“Would you go crazy if someone pinched your woman’s ass?” My cheeks heat as the apes get it on. Even though I’m a grown-up, I still get embarrassed watching sex of any sort with Tag or my parents.
“I might. Depends on the situation. And after a fight, when the adrenaline is still pumping through your body and all your instincts are heightened, some things you just can’t let slide, especially anything to do with your girl.”
“I’m his girl.”
Tag holds up the phone. “Yes, you are.”
“Are you okay with that?”
He twists his lips to the side and sighs. “Aside from the fact that he has a secret job he won’t share and he scared you tonight, sure. After what he did for you with Luke, I’d say he’s a good guy. The best.”
My lips quiver with a smile. “So that’s a no.”
He laces his fingers together and rests them behind his head, settling in for hours of hogging my TV. His feet go back up on the coffee table. I glare. They come down.
“So what happened to your pictures?” He nods at the blank wall. “And all the art supplies you had strewn all over you dining table last time I was here. I thought you were painting again.”
My stomach clenches. “I thought it would be better to focus on things that made money, so I could help out Mom and Dad. I figured I shouldn’t have opened that door and things were good the way they were.”
“Like I said. Head. Ass.”
“You might want to tone down the language. One day you might slip at Sunday dinner and you’ll have Mom washing out your mouth with a bar of soap.”
Tag sighs. “I’m wondering if they really need us to help them out. Now I see you standing on your own two feet, learning to fight at the gym, doing so well at the tattoo parlor, and taming the Predator, I’ve started thinking I might be a bit overprotective of the people I love. Every time I offered Dad the money, he wouldn’t take it. He said they don’t need a big house anymore, and they would rather downsize and spend some time traveling. I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just being proud—just like I didn’t believe you could look after yourself. Did you know they’ve never cashed one of my checks, and those envelopes you’ve given Mom are stashed in the letter holder?”
No, I didn’t know. Just as I didn’t know Ray had so totally won Tag over. With my emotions all over the place, I can’t sit with Tag and watch football, so I pace up and down my covered balcony with a bag of potato chips. Have I really been pushing Ray away? Can I trust him despite his secrets? He is everything I have stayed away from. Everything I have feared. And yet he is everything I’ve always wanted.
I love him.
“Sia.”
Hands trembling, I look down. Ray is on the back lawn one story below me, rain drops sliding down his face like tears.
“Sia.” His voice breaks on my name, and he just stands there looking up at me, his leather jacket glistening in the rain, as if he wants to say something but the words won’t come.
My lungs tighten so hard, I can barely breathe. How many times have I pushed him away only to have him come back? He never gives up on me, despite all my hang-ups. Even when he thought he would have to leave to keep me safe, he found a way back. And if that isn’t a statement about how much he cares, if that isn’t the essence of trust, I don’t know what is.
“Talk to me.” His chest heaves.
“Go,” Tag says from behind me. “If a man like Ray stands in your backyard in the rain calling your name, he’s got something damn important to say. Plus, I’ve suddenly thought of somewhere I need to be. If you need me to come back…just call.”
Best. Brother. Ever. I give him a kiss on the cheek, grab a towel, race down the stairs, and push open the back door.
Ray stalks toward me, pausing under the overhang.
“You want to come in?” I hold out the towel, but he makes no move to take it. Instead, he stares at me, panting as if he just ran a great distance, water droplets clinging to his skin.
“You walked away.”
“You scared me,” I say. “Watching you fight for sport is one thing, but violence against someone who puts up his hands for mercy, beating a man when he’s down…those aren’t things I can handle.”
“You don’t walk away.” Ray’s voice rises above the patter of the rain. “You don’t leave me. Something’s wrong, you talk to me.” He rips the towel from my hand and tosses it on the ground. “You don’t leave.”
My body trembles, but I stand my ground. “And you don’t lose control.”
“I can’t help it around you. When you walked away from me last night and tonight…” His voice breaks. “When I saw the pain in your face…I realized I could lose you, just as easily as I lost everything else beautiful in my life. Just because of who I am. It almost killed me. I’ve never wanted anything in my life as much as I want you. You are the light in my darkness, Sia. I’m lost without you.”
A million thoughts race through my mind, but the only one that lingers is the way I feel when I’m with him: safe and protected, cherished and cared for. He makes me laugh. He makes me feel normal in a way I never thought I’d feel again. And Tag thinks I should give him a chance.
“You want to come inside?”
Tag is gone when we reach my apartment. Ray walks in and pulls up short when he sees the bare walls. “Where’s your artwork?”
“I put it all away.”
His jaw tightens. “Because of me.”
“No, because I thought opening the door to the past wasn’t the right thing for me.”
Ray strokes my cheek. “How can you move forward if you don’t deal with the past?”
“I don’t need to move forward. I’m happy where I am.”
“Where are you, beautiful girl?” he whispers. “Not here with me.”
Not anymore. And yet somehow my arms have found their way around him and I’m holding him tight. Ray draws in a shuddering breath and strokes my hair. He’s silent. But I can feel the emotion rippling through his body. I squeeze him hard, breathing in his familiar scent, committing everything to memory: the feel of his body hard and unyielding against mine, the steady thud of his heart in his chest, the rasp of this breath, and the certainty I trust him as I trust myself.
And then I let him go.
Ray exhales a gasp, as if I’ve punched him. But before he can speak, I hold out my hand. “Come.”
He follows me to the bedroom and I turn to face him. Myriad emotions play across his face but settle on confusion when I clasp his hands and put them on my hips.
“Undress me.”
Ray’s gaze burns into me, but when I raise my arms, he lifts my tank top over my head, his broad, warm palms sweeping up my body in a caress that takes my breath away. Swallowing hard, I drop my arms. “Keep going.”
He reaches around me and flicks the catch on my bra with strong, steady hands, sliding it down over my arms and tossing it on the bed with my tank top. When I nod, he unfastens my skirt and then kneels, reverent, as he slides it down over my hips.
For the first time since Luke, I feel no fear.
I touch him then, my hand on his head, steadying myself as I step out of my skirt. Ray lifts my right foot after the skirt is gone and brushes a kiss, whisper soft, over each of my toes.
Biting my lip to hold back my smile, I push his head back enough for him to meet my gaze. “Panties.”
Still kneeling, he slides his index fingers beneath the elastic waistband and eases them gently over my hips. But with each tug, he kisses me. First my stomach. Then my mound. A feathered kiss over my clit. And then the tiniest lick along my folds. By the time he has my panties off, I’m wet, and from the gleam in his eyes, he knows it.
He kneels and looks up at me, curious, expectant, wanting. But beneath his calm demeanor, I can sense the predator in him pacing, need rippling beneath his skin. I know this predator. And I know I can hold him back just a little bit longer.
“Everything.” I touch the piercing in my nipple
, giving it a final good-bye tweak, and Ray sucks in a sharp breath. But he doesn’t speak. He understands this game that isn’t a game. He gave me a gift, and in return I am giving him everything.
He stands and cradles my breast in his palm, caressing my tender flesh with the pad of his thumb. I close my eyes and breathe in the scent of his cologne and leather, the essence of him. Ever so gently, he peppers kisses across the crescent of my breast, and then he draws my nipple into his mouth. Warm and wet, his lips tease, every suck making my sex throb. When my nipple is a taut, hard peak, he carefully unfastens the little silver ring and slides it out.
“Oh.” Whether my gasp is from pain or pleasure or a lightness I’ve never felt before, I don’t know, but the sudden rush of heat between my thighs makes me stagger. Ray is there to catch me. His hands grip my hips and he holds me firm. Then he walks me a step back and seats me at the edge of the bed. The intensity of his gaze melts me inside. In this moment, he is utterly and completely mine.
And I am his.
Lying back on the cool silk comforter, I raise my arms and cross my wrists over my head. “Hands.”
Ray is quick to comply. He ties my wrists with a scarf from my dresser. Then he returns to the foot of the bed and drops to his knees between my thighs.
There is no rush of blood in my ears, no prickles on my skin. I feel nothing but the slow, steady beat of my heart and a warmth that suffuses my soul. “One more,” I whisper, bending my head to watch him. Ray looks up and smiles.
He licks his lips before he starts, and then he trails kisses down my stomach and over my mound. His lips are soft, like butterfly wings, but his body is tense, muscles bunching beneath his shirt, and if I imagine hard enough, I can see the Predator’s tail flick. I have pushed my predator far. Soon I will set him free.
Skirting over my piercing, he glides his tongue along my slit, then flicks inside. My body tightens and my breath comes in pants. But he doesn’t stop. Over and over again, he teases me, his tongue circling my clit and then sliding through my folds until my wetness trickles from me, and I am moaning his name. Only then does he attend to my throbbing clit, licking and sucking until I am writhing on the soft covers. His fingers find the piercing and he gently works it free, then he nips my clit ever so lightly and I climax, screaming his name as he draws away the little barbell.
I am free.
Ray strips off his clothes as I sink into the bed, and then he lies down beside me and brushes his lips over mine. His kiss comes from the heart, deep and steady, grounding me from the maelstrom of emotion swirling through my body.
“I’m yours,” I whisper. “Keep me safe.”
“I love you, Sia. You will always be safe with me. I promise.”
* * *
When I go into work the next morning, I expect to see everyone packing our equipment for the move back to Slim’s old shop. Instead, it’s business as usual. Christos is perched on Rose’s desk, telling her about the gig last night. Duncan is walking a client through our sample book. Slim is nowhere in sight.
“What’s going on?”
Rose smiles. “The workers found asbestos in the ceiling of Slim’s old shop. They reported it, and the regulators came in and told him he has to pay big bucks to have it properly removed. He can’t even knock down the building until the asbestos is gone. He says he can’t afford it, and he doesn’t want to start all over again. He’s talking to Torment right now.”
“We get to stay?” My heart leaps in my chest, and I have to hold myself back from dancing around the room. Only now do I realize just how much I didn’t want to go.
“Depends on what work out together, if it’s possible for them to have a civil conversation,” she says. “But they seem to be best buddies now, so I’m guessing it might just work out.”
An hour later, Rose receives a call. Torment wants to see me. She laughs about his inability to walk the fifty feet between his office and our shop, but her smile fades when he calls back ten seconds later and barks “now” into the phone so loudly I can hear him from my chair.
My mouth goes dry when I knock on Torment’s door. If he’s already offered to keep Slim and the team in his shop, why does he want to see me?
“Come.”
I enter the room and Torment gestures to the chair in front of his desk. “Sit.”
Swallowing hard, I lean against the wall and fold my arms. Then I fix him with a stare. When you challenge a predator, you have to look them in the eyes. I’ve learned a lot since coming to Redemption.
Torment raises an admonishing eyebrow, but I don’t budge. His lips quiver and he leans back in his chair. “I won’t beat around the bush,” he says, steepling his fingers. “You’ve got what it takes to run the shop. You’re highly skilled, clients like you, Slim says you are incredibly organized and efficient, and you have a good manner with people. He says you’ve wanted to run your own shop since you joined him and now, after getting your license and experience under your belt, the only thing you’re lacking is confidence. Although I’m thinking he might be wrong about the confidence part.”
“Slim said that?”
Torment gives an irritated snort. “Yes, he said that. He said many other flattering things about you, which I won’t relate because I don’t want his praise to go to your head. In my view, the best way to deal with your confidence problem is to throw you into the fray. The shop is yours to manage if you want it.”
“What about Slim?”
“He says he’s decided to go freelance and I’ve bought out the business. I’ve hired him as a consultant, and he has a chair whenever he needs one. He asked me to keep the team as a favor, although the shop is now mine to do with as I will. I asked him who he thought would be the best manager and he named you. If you want to keep Rose, Christos, and Duncan on staff, I’m fine with that. If you want to hire new people, you can do that too.”
My own shop. And not just a shop, but Torment’s incredible, state-of-the-art, beautiful shop where I could see my fighter friends every day. But what if I screw it up? What if I run it into the ground, and I don’t have the money to help my parents? The old worries still niggle, but what really holds me back is Torment. I know now what it takes to control an alpha male like him. If we do enter into a business relationship, he needs to know he doesn’t scare me, and I won’t jump every time he snaps his fingers—or barks at Rose.
“It’s an incredibly generous offer,” I say. “But I need some time to think about it.”
Torment scowls and I almost take back my words.
“Tough. But I like it. You got a month, then I hunt you down.”
I take a step toward the door, and then I turn back and give him a half smile. “How does Makayla put up with you?”
Torment doesn’t miss a beat, nor is he in any way offended. His face softens, and he leans back in his chair. “Love. It works out all the kinks.”
Chapter 24
Something scared the Predator
Priority: Confidential
Bay Area Underground Fight Club (BUFC) Fight Night
Railway Station, 51st & Main 8 p.m.
Headlining: The Predator vs. Dirty Dancer
Code Word: Swayze
After stopping at the pharmacy to pick up my pills on my way home from work, I walk into my apartment just as my phone vibrates with a text message from BUFC. Trust Ray to forget to tell me he’s fighting tonight. I text Tag, and we arrange to meet up for a quick bite at our favorite steak house before the fight. Then I text Jess. She’s already made plans to attend the fight with Blade Saw. I tell her that Tag will be there. She says she knows, but she’s decided it’s time to move on.
Anticipation ratchets through me as I rifle through my wardrobe. What to wear? What to wear? I want to look special tonight. For the first time, I’m going to stand front and center and watch the Predator fight instead of hiding at the back.
After texting pictures of at least six outfits to Jess, I eschew my usual black for a pleated red chiffon dres
s with a fitted bodice, spaghetti straps, and a sweetheart neckline that my mother bought for me one Christmas in an attempt to get me to wear something other than black.
Jess approves the dress and especially approves of the ankle-high black stiletto boots and the chunky black goth necklace—the Sia she knows with a splash of color. Exactly how I feel.
Ten minutes later, I’m in my underground parking garage, my heels echoing in the quiet space. Friends, fight, Ray. It’s gonna be a good night.
My skin prickles as I reach my Volvo. Heart racing, I spin around, just as a hand clamps on my arm.
“Sia?”
Relief floods through my system when I recognize Duncan’s client from the shop. “Yuri? I didn’t know you lived here.”
“I don’t.” He jabs a needle in my arm and the world goes black.
* * *
I don’t know what wakes me.
Maybe it is the rumble of a truck outside, or a sound in the room. Perhaps the rasp of a breath. My eyes open and adjust slowly to the semidarkness. Gradually, I make out a bland lacquer dresser; flat screen TV on the wall; small, ornate table; and Yuri, sitting in a chair reading a newspaper beside my bed.
I’m on a bed.
“Finally awake,” Yuri says, as he swings his legs off the small, wooden coffee table, his Russian accent now so thick I can barely understand him.
My heart thuds against my ribs. This is happening all over again. I didn’t listen to my instincts and now I’m going to die. Terror builds inside me, a living, hungry beast.
“What is this? Why am I here?” My words come out in a croak.
He shrugs. “Your man needs to learn a lesson. He got too close. Thought he was invincible. But there is more pain in heartbreak than death, and we’re all about pain in this business.”
“He’s not in the business anymore.” I scan the room for a way out and some kind of weapon, since he hasn’t tied my hands. “He’s out.”
Yuri laughs. “There is no out. There is only death. And that will come for him. But first, the pain.” He pulls a knife from a holster on his belt, and a sickening wave of terror wells up from my belly. I take a deep breath and then another. I steel myself. This time, I won’t panic. This time, I will save myself. Yuri is still talking, and if he’s talking, he’s not hurting me. So I need him to talk some more while I figure out a way to get free.
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