CONVICT: A Dark Romance (Sin City Salvation Book 2)

by A. Zavarelli

  “Hey, asshole!” he yelled out his window. “I don’t have all goddamned day. Move your fucking truck, moron.”

  “I’ll be right back.” My fingers grazed over Birdie’s jaw before I tucked her hair back away from her face. “Hold tight.”

  I shut the door and walked around the truck in the direction of the blaring horn. As soon as the Porsche fucker saw me, his hand froze mid honk. But it was far too late for this pissant. He frantically scurried to roll up his window as I approached, but I jammed my hand through the gap and pushed it back down with force, relishing the sound of the motor as it sputtered and gave out. Then I lodged a palm around the scrawny fucker’s throat and met his eyes.

  “You got anything else you want to get off your chest?” I asked.

  He shook his head, slobbering all over himself as he tried to speak. “No, man. I’m sorry. It’s just… your truck is parked in the middle of the road—”

  His half-assed apology died in his throat when my fist connected with his face. There was a satisfactory crack before blood began to pour from his nose, and he screamed like a baby. It was the release I needed at that moment, and I didn’t think twice about leaving him there, sobbing in his hundred-thousand-dollar car.

  Birdie glanced at me in question as I climbed back into the driver’s seat and flipped on my blinker, pulling back into traffic. But I didn’t think anything needed to be said about it. She leaned her head back against the seat, her eyes drifting shut, and I reached over and stroked her arm.

  “No sleep.” I couldn’t hide the concern in my voice. “Just stay awake with me, angel.”

  “I’m fine,” she murmured, but it was obvious she wasn’t. “Just take me home.”

  I tried to keep her awake and distracted by stroking her arm, but that only seemed to lull her deeper into delirium. I was so worried about getting her to the hospital that I almost lost sight of the road in front of us several times. It wasn’t like me to be so reckless, and I didn’t know how to fix this. I only knew that I had to get her to a doctor, and I had to do it now.

  “Birdie, stay with me.” I squeezed her hand in mine. “Tell me about your favorite dessert.”

  Her head swiveled in my direction, and when she smiled, it was bloody. “Shouldn’t you know that already, stalker?”

  In spite of the gravity of the situation, her smartass remark relieved me. She was still Birdie. She was still my girl.

  Her gaze drifted up to the roof of the truck as she seemed to consider it. “Cotton candy ice cream.”

  The answer didn’t surprise me. I imagined her on a hot summer day, legs stretched out in the grass as she tasted the airy sugar melting across her tongue. I wanted to taste it on her lips, and I resolved then and there, I would always have ice cream for her in the freezer.

  “As soon as you feel up for it, I’ll buy you some,” I told her.

  She nodded, her eyes drifting shut again. I was about to shake her out of it when she spoke. “What about yours?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted.

  I felt her eyes move to my face as tension crept over my features. It was a loaded question. One I hadn’t planned on reciprocating.

  “How can you not know?” she asked.

  I considered my answer. My default setting was to shut down. To protect me and my past. But I already knew Birdie had seen the obituary in my personal files. I’d found it in the stack, along with her internet searches on my work computer. She had learned something about me, and it ate at me the entire time she was gone.

  I’d resolved a long time ago not to give a fuck what anyone thought about me, but this was different. I needed her to know the truth. I needed her to know that despite what my actions may have led her to believe, she was safe with me. So even though it went against every instinct I’d ever had, I answered her question honestly.

  “My father didn’t allow sweets. And when I went to prison, I never had any money in my commissary to buy them. When I got out, there were so many choices I didn’t really know where to begin. So I just didn’t.”

  Birdie’s hand drifted across the seat, and her head rolled to the side while she studied me. “Then I guess we’ll have to figure that out, won’t we?”

  The levity of her tone didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t know if it was the trauma she’d sustained or something else, but it wasn’t a normal reaction for someone who’d recently read that I’d been convicted of murder. It especially wasn’t a normal reaction for Birdie. I expected her to have questions, but if she did, she wasn’t voicing them.

  Regardless, it wasn’t important right then. I was just content to keep her awake and talking. But when I pulled into the hospital lot, she perked up long enough to shake her head.

  “I’m not going in there.”

  “Yes, you are.” I tried to keep my cool. “Birdie, this is non-negotiable.”

  “They’ll report it to the cops. They’ll run my name, and it will get back to the detective—”

  “No, they won’t. We’ll use a fake name and pay with cash. It will be okay, I promise.”

  She looked like she wasn’t sure about anything anymore as her body sank lower into the seat. But it was clear she needed medical attention, and I couldn’t let her leave here until she received it. I had to know everything was okay. I wouldn’t ever gamble with Birdie’s life.

  Before she could argue further, I got out of the truck and walked around to her side, lifting her into my arms again to carry her inside.

  “I can walk,” she protested, but even as she said it, her energy waned.

  “No, you can’t.”

  Once we passed through the doors, all further arguments from her ceased. It didn’t take long before a nurse was at my side, helping her into a chair and wheeling her down the hall. The first thing she did was look at me like I was the one who had done this to Birdie, and it rubbed me the wrong fucking way from the start. But I kept my cool, trying to focus on the reason we were here.

  “Can I take you back alone?” the nurse asked.

  Birdie shook her head frantically, her hand reaching out to cling to mine. “No. He’s coming with me.”

  HOURS HAD PASSED AS I lay on the bed in the emergency department, watching nurses come and go. They checked my vitals. Cleaned my face. Asked me questions. Took me to other departments for scans and tests. The process dragged on and on. I was exhausted, but every time I started to drift off to sleep, I woke in a panic, thinking I was there alone. I expected to wake up and see Detective Taylor at the end of my bed, ready to handcuff me and haul me away.

  In my fragile state of mind, I knew I couldn’t live this way anymore. Ace could see it too. My anxiety was a living, breathing animal in the room with us. I couldn’t bother to hide it anymore. Not when it was taking every ounce of energy I had just to exist.

  The adrenaline had worn off, and now there was only pain. I felt it everywhere in my battered body but mostly my swollen face. The doctor and nurses kept looking at Ace, casting their quiet assumptions about him. Regardless of how many times I’d told them a stranger had attacked me, they didn’t want to believe it. I guess it was easier to believe the monster was right in front of them in a leather vest and biker boots.

  He handled it like he did almost everything else. He was cool and collected, never trying to answer for me or direct the conversation. As I told a shortened version of the supposed mugging gone wrong, I knew Ace was absorbing every word I said, wondering if it was the truth. I also knew there would be more questions later. When they asked me if anything sexual had occurred, his face mottled with red when I hesitated. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket, and I could practically see him making plans to destroy whoever did this to me.

  “All right.” The doctor scanned the notes on the computer mounted to the wall. “It looks like everything came back clear. No major head injuries, but you’ll be sore for a while with those bumps and bruises.”

  “So I can go home?” I asked.

  He glanced at
me and then to Ace. “If that’s what you want, I can’t stop you. But I do need to ask you one more time if you’d like to file a police report?”

  “No.” I shook my head as I started to peel away the covers. “I just want this day to be over with already.”

  “Easy there.” Ace glowered at me as I attempted to get out of bed. “Slow down, turbo. I have some questions.”

  “What questions could you possibly have?” I blinked up at him.

  He turned to the doctor. “Does she need any special care? What about restrictions? I’m sure she shouldn’t be doing anything for a while, right?”

  The doctor, who had previously seemed put off by Ace’s quiet demeanor, now showed surprise at his mounting concern for me. His eyebrows rose as Ace continued to rattle off question after question. It was as if he’d been rehearsing them in his mind the entire time, which I had no doubt was true.

  “A few days of bed rest probably wouldn’t hurt,” the doctor answered when Ace finally took a breath. “But I’d say take it at your own pace. If you feel like an activity is too much, then it probably is.”

  Ace didn’t seem content with that answer, and even though I was raring to go, it was clear he wouldn’t leave until he was satisfied. “Okay, so three days of bed rest? Or more? Should I bring her back on day three? How do we know if anything warrants another visit in that time? What if she gets a headache, or feels nauseous, or—”

  “For the love,” I interjected. “I’m going to be just fine. You don’t need to ask all these questions.”

  But it was apparent when he turned to me, and I saw the panic in his eyes, he did. And I understood why. He thought that if he did everything just right this time, nothing horrible would happen to me. He wouldn’t let me down like he believed he’d let down Mary-Kate. That realization struck me right in the only soft spot I had left, and I sat back down on the bed and folded my hands together.

  I let him continue to harass the doctor, and only when he had a detailed list on a piece of paper did he decide it was safe for us to leave. I was pretty sure as he helped me out of the hospital that they would be reporting the entire incident to the police regardless, but I’d given them my fake ID and Ace had paid for everything in cash. So I only hoped that would prevent this incident from coming back to haunt me.

  Ace loaded me into the truck and secured my seat belt, finally giving me the green light to rest. As soon as we were on the road again, and I felt his presence next to me, it was exactly what I did.

  I came to just as Ace was settling me into bed. As my eyes opened up and I took in the room around me, panic began to set in. The room wasn’t familiar, and none of my things were here. My nightlight wasn’t here. And already, I felt like I couldn’t breathe as I imagined him leaving me in this place alone. On instinct, my fingers wrapped around his wrist, clinging to him, and he shook his head.

  “It’s okay. This is my room.”

  I blinked, trying to focus through the blurriness that had settled into my vision from sleep. But as tired as I was, curiosity held me captive as I sat up and took everything in. His room was large and empty. There was a bed, a dresser, and a closet that was only about half full. But it smelled like Huck. Notes of cedar and leather and cloves lingered on the bedding, comforting me in a way that was new.

  “How are you feeling?” His eyes wandered over my face as he gently tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “Like hell,” I murmured. “Probably about as good as I look.”

  “You need to rest,” he answered decidedly. “That’s all. You’ll be fine in a few days.”

  I knew that was true, but I was too proud to admit I didn’t want to sleep alone. There was still a lot lingering between us—too many uncertainties to name—but right then, I needed Huck. And I’d never needed anybody.

  He leaned over to the bedside table, pulling open a drawer and retrieving a tin. But then he looked up at me like something else had occurred to him, and he grabbed a second bottle of weed. I watched in fascination as he rolled us a joint before he slipped it between my lips.

  His palm came up to cup my cheek, tracing the physical evidence left behind from the attack. His eyes had melted into a deep amber, and his voice was gruff when he brought the lighter to the paper. “Now you can try Mary-Kate’s Last Dance.”

  I swallowed, a torrent of emotions opening up inside me. This blend was sacred to him. This blend was his medicine. His way of fixing the broken like me. I inhaled it slowly, savoring each taste he gave me as he alternated between resting it against my lips and taking it away for a long second. The entire time, his eyes never moved from my mouth, and I felt the heat of his stare all the way into my soul.

  Finally, he dragged the joint to his lips and inhaled, tasting me on his tongue as I watched with a hunger I couldn’t deny. I was bruised and battered, but I’d never wanted anything more than I wanted him right then. Ace seemed to read my thoughts as he leaned forward and pushed his lips to mine, releasing the smoke from his lungs into my mouth. Slowly, it slipped out between us as he started to kiss me. His tongue slid between the seam of my lips, and I opened for him the way I always did. He rewarded me with a growl that rumbled from his chest while his fingers cupped the back of my skull. Holding me in place, he rolled over and mounted my body with his massive frame. I wrapped my legs around him, fingers digging into his back as his body dipped forward, and I felt the heat of his cock rubbing against my shorts.

  “Nobody else gets this,” he murmured as he kissed his way down my throat.

  “Nobody,” I agreed, shaking my head as delirium began to settle into my bones. I felt grounded. Uninhibited.

  Huck leaned back on his calves and removed his vest, and then to my surprise, his T-shirt. I was glad he’d done it when I was too relaxed to function because I didn’t think I’d be able to absorb the shock of what I was seeing in any other state. His chest was a work of art, a rippling sea of muscle and ink. But it was also deeply scarred; the word “demon” clearly etched across the skin, forever embedded into his heart. I sucked in a breath that felt like fire as my eyes moved over the history written on his skin. He was burned, cut, and riddled with too many marks to count. There was nothing I could do for them now, but I still reached up to touch him, my fingers sliding over his skin. His eyes fell shut, and he shuddered as he placed his hand over mine, holding it against him in a way I knew he’d never allowed before.

  When he came back to me, his eyes were darker. Hungrier. And I felt that want reflected in my own as I unbuttoned my shorts. “Help me,” I pleaded.

  He tugged them off for me, followed by my tank top, and then his own jeans and briefs. We were both stark naked when he lowered his body over mine, and for the first time, I felt what true intimacy was. His warm skin against mine. His scent all over me. His lips against my lips. We came together in a slow burn, desperate to destroy any distance between us.

  Ace slipped his fingers between my thighs, groaning when he felt my sticky want for him. He retrieved the dwindling joint from the nightstand and inhaled, repeating the process of breathing his fire into my lungs. I inhaled him as deep as I could take him, until my chest felt like it might explode, and then I let go, watching the smoke slip between us. Satisfied, Ace snuffed out the blunt and tossed it aside as he rolled his hips against me.

  I knew by the heaviness settling into my body that we were working against time. But I also knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until he collapsed beside me, exhausted and spent while his come dripped down my thighs.

  “Huck.” I clung to his body, pulling him closer. “Don’t let me go.”

  He didn’t deny me. His mouth worshipped mine as his cock nudged against me, and then he slowly pushed inside until he was as deep as my body could take him.

  “Fuck.” His eyes rolled back in his head as he arched back and began to move.

  I echoed his sentiments as my body came alive for him. Time seemed to stretch on and on as we felt each other in this sacred space. My fingers floated ov
er the infinite landscape of his war-torn flesh. Everything was more intense than I could have imagined it. Each stuttered breath I drew from his lips between kisses tasted like spun sugar and gossamer dreams. Our shadows danced across the room as the light faded between us. Every thrust of his hips pinned me to the bed, a cloud of softness beneath me. And suddenly, I was weightless, suspended in the moment as I dug my fingers into his biceps, my head lolling back against the pillow. This was my utopia, and in this paradise, I could only feel pleasure. Pleasure so intense it jackknifed through my body, splitting me in two as my orgasm came without warning. It was mind-altering, earth-shattering, and it stretched on for an infinite length of time that couldn’t be measured.

  His cock pulsed inside me, throbbing with the life force of a man who’d embedded himself so deeply in my being that every barrier between us shattered. In the stillness, he pivoted his hips one last time, drawing his head back as the tension fled his body on a choked sigh. His come flooded my womb, warming me from the inside out, and he collapsed beside me, my leg still tossed over his hip, our gazes locked.

  I couldn’t stop touching him. Breathing him in. I wanted to draw out this space in time, but I felt it slipping away. Sleep was coming for me, and somehow, I knew when I woke, I wouldn’t be the same again.

  THE LAST GLIMMERS OF EVENING light faded into the shadows of the room, becoming one with darkness. Beside me, Birdie still clung to me, her breathing deep and even. I listened to every beat of her heart, an assurance that she was still here with me. We were both naked, wrapped up only in each other, and I was too relaxed to move.

  My eyes were tired and heavy, but I resisted the urge to close them. I wanted to stay alert in case she needed me. And for hours, that was exactly what I did. Until finally, against my will, sleep pulled me under too.