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“But Addie said….” There was no way to put this delicately. “Addie said you tried to kill him.”
He nodded. “There’s that.”
I swallowed, my chest rising and falling as I stared at him. Every little sound beyond the door was causing my anxiety to heighten. I was worried the bouncers would bust through the door at any second and try to drag Vic out. And when I said try, I meant try—because there was no chance they’d be able to.
But my biggest fear was Darius because he’d been on the phone. Okay, there was no way Callum could drive here from the city in less than two hours. Shit, unless he had a helicopter…. Did he have a helicopter? Addie said he was stinking rich. Did that mean helicopter-worthy stinking rich?
“Relax,” Vic murmured.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Why? Because I was scared for him when I probably didn’t need to be. Because every single inhale was spiked with him. Because his heated breath wafting across my cheek sent shivers through me. Because despite everything, my body liked him. Wanted him. And there was nothing I could do about it.
Vic shifted closer. “As cute as I find it that you’re concerned for my welfare, he won’t touch me here.”
Oh my God, he found it cute? Even the word cute didn’t seem as if it would be part of Vic’s vocabulary. “Why not?”
“Zero Crow.” He lowered his voice. “It’s a pact between the five of us who fought in the underground. Callum, Jaeg, Saint, your brother, and me. Crow stands for a marker.”
The only marker I knew was for coloring. “A marker?”
“A favor, of sorts, that you can’t say no to.”
“Oh. And zero?”
“Zero tolerance for ratting on one another. Callum named the bar Zero Crow as a kind of safe place. Nothing goes down here, no matter what has happened in the past.”
He released one of the bars and lowered his hand, his fingertips grazing my hip.
My sex clenched and I swear my panties were soaked. Jesus. What the hell was wrong with me? He was telling me about some kind of pact that included my brother, and I was thinking about Vic’s hands on me and how much I wanted him to kiss me right now.
“I need to go.” And I needed him to back away. I had enough unsettling in my life and didn’t need some ex-military Special Forces badass messing with my head or my body. He was doing both.
“Macayla.” My name came out raspy and low, almost as if he’d tried to stop himself from saying it.
I stared at the small space of floor between us, not trusting myself to look at him.
He placed his crooked finger under my chin and forced me to look at him. “Macayla,” he whispered.
Was I breathing? I don’t think I’m breathing. I’m definitely not breathing. Because my head was spinning, and all I could think about was that if I inhaled, my breath would be all him, and I’d be lost.
“I don’t want to hurt you or the kid. That’s why you need to leave the cabin.”
I sucked air into my starving lungs. He’d kicked us out because he was afraid he’d hurt us? “Oh.”
His hand dropped from my chin. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, Rainbird.”
He was right. I didn’t. And I’d been hurt before by someone I should’ve been able to trust. I shouldn’t trust Vic, except I did. There was something in him. Comforting. Shielding. Protective.
Jackson saw it, too, and he’d be the last person to trust someone.
His body tightened when I placed my hand on his forearm, my fingers barely spanning the tattooed wings of the hawk. “Vic—”
I was about to tell him that a man who comes running to help a screaming kid isn’t someone who is going to hurt us, but I didn’t have the chance before the door burst open again.
I gasped, my gaze flying to the end of the hallway. I was expecting to see several bouncers, or even worse—Darius.
