Page 118 of Ruthless Game

I love you, Max, I thought, as I drowned.

I love you.

44

Lawson

(Then)

Emma and I lay in her bed together, our bodies tangled together, clothes on. I loved being with her like this, just cuddling, the smell of her surrounding us in the quiet of her room while everyone else in the house was asleep.

This was when I was happiest—even more than when I was on the ice.

“What are you most scared of?” she asked, her voice curious but gentle.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, I’m terrified that one day I’ll get stuck on the train tracks, or that a clown will kill me. What about you?”

Losing you, I thought. That’s what I’m most afraid of.

Instead, I said, “Water. Drowning.”

“Oh, right.” She perked up and kissed me. “Well, then I guess I’ll have to teach you how to swim.”

45

Lawson

We’d raced here, breaking every law and running every red light to get to the gorge. Even before Jack had parked, I’d been out of the car, running down the trail, Jack and Isaac at my heels.

The further down I went, the louder the river got. It had rained a lot in the past week and winter was giving us a brutal preview. The water was high in the gorge, something that would usually terrify me, but I had bigger, scarier things to worry about.

Namely, Jeffrey’s and Emma’s arguing voices echoing off the rocks.

At least she was alive.

At least she sounded okay.

If he’d touched her, I’d kill him. Hell, I’d kill him anyway.

When I rounded the bend, I saw them at our rock. Emma was on the ground, tied up, faking sweet—I knew that look in her eyes—and Jeffrey was straddling her waist. Her hands were on his dick, and I saw red.

“You fucking bitch! I’m not even going to drown you, I’m going to kill you⁠—”

I was leaping through the air and landing on top of him before he could finish his sentence, pushing him off Emma and into the dirt. We grappled for control, but I was too possessed with fury, with love, to let the creepy dipshit overpower me. The first punch was satisfying, the second and third even moreso. I was going to kill him, I realized distantly, but I didn’t really give a shit.

Finally, Jeffrey stopped fighting back, going still on the ground.

“You okay, Angel?” I asked, turning to stare into Emma’s blue eyes.

She nodded. “You?”

I started to answer her, but then there was a sharp slice across my neck and I felt nothing but the wet spurt of blood, and searing pain.

Shit, that fucker had brought a knife to a fistfight.

My vision went blurry. Then Isaac was next to me, trying to apply pressure to my neck to stop the bleeding, but every part of me needed to go save her. I’d crawl, if need be.