“Same goes for you,” Charli says as she raises her drink to the sky before taking a drink, only she misses her mouth and the wine drenches her top.
The girls burst out laughing and before we know it, we head straight back into the bedroom and continue where we left off.
Chapter 11
Luke
A call comes through on my phone and I look down to find Cole’s name across the screen. My eyebrows furrow. He usually doesn’t make a habit of calling so late, so there must be a problem. “Hey,” I say as I hit answer and bring the phone to my ear. “What’s up?”
“Hey, man,” he says. “I just picked Rylee up from Lexi’s place,” he starts. “She kind of let slip that they broke into your place to get some kind of payback.”
With that, a grin rips across my face. “I know,” I chuckle. “I got an alert on my phone from the security company. I watched the whole thing.”
“No shit,” he laughs.
“Yeah, you should have seen it,” I tell him. “They switched the fucking sugar for the salt.”
He lets out an amused sigh. “Jesus, they didn’t make too much mess, did they?”
“Nah,” I tell him. “It’s all good. I’m going to need some new socks though.”
“I don’t think I want to know,” he says. “How’s your night been?”
“Quiet,” I tell him. I volunteered for the late shift at Rebels tonight knowing it’d be like this. I have a mountain of work to catch up on after being away for so long. The boys had all offered to do my share while I was gone, but I wasn’t having it. My decision to leave shouldn’t have impacted them and I made sure of that. I glance up at the clock. “I’ll be closing up soon.”
“Cool,” he says. “I’ll let you go then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Alright, man. See you then.”
With that, I end the call and slide my phone back into my pocket. I glance around the gym. The last person is just finishing up and I’ve caught up on a shitload of work, so I might call it quits a bit early. Besides, the second I saw those girls sneaking into my home and I watched as Lex stole half of my socks, I’ve been desperate to get home.
I want nothing more than to go over to her place and get my sweet revenge. I’ve been thinking about it all night, but the possibilities are endless. I’ve pulled so many pranks on Jace and the boys over the past few years that the ideas just keep flowing through my mind.
Not having had this kind of fun in a long time, I find the more I mess with her, the more it keeps my mind off Iraq.
As the guy in the gym waves goodbye and makes his way out the door, I get up and go about closing shit up. I head around the floor, making sure everything’s been put back in place and that it’s all clean. After all, it’s important to us that our club always remains presentable.
After locking up and setting the alarm, I get in my truck and head home. As I pull into my drive I can’t help but look across to Lexi’s place. Every single light is on in the house, the music is blasting, and the front door is wide open.
I shake my head as I hop out of the truck and head over there. This is my shot to get my revenge and it’s going to be sweet. I haven’t completely decided on what I’m going to do to her yet, but it’ll come to me when I see her. It always does.
I walk straight through the open doorway and search around for her. First things first, I grab her speaker and rip the cord out of the outlet before shoving the stupid thing deep in my pocket.
No cries of outrage follow and have me wondering why the hell not.
I walk down the hallway and follow the smell of paint fumes. I pass the bathroom and the guest bedroom and don’t see her. So, I go right to the end of the hallway to the master bedroom and peek my head through the door.
I groan as I get a look at her.
The woman is passed out on the ground, using her arm as a pillow. The paint fumes are strong and the windows are wide open. Pizza boxes are spread out and wine bottles are scattered everywhere.
It’s clear as day that she’s had some sort of party tonight, but does she have to be so irresponsible about it? She could have turned the music off, shut off the lights, and locked up her house before going to sleep.
With a sigh, I go around and do just that, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing she wasn’t safe. I mean, it’s a miracle nothing has happened to her over the past few years.
Once her place is deemed safe enough by my standards, I walk down to the master bedroom and scoop her off the floor. She moans and nuzzles her face into my chest and the strangest feeling comes over me, it’s almost as though… I like it.
That couldn’t be right. I’m not supposed to feel this way about this impossible woman. Yet here I am, spending every day with her on my mind, coming up with ridiculous excuses for why I need to come over here.
Fuck me. Caden was right. I’m into her.
Shit, this is not how I roll, especially now, after what happened in Iraq, I can’t be with someone. That shit is only going to cause problems for me. If I let someone in, she’ll ask questions. She’ll make me talk. She’ll make me try to better myself and I can’t have that. I’m happy being a stubborn mother fucker who doesn’t face facts.
No. This isn’t right.
But as I walk into her guest bedroom, her arms come up and loop around my neck as she holds on, and it feels fucking good.
Damn it.
I pull back the blankets on the bed and put her down as though she’s the most precious thing. She instantly snuggles into the pillow and lets out a sigh. I find myself standing here for a moment too long, watching her as she sleeps.
It hits me that standing here is the move of a creep and I reluctantly pull myself away. In that moment of watching her, I could feel as much as I want. It’s my secret and nobody needs to know. The second she works it out. I’m done, but until then, I can admire her from a distance.
Heading back over to my place, I unlock the door, and step through before I’m reminded of what the girls had done. I let out a sigh as I can’t be bothered fixing it all right now. In fact, come tomorrow, that blonde goddess will be here doing it herself.
Chapter 12
Luke
I wake in the morning feeling like shit as the memories of those two weeks swarm through my mind. I let out a sigh. I hate it when that dream comes along. It hasn’t been happening as much lately, but when it does, it always hits me hard.
I get up out of bed and make my way into the bathroom, only I walk straight into a piece of tape that gets stuck to my fucking head. I rip it down before scrunching it up and heading into the bathroom. I grab my toothbrush and the tube of toothpaste and flick open the cap. As I squeeze a dollop onto the brush, a shitload of toothpaste comes squirting out the bottom.
“What the fuck?” I grunt as I study the tube. I find a tiny little cut in the bottom of the tube and groan to myself. That infuriating woman. I must have missed them heading in here.
I finish brushing my teeth, hoping that my toothbrush didn’t get dunked in the toilet and head out to say good morning to Gerald.
As I approach his enclosure, I see something white inside. I squint into the distance as I try to make it out. It looks like paper, but I don’t know what the hell it’s doing in there.
“What’s this?” I ask Gerald as I get closer. “Have you got something for me?”
I grab his breakfast and pull open the enclose before grabbing the piece of paper out. I flick it over to find the same handwriting as the last note I received.
‘You suck!’
A grin rips over my face as it all starts to make sense. Lex worked out that Gerald wasn’t some random snake slithering through her window and that’s why she was here. She wanted her payback, but it’s not over yet. Not by far.
Just like the last one, I fold the note and slide it into my pocket before heading out the front door. I walk the familiar steps across to her place and knock on the door.
I wait a while and am about
to knock again when she groggily pulls it open. “Ugh,” she groans, blowing me away with her radiance as usual. “What’s wrong? Did you forget how to barge in?”
“How’s your head feeling?” I smirk. “Did you have a good night?”
She narrows her eyes on me as she tries to work out my game plan. “I had a great night,” she tells me.
“Get up to anything in particular.”
Understanding flashes in her eyes but she keeps her cool. “No,” she says with a slight shake of her head as she does her best to appear innocent. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“Really?” I ask. “So, you didn’t commit any crimes? Didn’t break and enter anywhere?”
Her eyes widen in mock horror as she places a hand to her heart. “Me?” she questions. “Never.”
I pull my phone out of my pocket, press play, and turn it so she can easily see the footage of her running around my bedroom, stealing all my socks. “So, this isn’t you ransacking my house in the middle of the night?” At this, her eyes bug out of her head. She hadn’t expected me to have proof, even though we both know it was her. “Next time, don’t leave a note,” I tell her with a wink before bending and pulling her straight over my shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she squeals.
I walk back over to my place, ignoring the way she pounds into my back. “You have a mess to clean up,” I inform her.
“What?” she groans. “I’m not cleaning it up.”
“And I’m not letting you leave until you do.”
I push through my door and set her down on her feet. She instantly props her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes on me. “I’d like to leave, please,” she demands.
“I’d like to brush my teeth without getting toothpaste all over my hands.”
A grin rips across her face and she chuckles to herself. Shit, she looks beautiful when she laughs. “That was good, right?”
“Yeah,” I say with a blank expression. “Hilarious.”
Her grin fades away and is replaced with a flirty smile that knocks me away. She steps into me and walks her fingers up my chest while batting her eyelashes at me, clearly knowing the sort of effect she has on a man. “I’ll make you a deal,” she says.
“Why do I feel this deal is going to suck?”
“Because,” she smiles getting a little closer and lowering her voice to a whisper. “It will.”
“What’s your deal?” I ask.
“I’ll put your place back together if you tell me something about yourself.”
There’s a hidden meaning beneath her eyes and I know exactly what it is she wants to know. I do my best to pretend I don’t see it. “There’s nothing to know,” I say, taking hold of her hand on my chest and slowly removing it as the feel of her touch is far too distracting.
“There is,” she says, not giving in.
I shake my head and the disappointment shines brightly in her eyes. She lets out a breath. “Fine,” she sighs turning away. She tucks her hands into her jacket pocket and quietly walks into the kitchen. I stand on the spot as she takes a few minutes fixing up all the things the girls had boobytrapped my house with.
As she reaches the bathroom, she turns back and looks at me with a knowing sadness.
The emotion in her eyes has me rocking back on my heels. I hadn’t been expecting that. It was raw and hard to watch and makes me want to do something about it. But the look in her eyes also suggests that she knows something that I hadn’t told her.
She saw my scars the other night and it’s only natural for her to go seeking out the answers I didn’t give. I know the girls would respect my privacy and not go blabbing about something that doesn’t involve them. However, they would have shared their concerns with her, which would have only made her that more curious.
Nobody knows about my scars. They know the basic details of what happened over there, but not one of them know the extent of it, not even Jace. I’d never burden them with that, which is why I have no idea why the hell I’m walking down the hallway and leaning up against the frame of the bathroom doorway.
She stands in the shower, leaning against the wall as she peels off the labels of all the bottles. She looks up at me before focusing on her task and ignoring me.
I let out a sigh. “I don’t know how much the girls told you, but I’m a soldier.” She nods her head but keeps her attention on the shampoo bottle in her hand. I cringe to myself, still debating if I’m even going to do this, but now that I’ve started, I don’t think I can stop. Hell, I’m not even going to give her the short version. I’m going to let her know just how fucked up I am.
“A few years back, Jace and I were on our last tour in Iraq. We were about halfway through the tour when the car we were in hit a roadside bomb. We were lucky enough to be sitting in the back and both flew from the car before we suffered too much damage. We both came out with burns and flesh wounds. After that, we got out. We’d already done a few tours before that and Jace was adamant he was finished.”
She nods to signal she’s following along with the story. “You weren’t finished?” she supplies.
“No,” I tell her. “I wasn’t.”
Her eyes lift and she studies my face. “What happened to you, Luke?”
I pause for a moment. I’ve never told anyone this before and getting the words to come out seem to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
“About a year ago, I left for another tour and for the most part, the tour was very similar to the previous ones. We got sent here and there and dealt with the situations that came our way. It was hard and really shitty at times, but I needed to be there.”
“I had a team of guys that I’d never served with before, but when you’re out there, you’re all each other has. I mean, it wasn’t the same not having Jace with me, but I wasn’t going to cry about it. Jace had done his time, and these guys quickly became my brothers. They had my back and I had theirs.”
She puts the shampoo bottles down and moves around so she sits on the edge of the bath. She looks up at me with these big blue eyes that are soaking in every piece of information that I can offer. “I’ve heard about the bonds you make with the guys you serve with,” she tells me.
I nod my head. “Like I said, they’re my brothers.”
She waits patiently for me to continue and I shuffle myself around so I’m standing before her in the bathroom. I lean against the wall and try to work out how to tell the next part of the story without terrifying her.
“Anyway, we had received some intel on a hostage situation and were tasked with the rescue mission. These guys were well known to us, so we knew we had to be smart about it.”
I pause for a moment and cringe before continuing. “We went in, but it was an ambush. They were waiting for us and instantly open fired. Jonesy didn’t stand a chance. He was shot down immediately and we had no choice but to retreat.”
“Shit,” she gasps with wide eyes. I glance down at her to see nothing but pure panic and concern in her eyes.
“Yeah,” I agree. “One of the guys, Ben, it was his first tour. He’s one of the most loyal kids you’ll ever meet. He couldn’t leave without Jonesy, and honestly, neither could I, but I knew we didn’t have time. Jonesy was gone and we had to save ourselves.”
“Ben went back and was cornered.” I take a breath as the memory of the day is nearly too much to bear. “I couldn’t leave him. He would have died.”
With that, Lexi gets up and steps into me. She silently places her hand over my heart and patiently waits for me to continue. “I grabbed him and tried to pull him away, but he wouldn’t budge, not without Jonesy. I don’t know if the rest of the guys knew what was going on, or if they were even still there, but it only took two seconds before they were on us.”
“There were too many of them to fight off. They took our weapons and we were forced to the ground with guns at our heads. There was no way out, not without being killed, and I wasn’t ready to die.”
A tear falls from her c
heek and she splays her fingers out across my chest. I focus on the feel of her touch as I know I’ll never get through this next part without it. “We were chained together and forced to carry Jonesy body back to this old warehouse which was infested with rats.”
“We were put in a holding cell with Jonesy’s body and hung by our wrists. With the heat, Jonesy’s body started decomposing and that attracted the rats and the flies.” I look away from her, too ashamed to face her as I tell her the most horrifying part. “For nearly three weeks, we were beaten, stabbed, whipped, and electrocuted. You name it, it happened. We had dirt kicked into our wounds, we were starved, and forced to watch as they used Jonesy as an ashtray.”
“Luke,” she cries as she steps in closer. I can’t resist wrapping my hand around her waist and holding her to me as she rests her head against my chest. “Three weeks?” she says.
“Three weeks,” I confirm.
“How… how did you…?”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like hearing a man you’ve fought alongside sobbing and wishing for death?” I ask. “It’s not something you ever forget. That sound kept me going. He was too young to go out like that and he couldn’t take much more. We were both getting sick and there came a day where they had grown tired of Ben’s sobs. They wanted me to put him down,” I scoff in disgust.
“That was the biggest mistake they ever made.”
“Did you…did you kill them?”
I hold her close, fearing this may be the last time she ever talks to me again, but I can’t lie to her. A shiver rocks through my body as I recall the moment I took their lives. “Yes,” I murmur quietly.
I feel her head moving against my chest as she nods.
Were both quiet for a moment and I let a breath out as the heaviness slowly begins to fade from my shoulders as though the burden has just been lifted.
She pulls back and drops her hand from my chest and it feels as though the loss of her touch burns me. Her eyes drop to my shirt and I watch as they move across my chest. “Can..” she cuts herself off with a cringe, but I know what she wants.
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