AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My eyes shot open. “You call this safe, Stone?” I fumed, pulling the t-shirt to the side he gave me, exposing the wound Mordy left in my skin, not giving a damn if Stone ripped the gun out and unloaded it on me. “Or what about the weird ass circle he carved into my forehead? And. And. And. Donotcall me Regina. That’s reserved for my mom not you. And while we’re at it, I don’t want to play fucking chess!”
“It could be worse if we left you for the men that came after you.” He blew out a jagged breath. “Gah. So gorgeous and clueless. It doesn’t matter if any of us want to play, Bird. We’re all smack dab in the damned middle of the game and the stakes are incredibly high. Even if we let the two of you go, they’d come for you. Theywerecoming for you, Reggy. If Sticks and I hadn’t gotten to you all when we did.” His head slowly shook. “You can’t put an expiration on a ticking timebomb when the clock has already been set, unless you cut the wire. The problem is, you’re the wire. Do you not understand that? No measure of blood or tears will prevent the chaos we live in until we reach checkmate. I know you hate me, but...” His voice trailed off as he swallowed. “I amtryingto keep you safe even if you don’t believe me.”
“This is fucking unnecessary is what it is. All of it! Maryanne doesn’t know shit and the only thing I know for certain is you all are pathetic bastards for what you’re doing to us. Go get your pound of flesh elsewhere! We’re innocent, Graham. Unlike you.” Tears of anger rolled down my face as I glared at him. I didn’t give a damn who he was, or who any of them were. In fact, they could all ride their motorcycles straight to hell for all I cared. I understood they were criminals and all, but if they thought torturing me to give information was the way to get the truth then they were freaking idiots. Okay. I was lying to myself, that was the only way they would successfully get anything from me if I had something worth getting. I didn’t, though, so every bit of this was pointless.
“Look, as much as neither of us like it, we’re stuck together until all of this shit comes out in the wash. Do you think I want to deal with your grumpy ass? I don’t, just in case you’re considering the opposite. I have better things I could be doing with my time, Reggy. But instead, I’m stuck babysitting your ass.”
“I’m not a baby!” I shot the weak comeback at him, crossing one arm over the other. When he confessed that he not only didn’t want to be around me, but that I was a waste of his time, it made me feel some sort of way. My mouth clamped together tightly at first and then I chewed on the corner of my mouth as I thought.Did he hurt my feelings? That wasn’t it, was it? Oh, hell.There was no logical reason as to why I should give two shits of what he thought about me. He abducted me and watched his brother cut me for fuck’s sake. Stockholm syndrome had to be exactly what was going on with me right now.
“Seriously, all I had to do was insult you to get you to be quiet?”
I refused to answer him and shrugged in response, madder at myself than I currently was with him. I strained, trying to remember the small blip of time when we studied the Stockholm subject in Psychology. There was an undeniable connection between Stone and me even if I didn’t like it. The biggest issue was despite everything that had happened, that stupid kiss we shared was always in the back of my mind waiting to strike when I least expected it.
“I’m being honest you know.”
“Whatever,” I said in a clipped tone, trying to think of anything other than him. He was bossy and claimed he was trying to keep me safe, but literally was the man who’d kidnapped me.
Chapter14
Stone
Her chest rose and fell as each uneven breath flowed through her lungs. She was pissed. A fact I shouldn’t care about, but I did. Dealing with death itself would probably be easier than her. At least death would accept the truth and let me find some sort of peace. Not Bird. She fought me every single fucking step we took. I didn’t fully blame her for not trusting me. Hell, I wouldn’t believe a damned word that came from my lips if the roles were reversed.
“Bird.”
“What, Graham?” she asked as she all but growled my name. My nostrils flared and I reminded myself I was trying to be civil. We had a long car ride ahead of us and if we somehow got along, it would make it smoother for everyone involved.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part, Stone? Kidnapping me? Letting Mordy hurt me? Sending my best friend off with a stranger…or for kissing me?”
“For all of it,” I protested, closing my eyes briefly, leaning my head against the back of the seat. None of the words I said meant a damned difference. I’d kidnapped countless people and killed even more, but she was different. For her I wished we had met under a better set of circumstances.
“Oh,” she said barely above a whisper, the disappointment in her voice unmistakable.
The cold wind whistled and howled outside the car as the storm brewed and the thunder boomed in the distance. I wanted to tell her that kissing her wasn’t a mistake, but it was exactly that. It gave me a glimpse of a life I could never have. I could never have her, and it pissed me off to no end. The more I thought about what I wasn’t able to have, the angrier I grew. Her volatile kisses had branded me and would haunt me the rest of my life, and even though it was an absolutely horrible idea, I wanted more.
“No. You know what? I’m not sorry.”
“Excuse me?” Bird’s eyebrows pinned high on her forehead and her mouth gaped open.
“That’s right, I’m not fucking sorry for any of it other than Mordicus’ part in all of this. If none of it happened, I wouldn’t have met you and that would be a fucking tragedy. I am definitely not sorry for this, Reggy.” My hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her across the back seat and on top of me. I was tired of telling myself I didn’t deserve things. If the feeling wasn’t mutual, she was the kind of woman who would let me know on the spot. Living the dangerous life I did, I may never get another chance to find out if it was a mistake for her too and I had to know.
I breathed deeply as she hesitantly lowered herself over my body and she straddled my legs. “Such a gorgeous clueless bird,” I mused softly, my fingertips lightly tracing the features of her flawless face. Her eyes connected with mine and then a crack of blue lightning filled the cab with light. It was as if nature itself was trying to tell me how bad of an idea this was. I didn’t care. I was taking this as far as she would go.
“I’m really not clueless, Stone.” She shyly smiled, lifting my gun from my jeans as I watched her. There was no world that I couldn’t snatch it back from her with ease, but I was too curious to immediately grab it back just yet. She set it on the seat beside us and patted it lightly. My head tilted to the side and just as I was about to ask what she meant exactly by the statement, her lips covered mine in a flash. Her kisses were rough and needy, much like my own. My fingers wrapped around her purple and pink hair, pulling her as close as humanly possible to me. I didn’t know if I would ever get enough of her. Every time our lips touched, it was as if the electricity of the storm depended on us to keep going. I took as much as she would give like she was my very reason for survival, and it wasn’t the other way around. I had saved her countless times, more than she was even aware of, but it didn’t matter. In this moment she was my saving grace. I had been on the precipice of giving into the darkness of my life until I saw her. From the moment my eyes landed on her, I knew my life would never be the same.
She ground her hips against mine with a moan, wrapping her arms around my neck. Each desperate thrust against my cock was harder than the one before. It was obvious the timing of this was horrible, but certain things in life weren’t meant to be under the constraints of time. Bird and I were one of them. Despite the hell she’d been through, she fought through the wreckage and found the hope I’d buried so deeply within myself. When I was loud and brutal with her, she said she’d be the one to hurt me and it wouldn’t be the other way around. Perhaps this was her plan all along. If this was the road she chose to kill me, I would willingly stand motionless, welcoming the death she dealt.
Her tongue danced with mine while she frantically undid my belt with greedy fingers. Blaring alarms sounded in my head each step we took further, steps neither of us could ever take back, but I didn’t stop her. She would be the one to regret this, not me. My lips stopped moving and my eyes stared into hers. This would be the first time I actually stopped someone, but for some reason, I didn’t want this to be something to haunt her for the rest of her days. I didn’t want to be her biggest regret. “You don’t have to do this, Bird.”
“Mhmm,” she breathlessly said.
“I’m serious, Reggy.” My hands caught hers, stilling them in their place. “I don’t want to be the worst mistake of your lifetime.”
“What do you want to be instead? My boyfriend?” she joked with a small smile.
I didn’t answer.
