The Fight for Forever: The Legend Trilogy, Book 3 (Legend Trilogy #3)(2)

I didn’t want to tell Bump the news before I told Jorie, so I let him think what he wanted. “Order a pizza, if they’re still delivering. Jorie’s favorite. We’re celebrating tonight.”

“Celebrating what?”

The surprised tone of his voice was all the evidence I needed to know that I’d made the right choice. We hadn’t had shit to celebrate in months. It was time for a different fucking life.

I shifted the bag to my shoulder. “I’ll tell you when your sister gets back. I’m hopping in the shower.”

“What about cash for the pizza?”

More than anything, I wanted to reach into the duffel and pull out a fat stack of bills and toss it to him—just to see his jaw drop—but that could wait.

I snagged my wallet instead and peeled off forty bucks. “Here. Make the call. I’m fucking hungry.”

As soon as I finished my shower, Jorie’s voice filtered in through the closed bathroom door.

“What do you mean, we’re celebrating? Gabe? What’s going on?”

I opened the door, a towel wrapped around my waist and the bag slung over my shoulder, and I grabbed her hands. “Come on. I gotta show you something.”

I pulled her into the bedroom and shut the door behind us. Her beautiful face screwed up in confusion.

“What’s going on? I’m not banging you right now. I need a shower too, you know. I hope you didn’t use up all the hot water.”

I shook my head and tossed the bag on the unmade bed. “I’m not trying to get laid, and you’re never gonna have to worry about running out of hot water again. I need to show you this.” With her hand tugging away from mine, I released her to unzip the duffel and looked at her.

Jorie’s eyes widened as she stared into the bag, and her mouth hung open as if it were on a broken hinge.

“What the fuck did you do, Gabe?” she whispered in horror as she began to tremble. “What the fuck did you do?”

The look of horror on her face was not what I expected. “I got us a future. Got us out of this fucking town. Just what you wanted. We’re going to LA. You’re gonna get your record made. I’m gonna build a club, and we’ll have the life you’ve always wanted.”

With her hand covering her mouth, she shook her head back and forth, almost in slow motion. “Gabe . . . what did you do?”

My excitement to tell her the good news drained away, and anger grew in its place. My hands landed on my hips, and I straightened my shoulders.

“I’m making shit happen because that’s what I do. I’m the one who takes care of this family, and we’re leaving. Before morning. Pack your shit. Everyone will think we’re evacuating because of the hurricane.”

“Leave? We can’t leave. We have a life here. Friends. Jobs.”

The panic in her voice didn’t make sense to me, so I brushed it aside.

“This isn’t the life we want, Jorie. We’re starting over. All three of us.” I pointed to the stacks of cash. “And this is how I’m making it happen.”

She swallowed hard. “You stole it, didn’t you?”

My jaw tensed, and my fingers flexed. “I made a smart interception and turned it to our advantage.”

Jorie shook her head again before walking to the bed to sit down next to the bag. She reached out to trail a finger along the hundreds before looking up at me again. “What did you intercept? From who?”

My teeth grinding together, I bit out my answer. “Moses.”

“Fucking hell.” Her entire body stiffened. “You have to take it back. Give it back. You can’t cross him, Gabe. You can’t.”

Didn’t she understand? We would be long gone before he even suspected me. “That’s why we’re leaving tonight.”

“I can’t leave tonight. That’s not happening.”

I jerked back to stare at her. “What the fuck do you have to stay for? You and me and Bump are going. There’s nothing here for us anymore but fucking death when Moses finds out.”

“Baby . . .” Jorie bowed her head. “I . . . I gotta tell you—”

“Holy fuck, you guys. Come see this. This Katrina bitch sounds way fucking bad!” Bump yelled from the living room.

Jorie jumped off the bed. As she strode for the door, she looked over her shoulder at me. “I got shit I have to handle before we leave town. We ride out this storm, and then we’ll figure it out. Okay?”

“Jorie, no. We go now.” It wasn’t debatable. I was doing things my way.

“If you go now, you go without me.”

Her words hit me like a two-by-four to the chest, knocking the wind out of me.

“How the fuck can you say that?” I called after her, but she’d already slammed the bedroom door. I dropped my head into my hands. “What the fuck is going on?” I asked the empty room, but no answer came.

I couldn’t leave without her and Bump. No fucking way.





The storm hit fucking hard, way worse than any of us expected.

I rode it out with Jorie and Bump in the bathtub of our shit-box bathroom, with me lying on top of the mattress covering them. The wind roared so loud, I felt like I was standing in front of a train. Glass shattered. Shit flew. The entire building vibrated until I was sure it was going to fall apart and leave us in a pile of rubble.