"Anything for my queen," Blaze Golden-the man I had loved for three years, the man I had betrayed my own marriage for-chuckled, pulling her into his arms. He 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? Right now, Axel Beaumont, that invincible gang President, is probably being shot to pieces on the interstate."
My heart stopped. The truth was a rusty, serrated blade violently 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, coughing up thick, dark blood.
"He's a monster, but his fatal flaw was actually giving a shit about a worthless traitor like you," Blaze sneered, kicking my bleeding hand away with his heavy boot. He turned to the tattooed Vipers MC bikers waiting in the shadows. "Strip her. Fuck her until she stops breathing. Don't let this pretty skin go to waste."
As the bikers unbuckled their belts with sickening 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 emptied every penny of my bank accounts for Cherie. I gave my entire heart to these two animals, only to have my legs shattered and be thrown to bottom-feeder thugs as a toy!
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 riddled with bullet holes from the ambush, yet he charged into the warehouse like a furious, protective beast. He gunned down 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 submachine 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 from the hail of bullets. Warm blood poured from his mouth, dripping onto my cheek.
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 hell with him," Blaze ordered coldly.
As the cold muzzle of the gun pressed against my forehead, a tidal wave of monstrous hatred and soul-crushing regret swallowed me. Blaze, Cherie... if there is a hell, I will tear you both apart with my bare hands!
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 break your legs, 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.