Tainted Bastard (Tainted Knights Book 4)

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Then we’ll do it again tomorrow,” I promised her.

  Her head lifted, and even in the dimness of the theater, I could see her blush. “A-All of it?”

  I wasn’t sure if that was apprehension or excitement in her eyes. “Whatever you’re comfortable with. All you have to do is ask, and I’ll give you anything you want. Just don’t shut me out again. All right?”

  “I’ll try.”

  I kissed her, soft but quick. “Watch your movie, sweet girl.”

  The lights came back up before the credits were even finished rolling, but I just sat there, not wanting to disturb Roanna until I had to.

  I must have tired her out all day because she fell asleep two-thirds of the way through the movie, before she got to see the main guy with his shirt off.

  Glancing down at her sleeping on my shoulder, her arms snuggled around mine, her legs tucked up under her, I thought she looked adorably innocent. Her mouth was slightly open, a soft snore coming from her, and all I wanted was to bundle her up and carry her back to my place. Sleep with her in my arms all night, just like this.

  I’d never slept in the same bed all night with a woman before. It never held any appeal before, but right then, I wanted to hold her all night more than I’d ever wanted anything in my entire life.

  The douchebags to my right were still in their seats, rowdy and clowning around. They had gone back to the concession stand multiple times for new beers and barely watched the movie because of it. Now, the lightweights were drunk and starting to get disruptive.

  Not wanting to put Roanna in their drunken path, I carefully nudged her awake. “Ro, hey. We should get going, sweet girl.”

  She lifted her head slowly. “Is it over?” she slurred adorably, making me grin.

  “You missed what’s-his-name shirtless. And it was a shower scene, of all things.”

  “Your chest is better-looking anyway,” she grumbled sleepily, then gasped, her eyes snapping open wide as if she couldn’t believe she’d just said that.

  Laughing at how cute she was when she blushed like that, I brushed a quick kiss over her lips and stood. Picking up the tray, I balanced it in one hand and intertwined our fingers on the other.

  As she stood, I guided her toward the exit. With the other couple already gone, we went that way instead of past the preppies still horsing around in their seats.

  The theater had filled to capacity by the time the movie began, making it slow to exit even though we’d waited for a little while before getting up. It didn’t help that another movie was letting out at the same time as well.

  As I tossed our trash, Roanna danced from one foot to the other. “I have to pee so bad,” she groaned.

  “Go,” I urged her. “Just push through these assholes.”

  She bit her lip, considering it, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to hurry.”

  “The line will be long. Just take your time.” I glanced toward the men’s room once we were in the corridor outside our theater. “I’m going to make a pit stop too. Meet me by the front entrance when you’re done.”

  “Who says ‘pit stop’?” she teased.

  I winked down at her. “I grew up in Bristol.”

  “What does that have to do with it?”

  “One word, NASCAR.”

  “Huh. I didn’t take you for a redneck,” she said with a sly grin.

  Laughing, I kissed the top of her head. I loved that she was teasing me, that even after letting me touch her earlier, she wasn’t being shy now. If I was being honest with myself, I’d been afraid I was moving too fast with her. I took a huge chance, but I needed to prove to her that pleasure wasn’t something she should ever be afraid of.

  “Go to the bathroom. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Okay.”

  I stood there, making people walk around me as I watched her slide past other moviegoers to get to the bathroom. Once she was inside, I turned for the men’s room.

  The line was long but moved fast. After washing my hands, I headed for the women’s bathroom instead of the front entrance as we said, knowing she was probably still waiting in line.

  Another movie was letting out. It must have had a full house as well, because there were over two hundred people pouring out into the corridor. Grunting when someone bumped into me, I pushed my way through the crowd toward the women’s bathroom.

  “Get the fuck off me!”

  Hearing Roanna’s voice, that note of fear threading through it, propelled me into a higher gear, and I was suddenly jerking people out of my way in my rush to find her.

  “Hey!” someone complained as I jerked them back so I could move around them. “Watch where you’re going, asshole!”

  “Aww, come on, beautiful. You know you want to come out with us. I promise you’ll have fun,” I heard someone jeering and recognized the voice as one of the preppies from the movie. “I’ve got some coke and some Oxy back at my place. You can get high with us and suck our dicks.”

  “I wouldn’t suck your dick if you paid me a hundred grand, sleazeball. Get your hands off me!”

  They were touching her.

  I saw red.

  They were dead. Every single one of them. I was going to stomp them all into the ground.

  “Don’t play hard to get, baby. You know you want us more than that loser you’re with.”

  Finally, I saw the top of her head. The three guys had her surrounded right outside the women’s bathroom. It was obvious she was in trouble, and not one motherfucking person was trying to help her. They walked widely around the group, men and women alike, watching the scene transpire between the rich assholes and the terrified woman.

  “I said, don’t touch me,” she yelled in one guy’s face, pushing him back. The other two only moved in closer, crowding her personal space even more.

  I was only a few yards away now, but there were still at least thirty people between us. I bulldozed through them, grabbed the first preppy I came to, and planted my fist in his face. “She said don’t fucking touch her, motherfucker.” He fell on his ass, making people scatter back like ants.

  As drunk as they were, the other two were slow to react. I pushed the next one up against the wall, punching him in the stomach so hard he bent over, puking on his five-hundred-dollar sneakers.

  “Sin!”

  Turning at the warning in Roanna’s voice, I caught the third guy’s fist as it came at my face, and I twisted his arm behind his back. Grabbing his product-filled hair, I snapped his head back. “You touch her again, and I’ll fucking break your neck.” I pushed him against the wall. He didn’t have time to catch himself, and his face hit the wall, hard.

  Several people gasped as he fell back, blood pouring from the gash on the bridge of his nose. He stumbled, tripping over his friend on the floor just as security appeared.

  I pulled Roanna into my arms, running my eyes over her to look for any visible signs she was hurt. Her face was pale, her entire body shaking. Around us, people were recording us, snapping pictures with their phones. They hadn’t bothered to help Roanna when she needed it, but they’d probably videoed the whole damn thing.

  “Sir, you’re going to have to come with us,” one of the guards said.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit a number. It rang twice before her voice filled my ear. “What do you need, Sin?”

  “Just wanted to let you know I’m probably going to be on TMZ in about twenty minutes,” I informed her.

  “Do I want to know why?” Emmie asked after a heavy sigh.

  “I might get arrested.”

  “That doesn’t explain the ‘why,’ dude.”

  “I just kicked three guys’ asses. They were harassing Ro. They’re lucky they aren’t dead.”

  There was a short pause on her end before her voice was in my ear again. “Tell me where you are. I’ll be there within the hour. Lucky for you, I’m still in the city with my husband.”

  I told her the name of the cinema where we were just as two of the
security guards put their hands on my shoulders. I shrugged them off, kissed the top of Roanna’s head, and released her long enough to pull my jacket off again and wrap it around her shoulders. Taking her hand, I gestured to the guard who appeared to be in charge.

  “Lead the way,” I told him.

  Chapter 18

  Roanna

  The cops came. An ambulance was called. One of the guys needed stitches; the gash on his nose was deep and hadn’t stopped bleeding.

  I sat in a chair in the cinema’s security office, a cup of tea loaded with sugar in my hands, warming my numb fingers. Sin stood behind me. Not speaking. Staring through the cops as Emmie ripped everyone in the room a new asshole.

  The security footage had already been played, showing the three guys harassing me—touching me. Showing Sin beating all three of them up like it was nothing. And then when they were no longer a threat, his arms holding me against him so tenderly it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

  “Miss,” one of the uniformed cops asked quietly now.

  “Ro,” Sin said close to my ear. “He’s talking to you.”

  “Do you want to press charges against these three?”

  I didn’t even look at the three guys in cuffs sitting on the floor against the wall. One would have to go to the hospital for the stitches. Another had a bruise on his jaw. The entire room smelled of the vomit still on the other guy’s shoes and clothes.

  Sin did all that. He took on all three of them.

  He saved me.

  Again.

  “I…I don’t know,” I told the man. “Would it even matter if I did?”

  “We can arrest them for assault since it clearly shows that they put their hands on you, but…”

  “But they’ll be out by the end of the night, and it really won’t make a difference,” I finished for him.

  “Most likely, miss. This one—” he nodded toward the three, but I didn’t look to see which one he was indicating “—is some judge’s grandson. Or so he keeps saying.”

  “I don’t give two fucks who his granddaddy is,” Emmie snarled. “If she wants to press charges, I will personally make sure they stick.”

  “But then they will press charges against Sin,” I protested.

  She shrugged. “Probably. It wouldn’t be his first arrest, though, and I’d have him out in an hour.”

  “No,” I said, putting the cup down and standing. “I won’t press charges if they swear not to press charges against Sin.”

  “Ro, don’t fucking worry about me. I’ll be fine.” He cupped my elbows, looking down at me with searching eyes. “I have Emmie to get me out of this. They won’t be able to do much anyway because there’s video proof I was saving you.”

  “I don’t care.” Tears filled my eyes, and I wasn’t able to blink them back before one spilled over. “I can’t stand the idea of you going to jail.”

  “Ah, sweet girl,” he groaned, pulling me against him. I felt his lips kissing my hair, heard his deep inhalation. His breath made me shiver as it brushed over my ear when he blew it out. “Whatever she wants, Emmie. I’ll stand behind her choice,” he told her resignedly.

  The room was quiet for a long moment with the exception of one of the three preppies groaning like he was dying. Probably the one who needed stitches. He’d been nothing but a whining little pussy ever since the other guards brought them in.

  Finally, Emmie spoke up, but her voice was so full of frozen rage it freaked me out a little. The fire-breather was spitting ice at everyone in her path now, and that was scary as fuck. “Fine,” she said. “But I want their names, phone numbers, and addresses. She may change her mind. There’s no time frame for her to press charges if she does, right?”

  “There is a two-year statute of limitations on assault,” someone told her.

  “I want their information.”

  “Ma’am, we can’t give you—”

  “Dude, just make it easier on yourself and give her whatever she wants,” Nik Armstrong advised from where he was leaning against the wall by the door. “I’m tired, and I’ve got to be at the studio by eight in the morning to start laying down tracks for a new album. You’ll be making my life easier, and hopefully, you won’t see her again. If you’re lucky.”

  “We can’t just give her personal information, Mr. Armstrong. That’s a violation of privacy.”

  “That girl won’t press charges against me anyway,” one of the preppies snarked. “She shouldn’t have been coming on to us if she didn’t want—”

  “Baby girl, get this shit dealt with before I end up being the one arrested,” Nik snapped.

  “Just his name,” Emmie told the cops. “You would have to give me that much anyway if we wanted to file a restraining order. Give it to me, and we can be out of your hair.”

  I heard a piece of paper being torn. “Here,” someone said. “That’s all three of their names. Take it with my blessing.”

  I lifted my head and met Sin’s eyes. “Can we go now?” I choked out.

  “Of course.” He glanced at Emmie over my head. “You got this?”

  “You know I do. I’ll be in touch.”

  Linking his fingers through mine, he walked me out of the security room and through the cinema. Outside, the cops’ two cruisers were parked right in front of the building. A camera flashing a few feet away had me gasping in surprise as the paps made themselves known, and Sin tucked my head down as we walked to his car.

  It wasn’t until we were in traffic that I began to relax a little.

  His hand clasped mine as he stopped for a red light. “You okay?”

  I shrugged. “I am now.”

  “I’m sorry, Ro. I never should have left you.” He exhaled with frustration. “I should have gone with you.”

  “This isn’t your fault,” I rushed to assure him. “We both needed to go to the bathroom, and it wasn’t like you could go with me. They were waiting when I came out.”

  “You should press charges.”

  “Not happening.”

  “Because of me? I told you not to worry about that. Emmie can handle anything that might happen if they try to file charges against me.”

  “I don’t even want to think about you in a jail cell,” I whispered, looking out the passenger side window without seeing the scenery.

  My phone went off, and I knew who it was before I even looked at the screen.

  “Hey, Aubree,” I greeted in a tired voice.

  “Sin beat the fuck out of three guys for you. That is beyond hot.”

  I closed my eyes, pressing my head into the seat. “So it’s already on TMZ?”

  “It’s everywhere,” she confirmed. “It’s the number one item trending on social media right now, actually. I’ve seen the same video from about ten different angles already. I’m kind of pissed I wasn’t there to see it live.”

  “Can we talk about this when I get home?”

  “Yeah, I’m just checking that you’re okay. And to have you tell Sin that I’m impressed with how he made that second douchebag puke so easily.”

  I lowered the receiver to relay the message. “Aubree says good job making that guy blow chunks.”

  His lips twitched with amusement. “Glad to provide some Monday night entertainment.”

  “Anyone get arrested?” Aubree asked.

  “No. I didn’t press charges—"

  “Why the fuck not?” she exploded before I could finish.

  “Because they could have turned around and pressed charges against Sin,” I told her calmly. “I’m not talking about this right now. I’ll be home soon.”

  “Fine,” she grumbled with a sigh.

  I hung up and dropped my phone into my lap, returning my gaze back to the passenger window.

  At the next red light, Sin’s fingers tangled in my hair. I turned, already anticipating his kiss, and met him halfway. It wasn’t one of the usual soft kisses or the hungry devouring ones. This was different on every level. His free hand cupped the side of my face a
s his lips teased over mine, making me promises I didn’t understand.

  A honk behind us had him lifting his head. The light was green now, and the car behind us was impatient for him to get moving.

  “Don’t shut me out.”

  I swallowed hard. “I’ll try.”

  That was all I could promise him right then.

  Chapter 19

  Sin

  “Do I want to know what happened last night?”

  I grunted at the sound of Kassa’s voice in my ear. I’d picked up my phone when I saw Gray’s number, but I should have known it would be her. “If you saw the videos circulating on social media and all the entertainment news channels, you already know what happened.”

  “Oh, I’ve seen plenty of those. Jace just said the Tainted Knights page is flooded with them too. I was more curious as to what happened before all of that took place.”

  “Not really in the mood to give you the rundown, Kas,” I told her. “You need anything else?”

  “Are you with Roanna?” she asked me point-blank.

  “If you’re asking if she is at my place right now, then no. If you’re asking if she’s mine, then fuck yeah, she is.” I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. “Satisfied?”

  “Immensely,” she said with a small laugh. “I didn’t think the day would come when Tate Sinclair would have a girlfriend. Honestly, I didn’t think there were still any women left you hadn’t already fucked or fucked over.”

  “Ha-fucking-ha,” I muttered. “I’m hanging up now.”

  “To go pick up your girlfriend?” she teased.

  “Bye, Kas.” I disconnected the call to the sound of her laugh. That sound had been missing lately, ever since her miscarriage. As annoyed as I was with her, I was still glad to hear it.

  Groaning, I got out of bed, needing a shower before I went over to Roanna’s.

  Less than an hour later, I was knocking on her door, breakfast in hand.

  Aubree opened the door for me, her brows rising at the drink carrier full of cups of coffee and the box of pastries I’d picked up on my way over. “That a bribe to let you in?”

  “If it needs to be.”

  She stepped back. “Ro is still asleep. She didn’t get much rest last night.”