by Selena
I duck him, and he slides across the ground and rolls to his feet. Royal’s fist connects with the side of my skull, and I go down like a ton of bricks. Blackness swims in and out of my vision, but I keep myself going, landing on my hands and flipping around, swinging my legs in a wide sweep. They connect with Royal’s, and I use one foot to lock into the front of his ankles while I take out his knees with the other foot.
He hits the mud hard, but he rolls free of my legs, untangling himself in the process. My head is still throbbing like a giant is crushing it in his fist from the brass knuckles colliding with my skull, but I’m clearheaded enough to know I need to be on my feet. I’m a better fighter that way, especially against these assholes. They’re bigger and stronger than us, and they came to bring pain. My advantage is speed and stamina. If I can dodge enough hits to tire him out, I can get in some good ones and knock him out cold.
I’m back on my feet before Royal, but not by much. He comes in swinging, but I duck and grab his arm, using his momentum to throw him to the ground again. The problem is, the guy’s had a concussion recently. If I hit his head, I might kill him. If I wanted to do that, I’d pull the gun from my waistband. Even though Royal made it real fucking clear he’d have no problem ending my life, I’m not sure I could live with myself if I killed a man. And I know I couldn’t if it was Crystal’s brother. I vowed to spend the rest of my life protecting her, not hurting her. I know how much it would hurt her to lose her brother, even after he said those things to her.
Royal starts to get up, but at the last second, he kicks out, delivering a sharp roundhouse to my shins. Pain roars up my body, and I stumble. The slippery ground gives way under one foot, and I fall. In the second it takes me to hit the ground, the realization that Crystal didn’t return hits me. Maybe it makes me a pussy, but suddenly, fighting is the last thing on my mind. Panic grips me, and dread clenches inside my chest. Rain beats down, and the water’s rising higher every minute. If she slipped and fell in…
Before I can get to my feet, Royal swings. His brass knuckles smash into my jaw, pain explodes through me, and blackness snaps closed around me like a trap.
*
I wake to the sound of the rain still beating down and a grinding ache in my jaw, my head, my ribs.
“Devlin, dude, wake up,” Colt says, slapping my cheek hard enough to sting.
When I blink the rain out of my eyes, he’s crouching over me. “Did you just slap me?” I ask.
“Pass out like a bitch, I’ll slap you like one,” he says, a relieved grin spreading across his face.
“Who you calling a bitch?” I ask, sitting up and slugging his shoulder hard enough to make him wince. I look around and see the deep tracks left where the Range Rover was stuck in the mud, but there’s no sign of the car itself.
“They left,” Colt says, hopping to his feet and rubbing his shoulder. “They went toward the party. I’m going to move our cars before they come back and wreck them.”
I hand Colt my keys, and he jogs over to the cars.
“Need a fainting couch?” Preston asks, holding out a hand to me. He’s peeled off his shirt and is holding it to the left side of his face with his free hand.
I slap his hand away and push myself to my feet. My ribs hurt like a bitch. That asshole must have kicked me while I was down. Not that I didn’t have it coming. I did the same to him after he wrecked my car.
“Where’s Crystal?” I ask. “Did they take her?”
“No,” he says. “They ran like pussies when they saw we were strapped.”
“Fuck,” I mutter. They might have only brought one gun this time, but if I know anything about the Dolces, it’s that they won’t be shown up. If my cousins brought out their guns and threatened them this time, they’ll bring theirs and shoot to kill next time.
“Come on,” I say. “Help me find her. We’ve got to get her out of here before they come back for her.”
The road is a dead end, so they can’t get out another way. They’ll have to come back through here after whatever shit they’re going to pull at the party. The party is the least of my concerns. It’s forty degrees and pouring rain out here, and Crystal’s been gone for… I don’t know how long I was out. Too fucking long.
“What are you going to do?” Preston asks as we scramble down the muddy bank toward the trees, half of them fighting the current as the water inches up their trunks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I have to find her, though. To get her out of here. It’s not safe. You saw Royal. He’s lost it, man. He pointed a fucking gun at her. He’s lucky I didn’t put a bullet between his eyes for that one.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You know why,” I say.
“You’re stuck in an impossible place,” he says. “You’re never going to get out of it.”
Instead of answering, I call for Crystal. He joins me, and a minute later, Colt does, too. Maybe he’s right. If I don’t want to hurt Crystal, I can’t even defend myself. And if I don’t defend myself, I’ll wind up dead, which will hurt her anyway.
We scour the banks of the river, walking up and down until our voices grow hoarse and I can’t think straight. If she’s gone…
Damn it, why didn’t I follow her?
At last, I spot a small, crumpled white shape at the edge of the river up near the bridge. I break into a jog, and after a minute, my cousins are beside me. I push myself faster, calling her louder, my heart pounding against the cage of my chest like a prisoner demanding release. I don’t dare hope, but I can’t help myself. The little form looks so small, it could be a pile of debris or a bag of trash thrown off the bridge.
When I’m almost there, I let myself breathe. Her white shirt sticks to her thin shoulders, soaked through and clinging to her cold skin. She’s not even wearing a jacket. I reach her first, dropping to my knees beside her. She’s so small, so insignificant looking. It’s hard to imagine this girl could be the whole world.
“Crystal, sugar,” I say, rolling her over, pulling her up. “What are you doing down here?”
She stares at me with vague confusion, like she can’t remember where she is, or why, or who I am. I grab her face and kiss her hard, crushing her cold lips with mine. When I pull back and look at her, still holding her head, she blinks, and a bit of life returns to her eyes. I should have fucking followed her, not stayed to fight her brothers. I shouldn’t have let Royal catch me by surprise and knock me out. I shouldn’t have fucking spared the ruthless bastard who put that look in her eyes.
“Devlin,” she murmurs. “Stop trying to save me.”
I just shake my head. “No, baby. I’ll never stop.”
“It’s too late,” she whispers. “You can’t save me.”
“Then I’ll fucking die trying,” I say, scooping her up and holding her against me. “You already saved me. When I didn’t even know I needed saving, you saved me.” I want to crush her in my arms, need to know she’s here, real, solid. Alive. But I know this isn’t the time. This is the time to hold her gently, to cradle her like the delicate thing she is right now. Because that’s what she needs. That’s what will bring her back to the fierce, loyal, unbreakable, quietly badass little angel that came into my life and made me believe I could be loved no matter how unworthy I felt.
With Crystal in my arms, I push myself to standing. Anger lashes through me when I feel how cold she is. Her whole body is shivering, but she wraps her arms around my neck, quaking against me. “He said I was dead to him,” she mutters against my neck, her words almost lost in the drumming of the rain and the chattering of her teeth. “I might as well be.”
“No, fuck that,” I say. “Just… Shut up. I’m taking you back to the car. You’re freezing.”
When I reach the car, I open the door and lay her on the back seat. She holds onto my neck, her eyes searching mine. “Don’t leave,” she whispers. Rain runs down my arms in rivulets, down her body, soaking my leather seats, but I don’t care. I only care about her, and ho
w cold and small she looks, that she’s soaked through and shivers wrack her body.
“I won’t,” I promise, pressing my lips to hers. I pull back, and blood drips from the cut on my face to her cheek, running down her face like a tear.
“We’ll go back to the party and stop them,” Colt says behind me. “We can buy you a little time.”
I lean down and kiss Crystal. “One second?”
Her dark eyes search mine, and then she nods, releasing my neck. I stand and face my cousins. For a second, none of us speak. I can see the knowledge in their eyes, that there’s not going to be a happy ending to this. Not at the party, not in this town. Maybe not for any of us.
“Be careful,” I say, pulling Colt in and hugging him hard. None of that bullshit guy hugging. I hug him like I did when we were kids, before anyone told me guys didn’t hug that way. An ache forms behind my eyes, in my nose, in my throat. He hugs me back just as hard.
“Go on,” he says. “Get her out of here.”
I release him and turn to Preston, pulling him in. One of his arms is barely functioning, with a short cast still on his wrist and his shirt still held to his eye, but he makes do with the other. Preston’s a tougher nut than Colt, and I expect a smartass remark, but he gives my back a slap instead. He starts to pull away, but that’s not the kind of goodbye I want if something happens. I grab his head with both my hands, pressing my forehead to his.
“You gonna be okay?” I ask.
“I might have lost an eye,” he says. “He got me with the brass knuckles.”
“Shit,” I say, letting out a breath. “Thank you.”
“She better be worth it.”
“She is.”
We don’t say more. How can I say what I want to my boys, who might be walking into a death trap? Grampa Darling has lots of guns, and I’m not stupid enough to think they’re all in the safe. The guy has a lot of enemies. He probably sleeps with two under his pillow. Hell, my cousins might not make it there at all. The Dolces have a bigger vehicle, and they’re not above using it as a weapon. They almost killed Colt with it already. We should have been harder, meaner, from the start. We should have seen how serious they were.
But it’s too late to go back now. Now, I have one chance to get Crystal to safety.
The only question is, what’s safe now? The Dolces bombed all our houses. They live right next door to me. They could storm our house and drag her back. When my cousins walk away, I turn back to Crystal. Her eyes are glassy and faraway as she stares at the ceiling. Her lips are colorless.
“What do you need?” I ask, sinking onto the edge of the seat beside her. She doesn’t answer.
I think of the flash of life that came into her eyes when I kissed her. She needs to get warm, that’s what she needs. Dry clothes. Heat.
Maybe I should take her home, turn her over to her dad. Maybe I should leave her alone, never speak to her again, and hope that would be enough to keep her safe.
But I’m not going to. I know that’s not what she needs. She needs me.
And I need her.
“I’m going to move the car,” I tell her. “It’ll just take a minute.”
I get in the driver’s seat, and I turn on the Ferrari. After powering the heat to high, I turn down the opposite side of the road, down a steep embankment toward the river. The trees grow up this side all the way to the road, but they were cleared to make way for the bridge, and I aim the car down the narrow strip of cleared red dirt and gravel. I know I may never get my car out, but I don’t care. It doesn’t matter now. What matters is getting her away from the road, where her brothers might see her.
Taking her home won’t keep her safe. Delivering her to her brothers won’t keep her safe. That’s not where she belongs anymore. She’s not a Dolce. She’s mine. Her family doesn’t deserve her. I’m done playing their game. I’m done sharing her. If I brought her home, I wouldn’t just lose her. She’d lose herself again. Tonight, she broke free, and I won’t be the one who delivers her back to her cage.
twenty-eight
Crystal
“What do you need, baby?” Devlin asks, sliding into the back seat and covering me with a fleece blanket he got from the trunk. He kneels on the floor, wedging himself into the tiny space while I lie on the seat.
I can’t answer. I can’t begin to explain to him how it feels to lose a twin, like half of me died on that bank out there. Royal isn’t just my brother. He’s half of me—the good half. He’s the boy who kept me upright when I wanted to collapse, the boy who picked me up no matter how many times I fell until I learned to stand again. He’s the one person in all the world who understands me to my very soul without me having to say a word. The boy who offered help and strength and silent companionship in moments when I didn’t even know I needed them.
He said I wasn’t his family anymore.
That I wasn’t his sister.
That I was dead to him.
Fresh tears spring to my eyes, and Devlin leans down and kisses them away from my cheeks. The gash across his cheekbone is still bleeding, and a deep bruise is swelling on his jaw, but pain only enters his gaze when he sees mine. He kisses down my cheeks, then my lips. I don’t respond. My lips are cold, frozen, as immobile as the heart that has died inside my chest.
Devlin kisses me harder, his mouth warm and commanding. I submit, opening my lips when he pushes his tongue against the seam between them. His tongue is hot and forceful, and he arches up, angling himself over me. A minute later, I feel his hand on my body, pulling at my clothes. I don’t know how he can want sex now. I’m dirty and wet and bedraggled, my eyes swollen, my makeup long gone, and my skin cold as the dead when he peels away my clothes, stripping me bare.
But he kisses me hungrily, roughly even, his teeth clashing with mine and his tongue pumping against mine. He pulls back only to pull off his wet shirt. His nipples pebble in the cold, water clinging to his skin. I swallow hard, watching the muscles in his chest and his arms while he unbuttons his wet jeans and shoves them down.
“I’m gonna fuck you now, Sugar,” he says, his fingers wrapping around his thick shaft, which is hard and ready to destroy me. I swallow hard, raising my eyes to his. The burning hunger in them makes me shiver and cower from him, not sure I can take his roughness tonight. I open my mouth, and his lips crash down onto mine, devouring, demanding, dominant. He lifts the blanket and slides on top of me on the seat without breaking the kiss. His chest and arms are cold, but when his pelvis meets mine, the heat of his skin makes me gasp into his mouth. He growls in response, grinding his stiff cock against my cold, bare skin.
It’s so hot I can’t breathe for a second. I feel like I’m being burned, branded. I don’t want to think about that much life being inside me again. I don’t want to feel alive again, but he makes me. His tongue sweeps over mine in an irresistible rhythm, his body moving against mine until I can feel myself blooming under him, wetness springing to life for him. Shame burns through me. I shouldn’t want this so soon, shouldn’t be able to feel so alive after what Royal said to me.
But I am still alive. Devlin’s bringing me to life, warming me with his heat, waking parts of me that I didn’t know could be woken at a time like this. “What do you want, Sugar?” he whispers, his breath hot against my neck. “Tell me you want it.”
“I want you,” I say, my voice hotter than I expected, breathless with desire. “Fuck me back to life.”
He does. He draws back, reaching down to position himself at my entrance before pushing into me hard and deep, filling me with one thrust. I cry out, tensing at the suddenness, the painful fullness of him inside me. He doesn’t slow. He pounds into me hard and fast, until I can’t help but respond or be crushed to dust under him. I dig my heels into the seat, lifting for him to go deeper, to hurt me more. I move with him until we’re both panting for breath as our bodies crash into each other, until I can’t hold back. I crest hard and fast, the orgasm like a shock of heat blooming inside me.
I
cry out, gasping and clawing at Devlin, but he’s not done. He grabs my hands, pinning them and pushing himself up on the seat to watch me as he hammers into me, his breath coming as fast as mine, his eyes glinting with fiery intensity. He moves even faster, until I have to beg him to stop, that it’s too much.
“Can you come again?” he asks, grinding his bare, raw cock into me until his pelvic bone crushes my sensitive bud.
My body answers for me. I can’t hold back my cries at the intensity of this one. I buck under him, trying to wrench my hands free as my toes curl and climax grips me, squeezing his length as it pulses thicker inside me. He gives one more quick thrust, and then his heat spurts into me, warming me from the inside, filling me with life—his life. My whole body jerks under him, and helpless cries escape my lips again and again. Devlin holds himself up on his hands, grinding into me until I’m whimpering for it to be over. When it finally ebbs, and I begin to come down, Devlin lowers himself onto me.
I hold onto him, shaking though I’m no longer cold. He knew what I needed before I did. He knew, and he gave it to me. If I lost him, I’d die. He’s all I have left. All I want.
For a long time, neither of us moves. My heart is thawed, now racing in my chest. The heavy, hard rhythm of Devlin’s heartbeat bolsters me, makes me remember that I’m his, that we’re one. That we’re alive. Together.
Outside the car, the rain has stopped at last. The world is quiet, the night swallowing everything but us, the little world we’ve made together. I don’t want it to ever end, but I know that too soon, I’ll have to face reality again.
“What am I going to do?” I whisper at last.
“We’ll think of something,” Devlin assures me, squeezing me tighter against him.
“It’s too late for that,” I say. “We’re out of time, Devlin. My brother spared you tonight, but my dad won’t. He’s going to kill you. And don’t say you’re not scared. I mean it, Devlin. Your life is in danger.”
