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She shook her head, the car keys she held jingling in her hand. “Between the Angels and your father, I’m not safe here, Havoc. I just need to go.”
Raina didn’t give me another chance to protest or try to convince her to stay. She turned around and walked right out the front door. It closed behind her with a sense of finality that made me sick to my stomach. I wanted to puke.
I went to the window in the front sitting room, watching as she got into her father’s SUV and drove away. The taillights disappeared around the corner at the end of the street, leaving me haunted.
The house felt all wrong without her. Raina’s absence hung over the place, a gaping void. There wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do but let her go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
RAINA
“What’s wrong, peanut? Something must have happened for you to show up at my door at three in the morning.” Dad blinked sleepy eyes at me. He stepped back to allow me inside the house before closing and locking the door.
“Nothing is wrong.” I shrugged, forcing a tight smile that didn’t reach my eyes. “I just thought it was time for me to come home.”
His searching gaze traveled over me. I’d made sure to cover myself completely, hiding the cuts that marked my body. If he knew what the Angels had done to me, he would finish what the Gods had started. I should’ve wanted that, but I didn’t. I just wanted it all to go away.
“Don’t lie to me, Raina. You’re not that good at it. Did something happen with the Alexander kid and his friends?” Dad followed me into the kitchen.
Despite everything that had happened tonight, my stomach growled with hunger. I’d only picked at my supper earlier. Now I was ravenous. I searched through the pantry, finding it bare.
“Can we order a pizza or something? I know this twenty-four-hour place downtown that’s pretty good.” I grabbed an almost empty box of cheddar crackers from the pantry, stuffing a few into my mouth.
Dad perched on a stool at the island, regarding me with a pensive stare. He wasn’t buying my attempt at casual and cool. “Order whatever you like. You can put it on my credit card. Then you’re going to tell me what happened.”
I whipped out my phone, staring hard at the screen as I placed my pizza order. It bought me a few precious minutes to figure out what to tell him. I didn’t want him to hurt Havoc or the others. Even Gage, although I kind of wanted to hurt him myself.
I’d foolishly started to trust them. Even to like them. They’d been so firm on their claiming of me that I’d never dreamed they would let something like this happen. I’d known that Gage was a cold bastard, yet the depths of his insanity shocked me.
Sitting in Knight’s room quaking after one of the worst nights of my life, I’d been forced to accept that I didn’t belong there. The Gods house had never and would never be my home. It had been my cage for a time. Those days were over.
I’d expected them to try harder to stop me from leaving. The defeat in Havoc’s eyes told me that he knew how bad this was and that keeping me against my will would only make matters worse. On one hand I was glad they’d let me go without a fight. On the other, I wanted them to beg me to stay.
What the hell was wrong with me? How could I possibly have become so attached to those assholes?
When the pizza arrived, I quickly stuffed my face. Dad munched a slice, eyeing me the whole time. He wasn’t going to let this go.
“Start talking, Raina. Or I’ll go over there myself and beat it out of those boys.”
Fuck.
“No, please don’t do that. They didn’t do anything. We just had a falling out of sorts. Nothing serious. I decided it was best for me to leave now. The only reason I left so late is because they were partying. The house was filled with people. I couldn’t sleep. So I left.” I did my best to hold his gaze. He didn’t make it easy.
“They didn’t do anything to you that I should know about?” he pressed, chewing a bite of pizza crust. “Don’t try to protect them, Raina. If they did something, I need to know.”
“They didn’t, Dad,” I insisted. “I wouldn’t lie about that. Don’t you trust me?”
That did it. The magic words to make him back off. I may have omitted the full truth at times. I didn’t usually straight up lie. I planned to tell him about Maverick’s involvement with Nikki. Eventually. He needed to know. I knew that. For now, I wanted to enjoy some four in the morning pizza with the one man I knew I could trust implicitly.
“Of course I trust you. I never thought it was a good idea for you to stay with them in the first place. Maverick would shit his pants if he found out. It’s better for you to stay here.” Dad dipped his crust into the sriracha ranch dip, having no idea how close he’d come to the truth.
I swallowed hard, washing my pizza down with a splash of root beer. “So what have you been up to? It must be lonely in this big house all by yourself.”
Steering the conversation in a different direction felt safer. I didn’t want to talk about the Gods or Maverick Alexander. I didn’t even want to think about them. If only it was that easy. The despair in Havoc’s eyes as I walked out the door flashed through my mind. I had no idea he cared that much. My footsteps had momentarily faltered on the front step. It had taken all of my resolve to keep going.
“Not really,” Dad said, grabbing another pizza slice. “I’m not here much. When I am here, I’m usually sleeping or eating. I can try to be around more often though if you’ll be staying here. I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“Don’t worry about me. Maybe I’ll stay with Clover for a while. It might be nice to have more girl time.” Getting Dad talking about normal everyday things helped. All I wanted right now was a sense of normal.
