by Sybil Bartel
“No.” I shoved to my feet as my woman’s chest arced off the ground again.
“Rip, Link,” Hawkins barked. “I said get Scott out of here.”
The two men grabbed me as the uniformed men suddenly stopped attending to my woman.
“NO.” I fought against the men’s hold on me before I yelled at the uniformed men. “Don’t stop! Help her!”
The two uniformed men looked at each other, then Hawkins.
Hawkins nodded at his men.
One uniformed man looked at his watch. “T-O-D twenty-one hundred hours—”
The hysterical woman’s screams turned to a keening wail that blocked out the uniformed man’s words.
I yanked out of the Hawkins’s men’s grasp and wrapped my hands around the throat of the nearest uniformed man. “FIX HER. Fucking fix her!”
Hawkins’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Too late.”
Fury.
Blinding, breathless, chest constricting, fury.
I swung.
My fist hit flesh and I swung again.
Metal hit the back of my neck.
My feet stumbled.
I swung again.
My knuckles contacted with cartilage, the woman’s keening abruptly stopped and I kept swinging until I was thrown against the wall, then out the door.
I hit the steps, then I hit the earth.
I was earth.
Men shouted.
My woman had told me I was earth.
Words flew.
I heard none of it.
Too late.
My woman.
Too late.
My woman.
Too late.
My son.
Too.
Late.
I thought I knew rage.
I thought I knew pain.
I shoved to my feet.
“You got two choices,” Hawkins yelled. “Nothing’s changed. Meet that recruiter tomorrow morning, join the Army and get straightened out, or go to jail and rot.”
I did not have two choices.
I had no choice.
I aimed for the woods.
“I will find you,” Hawkins warned.
Too late.
The helo’s engine whined to life and the blades started to thump.
The ink on my new tattoos itched.
The soldier sitting next to me smiled and spoke above the noise. “What’s your name?”
I palmed the small piece of wood in my pocket and ignored him as I pulled it out. The carving stained with her blood, the last words my woman begged of me whispered through my mind like a cruel joke.
Candle. Light a candle for our baby. Save his little soul. Make sure he goes to heaven. Light a candle. Candle. Candle.
The soldier leaned forward and looked at the patch above my left breast. “I don’t mean your last name.”
My woman’s blood forever on my hands, I stared at the small wooden flame I had carved for her. Stroking the piece with my thumb, I stroked my rage.
“They’re always calling us by our last names.” The soldier laughed. “I mean your first name. Mine’s Jimmy.” He held his hand out.
I looked at his extended hand, but I did not take it. “Candle.”
The soldier laughed again. “What?”
“My name is Candle.”
Tarquin was dead.
“Candle? Really?” the soldier asked.
I didn’t answer. My back and arms sore from this morning’s PT, I flexed my biceps that were almost twice the size they were nine months ago.
“Well, okay then. Nice to meet you, Candle. Where you heading?”
I leaned back against the cold metal of the transport. My body conditioned, my training complete, I closed my eyes and silently spelled the seven letter word that had become my mantra. J-U-S-T-I-C-E.
Then, without opening my eyes, I answered the soldier. “War.”
I was going to war.
◈ ◈ ◈
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for reading HARD JUSTICE, the second book in the Alpha Antihero Series!
To continue the Alpha Antihero Series, and to find out what happens in the exciting conclusion of Candle’s story, grab your copy of HARD SIN now!
The complete Alpha Antihero Series!
HARD LIMIT
HARD JUSTICE
HARD SIN
Have you read the Alpha Bodyguard Series!
SCANDALOUS
MERCILESS
RECKLESS
RUTHLESS
FEARLESS
CALLOUS
RELENTLESS
SHAMELESS
Have you read the sexy Alpha Escort Series?
THRUST
ROUGH
GRIND
Have you read the Uncompromising Series?
TALON
NEIL
ANDRÉ
BENNETT
CALLAN
Turn the page for a preview of HARD SIN, the exciting conclusion to Tarquin ‘Candle’ Scott’s story!
HARD SIN
One breath.
One second.
One moment.
I used to measure my life in single instances. Eight years ago, I thought it was all I needed.
But I didn’t escape the most violent cult in the country and survive four tours in the Army because of single moments. Every damn day I woke with air in my lungs, I paid for it. My childhood stolen, my future robbed, my life hijacked, I paid every second of every day for it.
I’d never been free, and I didn’t think I ever would be… then a single second changed everything.
*HARD SIN is not a standalone story. It is the third book in the Alpha Antihero Series, and it is the conclusion to Tarquin “Candle” Scott’s story.
The Alpha Antihero Series:
HARD LIMIT
HARD JUSTICE
HARD SIN
Sybil grew up in northern California with her head in a book and her feet in the sand. She now resides in southern Florida, and while she doesn’t get to read as much as she likes, she still buries her toes in the sand. If she’s not writing or fighting to contain the banana plantation in her backyard, you can find her spending time with her family, and a mischievous miniature boxer.
To find out more about Sybil Bartel or her books, please visit her at:
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