Heathens (Badlands Book 4)

by Natalie Bennett

  I turned on the sink and quickly realized there wasn’t any hot water.

  Hearing the door open and shut behind me, I glanced over my shoulder to see Cobra walking towards me.

  For someone who hadn’t slept in who knew how long, he looked as delicious as he always did in dark denim, black boots, and a fitted dark gray T.

  “I’m sorry about your…” I trailed off as he came right up to me and dropped down to his knees.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Finding out if you taste as sweet as you look.” He ran his hands up my legs beneath my dress and pulled my thighs apart.

  “No, we need to talk.”

  “So talk,” he shrugged, bunching my dress around my hips.

  “Cobra.” I pushed against his shoulders, my knees nearly buckling when he flattened his tongue against my clit, dragging it down my slit.

  “Cobra,” I groaned, threading my hands in his hair.

  He took two fingers and pulled my lips apart, shoving his tongue inside my pussy as deep as it would go, slowly fucking me with it.

  I bit down on my lip as hard as I could to stifle my moans, cognizant that Annie was in the other room.

  “Damn, Blue. Your pussy might just be my new favorite meal,” he groaned and pulled away, teasingly sliding his tongue up my slit to toy with my clit before plunging it back in.

  It was enough to make me come.

  “Fuck,” I whimpered, grabbing hold of his head as my back arched.

  “That’s next.” He rose to his feet, lifting me up in the process and walking forward until my back hit the wall. “Talk to me, Blue,” he murmured, kissing from my jaw to my neck. His warm breath made my stomach clench. “What do you need to tell me?”

  “Not like this,” I objected.

  He clucked his tongue at me and began to unbuckle his jeans. The look in his eyes damn near made my heart stop. He was not okay. And my body was about to be used to relieve some of his pain.

  “Cobra,” I breathed, grabbing the side of his face. I was desperate to get through to him.

  I felt his tip at my entrance and prepared for him to thrust into me.

  “Tell me,” he demanded, grabbing hold of my throat.

  “Please,” I whispered, crying out when he bit down on my neck and slammed into me.

  He set a brutal, rapid pace, digging his fingers into my ass to keep upright as he mercilessly pounded into my pussy. His cock stretched me, filling me to capacity.

  I buried my face in his neck, forcing pressure on my throat to muffle my moans, burrowing my nails into his shoulders.

  “Tell me,” he growled, nipping my lower lip.

  “Fuck…you,” I choked out.

  He jerked me back, knocking my head into the wall, forcefully rolling his hips so I had to take every inch of him.

  I moaned wantonly, my pussy quivered, drenching his dick and balls.

  “Fuck me back,” he rasped.

  With no more objections, I obliged and began to meet him thrust for thrust, tightening my legs to pull him deeper.

  He dropped his mouth between my breasts and licked away the dried blood I hadn’t gotten to yet.

  Knowing I had to tell him sooner or later, my eyes began to burn, tears gathering on my lashes.

  “The baby…stillborn.”

  I expected to him stop, not go harder. He made a sound in his throat and a dark look came into his eyes. If he thrust into me any harder, we were liable to break through the wall and into the next room.

  “I’m gonna come,” I gasped, opening my mouth on a silent scream not a second later.

  He kept going until he was groaning, flexing his hips and squeezing my ass as he emptied into my pussy.

  Both breathing heavy and covered in sweat, he gently pulled out and lowered my shaking limbs back to the floor.

  “How do you know what happened to the baby?”

  The rawness of his voice tears at my heart but I have to give him this truth.

  “Beth was at the prison, she was never in Centriole. Vitus lied he…” I stopped seeing him walking backward, a look I couldn’t read on his face.

  “Fuck,” he breathed, running his hands through his hair.

  “Cobra,” I swallowed.

  He ignored my plea, dropping a kiss on my forehead.

  Then he was gone, leaving me alone in the bathroom.

  Chapter Seventeen

  COBRA

  I never claimed to be good at this relationship shit.

  Actually, I’d never been in a single relationship in my fuckin life, until now.

  Wasn’t one for sitting around and discussing feelings either.

  I’d always dealt with my baser emotions like rage and grief by purging lives.

  I would have to go back to her and kiss major ass for how I left her. Right now, though, I was ready to play.

  I fuckin needed it.

  Luther.

  The reminder of Carrie, which made me think of our parents, and now the baby…my head was a mess.

  I hadn’t even wanted the damn baby, but it wouldn’t have mattered if I did because there was no fuckin baby anymore. I would have done what I needed to do to be a father. I’d worried about this shit day and night for what?

  My fucking kid was dead.

  Fuck!

  I flexed my fists and rolled my neck, pulling out my buck bone blade.

  I had questions. Lots of questions.

  But first…

  I rounded the corner, coming up behind one of the men who had been beating the shit out of the girl now lying dead in a parking lot.

  He turned at the last second but it was too late. I was too fast.

  Before he could even fuckin blink, my knife was slamming into the center of his forehead, splitting its way into his brain. I pulled it out and grabbed his companion by the hair, slitting the fucker’s throat when he tried to call for help.

  I let his body drop, adrenaline coursing through my veins like lava.

  I tracked them down, one by fuckin one. Some tried to run; others were completely oblivious.

  My mind wasn’t on the blood, the screams, or the pleas for mercy.

  It was on Luther, a childhood friend who had just become a needless casualty of war.

  It was on my mom, who was beaten like the girl in the parking lot the day me and my sister were taken.

  My dad, who’d tried to save us and had his fuckin head blown off.

  My sweet sister who couldn’t handle being in love with her twin brother, and hung herself from a cherry tree.

  And that sweet, blue-haired girl I knew I could never let go, even if I didn’t deserve her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  BLUE

  The sun was high in the sky by the time he returned.

  I’d yet to fall asleep, far too worried about where he could have gone or if he was okay.

  My body hated me for it.

  My muscles were screaming at me in protest with every step I took, sore beyond belief. There was bruising between my thighs and teeth marks on my neck.

  He had a valid point.

  I didn’t look like I’d simply had sex.

  No, I looked as if I’d been thoroughly fucked.

  I gave up contemplating how a virtual stranger could mean so much to me, because the fact was he did.

  We both had pasts full of pain but I was certain we could get through it, if he would let me in.

  When the door flew open, I jumped out of my skin while Annie simply blinked.

  Squinting against the sunlight now flooding into the room, it took me a second to take him in.

  “Are you okay?” I jumped to my feet. He was covered in blood.

  “Fuckin fantastic.” He gave me a bright grin, flashing all of his perfect white teeth.

  “You could have taken me with you,” Annie commented, looping the strap of her gun over her head.

  I shook my head at her. She was going to be a lethal woman. I could see it now. She’d let me braid her hair earlie
r and answered all of my questions in a tone that said I was boring her. That was the extent of our interactions; she didn’t really say much.

  She’d yet to shed a single tear over the loss of her home, or Luther, who I’d learned was her brother. When asked, her response was, “We’ll all be dead some day. His just came sooner. Yours could come today.”

  That was the end of our conversation.

  “Let me wash my face and then we’ll hit the road, yeah?”

  He looked right at me when he asked the question.

  Aside from the fact that he was covered in fresh blood and old, his eyes were brighter than they’d been when he left, and his mood seemed all around better.

  Is this what he needed to be happy? Blood and carnage?

  What did that mean for me?

  I turned away from him and nodded.

  His stare lingered on me for a minute, and then he made his way to the bathroom.

  When the sink kicked on, I walked out of the room, needing fresh air.

  I sat on the hood of the car, leaning my head back to bask in the sun.

  I felt as if I was stuck in a perpetual orbit, moving from place to place but not really going anywhere.

  Cobra and I needed to have a nice long chat, because we would never get anywhere if we avoided all the hard conversations by twisting our bodies together.

  If he could give me the rough sex and the man I knew he could be, I would never complain about anything again…unless he was one of those people who habitually left the toilet seat up. Then we’d have a slight problem.

  Hearing the sound of a loud engine, I looked over my shoulder to see a large dark pickup racing towards me.

  From my vantage point, I was able to count five men in the bed of the truck, plus however many were squeezed in the cab.

  I didn’t need to see their facial expressions to know why they were coming here.

  Sliding off the hood of the Plymouth, I calmly walked back into our motel room, not bothering to shut the door.

  I walked right into the bathroom, momentarily losing my train of thought at seeing Cobra’s shirtless back.

  The sigil of Baphomet. I mean, the whole pentacle, ram, and symbols. The word sinner, with a second cobra tatted around it was right above it. At the very bottom it read, By The Blessing Of Satan.

  By the shading alone, I knew it had taken someone a long time, and the detail was amazing.

  For him, this wouldn’t just be a tattoo.

  Like the inverted cross inked beneath his eye, they represented the life, the world he belonged to.

  If we were really doing this whole I’m his and he’s mine thing, then I would have to learn to accept that I’d be a Savage, too. And it was all or nothing with them.

  “Blue?” he called my name, staring at me in the partial reflection of the mirror.

  I blinked and tried to play off that I was just mesmerized by his back. “Um, did you maybe make some people angry? Because we’re about to have company,” I finally spat out.

  “Yeah, we should probably go now.” He turned off the sink, not bothering to reclaim his bloody shirt from the floor.

  On his way out, he grabbed my hand. “We’ll talk at home,” he said softly, dropping a kiss on the back of it.

  Home.

  There was that word again. I hadn’t a home in seven years; until it was true, I wasn’t going to hold my breath that I was going to have one now.

  I gave him a slight smile anyway, and followed his lead.

  Right outside the door, Annie stood with her shotgun in her hands, aimed at the truck now pulling into the parking lot.

  With her feet planted apart and shoulders set, she pulled the trigger, blasting one of the men right in the chest.

  “Whoa! What are you doing?” I flinched, grabbing my right ear.

  The man flipped backward out of the truck bed, his blood spraying onto his comrades.

  I just watched a child shoot a man out the bed of the truck. All I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and carry her to safety, but she was liable to shoot me too.

  Had I met her before I saw her sweet angelic self skinning a man alive, I wouldn’t have been as shocked.

  “They aren’t here to chit-chat, and you two were taking to long.”

  “Get in the car,” Cobra said, urging me forward with a hand on my back.

  I jogged to the passenger side and waited for Annie to slide in back before climbing in.

  Cobra rounded to his side just as the men began hopping out the bed of the truck. None of them had guns, but they had everything else, from an ax to a metal slugger.

  “Buckle up!” he yelled at us, shifting into gear.

  The Plymouth lurched, jumped the small curb of the sidewalk, and then shot forward. At the same time, the man in the pickup tried to cut us off, clipping the rear end.

  “Motherfucker,” Cobra growled, looking in his side mirror.

  “Have you learned anything about picking fights?” I asked, grabbing hold of the door handle.

  “Yeah, that I should have brought you with me. Think we could have had a lot of fun.” I saw his mouth kick up in the corner and bit back a smile of my own.

  He swerved away from the truck, pushing the muscle car faster and faster to the point when he took the next corner, the tires burned rubber and we slightly lifted off the road, taking my heart with it.

  “Cobra, I refuse to die in this death trap!”

  “Babe, relax. I got this.”

  I stared at him ready to say something snappy, but seeing the exhilarated look on his face and his wide smile had me biting back one of my own. He was like a little boy with a shiny new toy.

  “You truly are crazy,” I said, shaking my head.

  “And you fuckin love it,” he smirked, reaching over to grab my hand.

  “They’re coming,” Annie cut in, sounding all the way over our bullshit.

  He whipped the wheel right, left, and then right again, taking us out of the city that looked ready to crumble at any minute.

  I saw the sign that said Now leaving Polk County.

  Blocking our exit was a man sitting on what looked like a moped.

  I glanced at Cobra when I felt the Plymouth gaining speed instead of slowing down.

  “You’re not going to hit him, are you?”

  I pretty much knew the answer and was already double checking my seatbelt, but figured it didn’t hurt to ask.

  “Of course not,” he scoffed. “I’m just gonna move him out of the way.”

  “You’re going to mess the car up,” Annie said, sounding worried for the first time.

  “Nah, why do you think I put the guard rail on it?”

  Neither of us had time to respond. The man actually tried to move, but it was too late. His tiny bike began to roll forward, but the front of the car was already smashing into him.

  His bike went down and he came up, rolling right over the guard wheel and on to the hood.

  Cobra hit the brakes and he flew off, hitting the ground like a pile of bricks. He never stood a chance.

  Cobra hit the gas again and rolled right over him, a sickening crunch and inhuman scream following in our wake.

  I glanced in the side mirror and saw he’d become one with the asphalt, hardly recognizable as a person.

  “You fuckin see that?” Cobra whooped, glancing in his rearview.

  “I will never ride in a car with you again,” I breathed, thanking the powers above we were all still in one piece.

  “I’d never let anything happen to you, Blue. Ever. You’re safe with me.” He looked over at me and smiled.

  Losing another piece of my heart, this time for something worth it, I smiled back.

  Chapter Nineteen

  COBRA

  I was nervous.

  Like a kid bringing a date home to meet Mommy and Daddy kinda nervous.

  Blue woke up just as I was approaching the twelve foot barbed wire fence that surrounded the compound.

  The acolytes mann
ing the guard shack saw me coming and let the gate slide open, pulling the hyenas, Max and Toby, out of harm’s way.

  “I forgot how big this place was,” Blue mumbled, staring out at the expansive desert-like field. The sun was setting, giving it all a pretty pink glow.

  “By this time in two years, that will all be different shit,” I explained as we drove along.

  “You guys are still growing?” She looked back at me with wide eyes.

  “Hell yeah we are. It’s only going to get worse after we take Centriole.”

  She nodded and looked up at the flagpole we were passing, Romero’s symbol flying on it.

  It was something she’d have to get used to.

  She went silent for a minute before asking, “What happened to the man who rescued me?”

  I started to laugh, quickly turning that shit into a cough when she frowned.

  “He’ll be around,” I replied casually.

  If she wanted to paint Bryce as her rescuer, I was cool with that, though he and I both knew he was doing exactly what Rome had told him to do.

  Before long I was pulling around the circular drive and cutting the engine.

  “You good?” I asked her, asking myself the same question.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked.

  I swear she braced herself as if preparing for my rejection. I felt like a dick for how I’d been going about things.

  She needed to know I planned on worshipping the fuckin ground she walked on.

  “I fucked up by letting you go once, Blue. Don’t ask me to do it again, I won’t. And if you ever try to leave me, I have no issue chaining your ass to my bed. After I tattoo my name on it.”

  She shut her eyes for a minute and nodded. When she looked over at me, there was a soft smile on her face. “Then I’ll be fine, as long you’re with me.”

  Damn.

  Too fuckin sweet.

  Did I hand this girl my balls now or later?

  Annie sighed in the backseat, reminding us her crazy lil ass was still present.

  “Come on then,” I said, opening my door.

  I went around to Blue’s side and helped her out, pushing the seat forward for Annie.

  I could feel her palm sweating and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.