time alone with him. I hoped for all our sakes she hadn’t.

I found her coming in through the back door; her brows furrowed as she held one of the prepaid smartphones from my nightstand up to her ear. My eyes raked over her, checking for signs that she’d had to deal with Joey. She was curled in on herself, but I couldn’t tell if that was due to whoever she was speaking to. I noticed some discoloration in her cheek and jaw, scrapes we hadn’t seen before. I touched my fingers to her chin, taking stock of her injuries. I hadn’t remembered bruising from the fight with the Jackals, but I had been pretty focused on my work at the time.

“Are these from the other night?” I whispered, raising a brow.

“I’m fine,” She mouthed in response, patting my hand and waving me off as she shuffled closer to the counter. She had a fairly distinct limp that IknewI hadn’t clocked before. Ieyed her as she moved, wondering when that had started. If it was from the fight, I felt like I would have noticed either at the warehouse or during the night following. I’d been rough with her, but I didn’t think I’d gottenthatrough. Maybe she needed a break…

“Wait, Tiff. I’m going to put you on speaker so you can relay all this to Craig.” She said into the phone.

I arched a brow in another silent question. The last I knew, Victoria was still too angry with Tiffany to have called her, but she also desperately needed someone who wasn’t us to talk to about everything going on. Part of me hoped that her reaching out to the girl meant she was forgiving her for making the same call any one of us would have made in her shoes. The day had been strange enough that her accepting Tiffany’s olive branch wasn’t making it any weirder.

“I’ll tell you later.” Victoria whispered, putting the phone on speaker and moving to lay it face up on the nearby counter. “Okay, you’re on speaker.”

“Well, as I was saying before, your Uncle Theo cornered me at the event dad was hosting. You know how he likes to shove his money in people’s faces and rub elbows with the elite.”

“Why did Theo corner you?” I asked in an attempt to redirect her to whatever it was Victoria thought I needed to hear.

“He doesn’t know about my connection with the Golden Devils. As far as anyone on the outside is aware, I’m just an airheaded party girl, but. I’m also Tory’s bestie. He thought I could get a message to you and since I’m such anidiot, he wasn’t too worried about me knowing all kinds of details.”

“Fuck’s sake, Tiff, spit it out already. We get it, you’re not as dumb as you let everyone think you are.” Victoria huffed.

“Right. Sorry. So, it looks like Hugo is mixed up in some serious shit with the Bratva.”

“Hugh? As in Victoria’s father?” I asked, not sure she wanted Tiffany to know that Hugo wasn’t actually her father.

“The one and only. Seems he was working on a federal case that should have been a slam dunk. Theo said the feds handed over a casefile that would have made any prosecutor’s career. It ended up with a hung jury and nobody knows why, even the defense team seemed shocked their guy didn’t go down. I couldn’t say it to Theo, but from the sounds of it, he was an acceptable loss as a fall guy, but your dad screwed something up and he walked.”