Page 59 of Wicked Ends (Hellions of Hade Harbor #4)

Arianna

We pulled off the highway and into the town of Saguenay after midnight.

I was so nervous now, I couldn’t calm down.

That phone call was going to haunt me forever.

Marcus’ teasing tone contrasted with his grunt of pain would never leave my memory.

Had he been really hurt? What if he’d been stabbed, or pushed, or strangled?

I couldn’t stop imagining horrible things happening to him, Claire, or Lulu.

“Shit, we’re almost out of gas. Let’s fill up before we run out.” Sally drove into the lone gas station in sight.

It was a small place by the road, with a single bulb illuminating the pump and an old guy asleep behind the counter.

Sally pumped the gas, and I stared at my phone and wished Marcus would call me.

I needed to hear his voice. Sally had tried calling Gage and Maddox, but they weren’t answering either.

Sally went inside to pay, refusing the money I held out to her. I went to the edge of the gas station and looked along the road towards our destination. What would we find there?

A low gunning sound rolled along the street, seeming to answer my question.

In the distance, appearing over the top of a hill, a headlight appeared.

A motorcycle.

“Sally!” I called.

She came out of the gas station and followed my gaze.

“Who is it?” Sally asked, joining me at the side of the road.

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t have the words. If it was one of the Hounds, then we’d missed the showdown. Whatever had happened, had already happened.

I stepped out onto the road. The motorcycle approached and slowed to a stop in front of us.

Two figures sat on the bike. The first thing I registered was that the driver wasn’t Marcus.

It was Maddox. The second was the slow recognition of the woman on the back.

She tugged a spare helmet off her head and handed it to Maddox, then stared right at me.

“Claire!”

She looked different. I hadn’t seen my sister-in-law in months, and the contrast to the last time I’d seen her was shocking.

She’d gained much-needed weight. Her face was full and healthy.

Her hair was short, and black now, instead of blonde.

If she’d had sunglasses on and we passed on the street, I might not have recognized her.

“Arianna?” she called back.

And then I was running.

I grabbed her when I got close enough, and we embraced. She was hot, her skin burning against mine. I eased back and studied her face closely now. She had bruising along her jaw and under her chin. A big, dark handprint around her neck.

“I was so scared they wouldn’t get there in time,” I said.

Claire nodded. “They got there. They got there just in time.”

I hugged her again before withdrawing. “Lulu?”

Worry flashed over Claire’s beautiful features. “We left at the same time, but we couldn’t fit together on the bike.”

She turned to check back the way she’d come. Another headlight appeared, and then another. The road slowly filled with floating headlights, and the rumble of engines filled the air.

The leader of the pack drew up right in front of me. I made out Marcus immediately, and the small figure sitting in front of him, with a huge helmet on. Claire was right at my side as we ran toward him.

“Lulu!” Claire grabbed her little girl off the bike and hugged her hard.

I carefully took the helmet off her head and feasted my eyes on my niece.

“Auntie Arianna?” Lulu asked, turning her big eyes to me. “Auntie Arianna!” she cried out when she was sure that it was me.

“Hello, honey.”

She pressed herself close to me, and I hugged her as hard as I dared to.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded solemnly. “I went on a really cool bike. We went really fast.”

“Hey, don’t get me in trouble. We didn’t go that fast.” Marcus was standing right beside me.

Suddenly, I couldn’t look at him.

“What happened?” Sally asked.

The rest of the MC had stopped at the gas station. Gage wandered toward us, the duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

“We took care of business. Got the money back, and justice was served.” He eyed me. “My condolences on your loss.”

I stared at him. Did he mean…? No, he couldn’t, could he?

Claire gripped my hand hard, and I squeezed hers back.

“So, does this mean I don’t need to continue divorce proceedings?” she asked after a long pause.

Marcus gave a slow and measured nod. “Widows don’t need divorces.”

Claire shook her head, like she couldn’t believe it could be true, and when Lulu tugged on her hand, she gave her daughter a radiant smile.

That smile was everything.

“Is everything okay?” Lulu asked her mom.

Claire nodded and didn’t seem able to speak, so I spoke for her.

“Yes, it is. Everything is going to be okay from now on,” I told her.

She smiled to herself and followed Claire to a picnic table outside the gas station. Sally had brought out an armful of water bottles, chips, and candy.

“When you say it like that, birthday girl, even I can almost believe it,” Marcus said, still at my side.

I steeled myself to finally face him. His eye was darkening into a bruise, his lip bloodied and split. I instinctively raised my hands to touch his face and then caught myself, pulling back at the last second.

Marcus watched me with a probing expression. “But you weren’t talking to me, were you?”

I opened my mouth to tell him that I wanted nothing more than to forget that the last forty-eight hours ever happened, and yet, he was standing there wearing a Harbor Hounds’ patch, having just potentially killed someone.

Knowing me had cost him everything.

I wet my lips and curled my hands into fists so I wouldn’t reach for him.

“Are you okay?” I asked instead of all the things I wanted to say.

He tilted his head. “If I say no, will you take care of me again? Will you forgive me?”

A bitter chuckle left me. “Forgive you? I’m the one who lied. The one who got your brother sent to surgery. Did you forget?”

He stepped forward, and I mirrored his movement, backing away.

He paused, his brow furrowing with hurt. “Ari. I don’t care about any of that. You had your reasons, and I was a fucking idiot to doubt them for a second. If it means anything at all, no one in my life has ever surprised me. You’re the first. I didn’t handle it well.”

I shook my head. “You had every right to be mad. I was lying to you. I-I messed everything up. Look at you.” I waved my hands at his outfit. “You’re hurt, you’ve hurt someone else, you sold your soul to the Hounds.”

Marcus sighed. “I have no regrets about the Hounds. Getting hurt happens at least a few times a week, it’s no big deal. Hurting you, on the other hand… that—that’s a weight.”

I gave him a tight smile. “You didn’t hurt me more than I deserved. That game wasn’t something I should have been playing with you. We just don’t work, Marcus.”

“Don’t say that again, birthday girl. You’re breaking my heart.

Tell me you won’t forgive me, tell me you need a year-long grovel.

Tell me that I need to crawl and beg for your forgiveness…

that’s fine. I’ll do it, all of it. But don’t ever tell me you changed your mind about me.

I can’t survive that.” He reached a hand toward me.

I stared at his fingers, wanting nothing more than to take them, but I couldn’t. Because loving me had cost him too much. Perhaps his entire future. I needed to make that right. Marcus was born to play hockey. I couldn’t let him follow in his father and brother’s footsteps. I couldn’t.

I didn’t take his hand. The glint of hurt on his face was nearly too much to bear.

“Ari—”

“It’s best this way. You’ve got the rest of your life to look forward to. Hockey and all the dreams you have. I want to see them all come true.”

“What about you? What about your dreams? I’m not in them even a little?”

You are them. I couldn’t say those words to this man, the one who had risked everything for me. It wasn’t fair.

“You took care of the monster under the bed, and you made me so happy, for the first time in my life. You’ve already given me my dream, and I’ll never forget that.”

I stepped back again, trying hard not to cry. Why was this so heartbreakingly sad? Marcus was safe, the money was back, Dale was dealt with. Cole was recovering from his injury. I should be celebrating, but there was only bittersweetness.

“So, what? You’re letting me go for my own good?” Marcus asked, staring down at me with an intensity I couldn’t match.

“It’s what I should have done from the start. It’s what’s right. You’ll meet someone your own age?—”

“Spare me, beautiful. I don’t need a pep talk.”

He faced away and rubbed at the back of his neck, a muscle working furiously in his jaw, and when he spun back, there was a coolness in his eyes that shattered my heart. It was for the best, it was the right thing to do, so why did it hurt so much?

“Marcus! Let’s get going. We need to get the money back to Cole,” Gage called to Marcus.

He turned back to me. “I guess you don’t want to ride with me?”

“I’ll go with Sally. We need to take Claire and Lulu home.”

Thank God all this had happened a few hours north of where they’d chosen to settle down. The Harbor Hounds rolling through town was definitely something that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.

Marcus nodded tightly. “Then, I guess I’ll see you in Hade Harbor.”

“See you there,” I said.

He walked back to his bike, and if felt like something was ripping inside me as I watched him go.