by J, Bella
I pulled my dick out of her and winced, hating that I no longer had her heat wrapped around me. I stepped back, my cock half hard and my mind completely zoned.
“What did you say?”
Alyx turned around, not caring in the least that she was naked—that we were both naked. Her blue eyes had become steel, her cheeks no longer having a healthy pink glow. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I want you to kill them. I want you to make them pay for what they did to Neon.”
I bit the inside of my mouth, and my eyes narrowed as I tried to figure out how her switch got flipped from naïve ballerina girl to vengeful vixen. I didn’t like it.
I grabbed my pants off the floor and started to pull them on. “Don’t go there, Alyx.”
“Go where?”
I zipped my pants. “Don’t go to that place where the only thing you care about is revenge.”
“It’s only right for them to pay for what they’ve done to her. So why not?”
“Because,” I snapped then clenched my jaw, pulling my lips in a straight line. “That’s where I am, and believe me, it’s no place for someone like you.”
She lifted a brow. “Someone like me?”
“Yeah, Alyx. Someone like you. Take it from someone who knows. Revenge has the power to eat you alive. It can make you all rotten inside.”
“That’s what she is, you know?”
I cut my gaze to her.
She rubbed her hands up and down her naked arms. “Rotten. That’s what Neon is now, on the inside. Rotten. Broken. Shattered.”
A single tear slipped down her cheek, and I wondered how many tears this woman had cried because of me—because of what I had done to her, ripping her away from her life and thrusting her into mine. But even though she had cried countless tears, it wasn’t a weak woman standing in front of me now. She was strong, resilient, and the fact that she was still fucking standing proved to me she was more than a petite, underweight ballerina girl.
She was mine. Her need for blood just solidified it.
I brushed my fingers through my thick curls and swiped a palm down my beard. “Say you’re mine.”
She crossed her arms. “Granite, that’s not what we’re talking about here.”
“Say it.”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, staring at me.
“Say it, Alyx. Say it right here, right now. Say you’re mine, and everything changes this very minute.”
“What do you mean?”
I stalked forward. “Say. It.”
For the longest time, she remained still, looking up at me, scrutinizing every contour of my face. I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head as she tried to figure me out. But she’d be sadly disappointed once she realized I wasn’t the type of man who could be figured out or puzzled together.
A few seconds ago, she seemed so determined and strong, but with every step I took toward her, I could see in her eyes how her courage slowly waned. I loved how I intimidated her, how easily I made her lose control. Yesterday she hated me. Today she let me fuck her. God, it thrilled me to the core, never quite knowing what to expect from her. There was nothing as boring and tedious as a predictable woman. Alyx was everything but.
Still beautifully naked, Alyx stood frozen on the spot, and I reached out and eased the back of my hand down the side of her face. The bruise she had around her eye from the night we took her was gone. No one would ever touch her again or mar her flawless skin. Not while I was breathing.
I placed my thumb on her lip and dragged it down, her lips smacking together as my fingers traveled down her chin. “Say you’re mine, Alyx.”
Crystal blue irises stared up at me, filled with so many mixed emotions. Confusion. Attraction. Desire. Lust.
Her lips parted, and I already felt the buzz starting at the back of my neck, the anticipation of her saying the words I was dying to hear tingling down my spine. But then she closed her mouth, a hint of defiance flashing across her face.
I gripped her jaw, puckering up her pretty pink lips before claiming them with my own. This wasn’t a kiss. It wasn’t a display of affection or lust. It was an act of possession, of me taking ownership of her.
My tongue explored every inch of her mouth, and I drowned her soft moans by kissing her harder. I wanted to get drunk on her sweet taste, knowing it was probably the closest a motherfucker like me would ever get to heaven.
I wrapped an arm around her tiny waist, pulling her against me and casing her petite frame with my own. Feeling her tits against my naked chest made me want to feel the warmth of her pussy around my cock. But this moment was so much more than a fuck. It was about finally sealing our fates.
As I tore my mouth from hers, I nipped at her bottom lip before looking her straight in the eye. “You need to say you’re mine.”
She licked her lip like she was savoring my taste, but she didn’t say a fucking word. My defiant ballerina girl.
I smirked, slightly amused by her clearly not willing to give me what I wanted…yet.
I wiped my lips with my thumb, still tasting her sweetness. “You’ll be glad to hear I’ve been spilling Python blood ever since we found Neon.”
Her eyes widened, but it wasn’t fear I saw swirling in those crystal blues. “Promise me you won’t stop until you’ve killed them all.”
My cock hardened by the stark contrast of her delicate, sweet voice murmuring such deadly words. “I swear to God.”
She pushed herself up on her toes in search of my lips, and I kissed her once more. Gently. Slowly.
I was about to rip my pants off and fuck her again when there was a knock at the door. Instantly, annoyance made me ball my fists.
“What?”
The door swung open, and I turned to find Ink standing in the doorway, eyes looking straight at Alyx. “Um…”
“Ink, you better stop looking at my woman if you want to keep your fucking eyeballs.”
“Oh, fuck. Yeah.” Ink turned around. “Dude, Trick just called. We got a situation.”
I tossed Alyx my shirt, which she quickly pulled on. “What situation?”
Ink rubbed the back of his neck and turned back to face me. “Yeah, we should probably talk in private.”
“Sure. Wait for me outside.”
Ink glanced over my shoulder at Alyx, and I scowled at him.
He shrugged as if to say, ‘what?’
I frowned. “I’ll cut out your eyeballs.”
“Fine. Just hurry the fuck up, would ya?”
Ink left, and I turned to face Alyx. “I’ll be back.”
She nodded, and I kissed her on her forehead before I left.
I closed the bedroom door behind me and turned to Ink. “What’s going on?”
Ink seemed restless. “Tanit got roughed up.”
“What?”
“Yeah.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah, man. She’s fine. Just a few bruises. But Trick says she’s pretty shaken up.”
“Fuck!” I kicked at the fucking floor. “Pythons?”
Ink nodded, his entire face contorted with malice.
“Okay, get Onyx and Dutch. I’ll meet you guys upstairs.”
“Gotcha.”
Jesus. The Pythons seemed to have it in for our women. First Neon, and now Tanit. Just showed these fuckers didn’t have a moral bone in their goddamn bodies. We didn’t target women. We didn’t use them as pawns in our rival wars. Women were off-limits. No matter what, you never fucked with women and children.
Goddammit.
I stepped inside the room, and Alyx was sitting on the bed, waiting for me.
“I have to go sort some shit out.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I made a meek attempt at looking calm. “Everything’s fine. Just something that needs taken care of ASAP.”
Alyx brushed her hair out of her face. “Does this something have to do with the Pythons?”
I studied her, contemplating how much she r
eally needed to know about our business with the Pythons. “Yeah.” It was a simple answer, one I would not elaborate on.
She nodded and rubbed an arm across her shoulder. “Okay, well. You better go, then.”
“Alyx,” I tilted her face up to mine, “this conversation isn’t done yet. I will make you say it.” I placed a gentle kiss at the corner of her mouth. “Because you and I both know it’s the truth. But I need to hear you say it. Soon.” It wasn’t a threat. It was a vow, a promise, a fucking guarantee that I would not stop until she fucking admitted she was mine. All mine.
I took a step back and picked up my cut from the floor. “I won’t be locking the door again.”
Her eyes narrowed, seemingly confused. “You’re not?”
“You’re free to walk around down here.”
Her gaze cut to the ceiling then back down. “What do you mean, down here?”
“We’re at a safe house, and this is like an underground bunker. We needed to make sure you and Neon were safe.” I slipped my cut over my shoulder and walked to the door. “But just know the door leading out of here will be locked at all times. Not to keep you in. To keep the bad guys out.”
A hint of a smile tugged at the end of her mouth.
“Are you not one of the bad guys?”
I shot her a cocky grin. “My sweet ballerina girl, I’m far worse.”
11
Granite
The skin on the back of my neck prickled with warning. As I took a drag of my cigarette, the red coal lighting up in the dark, I could feel the malice hanging in the air. Something was coming. It was so fucking close, I could practically reach out and touch it.
I glanced over my shoulder at Dutch. “Everything is secure at the safe house, right?”
“Yeah, man. We got Manic and Ink there. You know no one is getting close to Neon with Ink being there.”
That settled me a little. Ink was like a fucking pit bull when it came to Neon. Fucker even thought he had the balls to challenge me when I warned him about touching Alyx. Amazing what a woman could do to a man. Either they made your balls grow bigger, or they made you lose ’em.
“We should have gone back to the club to get them ourselves.” I flicked the cigarette onto the road, the coal still flickering for a few seconds before fading.
Dutch leaned against his Harley, arms crossed. “I told you we can’t risk it. It’s what the Pythons would expect. For all we know, this whole thing with Tanit was a way to lure us out.”
“He’s right,” Onyx chimed in from the side. “This entire thing reeks of a setup.”
I pulled the elastic from around my wrist and tied my hair. It was almost spring, the evenings still cold, yet my skin was clammy with unrest. The patches of clouds moving in front of the full moon seemed angry tonight, and that unsettled me more.
I glanced at my wristwatch. “They should have been here ten minutes ago.”
“Relax, would you?” Onyx pulled out a smoke. “They’ll be here. They took a little detour to make sure they weren’t followed.”
“How many Pythons did you kill?” Dutch’s question sliced through the atmosphere like hard fucking ice, but I played it down.
“No idea what you’re talking about, man.”
“Cut the crap, Granite. I know what you and Ink have been doing.”
I jerked my head to the side and snapped my gaze to Onyx.
Onyx shrugged innocently. “What? I didn’t tell him shit.”
“Your brother didn’t tell me. Ink did.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered under my breath. “That fucking guy does not know the meaning of ‘don’t tell anyone’!”
“You thought we wouldn’t agree?”
I shot him a sideways glance. “I thought you wouldn’t agree.”
“Got that right.” Dutch didn’t even try to deny it. “Because the last thing we need is to aggravate the beast right now, Granite.”
“Yeah, well, we aggravated it a fuck-load. And I’d do it again if I could.” I turned my attention back to the road in front of us. “And I’m still not done killing every one of those fuckers.”
“Here they come.” Onyx waved at the oncoming ape hangers. They slowed and pulled off the side of the road, a black minivan parking behind them.
Junkyard, a trusted member of the club took off his lid as I approached him. He had worn the Kings cut with pride for the last ten fucking years. With a wife and two kids, the man lived a double life, but so did a few other members.
“No one followed you here?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m sure of it. We took one huge fucking detour. And we had guys follow up from a distance to make sure we didn’t have tails.”
“Good.” I shook his hand, bumped shoulders, and slapped him on the back as I made my way to the minivan. “Hey, Texas,” I greeted the prospect behind the wheel. Poor fucker always seemed to pale whenever I looked his way.
“Hey, Granite.”
“Bring the girls here safe?” Just then, Trick and Tanit got out of the minivan.
“Safe and sound.”
I slapped him on the arm. “Good job.”
I walked straight to Tanit and took her chin in my hand, turning her face so I could scrutinize her bruises. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t look at me, so I made her, my fingers still clutching her jaw.
“That’s some shiner you got there.” The skin around her eye had already turned a purple blue. At least it wasn’t swollen much. I pulled at her bottom lip, looking at the cut on the side before letting go. “What were you doing out alone?”
She stepped back next to Trick. “I needed to get out.”
“You went alone? At a time like this?”
Tanit licked at the cut on her lip then crossed her arms. “I didn’t think they’d come for me. It’s not like I’m important or anything.”
“Cut the crap, Tanit.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I needed to get away for a few hours, so I met up with some friends. That’s it.” Her gaze drifted from mine. “I didn’t think—”
“You’re damn right, you didn’t think. You can be glad you’re still fucking breathing right now.”
“Granite,” Onyx called and gave me the stink eye, a silent way of telling me to fucking relax.
I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. It wasn’t Tanit’s fault they got caught up in the middle of this, just like it wasn’t Alyx’s or Neon’s fault. The collateral damage in this war was increasing by the day, and I had to fucking stop it as soon as possible, before someone else got hurt.
I turned to Trick. It was impossible not to notice the worry lines on her face as she draped her arm around her sister’s shoulder.
“You okay, Trick?”
“Yeah.” She flicked her blonde curls over her shoulder. “I’m just glad she managed to get away in time.”
“How did you manage to get away?” I asked Tanit, scanning her up and down, making sure there weren’t any bruises I missed.
Her lips curled. “I have a mean-ass right hook. I’m not the only one who’s sporting a bruised eye right now, I can tell you that.”
“Good.” I placed my hands on my hips. “We’re taking you two to the safe house until things settle down.” Fuck, who was I kidding? Things would never settle down until each and every one of those Pythons ate the dirt of their graves.
Trick nodded. “Thanks, Granite.”
“Yeah, don’t mention it. You pack light?”
“We did. We only had time to grab a few things.”
“Good. We’re riding from here. Grab your stuff. We need to head out.”
While Trick and Tanit grabbed their little backpacks from the van, Onyx and I made our way to the bikes.
“Tanit doesn’t seem too roughed up.” Onyx stated the obvious.
“Yeah. She looks okay.”
“She still has the hots for you, though.”
“Jesus, Onyx.”
He smirked. “What? Y
ou can smell that pussy from a mile away whenever she’s around you.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Onyx snickered then got on his Harley.
I grabbed my lid, and from the corner of my eye I saw Tanit walk my way. No matter how roughed up she was, it didn’t stop her from sashaying those hips of hers tightly hugged with a pair of leather pants.
She pulled the band from her hair, the brown locks falling over her shoulders. “Can I ride—”
Onyx whistled. “Back here, sweetheart.” He motioned to the back of his bike as he started the engine.
Tanit regarded me with huge question marks swirling in her eyes, but I played the fool, pretending I didn’t know what she was trying to do.
She cleared her throat then sauntered to Onyx, getting on behind him.
With a subtle nod, I thanked my little brother for saving my ass from a very uncomfortable situation. I hated riding with chicks. In fact, no woman had ever had the honor of holding me tight while feeling the power of my Harley between their legs. To me, it was more intimate than fucking. A man’s ride was sacred, and you didn’t invite just anyone along. At least I didn’t. Onyx, on the other hand, really didn’t give a fuck.
He grinned and winked at me, knowing all too well I owed him a fucking favor. Trick joined Dutch, and our wheels hit the asphalt with a loud roar of engines. There was nothing like the rumble of pistons firing, the thunderous sound echoing through the dead of night. It was my favorite time to ride, when the roads were empty, with no other sound than the powerful engine I controlled.
A half hour later, we pulled up the driveway of the safe house, parking our motorcycles at the back.
Tanit got off while Onyx cut the engine, turning toward the house. “Is this ours?”
I didn’t like her use of the word “ours.” It felt wrong.
“Yeah. It belongs to the club.” It was a subtle way of letting her know there was no “ours” in this equation.
Her eyes met mine, her fake lashes so long I could see them through the darkness of early morning.
I cleared my throat and turned to Dutch. “Help the girls settle in.”
He nodded and went inside. Trick followed, but Tanit hesitated, keeping her eyes on me. I’d seen that look far more times than I’d care to admit. It was the same look she’d give me while on her knees, eyes tearing up while her mouth was stuffed with my dick. Funny how that thought no longer appealed to me…at all.
