Her brow knits together, confusion clouding her pretty features. Instead of collecting the glass of water I offered her, she picks up my discarded whiskey and drinks it down like she’s famished, slamming it back on the bar when she’s done. Bodhi is right, she’s a brat, purposely not taking the drink I made her just to prove some point.
Irritation crawls down my spine. She has no care for her own safety, no concern for her health. “Drink the water, Dove,” I snip, wondering when she stopped giving a shit.
She swivels on the bar stool, coming back to glare directly at me, her eyes narrowing in that cold bitch from hell way she seems to have perfected. “Where is River?” she throws over her shoulder as she moves to the stairwell.
“Out,” I grumble, irritated it’s always him she’s searching for and not me. I follow her, waiting for her to type in the pin code we gifted her. She tries it once, and when it doesn’t work, she flicks her angry glare back to me.
I pick up a lock of her damp hair, inspecting it like a detective searching for clues. She’s a mystery to me, more beautiful than I could have ever imagined her to be, but so harsh as well, her sharp tongueset to inflict damage in a way the sweet girl I knew never would have. I guess working in a bar run by bikers will do that to a girl. She’s had to fight for everything she has, that much is obvious in the scars on her skin and the almost dead look in her eyes. I would recognize that look anywhere; it’s much the same as mine. But her showing up here gave me fresh reasons to keep fighting. Flowers run up her thighs, disappearing under her swimmer bottoms, and I find myself tracing the line. She doesn’t pull away, instead this time, she watches me, her breath catching in her chest. Yeah, my girl likes to act like she hates me, but a simple touch of her skin and she’s all hot and breathy. I inhale deeply. She smells like heaven, salt and coconut. It’s a lethal combination with the sight of her in her skimpy bikini.
“You been swimming, birdie?” My hand brushes over something I don’t understand, and I glance down to find thin lines cut out of her flesh right on her hip. “What the fuck, Dove?”
She rolls her lips. She knows what I’m touching and pulls her leg away from me, her death glare intensifying as she shoves her arms through the armholes and closes my shirt over her chest, covering herself up. She’s happy with every other fucker ogling her, but apparently not me. More secrets she’s hiding. More damage she won’t tell me about.
“Who did this to you?” I growl out, fresh fury raging through me.
She makes sure to lock her death glare with mine. “None of your fucking business.”
She’s impossible. I know what I’m feeling, those are the cuts of a razor or knife. I push her back, shoving the shirt back so I can see more clearly. “You’re cutting yourself now? Do you not care about your own safety at all?”
Her breath catches, and she goes to say something but stops herself, trying to shove me off her instead. “Get your hands off me.”
“You really can’t be trusted alone, can you. A few nights away from us and you’re a fucking mess.”
Her face turns bitchy. “I can be trusted just fine. And if you really want to know, I did this to myself in your bathroom, with the razor you bought me. So, I guess this is your fault.”
My heart races like mad. She did what? “Guess you didn’t like your freedom. That comment just got you a lifetime attached to me, because I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
She shoves at me again, but I’m not moving. “I didn’t come back here for you to give me some fucking lecture and lock me up again,” she cries, clearly frustrated.
“Why did you come back then, birdie?” My lips twitch at the sides, enjoying the rise I get out of her so easily. So much fight even when she’s clearly scared. “Let me see. You left us with no intention of ever seeing us again. Now you’re back in the town you swore you hated, searching for men you apparently despise, dripping wet and trembling. You wanted to run… wanted so badly for us to set you free, but something spooked you and you knew we would protect you. That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it? You want my help. You need us.” I shouldn’t smile at a time like this, but I can’t help the way my lips twist up at the sides. She needed us when she was scared.
“What the fuck.” Her hands fly to her hips. “I came back here because it’s where I’m currently living—that was until you had the lock changed. I swear to God, Kasen, if you had something to do with what happened to me at the beach today and you’re fucking messing with me to scare me so I’ll come running back to you, I will...” Her chest heaves with labored breaths, but she doesn’t finish her sentence. It’s like she’s stuck in the moment as she glares back at me.
I close the gap between us, staring down at her delicate frame. She thought she didn’t need us, wanted to prove how independent she isnow, and it seems my girl’s been busy having a history lesson and making new friends doing whatever she can to fight for her independence. After what I witnessed today, I know I never should have let Bodhi talk me into letting her go at all. We might have security measures in place, but whatever she is messed up in is dangerous. “You will what, birdie?” I push her, waiting to see how much she really hates me, if she does at all.
Her lips form a thin line, and she tilts her head up high. My girl is so fucking brave, even when it comes to taking me on. “I will make you pay,” she growls in a voice that makes me believe her. At least believe that’s what she thinks she wants. But when she was scared, she came to find us for help. She could have kept driving, but she didn’t because deep down she knows this is where she belongs.
My hand lands on her waist, drawing her toward me. I’m sick of being patient and waiting for her to ask me for help. She needs to tell me exactly what she is up to, why she came home in the first place. But as soon as my hand lands on her, she flinches back from me. She’s afraid of me. When it’s some other motherfucker out there hunting her and I’m just here trying to help. “What’s got you so jumpy, birdie?” I ask. Fuck, I just need her to talk to me. Need her to see I would do anything for her.
She studies me like she’s trying to read my inner thoughts. She’s so damn broken I just want to drag her home caveman style so I can nurse her back to health. She could help me too, I’m sure she could. The dark thoughts I was having are happening less often. I’m too fixated with her to go there, every minute detail of her consuming me. The last few days all I did was watch all the surveillance we had on her. Watch her eat, sleep, and swim. It was my own live Dove Dawson show, and I couldn’t get enough. A few nights ago, I even drove down to the beach she was staying at so I could watch her sleep under the stars. I’mlosing my mind when it comes to her, and she can’t keep the tough act for much longer. She has to admit she needs me. She knows she does. It’s there in her eyes, all she has to do is ask. Scrap that, she doesn’t even need to ask. I would do anything for this girl. Doesn’t matter the distance between us now.
“There will always be a room for you in my house, if you needed it,” I offer, trying to extend the olive branch and not come across as the psychopath stalker/kidnapper I am. Things have gotten out of hand between us, and the last thing I need today is her attempting to run again. It really would be best if it was her decision to stay with us from now on.
She blinks a couple of times, I think confused. “Why did you let me leave?”
I smile. “Because it’s what you wanted. The threat of the Southern Breakers was gone. I’m not into holding girls against their will, Dove.”
She snickers. “But you were happy to lock me up in your house when I first got here?” Her voice is filled with hate that I don’t deserve.
My jaw ticks and eyes narrow in on her. Enough is enough. Her animosity is aimed at the wrong person. I take a step closer to her, and she retreats until her back hits the brick wall, our bodies chest to chest. She’s cold, like ice, both physically and emotionally. I reach out and take a handful of her hair in my fist, forcing her to glare up at me. She needs to know who the fuck is in charge. No more running and hiding from me. She’s mine, and she needs to start acting like it. “You needed medical help and a safe place to sleep, and for whatever reason, your stubbornness was stopping you from seeing reason, so out of the kindness of my heart, I showed you.”
“Is that what you call it?” A cold hand settles on my bare chest. Her breathing is shallow, almost a pant. Her eyes lock with mine, and we’re back to teenagers again. She knows this shit between us isn’t over, shecan feel it just like I can. “K,” she whispers. And I know she’s about to push me away again.
“Don’t fucking K me. You put yourself in harm’s way today, and every fucking day you’re not with us. Because you won’t listen. Because you think you know better. We have been nothing but kind to you, and you have been nothing but a brat in return.”
Her eyes widen, the outrage clearly written all over her face. “That’s not fair. You locked me up.”
“Not fair. Not fair is all the fucking secrets you’re keeping from us. Another life you won’t even talk to us about when all we want to do is help you.”
