by Ashley Hall
Fortunately for me, they were more concentrated on keeping a crowd from getting in than a single person, and I managed to slip through the cracks.
The precinct itself was chaos. Between dealing with the other people they had in custody and the hounds chopping at the bit for a piece of Griffin’s story, cops were running around like chickens with their heads off.
Which gave me an opportunity to try to find someone I knew.
Carefully, I made my way past the front desk, searching the waiting room for a familiar face. Griffin, I assumed, was in a cell, but if he was here, that meant Riley had to be here, as well as whatever lawyer they had representing Griffin.
And I knew Riley well enough.
Though it was, indeed, a madhouse, it didn’t take me longer than ten minutes to locate the man, and I’d never seen him looking so angry. He was in some high-ranking official’s office, and his voice carried onto the floor as he yelled himself hoarse at the man. I could barely see through the frosted glass pane, but I assumed their dialogue wasn’t going very well.
Swallowing thickly, I reminded myself that I just needed to speak with Riley to see Griffin and I straightened my backbone. I could do this. If I hadn’t been particularly brave my entire life, I could do this one thing. Steeling myself, I waited for Riley to finish railing at the police captain before the door finally burst open and the trainer stomped out looking absolutely livid.
He was so intent on his rampage that he almost ran me over.
“Riley!” I managed, my tone only slightly shaky. The man’s gaze jerked to me and I winced at the fire in it as he glared in my direction. “I need to see Griffin. Please.” I didn’t think my tone had ever sounded so plaintive in my entire life.
His trainer only grunted, his expression softening the slightest bit. “You’ll have to wait like everyone else. They’re going to put him before a judge to hear the formal charges and set bail.”
My stomach twisted in trepidation.
“What…” I forced the words from my mouth before I could lose my courage. “What happened?”
At that, Riley gave me an incredulous look, his brows rising towards his hairline. A bark of laughter escaped him as he shook his head slowly, moving swiftly past me. “Let him tell you himself, sweetheart.”
And with that, the man stalked towards the exit, leaving me completely nonplussed.
He’d just shrugged me off as if it were nothing—as if I were nothing. I felt my face reddening in shame as I remembered that I was one in veritable leagues of women Griffin dealt with—and a good number of them were probably wondering what happened to their free meal ticket.
But none of them were here, in the police precinct, willing to risk everything for a few words with him, were they? Now that the cards had been laid on the table, I didn’t see a single skank who’d been at the arena the previous night looking for Griffin when he needed her most.
Only me.
Maybe I was crazy, but some small, oft-ignored part of me hoped not.
***
I rushed to the hearing. It was public, and cameras were everywhere, so I could hardly squeeze into the courtroom, but once I did, there he was. Standing down in front of the judge with his lawyer by his side, that luscious mouth of his set into a firm line. Though it had only been hours since I’d last seen him, it could have been days.
My traitorous heart leapt.
The hearing was quick and dirty. Griffin was being charged with one count of manslaughter in the first degree, and the only words he spoke were to declare himself not guilty. The stern-faced judge set bail at a cool million dollars, which Riley immediately moved to pay.
It was all over so quickly my head spun, and then I was being shoved along tides of people back out of the courthouse and down the front steps. I lingered as much as I could, trying to catch another glimpse of Griffin, but there were far too many people.
In the end, I just settled for waiting at the bottom of the steps, twisting my hands together nervously. This was insane. I’d come to Griffin to do a story and now I was waiting for an accused murderer in front of a courthouse. Things had spun out of control so fast it was a wonder my head wasn’t on backwards.
After what seemed like ages, Griffin finally came down the courthouse steps. Riley and his lawyer helped shield him from the profusion of flashing cameras, and I could tell by the tight set of his jaw that he ached to lash out.
But he didn’t. There was no violence, other than the sharp lash of his voice when he spat, “No fucking comment,” repeatedly.
I opened my mouth to call his name, but found nothing would come out. Goddamn it, of all the times in the world to lose my gall, this had to take the cake. He would pass me, and I would probably lose him forever.
“Griffin!” I managed one good shout just before Griffin, Riley, and the lawyer reached the waiting Mercedes and the fighter’s head whipped around as if on a cord. His green eyes found mine almost immediately and his gaze hardened as the media set their sights on me.
“Move!” The command was barked with so much rancor that, almost immediately, most of the reporters made a path as Griffin shoved his way towards me. Without a word, he reached out and took my hand, jerking me to him before moving back to the car. Within a minute, we were safely inside, the tinted windows rolled up as silence enveloped us.
Riley and the lawyer closed us in before taking their leave, and as the car pulled off, Griffin and I were its only occupants.
And the quiet hung thickly.
All morning long, all I’d wanted was to speak with Griffin, and now that I’d finally confronted him, I wasn’t sure what to say. Did I demand an explanation? Ask if he was okay? Did I have any authority to do any of that?
Ultimately, I could only stare at him, feeling somehow lost in all of this.
Griffin stared steadily out of the window for what seemed like an eternity before a long breath finally left him. “Sadie.” When he spoke, his voice was gruffer than usual. “I know what this looks like, and it’s not what you think.”
That was what he had to say to me after all this? Not that he wasn’t a murderer, or that this was all some kind of sick mistake. That it wasn’t what it looked like?
“What do I think?” The words finally left me in a weak whisper. I wanted to know exactly what his assumptions were at this point. I knew damn well where mine were.
“That this is a mistake.” He replied almost immediately, his tone surprisingly level as his green gaze rose to stare at me. “That I’m a fucking criminal and you’re in way over your head.”
Surprisingly astute of him, considering the circumstances. It was too bad that I was still having difficulties coming up with what I was supposed to say.
In a surprisingly tender gesture, Griffin reached up to cup my chin, his thumb running over my mouth so involuntary shivers raced through me. The man had to know what kind of effect he had on me. He’d spent the last night stimulating my body in ways I hadn’t even known possible, and now he was exploiting that advantage. “I meant to come back to you this morning. Really, I did.”
I found myself jerking my chin from his grip, suddenly angry. “What, you just figured you’d make a pit stop to commit a felony then come straight back to my arms?”
His answering scowl was deep. Griffin withdrew, running a hand through his hair agitatedly. “Sadie, there are a few things it’s better you didn’t know about me.”
“Like what?” I demanded, my arms crossing over my chest as I glared at him. “Last night, you told me you cared about me. I don’t know whether that had a shred of truth to it or not, but you can’t go from that to hiding something like this from me at the drop of a hat. Jesus Christ,” I exclaimed lowly, “if you get convicted, they could put you away for life, Griffin. Then I’d never see you again.”
Had I really just said that?
Nice, play-it-safe Sadie was more worried about seeing Griffin Webb again than she was about what he’d actually done? Supposed murder?
“They’re not going to put me away,” he growled with no small amount of conviction. The fighter fixed me with that breathtaking green gaze of his again and my heart stuttered in my chest. “I swear to God, they won’t; you have to trust me on this, Sadie.”
I exhaled a shuddering breath. “Trust you on what?”
I had no issues with trust. I trusted my friends. I trusted my parents. And I thought I trusted myself. Now, I wasn’t so sure. How could I be when I was seriously considering going along with all of this?
The Sadie of a mere few weeks ago, the one who hadn’t yet met Griffin Webb or been drawn into his convoluted world, would be shocked and horrified at the position that I now found myself in. Safe Sadie would have never put herself in a position to be taken advantage of by someone like Griffin Webb, and she certainly wouldn’t have let him into her bed. Safe Sadie would bypass a bruiser like Griffin for a safer man. A less entertaining man, one who didn’t make her heart race and turn her knees to mush.
One who couldn’t make her come so hard she almost forgot to breathe.
“Trust that I can handle this.” His reply was no clearer than what he asked of me. I still didn’t know what happened between the time he’d left me and that moment. All I knew was that he was asking me to trust him when I had little, if any, reason to.
Safe Sadie would have run for the hills screaming.
But the thing was, I’d probably stopped listening to safe Sadie quite a while ago.
Slowly, I found myself nodding. Though it was against my better judgment, there was something steady in Griffin’s striking green gaze. Something that appealed to me. He might be a bruiser, and he might have a history of conflict, but he could handle himself.
Or, at least, I’d have to trust that he could.
To my surprise, Griffin’s expression softened at my acceptance. He replaced his hand on my jaw, stroking gently, and for a moment, I saw a gleam of something strange in his gaze. Something I didn’t think I’d ever seen before in all the thousands of pictures I’d seen of him.
But it was gone so quickly, I could have just as easily imagined it.
“I appreciate it, Sadie.” Leaning forward, he brushed his lips over mine teasingly and sensation sizzled through every nerve in my body. It was ungodly how even after spending an entire night with the man, he could still have me salivating within seconds. “You don’t know how much.”
“Just…be careful, alright?” I managed, my words barely audible as my eyes slid closed. “If you won’t tell me what’s going on, promise you’ll be careful.”
This time, when he kissed me, it was sensual, leisurely. Griffin’s tongue slid against the cleft of my lips until I opened for him with a soft moan, and then he set about teasing the ache low in my belly into a burning flame. When he finally drew back, I was all but panting, arching against him like a cat in heat.
“Don’t worry, sweet thing. You’ll be able to keep all eyes and ears on me.”
The statement was enough to bring me halfway back to the present, even if my libido was still clamoring to get Griffin’s clothes off right in the back of the car.
“What?” That hoarse, low tone, rough with desire? That was also something that would have mortified safe Sadie. I cleared my throat, trying to bring myself back to the conversation at hand. “What are you talking about?”
Griffin chuckled softly, his smile genuine. “You and me, we’re going away for a little while.”
My eyes widened at his declaration. “What! You’re jumping bail?”
Instead of upsetting him, my reaction only seemed to amuse him. Shaking his head in amusement, Griffin grinned. He reached over to squeeze my thigh firmly as he nipped at my neck. “I’m many things, Sadie, but not a common criminal. I’m not fucking jumping bail.” Running a hand through my hair reassuringly, he laid a hot kiss against my throat and I shuddered. “We’re staying relatively close. I just need you to take some time off work, pack a bag, and come with me.”
I knew better than to ask where. I doubted he’d tell me.
Straightening to clear the aroused fog from my mind, I gazed up at the man. Whenever Griffin was around, my heart pounded, my palms sweated, and my mind became a general mush. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t making my decisions of my own free will.
Despite the trouble they’d probably get me into.
“Do you really expect me to just drop everything and go with you on a whim?”
It was a redundant question. Of all the things Griffin Webb was, coy certainly wasn’t one of them.
He smirked. “No. I expect you to take a week to tie up all your loose ends and then come with me. Is there a problem with that, sweet Sadie?”
He was killing me with the nicknames. But I had to admit to myself that I didn’t know whether the connotation was positive or negative. Whenever his tongue caressed any title he called me, I couldn’t quite bring myself to be mad at him. All my sharp-tongued self-righteousness had evaporated.
And even if it hadn’t, I knew full well that Griffin was an expert at tearing down my defenses.
The only thing I could do was scowl at him, hoping to convey my displeasure. What was I supposed to tell the office? That I was eloping with an accused murderer and needed a few days off? That excuse would go over extremely well.
I would have to think of a better one—and fast. If the direction the car was headed in was any indication, we were headed back towards Griffin’s penthouse.
And I would hardly have time to straighten out my thoughts there.
Griffin
I fucked up.
I didn’t need anyone to tell me that, it had been pretty damn evident the moment I stood in front of a judge, was accused of murder, and had to pony up a million dollars in bail.
I shouldn’t have been so impulsive. I should have thought twice before I acted, but what was done was done now.
And I didn’t entirely regret it.
What I did regret was how much Sadie was now involved.
I haven’t been afraid much in life. After having a father who beat the fuck out of me, a mother who starved me, and trying to make my own way in the world for the first fifteen years of my life, there wasn’t a lot to be frightened of. Even when I first met Riley, a man twice my size with a scowl even scarier than my old man’s, I wasn’t scared.
I expected a beating…and could never have imagined what I actually got.
Since I stared fighting in professional rings, I didn’t really fear losing. Sure, I didn’t like the idea of losing the notoriety I shed blood and sweat to earn, but the idea that someone was better than me didn’t intimidate me as much as it should. Riley was worried I didn’t care enough about the competition, but at the end of the day, I was in the MMA business because I liked to hit things.
I had always liked to hit things.
But now, for the first time in a long time, I was scared shitless.
Sure, I did what needed to be done, but it had almost cost me Sadie.
The look on her face as she saw me come down the courtroom steps…it was enough to make me want to throw up. Fear, worry, shock…I wished to God I’d been able to tell her myself. She had to learn by seeing me on the news, where they could screw all the information and make it sound like I was a goddamned criminal mastermind.
The media was always after me; and if they didn’t capture my success, they damn well wanted to be on the front line for my fuck-ups.
All week, I lay low as I watched my name smeared over and speculated upon on every channel I tried to watch. It was too much to even think of going to the gym. The first time I tried after the court date, I was so swamped with media that Riley had to yank me indoors before I cracked a few skulls.
The last thing I wanted was to add to the body count, but flashing cameras never helped my goddamned temper
The only thing that helped was Sadie.
And I hadn’t seen her in seven goddamn days.
Sinking into an armchair in front of my TV, I sipped at
my glass of scotch and enjoyed the slow burn down my throat. It had been so long since my fist made contact with anything solid that I was all but climbing the walls, but I couldn’t bring myself to use my home gym. I was too wrapped up in what the hell I was doing with someone like Sadie goddamned Warner.
It had to be her, didn’t it? Tall, blonde, mouthwatering, and braver than I’d ever imagined. I thought for sure the moment the cops took me that anything I had dreamed about with Sadie was over. She’d never want to speak to me again. Just remembering the prim, tight posture she had the first time we met—she was affronted by what I did and who I was.
