Standing next to them was my so-called "best friend," Cherie Frost. She didn't even glance at my injured legs. Instead, her eyes gleamed with naked greed as she yanked the diamond necklace from my throat and stripped the designer rings from my trembling fingers.
I lay on the cold concrete floor, trembling in agonizing pain.
Blaze looked down at me, his eyes filled with nothing but sickening disgust, as if looking at a piece of rotting trash. "If she hadn't been so blindly obsessed with me, how could we have tricked her into betraying her husband and signing over her father's estate to Carly? Right now, Axel Beaumont, that invincible gang President, is probably being attacked on the interstate."
My heart stopped. The truth was a rusty, serrated blade twisting in my gut.
Axel Beaumont. The man who had forced me to be his "Old Lady," the man I had spent the last two years cursing and trying to escape.
"You... you used me to kill him?" I choked out, my voice weak. "And Carly... you stole my father's company..."
"Your father was a weak old fool who deserved to die broke," Carly spat, her pretty face twisted with ugly malice as she leaned into Blaze's embrace. "And you? You're just the pathetic stepping stone for Blaze and me."
"He's a monster, but his fatal flaw was actually giving a damn about a worthless traitor like you," Blaze sneered, kicking my injured hand away with his heavy boot. He turned to the tattooed Vipers MC bikers waiting in the shadows. "Take her. Have your fun with her - just make sure she never speaks again. And don't let a pretty face like that go to waste."
As the bikers moved closer with cold, soulless grins, a wave of sheer terror and nausea hit me. I closed my eyes in absolute despair.
I was such a blind, pathetic fool. I betrayed my own husband and stole his club's secrets for Blaze. I let my aunt and cousin drain my father's life and fortune. I emptied every penny of my bank accounts for Cherie. I gave my entire life to these animals, only to be left broken and discarded.
Suddenly, the deafening roar of a Harley-Davidson engine shattered the night.
The warehouse doors exploded inward.
My eyes widened in absolute shock.
It was him. Axel Beaumont.
He was covered in blood, his body wounded from the ambush, yet he charged into the warehouse like a furious, protective beast. He fought off the three Vipers before they could even blink.
"Axe..." I choked out, a soul-tearing wave of guilt and agony crashing over me. Why? Why would you come to save a traitor like me?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blaze stepped out from the shadows, firing a gun directly at Axe's back.
"No!" I shrieked.
Axe didn't dodge. He collapsed forward, using his massive, bleeding frame to completely shield my broken body. His strength was fading fast, his vision dimming.
His rough, oil-stained hand, trembling violently, used the very last ounce of its strength to tightly intertwine with my cold fingers.
"Don't be afraid..." he wheezed, his vision fading, yet his eyes remained fiercely locked onto mine. There was no hatred for my betrayal, only a devastating, unconditional tenderness. "I love you... my Old Lady..."
His hand went limp. The undisputed King of the Outlaw world died on top of me, in a filthy warehouse, all because of my stupidity.
"Send her to join him," Blaze ordered coldly, his arm still wrapped tightly around Carly.
As the cold muzzle of the gun pressed against my forehead, a tidal wave of monstrous hatred and soul-crushing regret swallowed me. Blaze, Carly, Cherie... if there is a hell, I will make you all pay!
Bang!
"Chloe, what the hell is so good about Blaze Golden that you'd rather die than stay with me?!"
A harsh, furious roar struck my ears like thunder.
I gasped violently, my eyes snapping open.
I wasn't in the warehouse. There was no stench of blood. Instead, the sharp, clean scent of tobacco, leather, and mint aftershave flooded my senses.
My wrists were pinned above my head against a cold wall. A massive, muscular body was pressing me down, suffocatingly close.
I blinked through my tears and looked up. A flawless, fiercely handsome face glared down at me. His jaw was clenched tight, and his dark brown eyes were a violent storm of anger and devastation. Axel.
The pain in my wrists was sharp. The heat radiating from his chest was real. My legs... they weren't broken.
I'm not dead. I am reborn!
This was a year ago. The night I had packed my bags to elope with Blaze, only to be caught by Axe.
"Stop looking at me with that pathetic face!" Axe growled, his voice a freezing blade, misinterpreting my shock for fear. "You are my wife. Even if I have to lock you in this room, you are never leaving this clubhouse!"
He released my wrists abruptly, stepping back as if my touch disgusted him. He turned around, preparing to leave me alone in the room, just like in my past life.
Just as he took a step toward the door, I lunged forward with everything I had. I wrapped my arms tightly around his solid waist from behind, burying my tear-stained face into his broad back.
His massive body instantly froze into stone.