10. Chloe
Chloe
“You seriously sucked his dick?” Stella eyes me from her spot on the couch next to Stone, trying very hard—and failing—to keep the judgment out of her tone.
I avoid her stare and tap my phone screen until the music flicks on, and the familiar tunes of my mother’s favorite classic rock songs begin flowing through the speakers.
If we’re talking about Colin, I need some background noise to drown out Stella’s berating—as well intentioned as I think she is.
“I plan to do a lot more than that, babe.”
She rolls her eyes, crossing her arms and leaning back into the couch with a huff. “You realize you’re basically asking to get caught at this point, right?”
I stay quiet this time. Not because I feel judged, but because getting caught has always been part of the plan—at least getting caught by Colin. I just have expectations besides a jail cell at the end of it all.
Maybe I am deluding myself with the idea that Colin will accept me for who I am once he understands my motives.
But look at him, pretending to be a good person while he goes around, breaking into my house, following me, and spewing threats.
I am not without fault here, but his honor is dimpled with indecency, too.
“He’s not going to love you once he finds out who you are, Chloe.
He’s going to put you in prison, just like he’s been promising to do this whole time.
I don’t know what other endgame you’ve conjured up in that mind of yours, but it’s not going to happen.
” Stone gives her thigh a gentle squeeze, urging her to settle down, and I give him a grateful but that’s-not-necessary smile.
Stella has a right to be upset. It’s not just myself that I’m putting in the crosshairs of Colin’s sights by wanting to win him over. We all might end up going down in the end, and I’d be stupid to think I was being unselfish in my pursuit of him.
I take the edge of my lip between my teeth, staying quiet, willing the softly playing music to calm me, but it seems to do the opposite. My limbs tingle with uncertainty. I wish Maeve were here to jump to my defense.
When I hear Stella speak like this, it makes total sense, and I agree with her completely. How could I expect someone like him to love someone like me? A cop and a murderer? There’s not a worse match to be made.
But when he’s around me, when he shows up in force over and over again, when he can’t keep his hands off me and can’t resist drawing his lips close to mine, it’s not hatred for me that I see reflected in his eyes.
He’s afraid to admit he’s drawn to me by more than just a desire to take me down, and he might hate himself for it.
He hasn’t found a shred of evidence to connect me to anything, but his gut is telling him I’m up to no good—and his gut is right. His gut is in conflict with his desire for me. I felt it when he tangled his hand into my hair while I was on my knees in front of him and he told me to keep going.
He wants more than to take me down, he wants me, and I recognize his drive to take me down as an argument against his instinct to lay me down in bed.
And we could be so much more than that, too.
We both want the same thing: justice. My route to fair and just resolution happens to look very different than his. But we’re the same, and he needs to see that. He has to.
The front door opens and closes, and Maeve breezes into the room, sinking into the couch next to me. “Witnesses are taken care of,” she chirps with a wink. I raise my eyebrows at her, a silent question to how exactly they are taken care of.
Stella and I may be willing to go to extreme lengths to end cycles of torture and abuse, but Maeve is best suited in the role she’s been in for years: admin support.
And Stone, while doing a lot of prep and post-clean up for the messes Stella and I kick up, doesn’t tend to get his hands that dirty. At least as far as I know.
Maeve shrugs, a sly smile creeping onto her lips. “None of them can be certain of the person they saw behind the wheel,” she says. “Not after I told them I was also there that day and am positive it was some biker chick with a shaved head and a scary looking boyfriend in the passenger seat.”
I snort, because that description doesn’t match a single one of us in the slightest. And even if the witnesses originally reported someone similar to me, it’s possible they’ll change their initial report, and that will only make them seem unreliable in the eyes of the court system.
“You drove all the way out there just to fuck with witnesses?”
She presses her hand to her chest, scoffing.
“You act like I wouldn’t do something like that.
” She gives me a cheeky smile. “But not exactly. There was a bridge I wanted to hit up, too. I heard rumors there was an artist who came through here recently, so I wanted to check out her work and leave a little of me behind.”
“Two birds with one stone,” Stone offers blankly.
“Exactly.”
Maeve’s demeanor shifts when she senses the tension in the room, her gaze bouncing between the three of us with concern. “What happened?”
“Chlo handcuffed Colin in her garage,” Stone tells her. Maeve whips her head around toward the garage door, her eyes wide.
“I let him go,” I assure her.
“After she blew him,” Stella adds, causing Maeve to toss her head back and release a cackle into the air.
“Well, it was, like, in the middle of blowing him,” I argue.
“You are batshit crazy,” Maeve teases.
“This is not funny, Maeve,” Stella chastises. “He’s literally going to throw us all in prison. Stone and I still have a lot of work to do.” She glances at Stone who gives her a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder.
I can tell Maeve wants the dirty details of my escapade with Colin, but she slides herself off the couch and moves around the coffee table, lowering herself to her knees in front of Stella.
“Babe,” she says, taking Stella’s hands in hers.
“Nobody’s going to prison. Chloe would never do anything to put us in danger.
Right, Chlo?” She bends her neck back toward me, her eyes soft.
I meet Stella’s watery gaze and move to sit between her and Stone on the couch, throwing my arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to me.
“Of course. I would never. I would kill anyone before they could even think about hurting any of us.”
Stella laughs softly, which is a good sign, her potential tears subsiding. “Technically, that’s against the rules.”
“Rules, schmules,” I joke.
Colin can toss me in prison all he wants.
If it comes to that, I will hand myself over to him on a silver platter, and I’ve already been trying to come up with a plan to ensure Maeve, Stella, and Stone face no repercussions for anything I might end up going down for.
We’re all in this together, all following our own leads, but a lot of our recent activity has been centered around me and mine.
I simply will not let them go down for it.
But of course, I could never bring myself to hurt someone who didn’t deserve it. I don’t have that type of bad blood in my body.
The sound of a large clatter from the garage makes us all jump, and I rise from the couch, eyeing the door through the kitchen.
“You sure he’s not still in there?” Maeve whispers to Stone.
“Maybe one of those animals has come back to life,” he whispers back, gripping her knee until she’s wiggling and giggling.
“Stay here,” I tell them, crossing to the garage door and disappearing inside.
I smile when I see Colin leaning inside my mother’s Suburban. I cross to him quietly, pinching his sides and scaring the shit out of him.
“Back for more?” I tease.
His eyes shade over with darkness, and he wraps his hand around my throat, walking me backward until my head hits the wall.
I smirk under the grip of his hand. That blowjob must have made him extra feisty.
“There are witnesses,” he growls.
“Of what?” I squeak.
“Of you. At the crime scenes. In that vehicle.” He nods back toward my mother’s vehicle.
Was he looking for evidence of some sort in there? Knowing how thoroughly Stone works and how seriously he takes his role in our group, I highly doubt he’d find any.
“Impossible,” I whisper, holding his stare. “Why don’t you tell me why you really came by?”
I swallow when he curves his hand around the side of my throat, his thumb positioned under my chin to lift it higher.
“You can’t stay away from me, detective,” I taunt. “Why is that?”
He pushes his thumb harder against my chin, bending my neck and lifting my lips closer to his, his light eyes stormy with conflict.
“Do it.” The words leave my lips in a quiet, desperate demand. He flinches almost imperceptibly, and that fickle hatred flitters off into the background, his eyes crystal clear with everything he always tries to hide. Just fucking do it already.
Stone clears his throat awkwardly from the doorway, and Colin releases me, taking a large step back. Damn.
“My friends are here,” I say tightly.
He glares at my three friends hovering in the doorway. “I can see that.”
“Don’t stop on account of us,” Maeve quips. “That was just starting to get interesting.”
He turns his glare to me, hoisting a finger in my direction. “Don’t leave town,” he demands before storming out the way he came.
“You see,” I explain to Stella, moving back into the house and falling onto the couch dramatically. “He loves me.”
“You are out of your mind,” she says. “But…I can kind of see what you mean. It kind of looked like he was about to kiss you.”
“I know. It’s crazy.”
Maeve drops onto the couch beside me, running her hand through my hair. “Well, he won’t have to worry about you leaving town tonight, because we’re going to a party.”
Stone urges Stella toward the front door, explaining that they have errands to run and they’ll come back to pick me up later.