DEVOUR ME: A Dark Bad Boy Romance (The Wicked Angels MC)

by Sophia Gray

  I glance at him, then back at Amanda. “I have a story to tell you.” I keep my eyes on her, ignoring Lucas except to ensure he doesn’t pull any quick moves.

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve never told anybody the full story. Not even Derrick. Michelle tried to kill herself that day. She went to the woods to kill herself.”

  She’s staring at me, eyes full of tears. “Why?”

  “Because she was a sick, mixed-up person. She was into drugs, stealing from the cartel the club was working with. She had an affair with the man who was president of the club at the time. Only the stealing wound up getting him and a bunch of our guys killed. She couldn’t handle it. So she took my gun into the woods. I ran after her as soon as I knew what she was doing.” I take a deep breath, getting to the part I didn’t tell Derrick. “She pointed the gun at me first, to keep me away from her while she told me the story…then to shoot me. She was going to kill me, rather than let me stop her. She wanted to die that badly.”

  I watch Amanda tremble. I see Lucas’s hands tighten on her arms.

  “She fired a shot. I ducked, it hit a tree. Then she turned the gun on herself, pressed it against her chest. I jumped at her, wanting to stop her. But I couldn’t. She pulled the trigger. She died in my arms—I think she might have gone almost instantly. I couldn’t stop her, and I’ve blamed myself all this time. I didn’t want anyone to know she’d been in that much trouble—especially not that she was stealing from the cartel and the club. I couldn’t put her family through that pain.”

  “Why are you telling this story?” Lucas asks, sounding bored and irritated.

  I look at him. “Because I need her to know the truth.” I hear sirens approaching from the distance. Thank God. I couldn’t have kept this up much longer.

  “What difference does it make?” Lucas asks, oblivious to the approaching cop cars.

  “I wanted her to hear it before this happened.” I lunge at them, pushing Amanda roughly out of the way. I take Lucas by the shoulders before hitting him across the nose with the butt of my gun, drawing blood. I hear Amanda cry out, but I can’t look back.

  He fights back, head butting me, knocking us both to the ground. We wrestle, rolling over and over. His hands are on the gun as he tries to pry it from me. I throw myself on top of him, hoping to knock the wind out of him and stun him into letting go. I drive my knees into his sides, our faces inches from each other.

  “Please! Stop!” Amanda’s screaming.

  I can’t listen. I can only make this bastard pay for what he’s done.

  “Christopher, please!” The gun is somewhere between the two of us, jammed between our bodies. I know he’s still hold on, just as I am. I hear the sirens getting louder.

  Then the gun goes off.

  Chapter 36

  Amanda

  It’s like a horrible nightmare has finally ended.

  “We’re going to be together forever,” he kept saying, stroking my hair when he pulled me from the car. I’ll never forget how terrified I was. Looking at the tower, knowing what it meant that we were going there. Knowing he was going to kill me.

  I wanted to vomit, just feeling his hand on me. I knew exactly what he meant. We would be together. Just not alive. He wanted to throw us both from that tower. We’d die together. Tragically.

  When he pulled me from the trunk, all I could do was pray. Please let somebody save me. Please let me survive this. I don’t want to die. I want my mommy. I want Christopher. Please don’t let me die.

  Now, I’m sitting in the hospital room. Christopher’s hospital room. He’s been sleeping for hours, ever since he got out of surgery. The nurse told me he probably wouldn’t wake up for a while.

  It’s a nice hospital, and a private room. I made sure everyone in earshot knew they were taking care of a hero. “He saved my life,” I said over and over. “Please, take care of him. I would be dead if it weren’t for him.”

  I sit looking at him. He’s peaceful, his face smooth. And now that he’s saved my life, more handsome to me than ever. I can’t believe he came all this way to find me. The fact that he put it all together in the first place is remarkable. I knew he had to be smart under all that bravado.

  I’m pretty much okay, for the most part. I might need to see a doctor closer to home now that it’s all over. There are a lot of things I’m going to need to work out. Feeling safe again in my home, knowing I’m not in danger. Flashbacks of Lucas stuffing me in a trunk. I shiver just thinking about it. If seeing a doctor will help me get my life back on track, I’m more than willing to do so. I’ll take any steps to put this far behind me.

  He stirs. I lean toward him, putting a hand over his. He rolls his head in my direction when he feels my touch. “You’re okay?” His first words after waking up. I didn’t think my heart could swell any bigger.

  “I’m just fine, Christopher. Thanks to you.”

  “Where are we?”

  “In the hospital. You and Lucas were fighting over the gun. It went off, hitting you. Do you remember any of it?”

  He closes his eyes, swallowing hard. I think he remembers. Instead of answering my question, he says, “Why am I not handcuffed?”

  “Why would you be handcuffed?”

  “Wasn’t I arrested? Or won’t I be, once I’m out of the hospital? I thought they’d want to keep me cuffed.”

  “Christopher.” I touch his face, rough with stubble. “You weren’t arrested. Nobody is going to arrest you.”

  “No?” His eyes are wide. He’s still somewhat foggy from the anesthesia, reminding me of a little boy.

  “No. I told the police everything. Once they saw the wound on my head, it was pretty clear I wasn’t making anything up. And once they get a look at Lucas’s phone they’ll see the messages he sent me. You’re in the clear.”

  He drifts back to sleep, a smile on his face. Now he can rest.

  ###

  I wake up with a stiff neck, curled up in the chair at Christopher’s bedside. This time, he’s the one who’s been watching me.

  “Good morning,” he whispers, smiling softly.

  “Wow. Morning already?” I sit up, stretching.

  “You slept through two visits from the nurse. They were going to bring a cot in for you, but didn’t want to wake you. You were out cold.”

  “I guess I was.” I remember the hours I spent awake, cold, terrified. Yes. Sleep was what I needed. I take stock of him. He already looks better than he did when he first woke after being wheeled up from surgery. His color is better. He’s more alert.

  “How’s your wound?” I ask, motioning toward his abdomen. When the EMTs said the bullet hit him in the stomach, I nearly fainted. I know how dangerous that can be, even if I’ve only seen it on TV.

  “The nurse says it looks good. Stitches are holding fine.”

  “The doctor told me you made it through surgery like a champ.”

  “Would you expect any less?” He grins.

  I lean down to kiss him softly. There’s no mistaking the way the beeping of his heart monitor speeds up. I laugh. “Guess we can’t be doing much of that for a little while. I wouldn’t want to tax your system while you’re healing.” I wink, and he groans.

  Then he becomes serious. “I don’t remember anything after being shot.”

  “I’m sure you don’t. You were barely conscious.”

  “I hate to ask you this…but…did he…?”

  “Rape me, you mean?” Christopher’s face hardens, but he nods. I shake my head, smiling. “No, nothing like that. He never even got close to it. I don’t think it was on his mind at all.”

  “What did he say to you? Did you ever speak with him, besides when you got to campus?”

  I nod. I’ll never forget that surreal breakfast. “We stopped at a diner. It’s where we first met. I had to sit there and force food down my throat. I had to pretend to be happy he’d finally come to get me. He talked the entire time. I’m sure even the waitress thought he was nuts. He woul
dn’t let me out of his sight.” I leave out the part where he came to the bathroom with me. I don’t want to relive that humiliation just yet.

  “I guess that’s how I was able to catch up to you.”

  “I’m glad he got hungry.” I smile, but it’s a shaky smile. Soon I’m crying. I lay my head on the side of Christopher’s bed, letting it all out. I feel his hand stroke my hair, so different from Lucas’s rough touch.

  I cry for a long time. Once it’s all over, I feel better. Not one hundred percent, but better. After splashing my face, I return to Christopher’s bedside.

  “Where is he now?”

  I don’t have to ask who he means. “Jail. They have him on a bunch of different charges.”

  Christopher closes his eyes, relieved. “You said something when I first woke up,” he reminds me. “About telling the police everything.”

  I nod. “Yeah, every bit of it. I can’t believe you thought they would arrest you for saving my life.”

  A shrug. “I guess it’s a habit, assuming I’ll be blamed for things.”

  “Believe me. Nobody could blame you for this. You’re the only reason I’m here right now. Sincerely.”

  “And when we get home?”

  “What about it?” I’m confused.

  He tells me everything he went through, just trying to get the cops to pay attention to my kidnapping. I can’t pretend I have any faith in our police force if they were so quick to blame Christopher for my disappearance without listening to what he tried to tell them.

  I smile, though. “I can’t wait to get back to town and throw it all in their faces. How wrong they were about you. By the time I finish, they’ll be throwing a parade in your honor.”

  He chuckles, then winces in pain. “Don’t make me laugh,” he groans.

  “I wasn’t trying to. I mean it. They’re going to eat their words, every one of them.”

  “Wow.” He looks me up and down. “Who’s this assertive girl in my hospital room? Where did she come from?”

  “She was always assertive. Remember how we butted heads when we first met? How crazy I drove you?”

  He smiles. “Yeah, I do.”

  “It wasn’t just you, though you did bring it out in me. You have a talent for that. I can be just as pigheaded with others, too. They’re all on my shit list until they apologize. I’ll take out a full-page ad just so the whole town knows what you did. You took a bullet for me, Christopher. They need to know.”

  He shrugs. “Maybe they don’t need to know. Maybe they’ll always believe what they want to believe. What difference does it make in my life?”

  Here I was thinking he wanted to be with me. Maybe he’s not ready for that yet.

  “What’s wrong?”

  My face must give away my emotions. “Nothing.”

  “Don’t say that. What is it?”

  It’s time to be brave. If I can face down Lucas, I can do this, too. “Maybe you’re not ready for this yet. If you’re not, I completely understand. After everything you told me, I get why you wouldn’t be in this place. It’s just…I love you.” I say it all in one big breath. Now it’s out there. I can’t take it back.

  “I love you, too,” A huge smile breaks over his face.

  “You do?”

  “You can’t be seriously asking me this! Amanda, why would I go through all this for you if I didn’t love you? If anything, I didn’t think you loved me. I couldn’t imagine why you would.”

  “But you did it all? Not knowing how I felt?”

  “Of course I did. That wouldn’t change how I felt for you. Just because I didn’t know how you felt. That’s crazy.” He reaches for me, taking my hands in his. “I love you. I want to be with you. If you’ll have me.”

  I can’t say anything else. I have to kiss him. The heart monitor goes crazy again.

  Chapter 37

  It’s been a week since Christopher entered the hospital. An entire week since he saved me once again. He’s healing beautifully, as well as anyone could expect. Now he’s climbing the walls, aching to be out of here.

  “Why did they have to keep me for so long, anyway?” He’s only asked me this question roughly two dozen times today.

  “Because,” I repeat, as I have so many times, “they had to be sure you weren’t infected. Infection’s a pretty big deal, you know.”

  “Sure, sure. I didn’t have a fever. The bullet hardly grazed me. It was superficial.”

  “Hardly superficial. There was muscle damage. You got very lucky.” My mom smiles at him. He calms down. Mom has been here for four days, taking care of both of us. It seems like she has the magic touch. One word from her and he’s a different person.

  “You’re right,” he admits. “I just can’t wait to get out of this bed.”

  “You’ll have to take it easy for a while,” Mom reminds him. “No lifting heavy things. You could hurt yourself even worse.”

  Christopher nods. I feel like I’m witnessing a miracle.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us?” I say, making her laugh. “I’m serious. You’re the only person he listens to.”

  “He’s a lot of bluster. Inside he’s just a little boy. All men are—no matter how big they are on the outside.” We snicker together quietly.

  “I hear you over there. I’m not deaf.”

  I laugh, crossing the room to kiss him. He’s half smiling, so I know he’s not that upset.

  Mom and I have done a lot of catching up over the past several days. I owed her an explanation. I’d been kidnapped, after all, when she didn’t even know Lucas was stalking me. Then I was rescued by a man of whose existence she was unaware.

  She only came to make sure we were taken care of. The two of us have been sharing a room at a hotel near the hospital. I’ve spent nearly every minute of visiting hours right here, at Christopher’s side.

  Derrick came two days into Christopher’s stay to pick up his bike. Christopher probably wouldn’t be able to ride it home, so Derrick had a friend drive him to meet us. I noticed how much better he already looked since I first saw him only a few days prior.

  He gave me a big hug on entering the room. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said.

  The sincerity in his voice touched me. I left the two of them alone for a while so they could catch up. When I got back they were laughing. My heart soared. Christopher had told me of their conversation, how he’d confessed everything. How Derrick gave him his bike. I owed him a lot, too. More than anything, I was happy to see Christopher laughing. He’d missed Derrick’s friendship after Michelle’s death. I hoped this meant they could rebuild their bond. Christopher needed people, as much as he pretended he didn’t.

  We promised to get together after Christopher was released. He looked hopeful after Derrick left.

  Mom heads down to the nurse’s station to see if there’s any chance of getting his discharge papers some time before next week. I’d think with such an obstinate, frustrating patient they’d be happy to get him out of their hair. It feels like they’re dragging their feet.

  “You know,” Christopher says, now that we’re alone, “for such a long time, I thought I was protecting Derrick and his family by not telling the truth about how Michelle died. I thought I was being…I don’t know…noble or something. Sparing them the pain, protecting her name. Now…I’m thinking about how Derrick looked when he came to visit. Didn’t he look better already?”

  I nod. “He looked great. Sober, for starters.”

  “Yeah. I wonder if a lot of pain he was going through had to do with never being really sure. Not wanting to believe I could do it, especially since we were so close and I was Michelle’s husband. Maybe keeping secrets only hurts people.”

  “It’s like you’re reading my mind,” I tell him, sitting beside his bed. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. If I’d been honest about Lucas, everything I was going through with him, I wouldn’t have needed to suffer the way I did. I could have been honest with my parents,
for starters. I never did tell them the reason I left him. Thinking, I don’t know, I was sparing them something. All I was doing was driving myself crazy, and letting him get even more crazy the longer I stayed away. I should have told the police. I should have told somebody. But I was ashamed. And for what? Because he’s a nut? That’s not my fault.”

  Christopher takes my hand. “I think it’s easy to say that now,” he says, stroking my knuckles with his thumb. “When you’re in the middle of something like that, you don’t want anybody to know. I didn’t want anybody to know Michelle was shooting up again. I’m sure the coroner figured that out, but, had I said something at the time, I could have helped avoid a lot of pain.”