by Vi Carter
Gage cooks, and each time I look at him, he catches my eye and I quickly turn away. Dean leaves and he takes his long bag with him. I know it’s his gun and I hate the worry that gnaws at my stomach. My thoughts are more disturbing—I just hope whatever he’s doing—that he stays safe and doesn’t get caught. What kind of person does that make me?
Time moves slowly and when Dean returns, it’s dinner time. He doesn’t come back in with the bag, but when his eyes meet mine, his flash with something I don’t understand.
“Can I have a word?” I ask as nicely as possible as I bury the urgency that threatens to strangle me.
“Yeah.” He nods and holds out his arm for me to walk first. When I pass him, he catches my hand and entwines our fingers together. I look down at our joined hands and we walk to the bedroom.
“Don’t be long, the food is ready.” Gage’s voice is rough.
“Ignore him.” Dean tugs me and I look up into his smiling face.
“Where were you?” I ask the moment we step into the bedroom. Dean releases my hand.
“I had something to take care of.”
“What?” I ask and dread curls its thin fingers around my spine.
“I think it’s best you don’t know what I just did.”
Bile crawls up my throat. “Don’t tell me.” I blurt, but I need to know. “Did you kill someone?”
Dean tilts his head like I’m naïve, before walking away from me. “Did you kill someone?” I ask again and follow him. “I can’t be with a killer, Dean.”
He stops and spins around. “Be with?”
I point between us as my heart rate escalates. “This thing with us.” I’m losing the ability to speak as Dean takes a step towards me and folds his arms across his chest.
“Explain it to me.”
Now he is being an asshole. I’m ready to walk away and maybe he senses it.
“What I did, I had to do.”
I bite my jaw and my hand reaches for my pendant but falls away. “Like with the jogger?”
“No.” Dean answers quickly and truthfully.
I have no idea what he did; if he had killed someone or not.
“I can be honest with you, Scarlett, but I don’t want you to leave.”
So, I’d leave if I knew the truth?
“I don’t want to leave, either.” I admit.
“Because you have nowhere to go,” Dean says.
I shake my head. “No. Because I like being here with you.” My heart races as the truth pours out.
He clears the space between us and takes my face in his hands. His kiss is almost panicked and I shiver into it. “Even if I wanted to, I would never let you go.”
I push him away from me. “What? You can’t just say something like that.” I tighten my fists.
“It’s the truth.” He doesn’t seem fazed at all by what he just said.
“Don’t you want to know how I really feel?” I ask.
“Yes. I actually do.” He folds his arms across his wide chest as he waits for his answer.
“You will only ever know, if you let me go and I come back here out of my own free will, Dean. Otherwise, you will never really know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
DEAN
Let her go? That isn’t going to happen, not even if it proved she wanted to be here. Because I’m not taking the risk. Just like when she went outside with my mother. She never had a chance. The alarm went off the moment she stepped outside the tree line.
My father had laughed when I had told him I was a sniper. It felt good telling him the truth, even if he didn’t believe me. I laughed along with him and that ended my so-called joke.
The meal that Gage makes is nice. Scarlett is quiet, but she isn’t exactly a talker either. When my mam speaks to her, her whole face softens and she is stunning. All I want to do is take her down to the room and kiss every inch of her perfect body. She is avoiding meeting my eye and I get that. She’s still mad at me. I’m not proud of keeping her here against her will. A part of me wants to let her go just to see if she will come back.
I want to tell her where I was and what I did. A part of me wants to see her smile, but another fears what she will say. I’d taken the piece of paper that she had written her name and address down on and tracked down her uncle. It was the first time I took a life for no other reason than pleasure. I would have preferred to make it slow, but I didn’t have time on my side, and since she told me he abused her, each night it’s all I wanted to do. I was glad he could never hurt her again.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Gage interrupts my thoughts.
I put down the knife and fork. ”Yeah.”
“What’s tomorrow?” Fear fills Scarlett’s eyes.
“I have a meeting,” I say.
“With the government?” My mam asks and she looks shifty too.
“Yeah, Mam.”
I glance at Gage. What the fuck is he playing at, mentioning tomorrow in front of everyone?
“Are you coming with me?”
“I’ll stay here and hold the fort.” I want to smack him in the face. Like fuck he will. He’s pushing me too far.
“I’ll need back up in case things go south.”
“Why would things go south?” The worry that laces Scarlett’s words has me wanting to grin at Gage.
“It’s only a meeting,” I say, and she frowns at me.
“Is this with the people that attacked me and your father?” My mam sounds worried and now I’m ready to drag Gage across the table. It’s one thing to annoy me, but to worry her is unacceptable.
“Mam, I’ll be with him.” Gage tells her and I see her small shoulders relax. This time I do grin at Gage. If I was going down, he was coming with me.
Mam and Scarlett clean up.
“You know they are going to clip me,” I say to Gage as he follows me to the gun room. Dad is back to watching TV. He never was one for hovering around us. I used to think that maybe mam wanted us more than he did, but with time, I understood this was just his way.
“He wants to talk to you. You’re meeting at the warehouse where you shot the woman.” Gage glares at me like he has a right to judge me. I take three guns off the wall.
“She was going to shoot my client.” I defend myself and Gage shakes his head in disgust. Right now, I regret that split second decision. I should have let her kill Damien. I would still have my money, and I wouldn’t be in this fucking mess.
“It’s Rian Steele,” Gage says and I stop pulling guns off the wall.
“You’re only telling me this now?” The son of Cillian Steele. A gang who control all the south.
“I only found out. You apparently killed a relation of theirs.”
I close my eyes and try to think of a way out of this. There is none. This is the worst possible outcome that I could imagine by bringing Rian Steele down on my head.
“He’s going to clip me.” I repeat. “He doesn’t want fifty G’s. He wipes his ass with that kind of money.”
“He said he just wants to talk.”
Gage knows full well that this isn’t going to be a talk.
We fall into a silence as I continue to take guns off the wall. I stop at five, knowing I’m not going to shoot Rian Steele, even if the opportunity presents itself. I also know my family will never be safe, even this bunker won’t keep him from finding us if he wants to. I’ve really fucked up this time.
“Let the girl go,” Gage says finally.
I glare at him. “No.”
“Christ, Dean, you know this is wrong.”
“She could have run today, but she didn’t.”
Gage steps up to me. “Running isn’t the fucking same as letting her go.”
I grab his collar and push him away from me. “I’m not letting her go.” He can fuck right off. I throw the guns into a bag and leave the gun room. Stowing them in the bedroom, I sit on the bed and run my hands across the top of my head.
The door opens and I’m ready to tell Gage I�
��ve had enough of him, but ocean eyes take me in.
“Hi.” She pulls down the sleeves of her white top over her hands. “Are you okay?” Her concern draws down her brows. Her lips look red and swollen and I haven’t even kissed her yet. It’s from her constant chewing on them.
“Yeah.” I answer and she steps closer to me. She reaches for her neck but stops herself before sitting down beside me.
“Is something bad going to happen?”
I glance at her. “No.”
She gnaws on her lip and I hate it. “Scarlett, nothing bad is going to happen.” I lie.
Her smell encircles me and right now all I want to do is bury myself deep inside her. She pushes her hair behind her ears and surprises me when she stands up and pulls her top off. Her breasts bounce free and my cock grows hard instantly. She doesn’t waver as she pushes down her jeans and underpants.
Fuck me!
Her skin is soft in my hands as I grab her hips and guide her to me. She straddles me and I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. Her cheeks darken as she tucks more hair behind her ears. Bending her head, she kisses me and straight away I know this is different. I meet her gentle kiss, my cock throbs inside my own jeans and I hold back from grabbing her and placing her under me. Her hands tug on my beard as she pulls my face closer to hers and deepens the kiss by pushing her tongue into my mouth. She tastes of mint. I smile into her kiss, noting she had brushed her teeth before coming in here. She must have had the intention of seducing me.
She grinds herself against my cock and I groan into her mouth. I lift her off me and push down my jeans, noting the wetness staining them from her pussy. My gaze glides up her perfect body, as I pull off my t-shirt before removing my boxers. I sit back down on the bed. Her nipples are erect as her gaze roams across my cock before she climbs back up on me. I take a hard nipple in my mouth and suck. She groans as she shuffles forward, my cock at her opening. I hold back from slamming it into her and let her slowly and painfully move herself down on my cock. It’s my turn to groan as the pleasure builds quickly. I release her nipple and take the other one in my mouth. Her hands clutch my shoulders as she continues to ride me slowly, but she’s lifting the whole way up before moving back down. My cock is soaking with her wetness and I want to taste her. But I don’t stop her as she continues to ride me. It’s slow, and when I release her nipple, she leans out and her hands travel to my face. She pushes my head back and I’m staring into her ocean eyes. My stomach quivers with what I see there—love.
My cock twitches inside her and I grip her hips helping her move faster. I’m so close to cumming, that when she gets faster, her tits slap against my chest, I explode inside her. She continues to move up and down as she searches for her own release. I lift her off me and she cries out. I don’t make her wait long before I lay her on her back and push my cock back inside her. My cum stains her inner thighs, and I start to push inside her. Gripping her legs, I spread them and push myself fully in.
“Dean.” Her calling out my name makes me grow harder. I want her to empty her sweet juices all over me. I move down and hover over her. Her fingers reach up and grip the back of my head. She directs me to her lips and I kiss her like a dying man, because tomorrow I could be dead. I didn’t have much hope of coming back alive. I push my cock into her while keeping my lips locked with hers. She’s panting against me and I keep moving faster. Her groans turn harsher and her lips seek out mine hungrily as I move faster, pumping myself into her pussy. She cries out into my neck as she finally reaches her high. I keep my pace, but slow down as her breathing fans out along my neck. Her lips press against my shoulder and neck before trailing up to my cheek, and when my gaze meets hers, I see the love there again. I want to tell her how I feel about her, but I also know now it isn’t the time.
I pull out of her slowly, and move both of us up the bed, where I just hold her. She allows me to. We are both still breathing heavily and my cock grows hard with her in my arms. I don’t think I could ever get used to Scarlett.
They say your first love cuts the deepest. Right now, I am pretty sure that she will leave a permanent scar on me if she ever leaves. Her name is very fitting.
I press a kiss to the top of her head and hold her closer. Her lips press against my arm that circles her chest and I wonder what she is thinking.
“4948,” I say, and my heart thumps. Scarlett tries to turn in my arms, but I hold her firm.
“That’s the code to the door.” I can only hope she doesn’t use it tonight, but right now, I knew deep down that I wouldn’t stop her, because I loved her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
SCARLETT
The next morning I had woken up to a piece of paper on the pillow next to me. I wasn't expecting a love letter, but what was scrawled across the page made my lips tug down and my temperature rise.
4948, it was the code with his name scrawled at the bottom. That was it, but it was my freedom. Freedom that I took, no matter how hard it was, I left that morning with tears burning my eyes and a sickening feeling in my heart.
“Did you see my pink top?”
I tuck my hair behind my ear and shake my head. I try not to talk to the other girls at the half-way house. They were full of questions, ones I refused to answer. Two weeks, it had been two weeks since I saw Dean, and each morning I woke up with fear of him finding me, but also an unbelievable amount of excitement. He never came.
“Are you sure?”
I glance at my roommate again. “Yeah. I’m sure.” She narrows her eyes and leaves the room as I get ready to do my duties in the kitchen. Every guy with a beard or dark eyes made me think of Dean. Pancakes and banana sandwiches became his thing as well. I felt like I had left a part of me back in the bunker. I hadn’t realized how much I had healed while with him until I wasn’t anymore. My stomach tightens as I fasten the apron around my waist. His mother’s small face makes me guilty every time I pictured it. What did she think when they woke up to find me gone? What did Dean do when he arrived back to see me gone? Or Gage? I’m sure Gage was happy. I exhale loudly as I make my way to the kitchen. Taking a hair net off the wall before entering, I stuff all my hair into it. This wasn’t the life I wanted, but at least it was my choice.
In the evenings before curfew, I’d walk the streets and find myself searching for him in stranger’s faces. I smile now when I think of his grin before it burns my eyes and I take all that aggression and sadness out on the crockery like I do every single day.
This is what I wanted, freedom. It just didn’t taste as good as I had expected. My stomach twists and turns when I think maybe, just maybe, I made a mistake before I pull my head out of the clouds. I was kidnapped. There was no other answer, but to escape when the opportunity arose. That’s what normal people do.
You’re not normal, Scarlett.
“Scarlett, you have a visitor.” Everything in me freezes at those words, and it’s a split second when I think it could be Dean, and my heart leaps into my throat.
“Me?” I question, trying to even out my breathing. My superior steps closer to me and the other girls go back to work.
“You know you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. That’s what we are here for.” Her smile is gentle and it relaxes me. That’s what the half-way house is for—the homeless, the women who run for countless reasons. Some were hiding here from abusive partners.
“It’s okay.” I wipe my hands on my apron and pull the hair net from my head as I follow my supervisor from the kitchen. Fear makes my knees wobbly and I want to veer off and find a spot to lie down in. The fear drains everything from me, including logic.
She steps aside and I lock my knees. I want to reach for something, but I hold still as Gage thanks my supervisor.
“This room has CCTV.” She warns him.
“I won’t be a moment.”
His voice makes me shiver. “What do you want?” I ask, my voice doesn’t sound like my own.
He points at the small table and chairs
to our left for visitors. I sit down, glad to get off my feet. I’m not sure how much longer my legs can hold me up.
“How are you?” Not a question I am expecting.
“I didn’t tell anyone.” I know that’s what he really wants to ask.
His smile is instant. “I know. It’s been two weeks, Scarlett.”
I keep glancing at the door and my heart pounds too heavily against my chest. I rub the spot that hurts.
“He isn’t here.” Gage frowns and drops his eyes and something else grips me by the throat.
“Did something happen? Is he okay? Are your parents okay?”
“My parents are fine. My mother is wondering why you ran off, but they had other things to keep them occupied.”
I don’t want to know. I don’t want to hear it. I knew leaving was a mistake. I should never have left him. Maybe now I would never get another chance with Dean.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” I’m nodding as I look away from Gage. The clock on the wall ticks, it’s five past eleven.
I bite my lip as my eyes and throat burn before looking back at Gage.
“He was shot.” He confirms.
I lean in and cover my mouth with my hand.
“He isn’t dead, Scarlett.”
Salty liquid flows into my mouth.
“He’s searching for you. That’s what I’m doing here. Helping him.”
I snivel and sit up straighter. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Gage slips a piece of paper across the table. “Each day he gives me a piece of paper in case I find you. So this is today’s.”
I take it and open it slowly. It’s his handwriting. My heart thumps. Blackrock Beach, tomorrow morning. I’ll be there waiting for you. Dean.
“He goes there every day.” Gage confirms and my eyes blur. I swallow and glance back up at his dark eyes.