His head lolled to the side and blood dripped down from his face onto the floor. He spat out the blood pooling in his mouth and looked back up at me. “I’m done,” he forced out on a heave.

“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Griff demanded.

“Bourne’s threatened to kill my sister if I don’t give him my territory. I’m walking away from everything.”

“Jesus Christ, you two are a fuckin’ class act. I don’t believe you, asshole. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth,” I yelled.

Griff’s shoulders were wound tight with tension, and he’d been holding back, but he reached the end of his control. He punched Julio, over and over, until Julio’s face was unrecognisable.

“Feel good?” I asked.

His head jerked around and his eyes found mine.

Wild.

Feral.

Griff had so much darkness in him that he concealed from the world under a carefully constructed mask, but in that moment, I saw it. Loud and clear.

He took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he grunted.

Julio mumbled something, but his lips were so swollen he could hardly get the words out. Griff grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. “What did you say?” he barked.

Julio attempted to open his lips, but struggled. His breathing was laboured and it was clear he was in a great deal of pain.

Good.

He mumbled again, and again we couldn’t make out what he said.

I clenched my hands, wanting desperately to take that last breath from him, while also wanting to drag his pain and suffering out.

Griff yanked his head again. Harder. “Speak so we can understand you, asshole!”

Julio’s face contorted in agony when Griff punched him again.

“Bourne,” he mumbled, but not so much that we couldn’t make out that word. He tried to open his mouth again, but only ended up pushing out a cry of pain before closing it again. His breathing slowed and I wondered if he was about to lose consciousness. And then he managed to force out more words. “He’s…not…who…he…says…” – he coughed – “…he…is…”

And then his head dropped forward and he passed out.

Griff turned and punched the wall before looking back at me. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Jesus…your guess is as good as mine.”

“I wanted to kill the asshole, but now I’m thinking we might need to let him live for a bit longer.”

My phone rang.

Blade.

“Tell me you’ve got information that will help us. We’ve got Julio here and he’s just told us some shit about Bourne not being who he says he is, but then he passed out, so we have no clue what he meant by that,” I said, answering the call.

“Bourne isn’t who you think he is, Scott. I’ve just discovered that Julio actually works for Bourne.”

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” All my conversations with Bourne filtered back through my mind, none of them making any sense now.

“They go way back. Bourne had an affair with Julio’s sister when they were younger and they have a child together. Bourne put Julio as the face of his operation and let everyone think Julio was in charge. Once he had South Australia under his full control, he sent Julio to take over Queensland, but somewhere along the way Bourne decided he wanted Julio out. Problem was, he couldn’t just get rid of him because Julio’s men were loyal to him and if they knew Bourne killed Julio, they would retaliate against him.”

“And that’s where we came in…Bourne was using us to do his dirty work,” I said as it began to make sense.

“There’s something else.”

“What?”

“Bourne wants control of your club so he can run the drugs through it. He wants you and anyone else in his way, dead. And he’s in Brisbane now, ready to make that happen. He already took out some of Julio’s men earlier; it seems he’s on a mission to get shit done. You need to make sure everyone is locked up tight while we find Bourne.”

“I’m on it.”

When I ended the call, I said to Griff, “Call your family, brother, and tell them to lock up tight. Bourne’s been playing us and is now after us. I’m gonna call Harlow and then I’ll fill you in.”

He nodded and we both made the calls we needed to.

“Hey, baby,” Harlow answered a moment later.

“Harlow, I need you to make sure the house is locked up and you stay alert. There’s a guy looking for me and I’m concerned he may come there.” I tried to keep my voice free of the tension I was feeling, but I needed her to take this threat seriously, so I was firm.

“Okay…how worried should I be?” She sounded like she was biting her lip.

“You’ve got Wilder there with you, and I’m going to try to send someone else as well.”

“I think we’ll be okay. One of your Adelaide guys just arrived to help Wilder, so -”

I cut her off, frantic to know the name of the guy. “Who?”

“I’m pretty sure Wilder called him Bourne.”

Icy fear slid down my spine as my world spun.

I can’t lose her.

I can’t lose our baby.

“I’m coming now, Harlow.” I hung up without waiting for her reply.

I promised her I would always protect her.

I promised her I would marry her.

I intended to keep those promises.

17

Harlow

That was odd.

I stared at my phone after Scott hung up on me. “Weird,” I said as I placed my phone on the table.

“What?” Scarlett asked as she made coffee for Wilder and Bourne.

I frowned as I recalled the abrupt way Scott ended our call. “Scott kinda just hung up on me. It’s so out of character for him to do that.”

She shrugged. “Seems like he’s got a lot of pressure on him at the moment.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He really did. But my man knew how to handle his shit, so I was still a little thrown by what he’d just done.

“I want to apologise again for running out on you yesterday.” She’d already apologised twice so there really was no need.

“Scarlett, even if you hadn’t run out, Rogue would probably still have shown his true colours, and the fire would have still happened, so none of it was your fault. Okay?” I’d seen a whole new caring side to her, but she needed to listen to what I was saying and stop saying sorry.

“Okay¸” she murmured.

I was about to say something else when a fight broke out on the back verandah. Wilder yelled something at Bourne who then shouted back. And then it sounded like a scuffle and perhaps a punch up.

Scarlett and I hurried outside to see what was going on. Just as I exited the house through the back door, Bourne knocked Wilder unconscious with a punch to the head.

“What are you doing?” I screamed, panic bubbling up.

Bourne’s eyes came to mine, and in that instant, I realised he was not a good man. He pointed a gun at us, and barked, “Get the fuck inside.”

“Jesus,” Scarlett muttered, “Do you attract assholes or something?”

“It would appear so,” I agreed as we walked back inside. I fought to remain calm on the outside because I refused to show him any fear, but on the inside, I was scrambling to come up with an escape plan.

Bourne had already been inside when he first arrived, so he knew the layout of the house. “In the lounge room,” he ordered, and we did what he said.

As he moved to make sure the door and windows were locked, my hands turned sweaty and my heart raced.

Not again.

Being locked in here with him caused memories from yesterday to flash through my mind and I tried to hold back the feelings of nausea.

I need to fight him.

“What do you want from us?” I demanded to know.

“I want to make Scott Cole hurt. I want him to bleed his pain. And I figure the best way to do that is to take the one thing he treasures the most in the world, away from him.”