Page 102 of Tricked By Jack

Holding up my hand, I cut him off. “No.”

“No?” he parrots, quirking an eyebrow. “You’re not going in there alone.”

“I am.”

“Jack.” My name is a warning, sharp as a blade. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. We can end this clean if we plan it right.”

I push off the wall I’m leaning against, rolling my shoulders back, stillness bleeding into my bones. “Shelby wants me, not a fucking circus of men with guns. You put anyone else in that room, you ruin the point.”

Nick’s jaw tightens. “The point is keeping you alive.”

“The point is saving Eve!” I roar. “That’s the only thing that fucking matters.”

He stands now too, chest to chest, his heat colliding with mine. His breath ghosts my face, the sharpness of it like we’re seconds from tearing each other apart. The tension between us stretches taut enough to bleed.

“You think you’re untouchable? You think she won’t gut you if you give her the chance?”

Air leaves me, and I feel lightheaded, like my skull’s too tight for what’s forcing its way in. Memories don’t come one by one—they crash in fragments, stitched together by something I’ve refused to see. Ruby… Valentine… I get it. Ifinallyfucking get it.

This was my sister’s last stand, wasn’t it? She wasn’t coerced or forced. She ended things on her terms. And she did it while being loved by the man she had fallen so deeply for.

Fuck.

The more I allow myself to see the events of the past without the haze of hatred skewering the images, the clearer it becomes. And… I think I finally know who I’ve been so pissed at. It’s not Eve. It’s Ruby.

“You’d die for Carolina, wouldn’t you?” I ask my brother, interrupting whatever he’s saying.

“Of course,” he says.

I nod. “And Ruby… I don’t think she died for Valentine.” Pausing, I lick my lips. “She did it for herself, Nick. She couldn’t take living anymore, so she ended things on her own terms.”

He huffs out a soft laugh. “Are you finally getting what I’ve been trying to tell you all these months?” When I roll my eyes, he continues. “Yes, you shot Ruby. But what you did was end her suffering. She was already dying, man. That was her path to take.”

Yeah, I never believed him or understood it until now. But now… now I do get it. Because I need to get rid of Nick and go to the one place Shelby can hurt me just from making me go there.

“Okay,” I agree, dragging the word out like it tastes sour. “Why don’t we go to your place and make a plan with Marco?”

Nick eyes me suspiciously. “Yeah?”

“I just need to shower and change first. Carolina will have my fucking balls if I turn up in blood-soaked clothes.”

“Don’t ever use my wife’s name and your balls in the same sentence,” my brother growls, playfully punching my arm.

I rub the spot on my arm where he hit me, shaking my head with a rough exhale. “Noted.”

Nick grins, quick and sharp, already reaching for his phone. “I’ll call Marco and meet you at mine in an hour.”

“You got it.” I grab the hem of my shirt, peeling the blood-stiff fabric off my skin.

He mutters something under his breath, distracted, pacing toward the door with his phone to his ear. I stand there, shirt dangling from my fist, heart steady as stone. He thinks I’m right behind him. Thinks I’ll play along.

But I’m already choosing a different road.

Chapter 33

The Bride

The brain fog thins, leaving a splitting headache pulsing behind my eyes. My throat is scraped raw, mouth cotton-dry. I try to swallow but can’t.