Her chin started to tremble, but she gave me a quick hug and ran out the back door before I could even wrap my arms around her to hug her back. As the door slammed behind her, I had to turn away from the others in the room before they saw how close to breaking I was. Without a word to anyone, I walked through the house and out the front door, watching as Jet’s motorcycle roared down the street, Nova on the back. But she didn’t see me. Her face was pressed into her dad’s back, and I knew she was crying.

Damn it.

My fist connected with the banister of the porch. Instantly, pain shot up my hand all the way to my elbow, the knuckles scraped open, blood beading on my skin.

“What did the poor post do to you?” Garret snickered as he came out the door.

Slowly, I turned my head to look at him. He had his own backpack slung over one shoulder, but it looked as if he’d just rolled out of bed. His hair was unkempt, his eyes still bloodshot from sleep—and probably whatever he’d been smoking the night before. His clothes were wrinkled as if he’d slept in them, and I knew his mom hadn’t seen him yet or she would have made him change.

The rage I’d been trying to contain for the last week was suddenly unleashed. With Nova not there to ground me, I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I grabbed Garret by both shoulders and slammed him against the side of the house.

“Fuck!” he snarled. “Stop doing that shit.”

I put my forearm across his throat, holding him in place and cutting off his oxygen supply. I had a good thirty pounds of muscle compared to him. If he hadn’t spent the last few years fucking around and doing nothing but getting high when he was home, he would have had a few muscles to work with too. But he was too lazy for that, and now he couldn’t even budge me to save his own life.

If I decided to take it.

“Listen to me, you little fuckup,” I seethed. “You have until you graduate to prove to me that you deserve to be a part of my organization. If you fuck up even one more time, you can kiss the job my father promised you goodbye.”

Anger filled his green eyes, but he couldn’t speak with the way my arm was pressed into his throat. His face was already starting to turn purple, his mouth gaped open in an attempt to draw in even a small breath of air.

“You better fucking protect her. Every second of the day, Nova’s safety is the only thing you worry about. From now until the day I arrive to pick her up, she is your only concern.” I leaned in closer, lowering my voice. “Because if so much as one hair is harmed on her precious head, I will put a bullet in your skull before she can bat those lashes at me and try to convince me that your worthless ass deserves another chance.”