Better When He's Brave

“You never had anything to do with your sister’s boyfriend getting killed. He owed Novak money for drugs. He already had a target on him. Novak manipulated you, used you like he did everyone else in the Point. You’ve never been a killer, Reeve. You aren’t a bad person. You can go make things right with your folks and let go of some of that responsibility you let control you.”

She pulled back and looked at me stunned. She fussed at the paramedic when he asked her to move away so he could get to my injured leg.

She slowly shook her head and took my hand. “No. I’m still the same, Titus. Regardless of whether I had a hand in it or not, I’m glad Rissa’s killer is dead, and I would’ve killed Conner. I still want to now seeing how badly he hurt you. I won’t make that choice again, I know I can’t and still keep you, but I still want to. I don’t think it makes me a bad person. I think it makes me a survivor. If it’s me and someone I love or a bad guy, the bad guy is going down and I won’t feel guilty for that anymore.”

I leaned over and kissed her. “You are a lion tamer.” Fearless and always willing to dance in the dark with the monsters and animals that wanted to eat her up. No wonder my beast loved her. She wrinkled her nose at me.

“Can’t it be Beauty and the Beast? I think I like that better.”

I wanted to laugh but I groaned instead as they told me they needed to move me to a gurney. It really hurt but it was tolerable because my girl was there to take care of me.

Like she always was. I might bleed for everyone else. Fight to the end for this town and those that I loved that lived here, but this woman . . . she would bleed for me and never ask for anything in return. There was nothing more than that. This is what my love looked like in the Point: a girl that could take care of herself and anyone else she cared about . . . and God help anyone that got in her way.

Chapter 19

Reeve

THE GARAGE WAS BUSY when I walked through it. It was noisy and smelled like oil and gasoline. I got a few curious looks from the different guys that had their heads buried in engines or that were working on various other parts of the car but I didn’t pay any attention to them. They all knew I was with Bax’s brother, and as long as they wanted to keep breathing or stay out of jail, they kept their opinions to themselves.

I knew Bax was somewhere in the cavernous compound. I had called Dovie earlier to ask her where I could find him. She told me he was going nuts sitting at home, and since the contraption holding his jaw in place had been removed, he went back to work. She sounded frustrated and I knew exactly where she was coming from. Though Titus’s injuries were less serious than Bax’s in the grand scheme of things, he was still laid up with a broken knee and some busted ribs. The cop was a terrible patient and he was making me insane with his bad mood and surly attitude while he thumped around the house in his cast. My personal opinion was that the rest was good for him. He deserved some time off after everything he had been through, but Titus wasn’t the kind of guy that unwound. He stayed coiled tight, listening to his police scanner and constantly on the phone with his fellow cops talking about work and unsolved cases. Even hobbled and banged up, the guy was a force to be reckoned with, and the same could be said for Bax.

He was sitting behind his big, metal desk in his office. His wrist was still in a heavy plaster cast but he had his broken ankle up on the edge of the desk and it was encased in a bulky, black walking boot. He was still too skinny and the sharpness in his face made his glower all the more intimidating as I took a seat across from him without asking. He still emanated badass and don’t-mess-with-me even though he looked like he had been on the losing end of his last fight.

Dovie had given me the codes to get into the compound and through the massive gates in the first place since there was no chance in hell I would ever be invited. I wasn’t welcome and the fact was evident on Bax’s hard features.

“What are you doing here?” He tapped his fingers on the knee of his lifted leg and I glanced around the office. I was trying to figure out what seemed different about him besides the weight loss when the old smell of cigarette smoke snuck into my nose.

I lifted an eyebrow at him. “You don’t have a cigarette in your hand.”

The vein by the star inked on his face twitched in annoyance. “I have enough shit trying to kill me every day. I figured I didn’t need to help matters along. It was a bitch to try and smoke through all the wires and shit that were holding my face together until a couple of days ago. What are you doing here, Reeve?”

I pushed some of my long hair over my shoulder and cleared my throat. “I know you don’t like me, that you don’t trust me and want someone else for your brother.”

He didn’t say anything but his chin dipped down in a barely-there nod. “None of that is a secret.”

I locked my fingers together in my lap and forced myself to meet his dark gaze and the animosity that lived deep in the depths. “Look, I know I screwed up with Dovie and she got hurt, but I saved Titus’s life, so that has to count for something. I’m not going anywhere and you know you can’t do anything about it without hurting your brother. I want some kind of truce, Shane. Like it or not, we’re part of the same family now.”

He didn’t say anything. He rocked back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him while he considered me. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to wiggle and fidget under that heavy and deep look. It was like the entire night sky was landing on top of me.

“What are you going to do with Titus in the long run, Reeve? He’s always going to be a cop and you’re always going to be a chick with one foot on either side of the law. Are you going to make him choose between you and who he is, what he has always been?”