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I didn’t want to admit that his betrayal stung because I couldn’t explain it.
I didn’t know the guy.
Until the night he’d been my brief, knight in shining armor, I’d never met the man.
But watching him in action had been a thing of savage beauty.
I bit my lip as the pit of my belly tingled with a foreign sensation that was both frightening and alluring.
I’d kept away from fighters and anyone, basically.
The truth was…I’d been afraid of falling for anyone who could be tied back to The Underground.
I hadn’t wanted the weakness.
Ultimately, it’d been my own brother who’d been my Achilles heel.
Now, I was being chased by a lunatic and if I wasn’t clever, my first sexual experience would be with a man old enough to be my grandfather.
Yeah, I was a virgin.
Hard to believe?
Probably, given where I called home but I wasn’t going to be like most of the stupid girls in my neighborhood, eager to give it up to the first jackwad who said something nice.
I wasn’t going to get knocked up and discarded.
If you weren’t having sex, you didn’t have to worry about babies or disease.
And I sure as hell wasn’t going to be one of Davonte’s whores.
I knew too many girls who’d pinned all their hopes on becoming Davonte’s favorite, only to find themselves tossed out with nothing, or worse, had simply disappeared.
In Davonte’s world, everyone was replaceable — and disposable.
And I was neither.
I finished the shower and made quick work of dressing and drying my hair. I didn’t waste time on anything aside from essentials.
But before I split, I grabbed the one picture I had of me and Tommy in better days, stuck to my dresser mirror.
Survival was key…but so was revenge.
This was for Tommy.
Chapter 9
Damon
The house was easy to find. The neighborhood was quiet, empty.
Many of the houses on the block were vacant, disintegrating with time and neglect.
I went around to the back, found the door unlocked and let myself in, careful to gently close the door behind me.
My ears pricked at the sound of someone moving around in the house.
Could my luck be that good to have caught her so easily?
My body wasn’t made for stealth but I did my best to follow the sound without alerting the neighborhood.
I peered down the short hallway and caught Charlie standing at her dresser mirror, clutching a photograph before stuffing it in her backpack.
Her hair was wet. I could smell strawberries in the air from her shampoo.
I ducked behind the wall just as she came down the hallway.
As she passed by, I snatched her into my arms, covering her mouth just as she inhaled to scream her bloody head off.
Instantly, Charlie started to thrash, kicking and trying to bite my hand but I wasn’t falling for her tactics again.
I clenched her hard, squeezing the air from her lungs. “Settle down, firecracker,” I warned. “I’m going to remove my hand and you’re not going to scream, got it?”
Even muffled, I could clearly hear ‘Fuck you’ and I knew this was going to be like wrestling with a pissed off wolverine.
I kicked her backpack away and carried her to the bedroom, tossing her to the bed roughly. Before she could roll away, I ripped the phone cord out of the wall and tied her hands behind her back.
Stuck on her belly, she kicked and screamed into the mattress until I slapped her hard on the ass to get her attention.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled but I realized my mistake too late. Touching that sweet behind in any capacity had ignited a different problem.
My eyesight swam as lust crammed past reason and logic and I had to stuff it down before I did something really stupid.
“Shut up and listen,” I said, hauling her up to sit on the edge of the bed.
She stared at me with mistrust, her eyes glistening and that wild hair tumbling like a red cloud around her shoulders.
And those breasts…I could tell they were natural but they were big enough to give a porn star a run.
I could only imagine what it would feel like to bury my face between that valley.
What was wrong with me?
What was it about this girl that turned my brain to mush and my cock to steel?
Charlie continued to stare in mutinous silence until she prompted with a terse, “Well? Are you going to speak or just stare at my tits all day?”
That shook me out of my spell. “Where do you think you can go? You’re running on wasted energy, girl. You might as well be smart about things and just do what you’re told.”
“You mean, like you?” she taunted, going straight for the jugular. “Such a good little puppy. Is Davonte going to pat you on the head and give you a doggy treat when you bring back his little toy?”
The sarcasm in her tone was vicious enough to make my lip curl.
I was no one’s dog.
But wasn’t I? Jesus, I guess I was Davonte’s bitch.
“Yeah, well, breathing is high on my priority list and if you were smart, you’d feel the same.”
“You’re completely clueless,” she said with disgust. “He’s going to use you to bring me back and then he’s going to say, ‘Night night, loser’ right before he puts a bullet in your skull. You’re as stupid as you look if you think that he’s going to let what you did to him slide.”
I wasn’t stupid; I’d thought the same thing. But my options were limited.
“I guess that’s a chance I’ll have to take.”
“Why’d you even help me if all you planned to do was roll over and show your belly?”
“I was fucking drunk. I don’t remember anything about that night,” I reminded her sourly, feeling like the jackass she thought me to be. “And I don’t know why I did what I did. All I do know is that I fucked myself pretty hard and all I’m trying to do is unfuck myself. Got it?”
“And I’m the golden ticket? Yeah, good luck with that.”
“We all got shit to bear,” I said, looking around for a better way to secure her. That phone cord would loosen soon enough and then she’d, no doubt, try to kick my balls into my throat again.
I glanced around the room, trying not to peer too closely at her personal things.
I didn’t want to know her better. I didn’t want to care.
But my curiosity was already pushing me to ask questions I was better off not knowing the answers.
“You blame Davonte for your brother’s death,” I stated, knowing I was traveling a dead-end road. “Your brother didn’t have to step into the ring. It’s a dangerous sport.”
“Don’t you talk to me about my brother,” she hissed, rage flashing in her eyes. “My brother was nothing like the rest of you meatheads and that’s what got him killed.”
“What got him killed was you,” I returned bluntly.
Charlie blanched and I knew I’d hit a nerve.
“Fuck you,” she whispered but her eyes welled. “You don’t know shit.”
“I know that if you’d played along, Davonte would’ve made it worthwhile for your brother and eventually he would’ve gotten tired of your bullshit and turned you loose. Now you’ve gone and made it a challenge. He’ll never give up on you now. Not until you’re in his bed or dead. So really, who started all this?”
Tears sparkled in her eyes and she actually looked disappointed in my logic but that cleared quickly to make room for cold contempt.
“You think so little of a woman having to spread her legs for someone she hates? You’re a fucking pig. If you think Davonte is so great, why don’t you suck his cock for him? At least you’d enjoy it.”
I was getting real tired of her implying I was gay.
“I don’t suck cock,” I retorted with a curled lip. “That’s a woman’s job.”
> She surprised me with a laugh. “Oh, you’ll suck Davonte’s cock if he snaps his fingers. This is a test. He wants to see how far he can push you. And so far, you are jumping like a good little soldier. Next stop….a cock in your mouth.”
The little spitfire didn’t pull punches.
I respected the brass balls on her even if I wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth.
But I wasn’t there to discuss morality or my sexual preferences, which were definitely straight.
“Life’s hard and then you die,” I muttered, hauling her to her feet. “Better get used to it, princess. My job is to deliver you so that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Do you spit or swallow?” Charlie mocked, hitting me with a gaze filled with disgust, refusing to back down. The little bitch was determined to make me blow my top. “Better figure it out because I guarantee you, sooner rather than later, you’re going to find yourself on your knees in front of that man just so he can prove a point.”
I could smell her skin, could see the tiny freckles that danced across the bridge of her nose. Her wild hair, still damp, tumbled around her, tempting me to curl my fingers through the thick mass just so I could bring her closer.
I could smell her shampoo, sweet and fruity. I’d mistakenly thought the scent strawberries but now I clearly smelled melon.
Everything about her was small yet fierce. There was nothing weak or timid about Charlie. I had no doubt that if I so much as gave her an inch, she would find a way to lop my balls off.
And damn, that turned my crank in the worst way.
Fuck me, I wanted to groan.
Maybe I was as dumb as she believed me to be.
My gaze traveled from her womanly hips to the trim waist and rested on the lush tits that made my mouth water.
I wanted to taste those sassy lips for myself.
I grew hard as stone.
The moment crackled between us.
She must’ve sensed the crack in my armor because she pounced without mercy.
