Chapter 96 Clean up
Sage's POV
I stood frozen in the circle of white light, staring at Dante's body sprawled on the concrete floor with blood pooling beneath him. My ears were ringing from the sound of Jaxon's gun firing in the enclosed space. Everything felt surreal, like I was watching this happen to someone else rather than living through it myself.
I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't process what had just happened in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
My brother had just killed a man right in front of me. The man who had blackmailed my father and threatened him was lying motionless on the floor of an abandoned warehouse.
Jaxon stood there for a long time staring at what he'd done, his expression completely blank in a way that was somehow more terrifying than if he looked upset or shocked or guilty. He looked at Dante's body the way someone might look at a piece of furniture they just moved, checking to make sure it was in the right position before moving on to the next task.
"We need to leave," Ryder said, his voice cutting through the ringing silence. His hand found mine and squeezed tight. "Right now, before someone who heard the shot comes to investigate."
"No." Jaxon's voice was calm and steady, almost conversational. "You two leave. I'll handle the cleanup."
"Jax, you can't just—" I started, but he cut me off with a look.
"I said I'll handle it." He slid his gun back into his waistband and pulled out his phone. "This is not club business now, and I know people who can make this disappear. You two go home, act normal, and don't tell anyone what happened here today. Not the brothers, not Snake, not anyone. Do you understand?"
Ryder moved to my side and took my arm gently, trying to guide me toward the door. "Come on, Sage. We need to go."
But I couldn't make my feet move. I couldn't stop staring at Dante's lifeless body and the blood that kept spreading across the concrete in a dark pool. "Jaxon just killed someone. We can't just leave him here to—"
"I said I'll handle it." Jaxon's voice was firm. "This isn't the first time I've dealt with something like this, and it won't be the last. Trust me to take care of this, Sage. I know what I'm doing."
There was something in the way he said it. He was so calm and certain and it felt wrong given what had just happened. He just shot a man and he was acting like it was nothing more than an inconvenient mess that needed cleaning up before we could all go home and pretend it never happened.
But I was too tired and too overwhelmed to question it right then, so I let Ryder lead me out of the warehouse and back to his truck.
The drive back to the house was quiet and Ryder kept glancing at me like he was checking to make sure I was still breathing, but he didn't try to make conversation and I was grateful for the silence. My mind was too full of the sound of that gunshot and the image of Dante falling to process anything else.
When we pulled into the driveway, Ryder walked me to the door and then pulled me into his arms, holding me tight enough that I could feel his heart beating against my cheek. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know." It was the most honest answer I could give. "Dante's dead. Jaxon shot him and now he's dead and I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it."
"You're allowed to feel however you feel. There's no right way to process what just happened." Ryder kissed the top of my head. "But you're safe now. Dante can't threaten you anymore. He can't force you into that marriage, and he can't hurt anyone else."
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think that Dante's death had solved all our problems and we could finally move forward. But something in my gut told me this was just the beginning of a whole new set of problems we hadn't seen coming.
Ryder stayed with me until I got into bed for a quick nap. He was sitting beside me and holding my hand while I stared at the ceiling and tried to make sense of everything.
I woke to the sound of the front door opening and closing, followed by heavy footsteps on the stairs. Ryder was already on his feet with his hand on his gun before I was fully awake, but he relaxed when Jaxon appeared in the doorway.
"It's done," Jaxon said, his voice flat and emotionless. "The cleanup crew handled everything. Dante's body is gone, the warehouse is clean, and there's no evidence we were ever there."
"Just like that?" I sat up in bed and looked at my brother. His clothes were different from what he'd been wearing at the warehouse, clean and free of any bloodstains. His hands were scrubbed pink like he'd washed them over and over, and his expression was completely calm. "You shot someone and now it's just handled?"
"That's how these things work, Sage. We take care of our own problems and we don't leave loose ends." Jaxon moved further into the room and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "What happened to Dante was necessary. He threatened you, he had that gun pointed at you, and I did what I had to do to protect you."
I couldn't argue with that. Dante had been about to shoot me before Jaxon pulled the trigger. But something about how easily Jaxon had made the body disappear, how calmly he was talking about it now, made my skin crawl.
"What happens now?" Ryder asked from beside me. "Diego is going to want answers too."
"Diego is going to get exactly what he wanted from the beginning." Jaxon's gaze shifted to me. "Sage is going to marry him."
The words hit me like a physical blow and I couldn't speak for a moment, couldn't process what he just said. "What?"
"You heard me." Jaxon pushed off from the wall and moved closer to the bed. "You have one week to round up whatever fling you have with Ryder here and get yourself to Arizona to meet Diego and work out the wedding details."
I stared at my brother like he'd lost his mind. "Are you serious right now?"
"Dead serious." Jaxon's voice was cold and unapologetic. "One week, Sage. Then you're going to Arizona to marry Diego Vasquez whether you like it or not."
He then turned to Ryder and looked him square in the face. "And if you refuse to go, I'll kill Ryder myself."