Chapter Fifty Blake
Chapter Fifty
Blake
It was dark by the time I got back to the house.
I stopped short in my bedroom, seeing Creighton on my bed. He’d stopped having me followed, so either I was still being followed or . . . “West messaged you? A heads-up that he invited us to the center’s Christmas party?”
He moved to sit against the headboard. “A heads-up call. I think he’d rather work with you than remain civil with me. Is that what you two talked about? Are you and West going into business together? You want to off me and take over my network?”
I moved to my closet and pulled my shirt off over my head. Dropping the rest of my clothes, I tugged on his hoodie. No matter this recent time apart, I still slept in it. This one or the other five hoodies I’d liberated from him.
Padding barefoot to the bed, I crawled on top of it before hesitating, and then I just went for it.
I’d missed him.
I settled over his lap, straddling him.
His hands went to my hips, holding me in place, but he continued just to watch me. “This is a surprise. The meeting must’ve been very informative or very boring. Which was it, Blake?”
Oh yeah. I heard the bite again. He was pissed. “You’re trying to start a fight with me.”
“I’ve stayed away. I pulled my men from following you.
I stopped from following you. I helped that girl and her sister for you.
Now this? Now I’m getting a call from Tristian West that he had a conversation with you?
” His hands tightened on my thighs for a moment.
“If you’re upset that I’ve come to see you and you’re about to stick a knife in me, give a guy a little warning.
I’ll try and keep my body relaxed so you can stick it all the way through. ”
I closed my eyes, rested my forehead against his chest, and breathed him in.
God. I loved his scent. Pine trees and just him. I said there, “You’re not funny.”
“Not trying to be.” His hands smoothed out over my legs again. “What is this, Blake? I need the full rundown on what West talked to you about and if you want me to leave, I’ll go after that.”
Shaking my head, I lifted it to better see him. I didn’t want that.
As I did, some of the tension left him. His face softened.
I didn’t know Creighton’s face could soften.
He raised a hand to cup the side of my face, ran his hand down my chin.
His words came out soft too. “Is this the final goodbye? Have you decided to leave me? I moved heaven and hell to keep you safe from them, and the second the war is called off, you have a nice little chat with Tristian West. From a battle perspective, it’s slightly genius.
From a personal perspective, not a fan.”
I took his hand in mine and settled back on his lap.
“Stop.” My other hand slid down the front of his chest, and I ignored how his hands moved up underneath his hoodie on me.
My heart skipped a few beats. My body began to heat up.
“He showed up at the center when I was leaving. Said some things, but the gist is that he wants to move forward with all of us being civil.”
Creighton still wasn’t happy, eyeing me. “He said ‘some things.’ What things?”
Fisting the front of his shirt, I pulled him toward me, off of the wall. I began to lean in, intending to kiss him, but I remembered that I couldn’t. Not just yet.
Except . . .
Screw it.
I gave in.
I bit his bottom lip, ignoring his groan. “He was informative. Very informative.”
“Still not liking this conversation, but I’m enjoying this part of it.” His words were a cold challenge, but his eyes were molten.
I rocked over his lap, closing my eyes, because that felt good. He felt good.
I grinded over him a bit more.
His hands helped me, moving my body over him, and I was starting to forget he was annoyed with me.
He pulled back. “We need to talk.”
I growled briefly, but stopped and slumped over him.
My hands went to his chest, toying with his shirt.
“I know. I’m sorry. I knew when I came home that I’d need to talk to you about what West said, but .
. . I wanted to talk to you. If anything, I wanted to thank you for helping with Satya and her sister. ”
“That’s it? Just to thank me?” His hands went back to touching me, kneading my hips. “You were giving in? Just now? Or was this a onetime thing and then what? Back to telling me to stay away from you?”
“No.” I shook my head. That wasn’t fair to him.
“I—” Okay. Let’s do this. Really do this.
I moved to the side of the bed beside him, and positioned myself so I was facing him.
My legs crisscrossed, and I pulled a pillow to my lap.
Sinking my hands in the front pocket of his hoodie, I let out a sigh.
“I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see you, but I needed time away to figure out what I was thinking and how I felt about things. Marshall was shot. My housemates were kidnapped. Levi is still healing. Lassiter is . . .” He was spending time with someone who wasn’t us, and I couldn’t talk to him about Pialto. “You took four innocent people.”
He cursed under his breath. “I didn’t kill them. Scooter’s fine, by the way.”
“Who’s Scooter?”
“Never mind. I didn’t kill Walden, West, or either of their women.”
“Like that makes it better?”
“No.” He sighed. “I’ve already told you that you can’t put a leash on me.”
“Rules were no one good and no one innocent.”
He looked away. “There’s a lot of good people who do bad things.”
“I know.” I leaned forward and cupped his face, turning him to see me again. “You and I have already come to a compromise. You not killing Walden after he put a gun to my head, that’s huge progress.”
His eyes burned, and I was seeing how much it pained him not to do whatever he wanted to do against Walden.
Then, he blinked, and some of the burning had faded.
“I’d already taken him and tortured him prior.
I’ve tried reminding myself of those memories.
I wish I had taken video and I could replay it as much as I wanted. ”
My eyebrows went to my forehead, because that was morbid.
“Uh.” I waved that off. Different topic for a different day.
“I just needed space, and you gave it, and thank you. So West told you about seeing me, huh? That must’ve brought him such joy.
Being the one to tell you before you were told by anyone else. ”
He ran a gentle hand up the side of my face and tucked some stray hair behind my ears. “I got him back.”
I opened my eyes again. “What’d you do? And please tell me it’s not sending us into another war. Marshall already got shot. If Palma gets shot, I think Levi would revolt. So that leaves Heath, and I don’t think his brothers would be happy with you.”
“West’s brother-in-law is going to work for me.”
“Wha-what?” I blinked a few times. “His brother that you kidnapped?”
“His wife’s brother, and yes, I’ve been eyeing him. He wasn’t a part of West’s network. I approached, offered him a position in one of my clean businesses, and he took it.”
I blinked a few more times because that was kinda genius. “So you still ended up taking one of theirs after all.” I grinned, slowly. “I like it.”
“They took one of mine.”
Ah. I said faintly, “I wondered if you knew about Last.”
He watched me for a few seconds in silence.
I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but then he let out another sigh.
Reaching over, he took my hand in his, pulling it to his lap, and laced our fingers together.
“My shot didn’t go wide because West knocked into me.
I wanted it to go wide. West jumping when he did was cosmic timing. ”
“What do you mean?” I leaned forward, my free hand resting on his knee. “Why would you—” But I thought about it. There was only one explanation. “You did that to push him away?”
He shrugged, looking away, but I caught the flash there. It was something I’d only seen on his face when it came to me. Pain. A little bit of regret. He was feeling that about Lassiter. He cared. He did, about Last. About Levi.
He really was changing.
“Eight,” I whispered.
“He fought me on Pialto, so I knew there was already some interest there.”
A different thought came to me. “When did you learn Japanese?”
At my question, his eyes went flat again. Dead. My hand along with his fell with a thud to his flat stomach. “The first time I met someone who belonged to the Yakuza.”
“Are you serious?”
“Heath Nogoskeski was already in this house. There was a fire at the previous place Niko was living in. I had her transferred here. No one could move on the house unless they wanted to risk giving the Yakuza an excuse to launch their own push into the city as well. I had her assigned here as an added form of protection for you.”
“You orchestrated that?”
He wasn’t looking at my face. His gaze had fallen to our hands. He went back to tracing over our fingers.
“Hey.” I caught his chin and lifted it up. “Palma said they had another housemate who had to go back home. Something about a sick relative. Did you have a hand in that too?”
“I didn’t orchestrate her mom getting sick, but I did help open up their doctor’s schedule so they wouldn’t have to wait months to get the bad news.”
I wasn’t surprised anymore. “Were you behind the fire at Niko’s original place?”
His eyes flickered at me, but he didn’t comment.
I sighed, knowing what that meant. “What else should I know about?”
“Nothing major, but there’s a few things. Small things.”
My head was a mess. I knew he was capable of things like this, but to hear it all laid out, hearing that there was more, my mouth was suddenly so dry. My stomach dipped.
I had to ask. “Did you start this war because of me?”
He stilled, and for a second, his eyes blazed.
“Did you?”
“Two years ago, I saw a pamphlet for this school on your desk.”
I growled. “That’s not an answer.” Why wasn’t he answering me? It wasn’t like him. But then I thought about what he just said. I really thought about it.