by L. J. Woods
Before Jack follows his gaze, I duck again.
Closing my eyes, my grip tightens around my knife. He has every right to sell me out and it wouldn't surprise me if he did. But if he does, I owe Jack another slash.
“Spill it!” Jack demands. “And I might just let you live.”
“Dude,” Christian responds, his voice a little louder now. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit!” When I peek over the rock, Jack leans closer to him. “We’ve been watching you too, Rich Boy.”
Shit.
Christian picks his head up with enough force for the back of his skull to hit Jack in the nose. My eyebrows raise before he’s on top of Jack, swinging big fists in his face but Jack brings his gun to his temple.
“You brought your fists to a gunfight?” Jack laughs before bloodied spit hits Christian’s scratched-up face. He’s fighting for my life but I don't know if he’ll win. Not against a Spade. “Since I’m a man of my word, tell me where she is, and I won’t blow your brains out on this highway.”
The world around me blurs when Jack cocks the gun, shoving it at Christians’s head.
He freezes, the sparkle gone from those green eyes when he locks his gaze with mine.
Everything slows, a breath escaping me like a pain’s struck my body. My heart thuds against my chest, my mom flashing in my mind again as my grip tightens around the knife.
Christian swallows, his Adam’s Apple bobbing as he raises his hands in the air. “I told you. I don’t know, man.” He's not selling me out at all.
Christian keeps his eyes on me and the only thing it does is add a heaviness to my chest. A weight I can’t ignore.
I’m by my mom’s side again. Watching her wither away. Telling me her last words as she stares into my eyes. I’m reliving that night. Right here. Right now. And that pain in my gut is the same when I look Christian in his eyes.
“Well that’s a damn shame,” Jack chuckles again, his other hand coming around Christian’s thick neck. Spades always like to play with their food. “Can’t say I tried to save you. Let this be a message if any of you privileged fucks want to help out the lost trash again.”
Jack chuckles while he squeezes his neck, Christian's face turning red but he doesn’t show any struggle. He takes Jack’s punishment like he’s in a gang himself, his eyes locked on me the entire time.
My heart thuds, my skin cold and clammy.
My mom’s voice comes to my head again.
Power. Not prey.
I’m fucking through with being prey.
Watching him like this makes my heart thud faster, red hot anger and panic surfacing on my skin. Everything blurs, my entire body tense when I rise from my hiding spot.
Christian’s gurgles only push me more and the minute I hear Jack utter that stupid line, “Thank you for your sacrifice to the Spades,” my boot comes to his gun.
Before Jack can look up, my knife slices through his other cheek. His eyes widen. “Cunt!”
Christian drops from his hold but Jack is quick to push me to the ground, avoiding my swings.
Climbing on top of me, he bleeds onto my face, blood stinging and blurring my vision.
"Fuck you," I spit.
He takes a swing.
My head whips to the side, pain running through me but all I can do is laugh. Like a fucking lunatic. Even as he swings and punches, there’s a weight off my chest knowing Christian’s safe. Even if I had to sacrifice myself for it.
With the knife in my hand, I push it towards Jack's face but he stops me. His hand on my wrist, he pushes my arm onto my throat. That cuts off my air, the world ringing around me as his bloodied spit lands on my chest. “Beg, bitch.”
Never.
I’m still pushing against his hold, forcing the knife at him but he pushes harder on my neck. The more I fight him, the more lightheaded I get, my body weak.
A smile spreads across his face. "This is it, sweetheart."
That smile fades as quickly as it appears, his body going limp, his eyes going wide.
Then he sinks onto my chest, into my knife.
His head lands beside me, Christian standing behind him with his foot on his back.
My entire body stays stiff as he gurgles out blood onto my neck, the world spinning around me as bile rises inside.
It all happens so quickly but it feels like everything stops before Christian tugs his body off me. Pulling him off my bloody knife, he tosses him to the side.
Without looking, I’m pretty sure the man next to me is dead.
Now I can’t breathe, refusing to look his way before curiosity gets the best of me, and fuck … he’s definitely dead.
Bile rises in me again, my guts twisting. Christian falls to his knee, a hand on my back, the other on my face. “You’re okay.” He says this like he’s in awe, like he expected me to be dead.
We killed someone.
I don’t know if Christian pushed him through my knife to save me or for revenge but we’re both alive. While there’s more to Christian than I know, with his green eyes shining down on me and my body in his arms, I'm safe. Warm.
Like we didn’t just kill a motherfucking Spade.
Chills rise on my skin before Christian helps me up, his hand strong and firm but there’s a shake in it. Looking over at Jack’s lifeless body, I look around to see if anyone’s coming. “Fuck Perez, what did you do?”
“Me? In case you didn’t notice, that’s his blood on your knife, Loca.” When he looks over at the body, his face turns pale. “Fuck. Maybe he’s still alive.”
Looking over at Jack in a growing pool of blood, my stomach knots and twists, my skin clammy and cold. “He’s very dead.”
“Fuck!” Christian yells to the sky. He heaves over, his hands on his thighs. After a beat, he lets out a long growling breath before he mutters, "This shit shouldn't be happening again."
“Okay but he tried to kill us,” I protest but Christian’s right. It’s my knife that did the damage and if it came down to his life or Jack’s I’d do it again. But I’m not taking the blame for it all. “And your foot in his back sealed the deal.”
“He was on top of you.” He looks up at me. “I thought—” He cuts himself off before he stares at his body again. “Fuck!”
Glancing around I fight the urge to puke it all out on the road. “We gotta get out of here. If I know anything about Ace we can’t be anywhere near this body when he finds out his guy is missing.”
Christian’s eyes narrow. “Who the fuck is Ace? And don’t tell me it’s your coworker, Ray.”
“In a way it is?”
“Ray, are you in a fucking gang?”
I ignore the judgment in his tone. “Perez, we gotta go!” I remind him he isn’t the only alpha here but I’m more scared about Ace now than I’ve ever been. Taking his hand, I try to pull him towards the forest at the side of the road. “We should lay low.”
Maybe we can just become forest people and act like none of this happened.
He doesn’t move though. “Stop fucking around, Perez. Let’s go.” I did not almost die saving his life for him to kick the bucket now.
“Wait.” Looking over the scene, his jaw tightens before he takes a step towards his overturned Aston Martin. “Got a light?”
Nineteen
Christian
Rayne Rose is not who I thought she was.
As we haul the gunman’s body to my totalled car, my stomach twists. My arms shake. But even then, we can’t take our eyes off each other.
Not sure if she’s trying to figure me out, or if she’s planning to kill me next.
His body is heavier than it looks but I try no to look at it. It's starting to feel like my past is catching up with me but there's no time to think about that.
Once he’s inside the car, we make sure we’re far enough away before Ray lights up a cigarette. I was the one with the plan to get rid of him. If I learned anything from high school, it’s to never leave a trail. She was th
e one who knew she’d find gasoline in the Escalade parked behind the wreckage.
It’s an empty road with not much traffic but I don’t know how long it’ll be before our luck runs out.
“Ready?” I ask.
Her hands shake when she takes a few puffs but I take her free hand in mine before she flicks her cigarette right at the engine. The car goes up in flames, heat washing over me before I throw my letterman jacket over Ray’s shoulders, turning her away.
It’s silent as we make our way down the small tree-lined road. It’s like we’re too afraid to say anything to each other as we walk further away from the spot of our carnage. Our crime.
Another fucking murder. Except this time, I can’t look the other way. I can’t bow out. I’m way too close to this to back away now.
Who was he?
A flickering light greets us after another ten minutes. A broken-down gas station. I usher her towards it. It’s been a slow walk considering how fucked up we are but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. “C’mon, let’s get cleaned up. I’ll call Johnson.”
Her eyes flick up to me, wide. “To pick us up in the middle of nowhere without a car? Won’t he ask what happened?”
“He will." He’s way too nosey not to. “But after all we’ve been through, something tells me he won’t bat an eye. And if not, he’ll be too toasted to care later.” The look on her face tells me she wants to follow up with a question, but she crosses her arms and pushes in close to me.
The old clerk drops his phone when we walk in. His eyes wander Rayne’s clothes, covered in blood along with my hands, arms and face.
I clear my throat. “We need your bathroom. We got into an, uh, accident. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.” Once Johnson arrives, I plan on giving this guy a stack, ‘cause his bathroom’s about to get real messy. When he doesn’t move, I give him a push. “I’m Christian Perez.”
Ray whips her head to me. “Really?” she whispers. “Throwing your name around now?”
She’s right. Best to give him an extra stack to shut him up for good. He nods right away though, tossing me the keys and that’s when I notice some old Bruins memorabilia behind him. I catch it with a hand, thanking him.
He asks if we need any more help as we shuffle into the large, dim space but we both respond with a solid, “No!”
Once we lock the door, Rayne lets out a heavy breath, her hair falling over her face when she leans over. She looks like she’s from the movie Carrie, dried blood all over her but I let her take her breaths. Still, the sooner we can get all this blood off us, the better.
Moving behind her, I pull that little cheerleader top off her frame, soaked in cold blood. Her body distracts me as she raises her arms,before I push on the band of her skirt. When she steps out of it, I pick it off the floor and fuck, even covered in blood, Rayne in a thong is a sight to behold.
And I’m a sick, twisted fuck for thinking that right now.
She pulls her arms around her, her body frozen like it’s all sinking in. What she did. What we did. It’s like the minute I saw her in danger, all I could do was react. And the sadistic thing is I don’t fucking regret it.
With a damp brown paper towel, I walk over to her, turning her around to see tears rolling down her bloodied face. And fuck, she looks beautiful. When I wipe away her tears, the blood, her voice shakes when she speaks. “Th-thanks.”
“There’s still a lot to get off you, Loca.” Wiping the other side of her cheek, she shakes her head.
“For saving my life.” Her gaze meets my eye. With the dread and desire mixing inside, I’m feeling more nauseous than ever. “Now you’re in danger. We’re in danger. And … And I’m fucking scared.”
Ray never admits that. That’s how I know we’re in some real shit.
I try to reassure her. “Ray, if I had to kill a guy to save you again, I’m positive I would.”
I hear my words, believe me, I do. I sound like I should be on the cover of Psycho but it’s not a lie.
Ray’s life is as dark as Eden and something is pushing me to be the dark knight she needs.
She takes a beat, her eyes wandering my face. “You’re so fucking stupid.” Then she presses her lips to mine. And that’s all it takes for me to back her against the wall and show her how much I mean that.
We don’t care that we’re covered in blood. Don’t care that we’re in this smelly, dingy bathroom. Seeing Rayne at death’s door scared me and the way she’s kissing me like I’m her air supply tells me we share the same fear. I’m not sure if it was all the shit from last year or seeing her so vulnerable, so close to gone, but the fucked-up part inside me wants to hear it.
I drag my tongue along her bloody neck up to her ear. My mouth fills with the taste of copper, bitterness, and that sweet, sweet taste of her. With my teeth tugging on the soft skin of her ear, I finally ask, “Why’d you come out of hiding? Behind that rock?”
She pulls back, catching my gaze. “Would you rather I let you die?” Her brows knit below her bangs.
“Cut the bullshit, Ray.” My fingers land between her legs and either death turns her on or I do. She’s wetter than she was last night. With that thin strip of fabric covering her folds, it’s easy to push it to the side and tease my fingers at her entrance. She moans through her clenched jaw. “Shit just got real, Ray, so all I’m asking is for you to be real with me.”
"You like the taste of blood on your tongue you sick fuck?” She dodges the question, saying it with bite. But the look in her eyes when I curl my fingers tells me I’m not the only sick fuck standing in this bathroom.
“Why didn’t you hide?” I ask again. There’s something about having Rayne under my control with my fingers that makes my cock rock hard against her.
“I didn’t want to see you die.” Her voice is airy and sultry and death never sounded so good.
“‘Cause you care.” She gasps when I pump my fingers hard into her. “And something tells me you’ve cared all this time, Loca.” Her mouth by my ear makes me hear her raggedy breath, her sighs, her moans. “If you don’t care, you’ll stop me from fucking your soaking pussy right here in this bathroom.” Picking up my pace, I know I’m bringing her to the edge, her body shaking when I trace her chin with my free hand. “But something tells me that’s not gonna happen.”
Her teeth sink into my skin and with how hard she bites, I know she’s there. So I stop, but the feeling of her marking me with her bite consumes me and I gotta have her.
I need to have her.
Her lips are back on mine with as much need as I have before she tugs my shirt over my head. It falls to the sticky, toilet-paper-littered floor before I turn her around.
She looks behind her as I’m rolling the latex over my throbbing shaft. “Really? After all that, you still manage to have a rubber?”
“Oh, Ray, I’m always prepared.”
Rolling her eyes, she positions her hands on the wall, poking her ass out in all its glory and it only makes me throb harder. “Shut up and fuck me, Perez.”
That sounds so good coming from her.
“So you do wanna fuck the guy you hate.” Grabbing her ass makes her poke it out some more as I line up my cock with her entrance, teasing her with the way I rub my cock up and down her soaking slit.
“I guess there’s something about fucking the guy you hate.” Her eyes meet mine with a bite of her lip.
“Except you don’t hate me.” And with that, I push inside her, and it’s like everything melts away. “Do you, Rayne?” Raking my fingers through her hair, I pull her back by her strands so she can answer me. So I can see that sexy look on her face when I plow into her, my thrusts slow, steady, and hard. I expect her to fight back but a smile comes across her face like she loves it. So I lean into it.
A hand on her soft breasts, her nipple between my fingers gets her to moan some more. “If I have to fuck that answer out of you, I will.”
“Perez,” she cries but a hand around her throat gets her t
o stop.
“Sssh.” Not that I want her to be quiet. Not when my hips are bouncing off her ass at such a perfect pace that my toes curl in my shoes. But we’ve had enough trouble today and I don’t want the clerk finding us like this. Chances are, even that wouldn’t be able to stop me.
She smiles wider when my grip tightens around her and I don’t know what Ray’s been through but she fucks like a savage. And it’s the hottest thing I’ve ever done.
“That's all you got, Perez?” she teases like the brat she is.
My cock pulses inside her, my nails digging into her ass as her pussy tightens on my shaft.
I’m lost in the body-numbing feeling of her. In us.
Every thrust brings me closer as I fuck her harder.
And harder.
Like I’m trying to make all our pain go away.
My grip tightens around her throat before her back arches and she pulls my hand down to her mouth to stifle her cries. Her teeth sink into my skin and when I feel her shake, her pussy clamping around my cock, it makes me explode.
All the pain disappears for a moment. The grossness around us does too and for a second, I’m in a bubble of warmth and comfort. Bliss.
We collapse against the floor when my legs finally give out. Our heavy breaths filling the room.
“I should hate you more often,” she says through shaky breaths. And somehow she looks even sexier than before, her face glowing underneath little splotches of blood.
“Fucking Loca.” Grabbing her chin, I bring her lips to mine.
“Keep saying it like that and we won’t ever leave this bathroom.” She smirks against my lips.
“I’m fine with that.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Are you two okay, Mister Perez? Do you need anything?”
“Probably not the best idea though,” I whisper in her ear before I stand her up. “Let’s get out of here.”
We clean up as best as we can with paper towels, a sink, and our clothes. My shirt still has some blood on it but giving it to Ray means she won’t have to wear a blood-soaked cheerleader's uniform.
Why is that sight still so hot in my head?