Chapter 24
C onnor
The industrial steel flooring under my boots rang with my footsteps. Reaching Everly, I tossed my stripped, bloodied shirt to the floor at her feet then pulled her against me.
To our side, Arran picked up Genevieve, carrying her down a level. I paid them no further thought.
Everly braced herself on my chest, her gaze darting over my hairline and to my neck. “You’re covered in blood.”
“So are ye, now.”
Everly gazed down. Dark patches bloomed on her pale shirt where we’d touched, which meant it would need to be burned with my things. I was ruining a lot of her clothes.
Her focus came back to me.
Inexplicably, my heart raced. “Did that frighten ye?”
Slowly, she shook her head.
I kept speaking. “I’ve been doing this for over a decade in one form or another, starting with Phillips whose final words heard was me telling him his death was in your name. He laid his hands on ye, and his death gave me a purpose. I’m good at this. I have no intention of stopping.” I cupped her head, staring deep into her eyes. “This is me. The rawest form. I stalk the stalkers. I eviscerate the men who hurt. I don’t have the same limits others do, and that includes with ye.”
“You’d never harm me.”
“Never,” I vowed. “I’ll never let ye go either.”
I reached for my back pocket and extracted a packet. Popped a pill and held it up for her. “A sedative. You’ll be able to hear and feel but barely move. It takes time to work, so swallow it now.”
She stared at the pill. Licked her lips. “I was planning to talk to Riordan this evening.”
“I need to talk to him, too. It can wait until tomorrow.”
“He lost his job today because of me. Don’t be unkind to him.”
“I’m going to make him an offer. He’s telling the truth. The DNA test came back in. The two of ye are half siblings.”
“What DNA test? When did you…? Never mind. That’s good to know.” She sucked in a breath. “Actually, no. Connor, if you want to do something like that in future, you have to ask.”
I clenched my jaw. “No.”
She shot daggers at me with her glare.
“Giving ye a choice means ye get to refuse me.”
Some of the power went out of her. “Then you’ll have to risk that.”
“I told ye I’m keeping ye. It’s your choice if you’re conscious or not outside of sex.”
Everly choked on laughter. “I half think you’re being serious.”
From the rebound of pain in my chest, I nearly was. I needed this. Needed to take her home and fuck her while decorated in the blood of a man who’d died at my hands. She liked being out of control and unable to make her own decisions. She’d take the pill.
Everly accepted it from my fingers but held it up. “What kind of offer did you mean for Riordan?”
“We’ll bring him in. His sisters are skeleton crew. He’s on the fence, but the Four Milers want him. If Red puts his mind to it, he could trap Riordan into working for them by some method of forcing his hand. We’ll claim him first.”
Her breathing softened. “You’d do it to protect him.”
“Or not have him as an enemy. He’ll have a choice. Publicly join us or go undercover like Convict.”
I saw the connection in her mind of what she’d seen of me and Arran kicking Convict out. Another secret shared.
“Won’t that be dangerous?”
“He’s in danger just by existing. Can’t change that now. Take the fucking pill, Everly.”
She dead-eyed me then tossed the tablet to the back of her throat and swallowed. I kissed her, running my arms around her to hold her body to mine.
Against the rush of river water came the distinctive sound of flesh smacking together. Arran and Genevieve. So public of them. I was taking my woman home.
Snatching up my shirt, I led Everly out of the boathouse and down the short flight of stairs. Skeleton crew members melted out of the shadows, waiting on my command. A fire had already been lit in a barrel, and I tossed my shirt into it then shucked my jeans, feeding the flames.
“Everyone turn the fuck around,” I shouted.
As one, the crew gave us their backs.
I stripped Everly’s top and burned that, too. At my car, I grabbed my spare shirt for her, though hiding her body from me was a crime, then ordered our escort to split. Two cars followed us out onto the industrial estate’s main road, and two stayed with Arran. Between them and the clean-up crew who would handle the vehicle detailing later, we had a solid method.
Music played on low, ‘Come Through’ by Rui, Voluptu?us.
In my passenger seat, Everly settled back with a sigh. “You promised that I’d be able to talk to you this evening. That once you showed me yours, I could show you mine.”
“Why do ye think I doped ye?”
She glowered. I hit the accelerator.
I didn’t want her story. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need my forgiveness for breaking us apart, and I’d already told her to keep it in the past.
“You’re such an asshole,” she slurred.
Good. The sedative was already taking effect.
With a sigh, she placed her hand on my thigh. I enclosed it with mine and shifted it to my inner leg. Squeezed.
Everly moaned. “God, that was a deeply sexy move.”
With a wrench of the steering wheel, I pulled over, nothing around us but strips of grassland bordering concrete forecourts, and further on, the ‘Welcome to Deadwater’ sign. Once, Everly had told me how the city came to have such a grim name—something to do with the effect of the river water meeting the sea further down at the coast. It had been a big part of the draw for both Arran and me. It warned incomers of what to expect when they entered our city. Else the water take them away.
The cars monitoring us formed a defensive position, one crew member popping his door but holding off when I lifted a pausing hand.
From the hedgerow, I picked a spray of autumn wildflowers. Tall stems of tiny white and yellow blooms and stiff grasses. Took them back to the car and handed them to Everly.
“You always loved flowers.”
“You giving them to me while half naked and covered in blood is doing something strange to my heart.” Her hand rested softly on her chest.
Right over the heart that belonged to me.
All I knew was how mine would fucking break if she reasoned and excused away our history. I’d loved Everly Makepeace since I was sixteen years old and I’d never once stopped.
For much longer, I wouldn’t be able to hide the fact her father had me by the balls. With a single phone call, he could put me behind bars, and I’d be taken away from Everly for good. Which meant, as always, that to gain the future I wanted, I needed to act first.