“Wait, Caroline?”Like Ash’s Caroline?
“Yeah, Anderson. She’s married to the VP of the Midnight Syn.”
“Ash.” I nod my head, telling her I’ve heard of them. I’ve met Ash before, once, but it was so long ago that he would probably not even remember me.
“Yeah, it’s why the clubs are close.” Nodding my head, I remain looking forward as the pain continues to intensify coursing throughout my body. “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.” I hear the front door open again, and boots on the hardwood floors. My head starts throbbing and attempting to relieve the ache I lean over, placing my forehead down on the table. Ro walks into the room, I’m not sure how I know it’s him, but I do.
“Good to see you’re awake.” He kicks the bottom of the chair, jolting me upright. I can smell him, like a mixture of exhaust, sweat, and bad decisions. The scent starts to remind me ofhim,and I want to jump up and run to numb it all, make any signs of emotions disappear. I look over at Ro, nodding my head, forcing a small smile on my face in an attempt to hide the pain. “Feeling better now?” He asks, sitting down across from me at the table and glaring at me.
“Not really, I think I may go lie down for a little longer.” I expect him to say something, anything, because the look on his face right now tells me that he knows that I am full of shit. I’m not even sure what I hope he thinks I’m full of shit about, really anything as long as it isn’t what I’m actually hiding. I stand up from the table and walk back down the hallway until I get to my room. Shutting the door behind myself, I move over my bag still on the floor and open it up.
Reaching for the travel bag, I unzip it, peering inside to a completely empty bag. “The hell?” I whisper to myself.
“Missing something?” I hear him say from behind me and I look at him over my shoulder, forcing down the startled composure that I’m feeling. I’m sure it’s exactly what he wants. He’s leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed just watching me. I need to make note of his ninja-like movements because I have no clue how he got in here without a sound.
“Everything’s here.” I tell him as I see the note inside of the bag.Shit.I don’t even need to read it to know it was him who found it, but I’m still going to play like I have no inkling of what was in there.
I’ll just crush up the pills and snort them, again, no biggie. Doesn’t have quite the same kind of high, but it’ll be fine.
“You sure, you know if you’re missing anything, you can just tell me, and we can find out who took it?” I know he’s baiting me.
“Nope, all good.” My stubborn answer causes his to nod his head again as he squints his eyes and pushes himself off of the doorframe. He closes in the distance between us until I have to tilt my head up to look at him from where I’m still kneeling on the floor.
It’s a similar position that I loosely remember J enjoying, they are all blurry memories, but my bones tells me it’s real. I learned yes ago to listen to them when they’re trying to tell me something. J always towered over to prove that he’s big and powerful, but looking up at Ro, who is staring down at me, he doesn’t give off that same demeanor. He doesn’t look pleased to be so much larger than what I am. He doesn’t seem as if he’s trying to intimidate me. Or maybe a better description would be that he’s not trying to intimidate me like J used to. My gut tells me that Ro’s trying to put fear in me, to make me afraid to disregard the rules he gives me. Jokes on him though, I’ve lived with nightmares most of my life… I’m used to living in fear. Maybe even more messed up is that the fear attracts me. Especially, when the fear starts coursing through me and I know he won’t hurt me.
I may not know Ro well enough, but I know whathesaid about him, and ifhetrusted Ro, I know I can, too.
He doesn’t say anything he just scoffs out before he looks around the room. From where I’m sitting and with his movements, I can see the grip of the gun he has in a holster concealed by his kutte, and I sigh at the sight of it. It manages to fuel the fear induced attraction to the man I’m kneeling in front of. He straightens back around and looks at me, furrowing his brow as he reaches his hand down, quickly. In reflex, I recoil away from him. “Sadie.” He calls down to me, his voice suddenly significantly softer than it was a moment ago, bringing my attention back to where he’s standing. His arm outstretched, hand reached out, palm facing upward waiting for me to take his hand to help me up.
“Oh.” Reaching up, I grab his hand before he pulls me up to a standing position.
“Did you think I was going to hit you?” He asks, tilting his head to the side. The fearful aura no longer radiating from him. It’s not the first time he’s switched emotions like this, and just further proves to me that he wouldn’t intentionally hurt me.
“I always expect the worse,” I admit to him as my muscles plead with me to ease their pain. “Plus, that happened to be a favorite of J’s.” He looks down without letting my hand drop from his.
“I’m not going to hit you.” I look up at him and actually believe him. “Are you okay though? If you’re not feeling well, we can call someone to come and check you out.”His voice changes once again as the words tumble out in a sinister tone.
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
He nods his head again, but I can see in his eyes that he still doesn’t believe me. “Okay,” He drops my hand and walks towards the door. “Look, I don’t want to keep you here against your will. You can leave at any time.”
“I can?” I’m actually slightly surprised when I look up and he’s nodding his head, again. I’m not sure if I expected the same as when I willingly walked into the Marauders’ clubhouse. I guess I could say that every time I walked in was willingly, but the amount of time I stayed… I’m not so sure about. I’m not even sure if I can say that I was in their clubhouse against my will, because I agreed to it, and I’m pretty sure that I took the drugs willingly, every time, but I know if I wouldn’t have been high the whole time I wouldn’t have made those choices.
“Yeah, I can’t guarantee your safety if you leave though.” I remember that J’s going to be looking for me as soon as he realizes everything that I took.
Although, it serves the bastard right.
“That makes sense.”
He starts to leave the room as I turn around, and start to the bag once again when his voice stops me. “Oh, Sadie,” He says triggering me to look back up at him. “You break the rules again and there will be consequences.” Then continues his path out the door.
“What, are you going to put me over your knee?” The words are out of my mouth before I realize that I’m saying them. He suddenly stops, shaking his head before he looks back at me over his shoulder. His eyes show the humor that he appreciates in the statement even if his face doesn’t. He just holds my gaze as if he’s waiting for me to look away first to assert that he is the dominant one.
Finally, right before his smirk breaks through his stoic stance he sighs. “I said consequences, that means you won’t enjoy it.” His voice so low that I can feel its rumble throughout my body, still not breaking his straight face before he leaves the room, shutting the door behind himself. I know my cheeks are flushed from his comment and just thinking about him putting me over his knee. Pressing my thighs together until he’s completely out of sight. Finally, rushing back over to the door, shutting it.
This time I make sure to lock it.
