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“What’s the likelihood that you guys will hold Zade down while I kill him?” she says against my neck, her words muffled by my skin.
Cross chuckles to himself, knowing she doesn’t really mean that, and Sawyer scoffs, probably actually considering the idea. The tension between Sawyer and Zade has only gotten worse, slowly building each day, and soon enough, they’re going to break. But while Sawyer wants to hate him now, he could never hurt him . . . at least, not permanently.
“You don’t mean that,” I say, knowing just how uncomfortable she is with the idea of murder, even if it meant saving her own life. Hell, she did what she had to do in the past, but when there’s also feelings involved, she wouldn’t be able to do it. If she hurt Zade in any kind of way, she’d never be able to forgive herself.
“He has no problem doing it to me, so why shouldn’t I hesitate doing it to him?”
“He cares, Pretty,” Cross says, lifting his gaze from Venom to focus on our girl. “He cares so fucking much it’s killing him. Can’t you see that? I’ve known him since I was a kid. We’ve always been tight, and every time you even mention it, a piece of him dies. It’s like a knife straight through his chest. This ritual is making him sick, Oakley. He never expected to care like this, he’s always been a cruel and calculating motherfucker, but you . . . You’re making him care for you. Surely you must know that he doesn’t want to do this. You are so far under his skin, just like you are mine and the boys, and the idea of hurting you or never getting to hold you again is tearing him to pieces.”
Oakley sinks against me, and I hate how down she is. She’s always held her head high, and while she has always fought for what’s right, she’s never allowed herself to fall apart like this.
Silence fills the room, and just when I think she’s falling asleep, her soft, wavering tone vibrates through her chest. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Honestly,” I tell her, pulling her back just enough to meet her stare before pressing my fingers to her chin and forcing her to hold her head up high. “Allow him to fall in love with you. Let him see the real you, let him in, Oakley. He’s halfway there, but he needs that push from you. Let him see what it means to really be in love with someone.”
“How the hell is that supposed to help?”
“Because if he loved you like I do, truly fucking loved you, he’d forfeit his claim to Empire in order to save you, even if it meant sacrificing himself in the process.”
Oakley presses her lips in a tight smile, and the sadness in her eyes eats me alive. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think Zade is capable of loving in that kind of way,” she says, her hand cupping the side of my face. “He’s broken. He’s not like you.”
“You’re wrong,” Sawyer says, getting up and making his way toward us. “He’s broken, that’s for sure. But he’s not incapable of loving you. If you were anyone else, then yeah, I’d say there is no hope, but you’re the brightest fucking light I’ve ever seen. If anyone can make him lay down his weapons, it’s you.”
With that, Sawyer leans down and presses a gentle kiss to Oakley’s lips, and watching the way she so openly craves us all has my cock hardening beneath her. Sawyer squeezes her shoulder and breaks their kiss, and after holding her gaze a second longer, he pulls away. “You know where to find me,” he says before turning on his heel and making his way out of the room.
“I’m gonna crash too,” Cross says, getting up and walking past us, stopping to drop a kiss to Oakley’s temple before continuing through the living room to Venom’s enclosure and putting her in. “You guys need anything while I’m up?”
I shake my head. “Nah, man. We’re good.”
Cross disappears a moment later, leaving me with my girl, and I grip her ass before lifting her into my arms and getting to my feet. “Come on,” I tell her, needing to get up after that sweet ass of hers has been weighing down on the healing stab wound on my thigh. Honestly, it fucking hurts, but I’m not about to tell her that. “Let me take you to bed.”
“No,” she rushes out. “I don’t want to—not with him. Not tonight.”
“Good,” I murmur. “Because it wasn’t his bed I was planning on taking you to.”
Oakley relaxes against me, and I walk us down the hall to my room, kicking the door open before striding in and laying her down on my bed. I move in beside her, pulling her into my arms and making sure the blanket is pulled right up to her chin. “You good, Firefly?”
