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ONE
Scarlett
My heart hammersagainst my chest despite my cool exterior. As if life couldn’t get any worse, I find the man who trained me to be the killer I am, and his son—the first sexual mistake I ever made—standing before me on the steps of the place I was sure to call home.
They were invited here because of their ties to the Ruthless Brothers. I didn’t think my life could become any more twisted, but here I am, wound up in another knot of my past, smiling in the face of my present.
With Gray’s arm draped around my shoulders in a silent form of protection, he steers me inside, but when he moves toward Church, I quickly edge toward the back of the clubhouse instead.
“Your room,” I murmur the second we’re out of the bar area, and he leads the way without a word. Only when the door closes behind us do I release the breath lodged in my throat.
Gray’s arm drops from my shoulders as I start to pace at the bottom of his bed. I can feel him tracing my every move, but he doesn’t push even though he’s practically bouncing on the tips of his toes.
My mind is going a mile a minute. I’m drenched in blood. The blood of a Devil’s Brute after I was taken from the mall and the memory of Duffer’s lifeless body threatens to crumble me to my knees. I can’t break. I can’t fall. Not now, not ever.
I want to scream, but instead, I settle for tensing every inch of my body in anger before relaxing every muscle from head to toe with a big exhale.
I want to sleep for a week, bathe for a month, and fuck my problems away for the rest of eternity. With the new arrivals, that’s not a possibility, though.
“Sweet Cheeks?” Gray murmurs in concern, and I glance up at him. “Let me in.”
It’s like he can see the walls rising around me, the need to bury myself away and hide fromeverythingso I can compartmentalize the loss of Duffer and the entire fuckery that was today. But for the first time in my life, I have someone pleading with me not to.
“I don’t know how.” My lids close as the truth falls from my lips, and in the next breath his hands wrap around my arms, his breath at my ear.
“You do, Scar. You know exactly how to. You’ve just never done it before, and that’s scaring the shit out of you.” My chest clenches as his words claw into my soul and settle in.
“I’m feeling too much all at once, Gray. I was born cold and raised to be lethal, but my chest hurts. The fear I felt today, the loss of an old friend, the danger Emily was in, and the blast from the past waiting out there—it’s just too fucking much.” He crushes me to his chest, holding me and taking the weight from my limbs as I focus on breathing.
He strokes my hair like he’s consoling me, but not a tear leaks from my lids. Numbness drapes over my mind, body, and soul as my survival instincts take over. Just like they always do.
It may be cold, but it’s familiar and will help me get through this.
As if sensing my thoughts once again, Gray leans back, grips my shoulders, and shakes his head. “Don’t do it, Scar.” He grips my chin and tilts my head up, giving me the sternest look I’ve ever seen on his face. “For me.Please.”
Fuck.
I lift my hands to his chest, a move I’ve made a hundred times before, but this time, I slip beneath the leather of his cut and feel the intense beating of his heart. It vibrates through me, grounding me and opening me up all at once. I focus on every beat as I take deep breaths in time with it.
Pa-dum.
Inhale.
Pa-dum.
Exhale.
Pa-dum.
Inhale.
Pa-dum.
Exhale.
“I love you, Scarlett. My heart beats for you. I’m here for you. My entire fucking world revolves around you. Ever since I saw you through the window at the Reapers’, I knew you were going to be important to me, my life, and my world. I just didn’t imagine it would be this fucking deep, but it is, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Light-headed, I get lost in his eyes, clinging to the words before I cut the remaining distance between us by fusing our lips together. I don’t know how to say those three simple words so effortlessly like he does, but my body refuses to ignore him, opting toshowhim how I feel instead.
