Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
Asia
Jack wiped his knife on his pants. Steven lay on the ground. Dead.
“Get Elliot and get this body in the burn pit. I’ll drive the truck off the farm. The story will be he never made it here. Jack, we have to move. Now!” I snapped when he did nothing.
“Wait,” he said.
I moved towards the wheelbarrow myself, but stopped. “Wait for what?”
“You’re not going to ask me what happened? Doesn’t it matter?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, it doesn’t matter, Jack. What matters is what we do next. He’s dead. Once Christopher knows that, he’ll be here. We need to be prepared for that.”
Jack didn’t move an inch, apparently having decided that now was the perfect time for this conversation. “How long have you been letting them do this?”
I shook my head, not yet ready to give in. “Now is not the time, Jack.”
“It is.”
I sighed. “Too damn long. Sheriff Hayes ‘disappeared’ about a week after…you left. I tried to keep things steady.”
“But that’s over now,” Jack said.
“Exactly. That’s over now.”
I looked at him, and he looked at me. His expression was granite, but his voice was soft. “I did what had to be done, Asia. He was going to take the baby’s things.”
“You always do what has to be done, don’t you?”
“Always,” Jack said.
I sighed and rubbed my temple as I looked from Steven’s body to Jack to the storage shed. I pulled open the door and walked inside, Jack on my heels. I faced him. “So I was right. We do need to get ready because you just started a war.”
Jack
“No, not if I stop it first.”
Asia stared at me, her face impassive save for a questioning brow.
“I’m going to kill Christopher.”
She pursed her lips.
“For both of you,” I whispered.
“You never think about the consequences, do you?”
Her nostrils flared with anger, a feeling I matched.
“Like the consequences of just sitting here with my thumb in my ass?” I said.
“This isn’t about you, Jack. About what you need to do. Can you, for once, just think about everyone else?”
I huffed a disgusted laugh. “Right. Just like you are, huh? Pay your little tribute, kiss enough ass, and you’ll be safe. Is that the play?”
Her face shifted with a flurry of emotion that she almost instantly clamped down.
I ground out my words through clenched teeth. “You can’t be stupid enough to think that’s going to work. He’s not going to stop until he has this farm, until he has you under his thumb.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think I’m aware of everything that’s at stake? Everything I do is to try to keep this place going and keep these people safe!”
“It’s not fucking working. But I know what will.”
“You just don’t listen.” Her voice was raw, high pitched. Again, I watched her pull her emotions back in check. “Never mind. Fuck it. Do whatever you want, Jack. Nothing I say matters anyway.”
“Oh, give me a fucking break,” I said.
“What?”
“This is not a good look on you, Counselor.”
She looked positively murderous. “What did you say to me?”
“Oh, poor me. I have to make hard choices, and I had to kill Bridget. Boo-fucking-hoo.”
She tilted her head. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“Miles is a kid, and he doesn’t cry half as much as you do.”
She looked almost wounded, then scoffed. “Is that right? Big, bad super soldier doesn’t like the way I handle things. Should I shoot it instead? Or fuck it? Maybe that’ll fix the problem.”
“Maybe it will,” I responded.
I don’t know who moved first, me or her, but we met in the middle.
Her mouth hit mine like a fist and her hands at my chest were actual fists.
I grabbed her wrists, and she twisted free, shoving me again.
I let her. She stared at me, her eyes daring me. She shoved me again, curled her fingers against my chest, leaving little crescent moon indents. Then she leaned forward and pressed her lips against my cheek, sucked at the skin and then bit down.
That sharp sting sent a dark surge through me.
I grabbed the back of her neck and crushed my lips against her. It was no more a kiss than hers was and that confrontation, lips crushed against lips, teeth against teeth, had my cock hard enough to hammer nails.
Her back hit the wall even though I had no recollection of us moving.
It didn’t matter. I had her body trapped like she had all of me trapped, and I would use it to my advantage.
I stripped her down and stared at her nakedness, letting my gaze rake her body.
She stared back at me, her head tilted in defiance.
I looked down, taking in her pebbled nipples, the soft round of her stomach, her thick thighs, the dark hair that covered her mound slick with wetness that I knew shamed her.
“Fuck you,” she spat.
“You will.” I reached for my belt and opened my pants.
She went to shove me again, but I caught her wrists and lifted them above her head. She didn’t try to fight me. Her pride wouldn’t let her.
Eyes still glued on hers, I jerked my dick in harsh strokes. Her gaze followed every motion, her breasts shaking with the force of her exhales.
She was pissed.
She wanted me.
She was pissed because she wanted me.
Good.
I used my free hand to grab her thigh and wrenched her leg open. She rested her leg against my hip, and I saw the way her jaw clenched when she realized what she did. Huffed out when I rammed my cock into her pussy in one unrelenting thrust.
She took all of me, her eyes fiery as she melted around me.
I didn’t let her sink into the feeling, didn’t let myself get lost in the fit, the wetness, the absolute perfection of being inside her.
One guttural moan and I moved, fucking her so hard her tits bounced in a frantic rhythm. I let go of her wrists and grabbed her other thigh and held her open as I speared her with my cock. I grabbed her thigh and hooked it around my hip.
Squeezed her ass hard enough to leave prints that I couldn’t wait to trace with my tongue, the wet, nasty slap of skin on skin covering our harsh breath.
I knew she didn’t mean to, but I smiled when she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. Her eyes flashed with rage.
Also good.
I smiled even bigger.
She bit my shoulder, and at the sting of her teeth, my cock jumped and swelled inside her.
I shifted, driving deeper, harder, until she gasped, until her face was finally open, the first real glimpse of her—my Asia.
It didn’t last.
“Fuck you, Jack.” Her voice trembled, but her eyes were firm.
I laughed. “You are.”
Eyes defiant, she clenched around me so hard I saw stars. I pressed my thumb against her clit and her whole body jerked.
Her eyes flashed.
I pressed harder.
“Jack—”
She came with a sound that was more scream than moan, her walls pulsing around me, her legs shaking, her nails digging into my skin.
I held off as long as I could but came seconds later, feeling like I always did when I was inside her.
She pushed against my shoulders. I held her a second longer and then let her down.
She stumbled, and I didn’t reach out to steady her.
I would let her have that much.