Chapter 42
CHAPTER 42
Heath
“Enough!” the shop owner screeches.
Ivy grabs the dress and pulls it back up, her face growing redder by the second. “Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
“Get out!” the lady yells.
I step into her aura, and she backs away. “No. Not before I’ve bought these dresses.”
The old lady’s eyes widen. “What?”
“You heard me.” I glare at her while she cowers underneath me. “I want to buy these. Go to the cash register.” When she doesn’t move fast enough, I clap my hands in front of her face, and she dashes off.
I grab the outfits off the rack in the booth and tear the tag off the one Ivy’s wearing now.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Turn around.”
After she’s done what I asked, I zip her back up.
“Gorgeous.”
The blush that follows is all I need before I march toward the cash register and put down all the outfits she’s had on. Then I slam my card down in front of the old lady, who just stares at me with a blank face.
“Which one?” she asks.
“ All of them.” A smug smile spreads on my face. “Including the one she has on.”
“Oh no, please, I can’t pay for this,” Ivy mutters as she comes up behind me with her old clothes.
“That’s fine because I won’t allow it,” I say as I swipe my card.
The old lady starts packing up the outfits one by one, glaring at us both with disdain.
“But I can’t pay you back. Not for any of this,” Ivy says.
I turn my head to look at those beautiful eyes that have managed to mesmerize me so. “I don’t expect you to. It’s a gift.” I snatch the bag off the counter and push it into Ivy’s hand. “No strings attached.”
She swallows as I grab her other hand and take her out of the store with me, back to the car. I open the passenger’s side door and wait until she’s inside before I run over to the driver’s side and jump in too.
But the moment I start the car, she gazes off into the distance, distracted by whatever thoughts are swirling through her head.
“I recognize that look,” I say.
“What look?” she retorts.
“The one where you wistfully stare off into the distance instead of saying what you really think.”
She narrows her eyes.
“I do it all the time,” I add with a lopsided smile.
“It just … feels wrong to take these.” She glances down at the bag.
“Why? They’re my gift to you.”
She looks my way, concern contorting her face. “Because I don’t normally wear any of these. Each one costs more than a month of rent.” She takes in a deep breath. “We fucked, and I go back to the Skull and Serpent Society with this.”
I grasp her chin to make her look at me. “I didn’t pay you to have sex with me, Ivy. You did that out of your own volition.”
She makes a face and turns away from me.
I hit the gas in response, frustrated that I can’t get through to her because I can’t find the goddamn words I need.
Why does this have to be so complicated?
“Fuck the deal,” I grit.
“But—”
“No. You’re not a whore. Even if we treat you like one. Even if we love making you feel like our whore. That doesn’t make you one because whores sell their body, and I wouldn’t fucking let anyone else touch you, ever. If anyone even so much as tried, I’d chop off their hands.”
Her eyes widen, and she immediately tucks her hair behind her ear like she was shocked she got caught listening.
“Yes. Tuck that hair behind that ear because I need you to hear me out.” My dick twitches from the mere idea of reminding her who she belongs to once more even though I just had my way with her. “No one else fucking touches you. We own you. You are our whore when we want you to be, but we will fucking treat you like a princess if you let us.” I slide my hand up her neck and caress her cheek. “So take the goddamn gift, Ivy. Let me spoil you.”
A hint of a smile forms on her lips before she turns away again.
But I saw it. And I’ll definitely remember it.
Ivy
The moment we get home, I jump out of the vehicle and shut the door before he has a chance to do it himself.
Because my God, I couldn’t take my eyes off those muscular arms and those hands as they wrapped around the steering wheel, controlling the car just like he’d controlled me in that changing room.
My heart is racing, but I had to get out of there as fast as possible.
That man did something to me in that booth that should be illegal. It felt straight-up raunchy and so freaking good, I was nearly ready to beg for more.
I clutch the bag close and glance down at the expensive outfits he just bought especially for me because I told him I didn’t have anything to wear, and for some reason, it makes me blush.
Goddammit. What have these guys done to me?
His car door slams shut, and I push back the thoughts.
“You didn’t wait for me,” he says.
“I needed some fresh air.”
“Could’ve told me. I would’ve put on the AC,” he replies, grabbing the cat supplies from the trunk. “You feeling okay?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” I say, pushing myself off the car.
“No need to thank me. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to,” he says as we both walk up toward the Skull and Serpent Society.
“Which is what, exactly?” I ask. “Making Max jealous?”
He flinches briefly, but I noticed.
I have to remember who these boys are and their purpose: To use me as a toy, a plaything to be discarded the moment they’re done with me.
And who will protect Cora and me then?
I swallow back the lump in my throat at the thought of being out there by ourselves again without a safe landing spot.
I can’t rely on anyone but me.
I head inside the house, but the moment I try to place down my bag filled with clothes, a hand wraps around my wrist. Silas drags me closer to him. “Where were you?”
“Out. With me,” Heath growls back.
“To do what exactly?” Silas’s eyes travel down my body, and he checks me out thoroughly. “Shop?”
I drop the bag on the floor. “Heath got me clothes because I didn’t have any.”
Heath plops the cat supplies on the table. “And food for Bagel.”
Silas does not seem amused at all, and his eyes are visibly twitching. “Do you know how fucking dangerous that is?”
Heath frowns. “It was just a few shops.”
“Those fuckers are out there looking for her, and you chose to drive off without any fucking protection?” Silas growls. “She could’ve died.”
My eyes widen.
Fuck. He’s right.
I could’ve died at any point, and then Cora wouldn’t have anyone left to take care of her.
“She didn’t,” Heath retorts. “She’s here, in the flesh, as I’m sure you can see.”
Max approaches from the kitchen. “What’s going on here?” He’s still eating a sandwich but stops immediately when he spots the furious look on Silas’s face. And Heath.
“Heath took Ivy on a little shopping trip.”
“Sounds nice, what’d you get?” Max asks before his eyes finally land on my dress.
And the sandwich nearly drops from his mouth. “Wow.”
“A couple of outfits and dresses as you can see.” Heath holds up the bags, but Max still won’t look at him and eyes me up and down instead.
“Where’s Cora?” I ask in a hurry.
“Taking a nap in her own bed. I wore her out with games,” Max replies, smiling. “Don’t worry, she’s as safe as can be.”
Silas steps in. “Heath, flaunting your goddamn money doesn’t warrant going out there in broad daylight without a fucking weapon,” he grits. “And she is not prepared.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Silas grabs my arm and drags me across the floor to the stairs.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Fine, I’ll bring some weapons next time if that will ease your conscience,” Heath yells, but Silas ignores him as he hauls me all the way upstairs and through the corridors.
“Silas!” I grit, but he still refuses to tell me, so I jerk free of his grip right as we enter a room.
A whole goddamn room filled with weapons.
My eyes bulge as I turn and look around at the multitude of knives, guns, clubs, whips, and all the sharp tools one could need for a job called murder.
Jesus Christ.
“What is this place?”
“Our weaponry.”
“That sounds medieval,” I jest even though I know this is no fucking joke.
“As medieval as the torture that’s dished out by the people we kill,” he says, ripping a big-ass knife off the shelves. “I kill for sport, but most of my victims … they’re the worst kind of criminals who don’t deserve to see the daylight.” He turns toward me, pointing the knife at me. “And those are the kind of fuckers after you right now.”
I gulp.
He flips the knife over and holds the handle out to me. “Take it.”
“And then what?”
A devilish smirk forms on his face. “We train.”
Max
The moment the door to the weaponry closes, I turn around and walk back into the kitchen, determined to finish that goddamn sandwich. They might’ve eaten breakfast already, but man was I busy entertaining Cora while they went off to shop. She is one goddamn tornado.
I wore her out with some much-needed races up and down the stairs by pretending to be a crook while she played the cop before she finally collapsed in her bed again. The little munchkin really didn’t get enough sleep yesterday. Or maybe she just likes taking naps to get her energy back up. Who knows.
“I don’t care what Silas says, I spoiled Ivy, and I’m damn proud of it.”
Heath’s voice behind me makes me stop chewing my sandwich immediately.
“She needed the escape, and I needed the release.”
The release?
My throat feels clamped shut as my heart sinks into my shoes. “You fucked her?”
I ask the question before I even dare to look at him. But the smug smile on his face confirms my thoughts.
“Her pussy was so goddamn wet for me …” he growls as he steps closer and closer, removing the space between us. “And when she came all over my goddamn cock, she screamed my name. Not yours. Mine .” He taps my chest so hard I flinch.
“I …” I swallow. “If she wanted it, who am I to stop you?”
His brows furrow even more. “What?”
“You two made that deal with her,” I say. “I can’t stop you. I won’t.” I push back the tears. “But if you’re trying to make me jealous, job well done.”
I waltz off and head into the game room where the bar is, and I grab myself the scotch I never go for and pour one out, downing it in one go. I cough and heave, but the burn is not enough to quench the fire raging in my chest.
The giant TV in the back crackles from the fake fire being displayed on it while I just try to breathe.
Breathe, Max. Breathe.