by R. J. Lewis
CONOR THAMES
R.J. LEWIS
Part One: Actions
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Two: Consequences
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue: Penance
Copyright © 2019 R.J. Lewis. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, place, events, and other elements portrayed herein are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons or events is coincidental. The setting of this story is completely fake, derived purely from the imagination of the author. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without the prior consent from the publisher and author, except in the instance of quotes for reviews. No part of this book may be uploaded without the permission of the publisher and author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is originally published.
Part One: Actions
Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. - Anonymous
Chapter One
Charlotte
Reid was a superstar at school. He had that suave, charming smile that made the girls lose their shit. A pretty boy with a pretty face, and tall – so beautifully tall and filled out – I nearly had a heart attack when he’d cornered me in the hallway of St. Helen’s High School and demanded I go out with him or else he’d die of heartbreak.
We’d been a couple for eleven months. Ten more days and we were going to celebrate our one-year anniversary, which translated to an eternity in high school years. This boy was funny. This boy was confident. This boy wow-ed me every day with his romantic gestures. This boy glared the hell out of any other boy that looked my way.
But this boy right now?
Well, shit. He’s just a boy.
And he was staring at Conor Thames like he was petrified.
“Reid, what the fuck do you want?” Thames asked, seated on the couch with some girl dressed as Batwoman draped over his lap. She looked bored, staring down at her acrylics, while Thames’ large hand practically swallowed her left ass cheek.
Reid practically stuttered. “I lost my car keys.”
The second we’d entered his cousin’s house, Reid’s entire demeanour had changed. He didn’t want to be here. But shit, we had to be here. He lost his key to his car, and the only one that had a spare was his cousin, the one who’d gifted him the car to begin with. It was night, and we’d uber-ed it with the last few dollars in my bank account. It was okay, though, Reid was going to pay me back.
The white Georgian house looked run down from the outside, like it’d been neglected for decades. The impressively big yard was overgrown with grass, weeds, and littered with old beer bottles. It would have looked haunted if not for the fact every single light in the house was on and casting a yellow glow outside. I’d followed Reid to the front door, running my hands along my arms, shivering from the cold. He didn’t even need to knock. The door was unlocked and there was a party inside. Almost everyone had played dress-up for Halloween. The girls were in their slutty costumes, some of the men were superheroes. It looked like an excuse to get loaded and laid judging by the way they necked their beer bottles and grinded against each other to the loud music. Insults were hurled over the song playing. Fists were randomly thrown. Girls were caught in the arms of guys that weren’t their boyfriends, and vice versa. All of this happened in the span of the three minutes it took to wade through the crowd.
Yep, this was Blackwater’s finest right here.
This was not my cup of tea, but I hadn’t planned on waiting outside in the cold. Reid had argued with me to stay on the porch, and it was a less than gentlemanly move on his part to have me standing in the freezing cold, but I let it slide because he was clearly anxious.
Up until that point, I’d felt safe with Reid. I thought if ever danger lurked nearby, he would be there to protect me. But I felt weird standing behind him, my arms still crossed this time to cover myself from ogling eyes. Reid hadn’t stood tall, hadn’t made sure I was wrapped in his arms, hadn’t marked me from all the guys staring at me like I was a Halloween treat. Instead, he was swallowing every five seconds, like a nervous kid that’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. I’d never seen him like this. Never seen him so unsure.
A bunch of guys had been crowded around Thames, paying him close attention, but despite that, Thames’ eyes had found Reid almost instantly.
And then began his torment.
“You lost your car key,” Thames repeated slowly, his brows shooting up with amusement. “How the fuck did you manage that?”
“It’s somewhere in the theatre. I tried looking for it, even asked the employees to keep the lights on, but they wouldn’t.” Reid explained. “But they said they’d keep an eye out. I gave them my number just in case.”
This time Thames laughed. “Everyone hearin’ this fucking idiot? Asked the employees to keep the lights on in the theatre. That’s fuckin’ precious. You’re precious, Reid.”
Everyone laughed at Reid, and Reid just stood there, taking it. I felt heat rise to my cheeks, dismayed by this asshole already. I’d heard a lot about Conor Thames to know he was a bully and a jerk, but I’d never personally met him, or been around him to witness it until now. And I was livid already.
He was one of the few men at the house that hadn’t played dress up. He was wearing a heavy black sweater and dark jeans. His blonde/brown hair sported a fresh crew cut, and his beard was an inch or so long. Conor Thames looked scary more than he looked handsome, but still…even standing there, behind Reid, disgusted as ever by the bully, I felt something…primitive about him. It was this visceral feeling that went straight to my ovaries, giving me tingles in forbidden places. He was so relaxed, so goddamn confident, that shit-eating grin on his face obnoxious and yet intimidating at the same time. I didn’t want to feel those foreign tingles. I looked to Reid instead, convinced it was him I felt those tingles for.
“I just need the spare,” Reid pushed on, his voice quieter now. His confidence was lost, and Thames sat there, delighting in it.
“You want your spare key to the car your father begged me to give you,” he returned, this time that smile nearly
gone. “And here I thought you were coming to celebrate my release. Eighteen months locked up, and my weedy cousin Reid comes for his spare key.”
“I came to welcome you home too,” Reid argued, perking up a bit. “Honest.”
But he was not being honest. He had made absolutely no mention of seeing Thames. In fact, his face had always darkened at the sound of his name over the year I’d been with him.
“My buddy Jem picks me up from the prison entrance,” retorted Thames, narrowing his eyes at Reid. “I come here, and the house is infested with mice and dust. The yard hasn’t been done since I left. The mailbox has been throat fucked by BBQ catalogues and bills that no one’s bothered to collect for me. Boy, I feel fucking welcomed, weedy Reid. Thank your father for his hospita
lity. The fucks given have touched my bleeding heart. And now you want your precious little fucking key, hey?”
I fumed, waiting for Reid to defend himself, but he didn’t even respond. I understood his apprehension. Thames was not to be fucked with. The guy went in and out of prison like a revolving door. He was violent and untamed. His reputation was frightening for good reason. I just didn’t think that fear extended to his family.
I stared at Reid’s back, wondering where that cheeky boy I spent hours on the phone every night went. My heart wrenched in my chest for him. He didn’t have to put up with this.
“Reid,” I whispered, taking a step closer. I grabbed at his arm with both hands and squeezed pleadingly. “We should leave.”
He could find a car locksmith. It wasn’t the end of the world. Fuck Conor Thames, we didn’t need the spare key. As I had come to his side, pleading him with my eyes to go, I felt another set of eyes on me.
That moment – that single moment of me standing there, in my school uniform, pleading for Reid to leave with me – sealed my fate. The new chapter of my life began right there and then. I didn’t know it then, but Thames had made me his and there was no going back.
Thames didn’t ask me who I was. He didn’t make Reid introduce me. Instead, with that cheekiness all gone, he calmly said, “Your spare key’s in my office. You know where that is, yeah?”
Reid nodded, carefully, looking suspiciously at Thames’ sudden change. “Yeah, I know.”
He was staring at me as he went. “It should be on the desk, in a dark wooden box. Go get it, boy. Alone. We’re all waiting.”
Reid took off without a glance back, shrugging off my arm like I’d been a fly on his shoulder. I forgave that too because…well, just because. He moved quickly, disappearing into the crowd. I stood awkwardly, aware as ever Thames was staring at me. Unnerved by the attention, I looked back at him. Instantly, my skin lit up like fire. His blue eyes met my own, and for a moment, all signs of that bully, of that cocky obnoxious demeanour, went mute. Replacing it was a look of hunger that was so penetrating, it made everyone go quiet. They all saw it. Even Batwoman felt it. She looked up at him, confused by how stiff his body had gotten. When she saw his gaze on me, she shot me a wrathful look and then began trailing her fingers along his chest and down his abdomen.
“Hey, Thames,” she cooed, “wanna go upstairs now?”
He let go of her ass and jerked his head at her. “Get off.”
That was all he needed to say. He didn’t even look twice at her. She was out of his mind, out of his line of sight. She was nothing to him, and the way she climbed off him, looking rejected and hurt, made me think that simple command was worse than a harsh insult. She hadn’t even walked three feet when he said to me, “Sit down.”
His voice was commanding. It brooked no argument. It demanded obedience. I saw the expectant look in his eyes, but I also saw the edge in them too. He was going to get what he wanted, regardless. I glanced around to prolong the inevitable. Everyone just stared. The music still thumped all around us, but it felt distant.
I didn’t feel my legs move until I was there, at the couch, standing feet from him. The couch was a large grey three-seater, the deep kind you could make a bed out of, and he was seated on the middle cushion. For a split second, I looked around again, counting exits, mentally forming a map of how many spaces between people there were in case I needed to bolt for the door. I didn’t like to feel trapped. I grew up way too wary for this. I’d come in here on Reid’s arm expecting never to leave his side. I wasn’t the vulnerable type, but I felt it so strongly right then, it made my heart hammer in my chest.
Thames observed me without a word, but he smirked slowly, like he knew exactly what I was doing. Maybe he was even surprised by it. I was certain most women devoured his attention and never ran the opposite way like I so desperately wanted to do. I sat down as far from him as possible. I sat rigidly, with my spine straight, determined not to let my nerves show. I dismissed his presence and casually pretended to look around, but I could feel him on the couch. The air felt thick. I heard his clothes rub as he adjusted himself, maybe closer to me. I had no courage to look at him to know.
“What’s your name?” he asked, slowly…personally.
“Charlotte,” I answered, robotically. I didn’t let a drip of unease into my voice. I continued looking around, even noticed my short fingernails just to be occupied in anything but him.
“Charlotte,” he repeated thoughtfully. Tasting my name. “Something wrong with your spine, pup?”
I furrowed my brows and, before I could stop myself, I looked at him with confusion. “What?”
My suspicions were right. He had moved closer to me, but his back was pressed against the back cushion, his arm outstretched behind me, looking relaxed as ever. His blue eyes met mine for a fleeting moment. There was amusement there, but something else too.
I had been around some bad men. Hell, I lived with bad men, and they were often the reason I was hardly at home. They always had a look about them. You sensed it when you were around them, an ominous feeling that made your insides turn and run for the hills. Now, Thames was bad, you knew he was bad – everyone knew he was bad – but he didn’t have that look. There was nothing slimy about his appearance. He took care of himself quite well judging by his groomed hair and well fitted clothes that showed just how broad and strong he was underneath. He was so at ease. So careless and poised. He was a confident prick with a smile that could melt you on the inside. He was giving me that smile right then on the couch. It was deceptive and made my heart beat a little faster. I wasn’t immune to his aura. Wasn’t as strong as I’d given myself credit for. It was a sad thought.
“You should relax, pup,” he said, low enough only I could hear. “I don’t bite.”
It wasn’t a line I expected to hear, ever. It took me a moment to digest, and by then the opportunity to respond was long gone. I don’t bite. But his eyes spoke differently, didn’t they? I would learn very quickly that Thames conversed well with just a look.
“Come sit on my lap, Charlotte. I’ll make you feel at ease.” He patted his knee at the same time his eyes glimpsed over me. Took me in. Left not one inch of me unexplored in that one long second.
My eyes widened in disbelief. I was stunned. Then I was angry. Did he really think he could say that, and I would just fly into his lap? He must not have known I’d come in here on his cousin’s arm. The cousin he so happily bashed.
“I’m with Reid,” I clarified, confident this would deter his advances.
That didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest. It might as well have flown over his head. He just looked me straight in the eyes, that smile half-faded now. I was all deer in the headlights, caught off guard by his gaze and unable to look away. Reid never looked at me like that, and he’d been with me for almost one year. Conor Thames knew me for hardly a minute, had invited me to sit on his lap like I was another Batwoman hussy, and I was feeling…warmer than I’d ever felt around Reid.
What the fuck?
“You weren’t around before I got locked up,” he said. “Reid had another thing on the side, didn’t he?”
He meant Rebecca. As a teenage girl, I’d obsessed over Reid’s past relationships, went over them with a fine-toothed comb and lived through the typical high school drama that followed when he’d left her to be with me. It was a soap opera that was frankly cringeworthy, and in that moment, it all felt so unbelievably trivial.
“That was a very long time ago,” I said, pointedly.
He chuckled, understanding my dig. “Yeah, I was put away a while. Anyway, don’t be friends with the idiot too long. I’m sure he’s got half a dozen bimbos on the go at once.”
My face heated with anger. Friends? Was this guy trying to get under my skin? First, we weren’t just friends. Reid and I were serious. Second, there were no bimbos. I trusted Reid more than anyone else I knew at school. Mostly, I was angry because his words hit my insecurities. Rei
d had left a girl for me. Sometimes I had wondered if I too had an expiry date.
I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t going to argue with Conor Thames. I didn’t want to be anywhere on his radar, especially if I insulted him. He was part of a bad crowd of people. The guys he grew up with were equally as depraved around town. Everyone referred to them as the Blackwater Boys. They were involved in illegal activities. You always found one of their faces plastered in the news at least once a year, and it was usually due to a police bust. The latest had been a shooting at a bar one of them owned. The police showed up there with a smile on their faces because they’d been itching to get a warrant inside Jem Wright’s rowdy bar for ages. Or so I heard. I didn’t know if they found anything. I didn’t bother keeping track of them because I’d never brushed with the likes of them.
Until now.
Thames was having fun with me. Maybe he was bored, and I looked like an easy target. He looked at me like I was the only person in the room, and I didn’t think that was because I had awed him in any way. I was a passing amusement. Something he could poke fun at before he moved along. His behaviour reminded me of my stepdad. Paul toyed with my mother’s emotions so much, making sure she was constantly uneasy and on edge.
They were both bullies.
But still not as bad as Devil.
He reached out with his free hand and took a strand of my dark hair between his fingers. I sat still, my pulse beating in my ears. I should have pushed his hand away, but I couldn’t bear the consequences. Why had I come into the house? I should have listened to Reid and waited outside in the goddamn cold.
He felt my hair for a few seconds before letting it go. I felt him inch closer to me. Felt the cushion beneath me sink under his weight.
“Am I making you uncomfortable, Charlotte?” he asked, his voice alive with mischief.
My cheeks felt hot. “No.”
“You look uncomfortable, dove.”