“Abby, don’t do this. Tell me what’s wrong. I know you wouldn’t have killed him unless you had to.”
Her tears ran over and her chin began to tremble, and that was all I could take. I wrapped her in my arms, bloody clothes and all, and spoke into her hair. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t. It’s too late,” she said into my chest. “I’d only drag you down with me, and I can’t let that happen.”
“It won’t.” I held her tighter, breathing in her scent. “Don’t make me send you away.” I ran my hands down her back, wishing more than anything in the world that we could just rewind the day and wake up in bed together, so I could fix this. So that she would never get blood on her hands and I wouldn’t lose her. “Please, Abby. I love you.”
Her next breath came with a soft, surprised sound. Then she stiffened and pushed me away. “Don’t say that.” Her eyes were full of tears again and her voice was strained, as if she was holding back more than she was saying. “Not like this. Please don’t tell me you love me, then kick me out of your life.”
“Don’t make me kick you out.” A perilous mix of heartache and anger stormed inside me. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to help her. I wanted to keep her. But she wouldn’t budge. “Tell me what’s going on!”
“Stop asking!” she shouted. “I can’t!”
My temper snapped. I turned and pulled the door open before she could say anything else. “Lucas!” I called, and he jogged up the steps and into the kitchen, obviously having heard every word. “Put her on a plane.”
“No!” Abby reached for me, but I stepped back and gave her brother a signal he couldn’t possibly misunderstand. He took her by both arms, holding her in physical custody, and glared at me over her head the entire time. He might never forgive me for it, but he would follow my orders, both because I was his Alpha and because I was right.
Any other Alpha would have fired her long before.
“You want me to take her now?” Luke glanced pointedly at the dead body. “What about him?”
“We’ll clean this up. Stop somewhere and get her something to change into, then buy her a ticket and give your parents the flight information. I’ll tell your dad she’s on the way. And that she’s all his.”
“Jace, please!” Abby tried to reach for me, but she couldn’t break her brother’s grip. “Please don’t do this!”
“Get her out of here.” I made myself watch as Lucas hauled his sister out the door and into the woods, even though it felt like he’d just taken my heart with him.
And just like that, Abby was gone.
FOURTEEN
Abby
“Lucas, you have to change his mind,” I said, as my brother’s truck sped down the highway toward Lexington. “Jace will listen to you.”
Lucas snorted. “No he won’t. Thanks to you, I’m on his shit-list too.” He glanced to the west, where the sun hung low on the horizon, half covered by dark clouds. The forecast called for snow, but I knew he was hoping for rain instead, because we weren’t good winter-weather drivers. We hadn’t had much practice in South Carolina. “What the hell were you thinking, Abby? You swore an oath! You can’t go around disobeying orders and questioning your Alpha’s authority just because you’re—”
“Don’t do that!” I snapped, slamming one hand down on his dashboard. “Do not assume that everything I do or say is because I’m some fragile kitten suffering from post-traumatic stress. I knew exactly what I was doing with Hargrove.”
I’d hoped to avoid killing him in front of Jace, to keep him as uninvolved as possible, and I’d kind of lost it for a minute when the whole thing sank in. But other than that, I’d been in control. Doing what had to be done, even if none of the rest of them understood that. And it hadn’t escaped my notice that everyone was upset about the fact that I’d killed Hargrove, but not about the fact that he was dead.
Lucas glanced at me with one brow raised. “I was actually going to say, ‘You can’t go around questioning your Alpha’s authority just because you’re sleeping with him.’ Which is really weird for me, by the way. It’s my brotherly duty to pound him into the ground, but I swore an oath to respect and obey him.”
“Have you ever noticed that the enforcer’s oath reads like an archaic marriage vow?” I said. Lucas glared at me and I shrugged. “Okay. Not the point. I’ll try to think about your comfort level the next time I decide to assert my sexual independence.”
“That’s all I’m asking. Except maybe that you never again use the phrase ‘sexual independence’ in front of your brother.”
The truth was that I didn’t want there to be a next time. I couldn’t imagine wanting anyone other than Jace to touch me. Ever. But things weren’t looking good for us, considering he was having me forcibly escorted from the territory the very day after we’d gotten together.
How to lose an Alpha in eighteen hours. My life was a romantic comedy waiting to happen.