Page 61 of Caution to the Wind

“What?” I asked dazedly.

Henning was looking over my shoulder at Cedar, his gaze solemn. “You did what you had to do for your mum, man, but fuck, do this for me. Get Mei the fuck outta here.”

Cedar hesitated for only a moment before his fingers curled tighter around my shoulder bones, and I was tugged into his front.

“I’m so sorry, brother. This…this wasn’t how I wanted it to go down. But they had Mum, and you know, I owe her everything.”

“Don’t got time for that shit, Cedar. Please, you’re forgiven if you take Mei.”

“No!” I shouted, finally seeing through the haze of adrenaline and shock to the heart of what was happening. “NO! I am not leaving you here, Hen! Cleo needs you. Lin needs you. What will they do if you don’t come home? Please, please, get up. We can figure out how to get you out of those cuffs––”

“Rocky,” he said, so softly the sound was like a tender caress after all the evening’s violence.

I shivered and fell to my knees, dislodging Cedar’s hold so I could walk on my knees to Henning. “Don’t make me leave you.”

“I’d pay any price for you,” he whispered fiercely, his blood-soaked hands clutching at my face so hard it almost hurt. “Is that enough love for you, Rocky?”

It wastoomuch. So much I was drowning in it, sinking beneath the turquoise of his eyes into the deep, dark awareness hidden in the folds of my heart.

This was why I loved him, because there was nothing he wouldn’t do for those he loved.

It was crazy, almost, the lengths he would go to. But if anyone understood, it was me. I’d cut my heart right out of my chest if it meant he’d be safe and happy.

He smoothed those bloody hands over my cheeks up into the hair over my ears so he was palming my entire head. Only then did he tip forward and press his forehead to mine to whisper, “I won’t be gone long. Five years tops for manslaughter or some shit like that. I’ll ask Zeus over in Entrance to use his club’s lawyer. It’ll be fine, Rocky girl.”

“It won’t,” I sobbed. “We need you. You don’t deserve this.”

“Neither do you,” he reminded me, so fucking calm it made me want to rage at him. “You’ve got your mum to think about and your future. Do this for the both of us, yeah? You got in over your head, but I’m here, and I won’t ever fuckin’ let you down.”

“No,” I begged, clinging to his thick wrists. “Please, don’t do this. We can both get away.”

“No, we can’t. But you can. Just…take care of Cleo, please. And Lin. She’s a tough old bird, but she needs people to fuss over, yeah?”

“Henning,” his name broke on a sob as it exploded from my throat. I ducked my head into the curve of his neck and pressed my lips to his pulse point just to feel it throb.

“You gotta get goin’.Now, Mei.”

“I love you.” The words burned through my belly and throat like dragon fire.

Henning shuddered at the heat of them and pulled me away just to press his own kiss to my forehead. It felt like a benediction from a priest, a holy anointing.

“I love you,” he promised, and it was an oath.

Sirens shrieked through the air now, right in front of the farmhouse at the front of the property. Red, white, and blue lights cast apparitions in the black sky overhead.

“We gotta go,” Cedar demanded, tagging my arm to wrench me away from Henning.

“No!” I screamed, scrambling to plant my feet in the muck.

Henning only watched mutely as his friend and betrayer dragged me away. His hand was still cuffed to the post, a stub where his pinky finger used to be still spilling blood through the makeshift bandage.

I bit Cedar’s arm, blood flooding my mouth as he cursed. Before I could get away, he yanked me off my feet and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, stalking through the grass with Faith and his mother, Denise, following in his wake.

I craned my head to look back at Henning, refusing to lose eye contact until the cornstalks closed around us, and he was gone from sight.

Tears ripped from my eyes and scorched into my hair line, and snot clogged my nose as I struggled to breathe. The agony of sacrifice, guilt, and heartbreak sundered through me like a thousand hot blades. I didn’t even know then that it would be the last time I saw Henning Axelsen for eight long years, and the next time I did see him, he’d hate me just as much as he’d once loved me.

"A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind."