by Shandi Boyes
Although I’m riddled with guilt that I ended someone’s life, there’s no denying the truth. “He was hurting Demi. I had to stop him.”
Caidyn freezes with his hand suspended mid-air. “He didn’t… it wasn’t like…” He does a movement with his hands that shouldn’t speak on his behalf, but somehow does. “Right?”
The lost expression on Saint’s face exposes Caidyn kept matters we discussed last night under wraps. I’m not surprised he didn’t rat me out. He’s good like that.
“He didn’t do… that,” I answer, gritting my teeth. “But if I hadn’t arrived, there were no guarantees. It was fucking horrific.” When the crack my opponent’s neck made replays in my head, I involuntarily shiver. “I couldn’t make the shit up I saw tonight.”
Mistaking the shakes of my body as me being cold, Saint tugs off his jacket and hands it to me. “Maybe talk to Dimitri? Things aren’t tight with him and his father. He may help you if it benefits him.”
“Maybe,” I parrot, my head too muddled to think of a better reply. “But for now, I need to get her off her uncle’s radar.” I shift on my feet to face Demi during the ‘her’ part of my comment. She’s still talking to Sloane, but I feel her eyes constantly drifting to me. I don’t know exactly what her plan was when she ran this morning, and in all honesty, I don’t want to know because if it’s anything like I’m thinking, I would have made the scratch in Col’s neck an inch deeper. I’m not a killer, but I’d kill again for Demi without a single thought crossing my mind.
When the innocence in Demi’s eyes prompts me on what my family meeting was about, I dig the photograph I snatched out of the blond agent’s hand earlier tonight before thrusting it in Saint’s chest. Justine’s welfare isn’t solely his responsibility, but since he seems to know a heap more about Dimitri than he’s letting on, I’ll pretend as if it is.
“When was this?” Saint’s voice is as rough as mine, his suspicion just as high.
“I don’t know. I was planning to ask you the same thing.”
Caidyn gives me a look, warning me to tread carefully but remains as quiet as a church mouse.
“Why the fuck would I know they went on a date?” Saint asks when my glare becomes too much for him to bear. “They could be friends.”
“Friends? Right. ‘Cause we all look at our friends like that...” My words trail off when I tap on Dimitri’s face in the obvious surveillance image. He isn’t looking at Justine like I do Demi. She’s getting more attention from the men surrounding her than Dimitri.
What the fuck?
Caidyn unearths the reason for my quiet when he peers down at the photograph Saint is clutching for dear life. “Leave it with me,” he says a couple of seconds later. When I attempt to fire off an objection, he shifts my focus back to Demi. “You’ve got more pressing matters to deal with than who our little sister dines with.” With the photograph shoved into his pocket and his hands on my shoulders, he guides me to Saint’s ride. “Get her out of here before they come looking.”
I fucking hate that we’re running like cowards, but sometimes running is the only solution.
Halfway into the driver’s seat, I call Demi’s name. When I’m awarded her eyes, I nudge my head to the passenger door Saint is holding open for her. “Are you ready?”
After nodding, she hugs Sloane like it could be the last time she’ll see her, then she does the same to my brothers. It’s stupid of me to feel jealous, so I won’t mention it.
“Look after him, Demi,” I hear Caidyn say a mere second before he closes the passenger door of Saint’s car, trapping Demi and me inside. “He isn’t the only brother I have, but he’s the only one I like.”
His mumbled comment swipes the uncomfortableness of our departure. It seems as if we’re going on vacation instead of hiding from a man who will torture me for hours before killing me, or worse, force me to watch him do the same to his niece.
“It’s really nice out here,” Demi mumbles on a yawn when I pull Saint’s car into the driveway carved along a mountain an hour out of Ravenshoe. “Has your family owned it for long?”
“This cabin doesn’t belong to my family. A friend of Caidyn’s said we could stay here as long as we need.”
“Oh.” Heat flashes across her cheeks like she suddenly feels stupid. “That’s smart. We probably shouldn’t stay somewhere associated with your family.”
Hating that she feels responsible for anything happening, I gather her hand in mine, raise it to my mouth, then press a kiss on the edge of her palm. “My brothers aren’t walking into this blindly, Demi. They know everything.”
She forcefully swallows. “Everything?”
With the ground dewy because of the late hour, it’s foolish of me to remove my eyes from the dirt road. I wouldn’t if I didn’t think my comfort was more vital to Demi than air in her lungs.
After tracking my index finger down her bruised cheek and across her plump lips, I mutter, “They know enough to know we made the right decision to get away for a couple of weeks. I’ll tell them the rest when the time is right.”
As much as I’d like to shelter her from her uncle’s world forever, I don’t see how I can do that and remain sane. My family is so close, I often forget we don’t come as a package deal.
I park Saint’s car next to the wood cabin’s front porch before switching off the ignition. “How about we talk about this more in the morning? I’m wrecked.” Emotionally more than physically, but I keep that to myself.
When Demi nods, I jog around to open her car door. I lost a part of who I am tonight, but that doesn’t mean the morals my parents instilled in me are forgotten. I can still be a gentleman.
“Thank you,” she whispers, shocked by my chivalry but also pleased.
Her bewilderment discloses I made the right decision putting her first. She’s never been given a single thing without an expectation attached to it. Not even the hours she put in at Petretti’s Restaurant were compensated. Col has her convinced even things that should be given willingly come at a cost—even love.
I’m just praying like fuck that isn’t the only reason she’s here. I killed for her, but it wasn’t because I want something in return. I did it in compensation for the years she was in the ring, fighting alone. I protected her from a bully once. From what I learned from Dimitri earlier today, she kept my family off her uncle’s radar for years.
My reimbursement is far from over.
How could it be when it’s only just begun?
20
Demi
My mouth falls open when I walk into the cabin hand in hand with Maddox. It isn’t the two-bedroom wood cabin that popped into my head when Maddox said it was secluded and off the grid. It has a large porch with a swinging chair hanging at one end. The grand staircase is the pièce de résistance of the entryway, and several carved wooden doors sprout off it in all directions. It’s breathtaking. I just wish we were here under different circumstances.
I feel as if I’ve been forced through a grinder, so I can only imagine how Maddox feels. My father kept me out of the ‘family’ business as much as possible during my childhood. Excluding the bullies who were happy to announce their dislike of my surname, I had no idea where everyone’s anger stemmed from. I thought it was jealousy-based since Dimitri was extremely popular with the female half of his school, but it only took minutes after my father’s death to learn otherwise.
When I was called to the principal’s office, I thought I was there to be congratulated for explementary attendance and grades. My every hope vanished when I entered Mr. Hardy’s office. There weren’t just two police officers in attendance, my uncle was there as well. Although I rarely interacted with him, there was no denying the gleam in his eyes. His brother was dead, and he knew all too well that his sister-in-law was incapable of taking care of a child.
The commencement of the downfall of my relationship with my uncle occurred when I begged Mr. Hardy to call child services. Like any teenager, I had heard horror stories of children in fo
ster care, but I would have been free the instant I turned eighteen. My uncle doesn’t give a single thing without expecting reimbursement for it. Just a roof over my head for four years would have seen me in his debt for the rest of my life. I didn’t want that. I wanted a life far far away from him, so I did what every teenager would have done. I begged.
Mr. Hardy did the right thing when he went against my uncle’s wishes by calling family services. I thought I had it all figured out. I should have paid more attention when my mother spoke about her brother-in-law.
I didn’t last longer than a week in the foster families assigned to me. I was the perfect child. I rose before the sun to prepare breakfast for my host family, cleaned, cooked, and babysat the children younger than me, but without fail, I’d arrive home from school Friday afternoon to discover my bags packed and a child services agent waiting for me.
I would have continued shifting from place to place for the next four years if Dimitri’s friend hadn’t advised me my room would be right next to Dimitri’s. “He’s a light sleeper,” he promised. “He hears everything.”
Rocco Shay had a bad reputation, but there was nothing but unvoiced promises in his eyes that afternoon. Putting my faith in him could have ended disastrously, but for the most part, it worked in my favor. The first time I was slapped by Col was years after I was placed under his guardianship. It was also the very same day Dimitri moved out.
“Do you know if they have a first-aid kit?”
Maddox stops partway to the kitchen before he floats his eyes over my face.
“It isn’t for me,” I whisper. “It’s for you.”
“I’m fine.” He stops, shakes his head like dry blood isn’t pooling out of one of his ears, then starts again. “I will be fine.”
When he recommences our trek to the kitchen, I dig my heels into the plush carpet. “Please. I want to take care of you…” When he attempts to interrupt me, I talk faster, “… like you did me.”
Several seconds pass in silence. It isn’t awkward. There’s too much chemistry crackling in the air to represent anything close to awkward.
The knot in my stomach loosens its grip when Maddox mutters a couple of seconds later, “If you’re doing this to get into my panties, you are off the hook. I’m not a third-date type of guy.”
He jokes when he’s snowed under, but I’d rather it than him completely closing off.
“I’m not trying to get into your panties,” I reply, struggling not to smile. “I’m hoping it will get you into mine.”
Needing to occupy my hands before I fist his blood-dotted shirt and drag him toward the closest bedroom, I enter the kitchen, praying like hell the heat from the fireplace roaring in the living room doesn’t stretch to the back of the house, or I’m about to combust. That’s how hot Maddox’s grin makes my veins.
My eyes drift from my empty plate to Maddox when he asks, “Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?”
I’ve been anticipating his question for the past several hours. I could tell he was holding back when I cleaned his bruised and scuffed knuckles before dabbing them with antiseptic ointment, and the evidence was still apparent when we worked side by side in the kitchen to make another one of our famous early breakfasts. He has a knack for waiting until the time is right to commence an interrogation. I’m less hostile when I am overcome with tiredness.
“What do you want to know?” When a panicked glint darts through his hooded gaze, I wet my dry lips. “He didn’t touch me. N-not in the way you’re thinking.”
“Has he previously?”
His exhale fans my cheek when I shake my head. As I said previously, my uncle’s inappropriateness is at an all-time high right now. He’s hinted about hurting me many times, but he’s never followed through as he made out he would this weekend.
The ache in my chest reduces when Maddox treks his finger across the fresh welt on the side of my face. “What was this about?”
“I… ah…” I pause, unsure how I can explain I tried to kill a man without making it seem as if I’m a murderer in the making. I guess I shouldn’t worry since Maddox asked the question. He may have ended Igor’s life, but he isn’t close to being a killer, so I’m sure he’ll understand.
I begin to wonder if I was sucked into a time warp when Maddox reads the truth from my eyes like we’ve been a couple for years. “You scratched Col’s neck?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be a scratch. The boxcutter was blunt,” I confess before I can stop myself. After a quick swallow to moisten my throat, I say, “I took it out of Caidyn’s Jeep. I thought if I dealt with my uncle first, you wouldn’t have to, but I probably made matters worse. The boxcutter had Caidyn’s firm printed on it.”
“Ah.”
I wait for him to elaborate. When he doesn’t, I blurt out, “Ah? That’s it? I confessed my biggest, darkest secret, and all you say is ‘ah.’”
Maddox laughs like our conversation is nowhere near as serious as it is. “I wasn’t leaving you hanging. I was just taking a moment to absorb how kickass you are.” He scoops my hand in his, then tugs me to his side of the sofa. “You went against your blood for me. I fucking love that.”
“You won’t when he bites back. Col has been at this years longer than us. He knows what he’s doing.” Maddox shrugs like my worry has no steam. “We can’t go into this blind, Maddox. I won’t allow your family to be affected by this.”
“I know,” Maddox replies without the slightest bit of hesitation in his tone. “That’s why I’m not worried.”
My chest thrusts up and down when he pulls me to sit on his lap. He’s been unusually quiet the past three hours. It’s understandable. He was pushed to the brink, and although his body came out of the carnage relatively unscathed, I can’t say the same for his insides. The Walsh brothers are protective, cocky, and extremely lovable, but that isn’t where their skills end. They’re also master crafters at hiding their emotions.
The fact Maddox waited years to make a move is proof of this. Only days ago, I had no idea my crush was mutual.
After slinging my arms around Maddox’s neck, I lower my forehead to rest against his. His eyes are so dilated, I can see my cut cheek and swollen eye in his pupils. Lucky for me, they’re barely noticeable through the admiration shining in them. Tonight should have torn us apart, but for some strange reason, it made us even closer.
“Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?”
Maddox takes a moment to consider my question before he shakes his head. I’m disappointed, but I am also aware it will take more than an offer to listen to get him to open up.
“When you are, I’ll be right here, ready to catch you.”
The past thirty-six hours seem like barely a blip on the radar when he jerks up his chin. To most, my offer would be worthless, but to Maddox, it’s priceless.
The tension in the air shifts to lust when Maddox mutters out a couple of seconds later, “But until then, how shall we occupy our time?”
I twist my lips like the innuendo in his tone has no meaning. It also conceals the fact it’s three in the morning. “We could play a board game?” While fighting to hide my grin at the disappointment crossing Maddox’s face, I wave my hand over the stack under the coffee table. Once I’m certain his frustration is at a pinnacle, I add, “I’ve heard naked Twister is a lot of fun.”
“We can’t keep doing this,” I push out breathlessly when my overstretch for the red dot sees Maddox and me tumbling to the floor in a twisted mess of hands, lips, and tongues. “If we want any chance of making it out of the carnage unscathed, we need to add words in between the sex and flirting.”
I’m telling him we should stop at the same time I’m yanking his shirt out of his trousers. I’m dying to scrub my hands over the bumps in his midsection before dropping them to the much larger one sitting behind the zipper in his pants.
Much to Maddox’s disgrace, we fought our attraction as long as we could. I’m unsure whether I should be pleased or
disgusted to announce we lasted a measly twenty minutes.
“Do you want me to stop? If you want me to stop, say so right now, Demi. I’ll stop as soon as the ‘s’ leaves your mouth.” Maddox slips a hand under my shirt and bra, groaning when he feels how budded his gravelly tone made my nipples. “It’ll fuckin’ kill me, but I’ll do it. I will stop this right now if that’s what you want.”
I answer him by tugging his pants down to his knees. “Sweet Lord,” I whisper to myself when his cock springs free from his trunks. I felt it in all its glory a little over twenty-four hours ago, but it’s thicker now, angrier.
Spirals of pleasure coil around me when I crawl down Maddox’s body at a slow, teasing pace. He made sure he landed on the floor, so I wouldn’t be crushed by him when my elbow began to wobble, so I have unimpeded access to his delicious body.
“Oh, fuck, Demi. I don’t know if I should let you do that,” Maddox says as he wets his suddenly bone-dry mouth. “I’m no longer wearing any trunks, but my family’s reputation is still at stake.”
I kiss the sixth, seventh, and eighth bump in his stomach before I drop my lips to the cropped blond hairs spread across his pelvis. “You’re not going to do a Flint or a Ramsey because you can’t come in your pants if you do it in my mouth.”
He falls back onto the Twister mat with a groan before throwing a hand over his snap-shut eyes. Worry would blast through me if I weren’t confident he wants this as bad as me.
“You’ll want to watch this,” I parrot, speaking the words he said to me when he made me ride his face. “Everything is better when you witness it firsthand.”
I don’t wait for his heated gaze to warm my face before swiping my tongue across the slit in the crest of his cock. I devour him without the slightest bit of hesitation. Talking can wait. My desire to taste him for the first time cannot.
“Fuck me,” comes out of Maddox’s mouth in a husky groan when I take his dick between my lips for the very first time. “This is even better than in my dreams.” He props his elbows onto two different colored spots before he raises his ass off the mat.