Art fell on the floor, but he wasn’t unconscious. His eyes were open and locked on me.
I felt so helpless and angry. All of this was my fault. I should’ve been honest about Art and me. We would’ve faced any blowback together as a united front.
“I’m so sorry,” I mouthed to him. “I’m so sorry. I love you, I love you so much.”
“You two are too much fucking trouble.” The psychotic, mad man shook out his arms and went for the syringe. “Time to get this over with before someone comes.”
I cried, cried harder than I had in the last few years as I thought of Art and my boys. “Please, I’ll give you anything. Do you want money? Name your price.”
He stared at me for a long minute. His slow reply put a flicker of hope in my chest. “As tempting as that sounds, no dice. A life for a life is what I’m after.” He tied a rubber strip around my upper arm like a nurse would to take blood. “I could just stab the needle into your arm, but I want you to die just like my mom.”
“God, please. Please don’t do this,” I sobbed, pleading for my life. “I’m so incredibly sorry about your mom. I truly am.”
“I don’t give a fuck how you feel, Mrs. Knight. When I saw you in the Wild Hog, it was like fate had brought us together.” He squirted a bit of liquid out of the needle. “I’d been following you the last couple of weeks. Just biding my time until the right moment came along.”
Shaking my head, I sobbed harder as the realization I was really going to die today hit me. “Please,” I whimpered, jarring my body in the chair. Kicking at his legs, giving it one last fight, I screamed like a crazy woman. “Somebody help us!”
The fucker took my arm, ignoring me, then put the tip of the needle on my bulging vein.
“I love you, sweetness.” Tears dripped out of Art’s eyes as he continued watching me, unable to defend me as he bled out onto the dingy blue carpet. I saw it in his glossy eyes. He wouldn’t fight to stay alive after I was gone. When he told me weeks ago,“Life isn’t worth living without you,”he’d meant it.
“I love you,” I replied through my tears, holding his almost vacant stare. He would be the last person I saw before I went to the other side.
Was this how our love affair would end? With him and I dying together in a motel room because of an unhinged, certifiable man?
“It won’t be long now,sweetness.” He flippantly threw out Art’s term of endearment.
The needle went into my arm. I gasped, inhaling a deep breath as he injected the liquid. My gaze remained locked on Art’s. I’d wait for him at the gates of heaven so we could go through them together. Once I was reunited with my first love, the three of us would live in peace and harmony together for all eternity.
What had I done to deserve two tragic love stories?
23
Storm
Not five minutes after Hero and I had gotten back to the compound, Grizz had filled me in on Sugar and Art being at a motel together, and Maddox was on his way there. Angel had urged me to go after him and made me promise to keep an open mind about Sugar and Art. She’d reminded me that Sugar wasn’t made of stone, she needed love and affection like the rest of us, and Art was who she loved. Then my woman told me to haul ass to catch up to Maddox before he destroyed his mom.
Ire and Dodge had just gotten to the compound and followed us on my command. I wasn’t sure why I’d had them come. I could handle my cousin but something niggled at me that there might be more trouble than an angry, overprotective son.
We were fifteen minutes away from the motel when I spotted Maddox heading toward us. I waved at him so I could find out what had happened.
He slowed down until he came to a hard stop beside me. “What are you doing out here?” he snapped, and I knew he’d already seen Sugar and Art.
“Where you coming from?”
He pursed his lips. “You talked to Grizz, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
Maddox shook his head, wiping his finger under his nose. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did you find her with Art?”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” he lashed out at me the same way I used to when I was his age. “I’ll see you at the compound.”
“Stop!” I yelled and pointed my finger in his face. “I am your president if you forgot. You leave when I tell you to.” I checked our surroundings while we were stopped in the middle of a two-lane road. No cars were in sight. “What did you say to your mom?”
“Nothing. I want nothing to do with her.”