Chapter 20 Caius #2
She doesn’t move as I answer and step onto the back patio, the warm wind hitting my cheeks.
The voice on the other end is pure venom.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Montgomery,” Rhett says. No greeting. No wasted syllable. “You know what you did?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I saved a life.”
He laughs, high and brittle. “You torched your own legacy. The Kings want your head. Board is melting down. My father’s already threatened to unperson you.”
“Not the worst threat I’ve had lately.”
“You’re a joke, man. You think you’re a hero? You think that girl’s worth dying for?”
I let the silence stretch. “Yeah. I do.”
There’s a long pause. I can hear the click of his lighter, the slow drag of a cigarette.
“You always were a psycho,” he says, quieter.
“Takes one to know one.”
He sighs, heavy, like he’s breathing out the whole world.
“You got a plan?” Rhett asks.
“Hide. Wait. See who comes.”
He grunts. “If it’s my father, run.”
I smirk, knowing the brother of the Vicious Kings Don was one to be feared. “Noted.”
Another pause, then: “They have my runner chosen. My Hunt begins in two months. You want me to burn it all down, or play the game?”
He’s giving me the choice. The one thing none of us ever had.
“Claim your girl,” I say. “Live. Even though I despise those animals, they gave me O, and I can’t hate them for that.”
“You sure?”
I look through the glass at Ophelia, her forehead pressed to the window, fists balled at her sides. The world is so fucking ugly, but she’s the only thing in it worth saving.
“Yeah,” I say. “If we all go down, there’s no one left to rewrite the rules.”
Rhett makes a sound, half laugh, half sob. “You’re a better strategist than I gave you credit for.”
“Let me know when you’re out.”
“Always,” he says. “And—Caius?”
“Yeah?”
“If you need me, call. Day or night.”
I almost say thank you, but I bite it back. “Don’t die, Rhett.”
He hangs up without another word.
I stand in the cold, letting it bite through my skin. I want it to hurt.
Inside, Ophelia is watching. She mouths: Are you okay?
I nod.
She opens the door, her hair whipping around her face. “Everything good?”
“Better than it could be,” I say.
She steps onto the patio, her feet bare and pink from the cold. She doesn’t care. She just leans into me, her arms around my waist, her face tucked under my chin.
I hold her there, in the thin winter sun, the wind off the lake slicing through us both.
There’s a future out there, somewhere. Maybe it’s ugly. Maybe it’s short.
But at least it’s ours.
For once, that’s enough.
I turn, bury my face in her neck, and breathe her in.
“I’ll never let go,” I say, words so quiet I’m not sure if she hears. “Things may seem shit right now, but they’ll get better. We have options.”
Suddenly, she giggles. “I’m done with it all, I’ve reached my limit of drudgery, I want to live. To be free. To have fun!” She pauses, her eyes bright, cheeks pink as she stares at me. “You know, I always thought safe houses were ugly as fuck, but this view is wild. Let’s go swim!”
“Are you crazy? It’s cold!”
“Scared of me seeing your dick when it’s small and wrinkly?”
I grab her and bite at her neck before chuckling. “Nah, if you wanna go swimming, little vixen, let’s go.”
She hollers and pulls on my arm and off we race down to the shore.
She kicks off her shoes, skin already blue, and gives me a look. A dare.
“Bet you won’t,” she says.
I strip out of my boots, then my socks, then roll up my jeans and wade in after her. The water is liquid fucking pain, needles up the shins, but she’s already ankle-deep, shrieking as she hops over the waves.
She splashes at me, pelts my chest with slush. I lunge, grab her by the waist, and haul her up. She screams, kicking, but her laughter is wild, honest. I dump her into a shallow pool, then dive in after, knocking her over. She comes up fighting, hair plastered to her cheeks, mouth open with shock.
We wrestle in the water, rolling over each other, until I pin her to the sand. She’s shivering, but she’s still smiling, still clawing at my arms like she wants to tear the flesh off.
“You’re insane,” she says.
“Look who’s talking.”
She bucks under me, twisting until she gets a knee between my legs, and I let her. She flips us, straddling my hips, hands braced on my chest. Her hair falls like a curtain, hiding us from the rest of the world.
The air is full of her, salt and skin, the reek of fear replaced by something sweeter.
She bends, lips at my ear. “Do it, then,” she says. “Ruin me.”
I grab her by the thighs and drag her closer.
She’s soaked, cold, but her mouth is warm, tongue alive against mine.
I bite her lip, hard enough to taste copper, and she moans into it, grinding down on my cock.
Unsurprisingly, my shriveled dick springs to life as her warm pussy slides up and down over my jeans.
She leans back and upzips my pants, freeing me before sliding her panties to the side. Blue lips, goosebumps over her flesh, teeth clacking, but my vixen wants it. She needs it.
The pain makes her feel alive.
Makes her understand that all of this wasn’t for nothing.
It was to build everything.
We fuck right there, in the freezing shallows, her legs locked around me, arms tight at my neck. Every thrust is a shock, water and sand grinding at our skin, but she doesn’t care. She wants it. She wants me.
She rocks against me, harder, faster, until she’s screaming into my mouth, nails carving blood into my chest. I let go, flipping her back onto the sand, give her everything, holding her down so she can’t escape, not that she’d want to.
When it’s done, I fall on top of her, chest heaving.
There’s sand and water and seaweed everywhere.
Neither of us look pretty and I’m fairly certain there’s grit in my asshole, but I don’t give a fuck.
I wrap my arms around her, keeping her from the wind, and just hold her. Neither of us says a word.
The cold seeps in, but it doesn’t matter. The ache in my bones is nothing compared to the way her body fits against mine, every inch perfect, like we were cut from the same fucking piece.
She shivers, then laughs, breath clouding above us.
“You’re such a brute,” she says, voice soft.
“And you love it,” I answer.
She runs her fingers down my chest, over the scars, the bite marks she left. “Yeah,” she says. “I do.”
We lay there for a couple minutes, staring at the sky, letting the world creep back in.
She kisses me, slow and sweet, then rolls off, standing and brushing sand off her skin. It’s futile. She looks like sandman.
I follow suit and tuck my cock back in my pants before we walk back to the house and turn on the showers, warming our cold bodies and washing off our sins.
We stay in there for a while, side by side, staring at the future written in each others eyes.
“Well, if we’re gonna be here a while, we may as well have fun and live life to the fullest. Let’s order in some food and get this place heated.
I saw your bear rug and I’ve always wanted to fuck on a rug in front of a fire, just like in the movies.
” Her voice softens as we turn the water off and get out.
She turns to face me, cupping my chin. “I love you, Cai.”
For the first time, I believe in it.
I believe in her.
And I believe, just for a second, that we might actually make it.
“I love you too, O.”