“Need something for the pain, sunshine?” I ask, my voice low so I don’t scare her.
Her eyes flick open, and she bolts upright in bed with a hand over her chest in panic. “What the fuck, Slater?” She sucks in a sharp breath and glares daggers at me. There she is; my delightful sparring partner. Fresh scowl just for me.
She looks cute in her sleep shorts, and that tank leaves nothing to the imagination. Her tits are huge and just begging for attention, her nipples hardening under the thin fabric. When I have definitely been checking her out for too long, my eyes rise back to hers, expecting her frown to deepen, but instead, she’s watching me with curiosity, her head slightly tilted to the side, her silver hair falling over one of her eyes just so. She looks younger like this. Innocent, when I know she’s anything but. Shit, the stuff I saw on those videos, this girl is the opposite to innocent. She’s a goddess who knows exactly what to do with what God gave her. I shouldn’t have watched them. But once I started, I couldn’t stop, her phone in one hand, my dick in the other. I beat off to her like a pimple-faced teen who just discovered porn for the first time.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispers, blinking up at me.
My cock is hard as a rock, if she glances down, she will work me out, but she keeps her pretty eyes locked with mine. “You should eat.” I motion to the breakfast and pain meds sitting on her bedside table beside her beloved coffee. It’s probably stone cold now. I should have woken her when Kasen dropped it off, but the girl doesn’t sleepmuch, and she was finally out of it. “K figured you might be hungry,” I mutter, hoping she’s not about to fight me on this. We have done nothing but offer her the best since she came crashing back into our lives, and she’s been ungrateful every time.
Her brow knits together, looking me over like I shouldn’t be here. “You know it’s creepy as fuck, you’re just sitting there while I was asleep,” she says all breathy, giving herself away.
She puts on this tough-girl act, but I see past it. She’s a lost lamb, and deep down under all the hostility, she’s loving the attention she gets from the three big bad wolves. I’m sure she would get used to it, if she stayed around. The perfect four to our three. She could be the glue that holds us together when so much is trying to tear us apart. When she disappeared last time it damn well nearly killed K. He blamed himself. Fuck, we all did. I knew I should have done more. She was scared that night when her parents were looking for her, spooked, and I should have gotten her out of there, not sent her straight back to them with everything that was going on. But at the time, an order from the top meant more to me than a childish crush I had on some girl. It meant I got to live another day. Got to be part of something bigger than myself. And I wasn’t giving that shit up for anyone. Not even her.
I stand to leave. Being this close to her is dangerous when she’s awake, and I know what I have to do today. I turn back to look at her. “With the threat of the Southern Breakers disabled, you will be free to go. Doc will come and do a final check over you before you leave. But freedom is yours if you want it.”
She stares up at me, blinking a few times as confusion clouds her pretty features. “Okay,” she says, her tone bitchy. “Good, that’s what I want,” she adds quickly as though she’s not so sure about it.
“I’m sure it is. Have something to eat while I get the combi ready for you.”
She runs a hand through her soft hair as she swings her long legs over the side of the bed. “It’s back at River’s bar.”
Damn, why does she have to look so appealing this time of the morning, her toned legs all tanned and shit. I get a vision of my head buried between them, my fingers digging into her soft flesh as she curses out my name. I know how she sounds as she cums, but I want to be the one who makes her cry, the one who pulls those breathy moans from her right before she tumbles. Damn, how do I let her walk out the door when I’m already attached. The brat has me second-guessing even my own genius plans.
“K got it for you this morning.” I turn away, my hand on the door handle. I have to get out of here before I beg her to stay.
“He’s just going to let me go? What happened to I’m his and all that shit.”
“Guess he got over you.” I don’t look back to see her reaction this time. I don’t want to know how much that hurts her. This is for the best. She won’t give us the answers we need, so we extract them any way we can. She’s about to learn how powerful we really are.
When I get out front, the combi is waiting for me in the turn circle. It’s not your normal run-of-the-mill van. River has spent a fortune getting it just right; it’s decked out with a kitchenette and full double bed in the back and all. And he’s kept it in pristine condition. I can’t believe he let the brat trick him into giving it to her. Although it wouldn’t be the first time he lost a bet to Dove. She has this way of batting her lashes and he forgets how to use his brain.
“This is a terrible idea,” Kasen grumbles, leaning into the side of the van as I finish installing the last device.
I inhale deeply before turning around to deal with K. He’s been my best mate since I was a kid, his family always there for me when my own wasn’t. I would do anything for this man. It’s why he has to let her go, just until we know exactly what she’s up to. “You can’t keep her here when she clearly doesn’t want to be. You said so yourself, when she was well enough and the threat of the Southern Breakers was over, she would be free to go. Make yourself look like a hero.” I try sweetening the deal. The man is obsessed, and I think if it was up to him, she would be chained to a wall in his basement. That’s why I’m the one sorting this shit out.
“I also told her I was never letting her go again.” He runs a hand through his short hair, tugging at the ends, fresh pain etched into his features that wasn’t there a couple of weeks ago. She’s already changing him, bringing him back from the dead and giving him something to care about again. To live for.
My hands settle on his shoulders. Since Keller died, he hasn’t been the same. He’s distant, distracted, and I need him to snap the fuck out of it and be the boss we all know he can be. She’s the medicine he needs, I’m sure of it, but right now we can’t trust her. And the two of them can’t be in a room together without fighting. Something has to change. “She’s going to be okay,” I try to assure him.
“It’s not Dove. It’s…” He stares blankly into space. He’s been doing that way too much lately. I don’t like it.
“Jay? Yeah, I thought your old man’s funeral would have brought him out of hiding as well. You think he will come back for the will reading next week?”
He shakes his head, looking more lost than I have seen him since the night he came back from Dove’s place with blood on his hands and fear in his eyes. “If I were him, I wouldn’t come back,” he mutters almost absentmindedly. “But yeah, I think he will come home for it.”
It’s times like this when I fear I’m losing him to the darkness that plagues him. We’re not going back to the dark place he was in when Jayden left. He has his family, River, and me, and we are right here walking beside him every day. The ones who stayed. “What is it, K? We got more going on than you have shared?”
He kicks up the gravel. “Do you ever wonder what would have happened to us if Throne Enterprises didn’t exist? If we were just two normal kids who could have gone on to do whatever we wanted with our lives?”
“I’m not sure what shit you’ve been smoking this morning, man, but tell River to get the good stuff next time,” I mutter, turning away from him. I slam the door and check over her phone one more time before I slip it into the console in the front of the car.
“I’m serious, what if I want something else?” he chokes out, forcing me to look back at him like he’s grown a second head, a bright fucking purple one. This is our life, and for the most part it is awesome. We have everything we could ever want. And if we don’t have it, we’ve got the power to acquire it by any means possible.
My brow knits together. He’s serious. I have spent every day of my life with this man, and this is the first I have ever heard of him being unhappy with his life. The life we fought for, struggled for, killed for. It was a hard road to get here, but we have everything he could want now. Toys we would have dreamed of as kids. Cars, boats, jet skis, the largest property in the town, and a handful of others as investments. Women literally begging to share our bed. For two little kids who didn’t have enough money at home to have a packed lunch for school, we turned out alright. “You know that’s not possible. But if we get things right with her, we could have more than we ever thought was. She could be the one to change it all. That’s why we have to set her free and see what she’s hiding.”
He nods, but I can see he’s still trapped in his head. “What if she doesn’t want us? What if she is the one thing we can’t have no matter the amount of money we make, the control we have over this town.”
“We find another way, man. Come on, it’s not like you to back down from a challenge like Dove.” I clap him on the back. “Right now, she’s just confused. She’s been through a lot and doesn’t know who to trust. But we will get her on board. It’s just a matter of time.”
