Defiance Falls Revolution: Defiance Falls Series Book 2

by Dean, Ali

  But it was over too quick, with two sets of strong arms pulling me back, refusing to let me keep at it. I didn’t struggle. I knew in the back of my mind it was my guys, and they had my back. It was time to stop, I’d done enough damage. But I wanted more.

  When the red started to fade from my vision and the scene came into view, I was dumped with a cold bucket of reality. Hazel was screeching at me. Yeah, my cool and calm girl was screeching at the top of her lungs.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted. She came at me, her own fists clenched. They pounded into my chest and I realized she was sobbing.

  The guys dropped my arms and I started to wrap them around her but she pushed me off.

  “Oh no you don’t. That was insane, Cruz. I was just talking to him. You knocked him out.” She gestured to the crumpled body unmoving on the dock. “You completely fucked him up. He’s probably got broken bones. All for talking to me!” She was screeching again, and letting tears fall freely down her cheeks.

  I tried to reach for her again but she took a step back.

  “Don’t touch me. I’m done.”

  “Done? Done?” I asked, my voice raw – from fighting, from seeing Hazel like this, or from the words she’d uttered, I had no clue.

  She looked at her cousins. “Bodhi, Emmett, can one of you get me out of here?”

  Emmett was on one side of me, having pulled me off Kai, and Bodhi was behind my girl, apparently having protected her from flying fists.

  My chest caved in. I was pretty sure my fists had been the only ones flying. The guy hadn’t even known what I was about before I knocked him out. Fuck. I was an asshole. Yeah he deserved a few punches, but they should’ve at least been fair ones, with him on his feet, able to attempt defending himself. Not that he would’ve had a shot but… Hazel was turning to leave now.

  Bodhi shot me a look that I could only interpret as disappointment before following her up the path.

  “I’m going with them,” Emmett said. “You guys need to clean up this mess, but we need two on Hazel right now.”

  He was right, and I was at least grateful Hazel understood enough now to accept the protection.

  Every bone in my body twitched to chase her, make her forgive me. But I knew my girl, and she needed time. I wouldn’t give her much, but I would only make it worse if I demanded attention while she was heated. She was fire like that, and I loved her for it. Both of us got a little wild when we were pissed.

  I glanced at the heap on the dock. “A little wild” might be an understatement in this case.

  Spike went over to Kai and flipped him onto his back. He coughed but didn’t sit up.

  I heard footsteps jogging our way and spun around. It was Moody.

  “Em said there’s some damage I need to help clean up,” he said, pausing beside me.

  “Yeah, I fucked up. Your mom’s going to give me hell, but we gotta wake her up.” Moody’s mom was an ER doc and she’d patched us up after a few fights over the years when we didn’t want to deal with the hospital. Along with Spike’s parents, the Moodys knew enough to understand the fighting was more than teenage rebellion. Though tonight, I’d lost my shit and this hadn’t been calculated. My lungs burned and for a beat I felt ashamed. Kai had it coming, showing up on my turf and attempting to comfort her for the third fucking time in one week. He’d been told, quite clearly, she was off limits. And yet here he was. Still, I hated that I’d lost control and given him what was mostly meant for the Malones. At least there was still plenty left to give where they were concerned.

  Moody was already on his phone, calling his mom in.

  She’d patch Kai up and I’d make it worth her while, not that they needed money. Next, I had to deal with Kai. I knew for certain he could use money, but the asshole didn’t seem to know what was good for him. He might go to the cops thinking he was protecting Hazel from me or some idiocy. That would be another mess I didn’t need to deal with, not with everything else going on. Not with the Malones looking for blood.

  I had to clean up this mess I’d caused first, and then I had to make it right with Hazel.

  Chapter Six

  Hazel

  I woke to arms scooping me up. I knew who it was without opening my eyes.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed.

  He had me in his arms fireman style and he was moving us out of the bunk bed room in the basement.

  “Moving you to the guest room with the queen bed down the hall,” Cruz answered.

  We were at my grandparents’ house. The twins took me here instead of my house. They said it was safer, and they could share a room with me since my grandparents had set up double bunk beds for sleepovers when we were younger, and we still used them on occasion. But then I remembered why I’d come here with my cousins, not Cruz, and I stiffened.

  “Put me down,” I whisper-yelled, shoving his chest and wiggling my body out of his hold.

  He had a firm grasp, and by the time I got free, we were already in the other guest room. Cruz shut the door behind him and stood in front of it, blocking my escape.

  He crossed his arms and opened his mouth but I cut him off before he could say anything. “What makes you think you can wake me up in the middle of the night and carry me to a bedroom with you after what you pulled a few hours ago?”

  With the door closed and my grandparents on the second floor, I let my voice rise.

  Cruz flinched slightly at my tone but he held eye contact. “Hazel, Kai’s been sniffing around, using excuses to get close to you and pretend to comfort you, ever since we got back together. The twins told him we were together, then I told him the same thing. And yet he came back. To my party, on my property. Words weren’t working.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “Are you kidding me? You’re kidding right now, aren’t you?” I was almost yelling and I tried to rein it in but it wasn’t easy. “You beat him unconscious. For sitting next to me. That is not okay.”

  I watched Cruz as I knew he was going to try to defend himself again, so I snapped. “Cruz, that’s not only not okay, that’s insane. Honestly, I don’t get it. I know you. After everything you told me tonight, I still got it. Got you. It was okay. Scary, yeah, but it actually made sense. All that messed-up stuff, it made sense in a weird way. It explained a lot. But what you did to Kai tonight? That was not something I can wrap my head around.”

  I almost said, I don’t know the Cruz who did that. I wanted to say it, but it would only be to hurt him. A small part of me still wanted to inflict pain on Cruz for what he’d put me through three years ago. Yet I knew it would be a lie if I said I didn’t know the Cruz I’d seen beating Kai Tillson to a pulp on the dock earlier.

  It had shocked me, yes. But even so, I knew exactly where his anger was coming from. Kai had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Cruz had unleashed on him.

  As Cruz and I watched each other, I could see only a portion of Cruz’s rage had been unleashed. It was simmering there just beneath the surface.

  “I’ll admit I went overboard. One or two blows in the right spot would have sent the message.”

  I covered my mouth with my hands because his admission almost made me laugh. He was so matter of fact about it all.

  He didn’t seem to notice, continuing, “You know that was meant for Branden and Sean, most of it. But I can’t do that to them. Not now. We have to stay focused on the game plan. I’ll get to them, but I have to be patient.”

  He was explaining this to me, but I could see he was convincing himself now too.

  There were images of Cruz demolishing Kai in my head, but there were also images of my bound legs, the two Malone boys surrounding me, touching me. I could hear the noises as Cruz pummeled Kai but the memory of the pill being shoved down my throat was much more painful. I wish I could erase all of it.

  And Cruz had tried to do just that. It had helped, when he came to me in my bedroom a few hours after they’d rescued me. Cruz had pushed his own desire to retaliate
aside and taken care of me instead. He’d also pushed his own desire for another kind of relief aside. He’d done so last night, and he’d been doing it for years.

  The shift from anger and outrage to something else was swift. So sudden, I sucked in a breath and my hand went to my lower stomach. The need came on strong, the desire to do some comforting of my own. But I was still upset over what he’d done to Kai. It was wrong, the way he reacted, and Cruz had always been the kind of guy who did the right thing.

  He took a small step closer to me but I threw up a hand. “You can’t do that, Cruz.”

  “Do what?” He tilted his head to the side and I noticed his hands twitching, like he wanted to reach for me but was holding back.

  “You might have spent years dealing with the Malones, where sending messages with fists is innocent compared to other methods, but that doesn’t make it okay. Not with the rest of the world. And definitely not with a guy like Kai.”

  His hands clenched into fists and he took another step so we were only a foot apart. “A guy like Kai?”

  “Yeah. A guy who’s never been in a fist fight in his life. He’s innocent in all this.”

  I knew he wouldn’t want to hear that and the blaze in his eyes told me I’d pushed him. Maybe further than I really wanted to right now, in the middle of the night, when my world had just been turned upside down and inside out. My mind was still spinning from everything I’d learned. Did I really want to battle Cruz tonight?

  “It’s guys like Kai, who play the good guy, the safe one, who are the least innocent.”

  “Are you being serious right now?” Honestly, it almost sounded like he was joking with that statement.

  Cruz’s hands found my waist then, and with that connection, I found it harder to remember my anger and to forget the pulsing need growing stronger. Desire was thick in the air, the energy between us electric and inevitable when we were alone in the same room.

  “Yes, I’m serious,” Cruz answered, reminding me what we’d been discussing. “With the Malones, you know what they are about. We’re enemies, even when they show up at the Lake on my birthday pretending to play nice. It’s the ones who try to gain your trust but when push comes to shove, they show they aren’t worthy of it.”

  I swallowed past the dryness in my throat. “Like Louise.”

  “Yeah, like her.” Cruz’s voice conveyed sympathy, but I didn’t want it. I was still torn, wondering if my unwillingness to let her in as a true friend in the first place was part of the reason for her betrayal. But then again, maybe my gut told me not to because it knew she wasn’t worth it. When I let out a long sigh, Cruz’s grip on my waist tightened.

  “What about you? You sound like you’re talking about someone who let you down.”

  “Didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t have any real friends when I met you and the guys? You were the first people I wanted to trust.”

  “Why?”

  “You were strong. I don’t know that I saw it like that at the time, but I see it now. People like Kai, Louise, they’re weak. You don’t always see it until it counts though, until it’s too late.”

  I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. His words resonated, but I wouldn’t admit he was right. We already knew it about Louise, but when he put it that way, he wasn’t wrong about Kai either. I knew it when we were together too. If Kai was in the same shoes, given the same circumstances as Cruz, things would be very different. He wouldn’t have responded with action or responsibility. He probably would have run. Cruz was a natural leader, and calling him strong was an understatement.

  “It still doesn’t justify what you did. If you want to be strong, don’t let your pent-up rage out on a dude just because he’s too weak to man up and tell your girlfriend why he’s really talking to her.” Okay, fine, I did just admit Cruz was right. Kai still wanted in my pants and was finally getting the balls to do something about it because he saw an opportunity to play up the good guy role.

  Cruz’s mouth lifted into a smirk before he bent his head and told me, “I don’t want to talk about Kai or the Malones any more tonight.”

  I gave him a small nod and he closed the gap. We needed to feel each other, nothing else. It wouldn’t make everything better, but it would help. He didn’t need any more words from me, and I didn’t need any from him. Not tonight. In this moment, it was only Cruz I could see, it was only his body I wanted to feel.

  His hands held my face and he kissed me hard as he walked me backward to the bed. I placed my palms on the firm planes of his chest and could feel his heart pounding. It was racing, and mine picked up with the recognition of what that meant. Cruz Donovan went as crazy for me as I did for him. There was no other reason an elite athlete’s heart would beat this hard.

  The back of my knees hit the bed and Cruz didn’t break the kiss as he followed me down until I was lying on my back. Cruz didn’t hover over me. No, he let the hard ridges of his body mold to mine. There were no gaps of space between, only clothes. Even that couldn’t diminish the heat pulsing between my legs, the hot length of him rubbing so close to where I wanted more of him.

  Cruz pulled his mouth away just enough to pant out my name. Then he said, “There’s no lock on that door.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your grandparents or cousins could come in here. There’s no lock.”

  His words barely registered. I lifted my legs and wound them around his waist. He couldn’t stop. I might die if he stopped kissing me, stopped grinding into my aching center.

  “Please,” I whimpered. I locked my ankles behind his lower back and pressed my heels in, encouraging movement.

  He let out a curse and I took his momentary weakness to kiss him again. He let me, but only for a second before he lifted his head again.

  “Hazel, we can’t. Not here.”

  “Nooooo,” I whined.

  Cruz didn’t find my desperation amusing, which was a relief. It meant he felt it too.

  “It’s what? Four AM? My grandparents won’t even be awake for a couple hours.”

  I could see Cruz was considering it, and then he blinked. “What about the bathroom? That has to have a lock.”

  “Yes!” I didn’t want to separate from him but if it meant we could keep doing this I would. I unlocked my leg hold and we both scrambled up, practically sprinting to the attached bathroom.

  It had a lock.

  We kept the light off, on the small chance anyone did open the bedroom door. I reached for him but I hit air at first, and then the top of his head. He was on his knees. My own knees nearly buckled at this.

  Cruz pulled down my pajamas and panties in one tug. He took an ankle and slid it to the side so I was open to him.

  “Put your hands on the counter,” he instructed, and I was grateful for the order. I wasn’t sure I could stand up without support, and he hadn’t even touched me yet.

  When he did my head fell back. I reached for the bathroom fan switch. Maybe it would drown out some noise. There was no way I was going to be able to be quiet.

  I didn’t have room in my head to wonder just how much practice Cruz had been getting over the years. All I knew is that I was able to reap the benefits, and it was absolutely the best thing ever.

  Even better, Cruz was totally into it too. Or at least the hums of pleasure I felt inside me from his mouth seemed to say so. He also had to readjust his crotch every few seconds, which was a good sign this was making him hot too. I flew over the edge quickly, but he kept me riding it for minutes afterward, until my legs shook and my entire body tingled.

  As soon as I let go of the counter, I dropped to my own knees, unable to stand upright. I kissed him greedily, tasting myself on his lips. I wanted to feel more of him, see more of him, and I pulled his shirt up and over his head. Then I leaned back on my heels and took him in. I’d seen Cruz shirtless on the soccer field a few times, but this was different. Yes, it was dark in this bathroom, but my eyes had adjusted from the little moonlight coming through the basement
window and underneath the door. He was only inches away and he was mine.

  “Stand up,” I told him, my voice thick.

  “You don’t have to, Hazel.”

  “Shut up, Cruz.”

  He smiled and stood up.

  I tugged open the button on his jeans, and tried to be as smooth as he’d been when I pulled down his jeans and briefs. But I simply wasn’t. Not when Cruz’s dick nearly hit me in the eye as it bounced proudly in its freedom.

  I let out a curse of my own. Swallowed. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. I mean, Cruz Donovan naked, it was enough to make me lose my mind. I could stare at him all day. And I must have gazed at his package for a while because Cruz finally let out a chuckle.

  “I’m starting to get worried, Haze. Something the matter?”

  I flicked my eyes up to him and smirked. Then I took him in my mouth, figuring that was answer enough.

  Chapter Seven

  Cruz

  I’d said I’d sleep beside Hazel every night now, and I did for a couple hours, but we didn’t wake up together. Not in her grandparents’ house. It was a good thing I only needed three hours or so, otherwise I didn’t know how I’d pull it off.

  Drew and Mimi Ross were already at the breakfast table when I came up from the basement around seven AM.

  “Oh, morning Cruz,” Mimi greeted me. “The boys down there too?”

  “Just Bodhi and Emmett. Hazel too.”

  “Hazel’s downstairs? She usually takes the upstairs room,” Drew said. “Eggs, bacon, toast?” he asked.

  “That’d be great.”

  “Have a seat, sweetie,” Mimi said, gesturing to the breakfast table. She went to the fridge to pour a glass of orange juice and set it in front of me.

  It was always like this when I came over here. Like they’d known ahead of time to prepare for me. Fed me, treated me like one of their grandkids.

  Now, I figured eventually Drew would circle back to his question about Hazel’s sleeping location, but for now he was focused on eggs and bacon. And soccer. Drew Ross was quite possibly my biggest fan. He came to all of our games, unless there was a conflict with one of Hazel’s, then he’d have to pick.