23. Daphne Let’s #2
Everything inside me went bone white, and I could do nothing but bury my head in the safety of Thay’s shoulder.
How the hell did he know?
“I want to punch that guy’s dick off,” Thay added while he stalked to the rented black Wrangler parked in the distance.
“Then why didn’t you?” Wolfe accused, looking at my man as if he had lost his edge. Thay pulled back, staring at my face before he set me in the passenger seat.
“Because Daphne is more important than that jock fuck right now.”
“Which is exactly why,” Wolfe jumped into the backseat, planting a kiss on my cheek, “you should have castrated that manipulative piece of shit.”
“Stop,” I sighed, waiting for Thay to climb in next to me. “He is not a bad guy. He’s just…” I searched for the word. “Normal. Leave him alone.”
Wolfe let out a chuckle that sounded more like a knife.
“No fucking way, Princess.”
Thay shut the door with an uneventful thud, reclining back into the seat without so much as a glance in my direction. Instead, he lifted his chin to the open roof where the warm Maine sun broke against the leather.
“What happened to Christopher?” I turned, catching Wolfe’s interest in Thay’s behavior. How long had he been this way, and why didn’t he tell me?
“Blade was shot last night during a job, but he is okay.”
A sickly thing curled into me at the sound of his words, because this was the reality we could never speak of, not to each other and not to ourselves; you couldn’t survive otherwise.
“We removed the bullet and stopped the bleeding, but I am afraid worse things are happening.”
I peered at Thay, who only tensed at the neck, bracing for what felt like impact.
He was falling…
I felt it in my body. In the curdled way, his throat was screaming! The flailing of his arms suspended in the air.
He was angry… with me.
Wolfe’s news would have to wait.
Without thinking, I curled my fingers under the loose-fitting tee I was wearing and shrugged it off to expose my naked chest and the baby pink bra I had slept in the night before.
“Not that I am not loving this, but this might be a little too hot for Maine,” Wolfe bit out with a smirk, perching a brow when I climbed over the partition to straddle the ticking time bomb behind the steering wheel.
Thay’s body went taut when my thighs swept over his, catching my gaze in a dark accusation. He was sick and famished, but then again… so was I.
Carefully, I moved and hooked my fingers at the hem of his shirt, but he caught my wrist, holding it in place with a snarl. I could sense Wolfe’s unease, but he did not say a word under the shadows.
This was between Thay and me.
“You left me,” Thay broke the silence, squeezing my hand into compliance. I pushed against it, lifting his shirt a bit more before he snapped it back into place. “You,” his molars ground together. “Left. Me.”
“I did not want to go. You put me on that goddamn plane!”
He leaned forward, pinning my spine against the wheel.
“YOU! LEFT ME!” he shouted, fire hitting my chest like a feverish spear when a punch landed into the side of the dashboard. But I didn’t flinch.
“You told me to stay!” I recovered my fists, only to unleash them against his ribs.
“Ordered me to see if Maine fits,” I raged, plowing into him.
“Caged my face when I tried to kiss you. Said you were mine, then almost got yourself fucking killed!” I cried out, the water from my eyes flooding into my mouth.
“To SAVE YOUR life,” he ground out, taking the punches and doing nothing to make them stop. I shoved against the fabric, finally getting my fingers into position to rip it free. I needed to get to his heart.
“But what is the one thing you ARE supposed to do, DAPHNE?”
I sneered, ignoring the way he used my name like a loaded gun, and tossed his shirt onto the floor.
“Answer the goddamn question.” Both of his palms clasped my face, and I leaned into his lethal stare. “I save your life and you…” He waited until a broken cry slipped into my throat. “You, what?”
Everything went quiet.
Heartbeat quiet.
Death quiet.
It was just lungs, fear, and air.
“Save yours,” I whispered into his breath, cracking down the center.
“Correct.” He leaned into me. “You save mine. Now tell me, Daphne, how the hell are you supposed to do that from Maine?”
“You made me go,” I winced.
“But I did not make you stay.”
“Yes, you did,” my voice cracked. “You told me to.”
“And you fucking listened,” Thay said so low that I felt it in my bones, the force of his words dragging me under.
But he was wrong.
I paused, watching Thay’s long lashes fall, touching the scar at the top of his cheek.
“No, I didn’t,” I mouthed against his lips, and his eyes rolled open.
“Yes, you did, Daphne,” he snarled, not bothering to wipe the tears streaking down his face. “Where the fuck do you think we are right now?”
“Not here.” I guided his hand to my heart. “Not where it matters.”
Thay scoffed, shaking his head in a brutal laugh.
“I kept my stuff packed. It is sitting by the goddamn door!” I pointed to nowhere, and he rolled his eyes. “I called you every thirty minutes. Fell asleep next to you on the phone and spent every spare moment searching for flights out of here.”
“Not good enough.” He shoved my touch away.
“YOU TOLD ME TO STAY, AND I DID!” I crawled in closer until the base of his neck slammed the headrest.
“WHY?” His shout was louder and meaner, but no less desperate. “I will tell you why, because THIS is what you want.”
“No!” I cupped his face, pulling him tighter against me.
“What the fuck do you mean, no? Where are you right the fuck now?”
“WHERE YOU PUT ME!” My fist hit his chest, but he did not budge. “When we were younger, and you told me to stay, to wait, not to move an inch, what did I do?”
His jaw flexed.
“I listened. When you tell me to fucking do something, Thay, I listen… until the moment I don’t.”
His breath was a ragged, shivering mess of pain and surrender.
Suddenly, I could not keep it in. Not the way the moldy curtains billowed in a back-alley breeze. Not the feel of him against my spine at every age, in every place. I could no longer deny how Maine rounded me out and shoved me into corners to die, or how I was waiting for permission to come home.
Everything splintered.
Everything.
“You’re mine,” I growled against him, and he gasped, his dark lashes fluttering against me. “I don’t desire any of this. I want you.”
And I did. All of him.
My hands swept along his chest, but he stayed rigid, ice cold under my touch.
But I guess he did not want all of me.
“Fine.” I shoved off him, but he caught me by the ass and slid me across his lap. “No! You selfish piece of shit.” I leaned away to avoid his heart and the way it thundered between us. “You think I do not feel abandoned? Hurt? Alone?”
His eyebrow lifted in challenge, sending bolts of madness into my mouth.
“You know what? Why don’t you find five girls to suck you off? I mean, that always makes you feel better.”
Thay cocked his head to the side, the wild in his eyes landing on me in a silent dare.
“Why would I need five when I’ve got you?” he rasped, making Wolfe laugh.
“Fuck you,” I snapped, and Thay’s pupils stretched wide, the tips of his teeth pushing through a crooked smile.
“Yeah, Daph.” He leaned forward, thrusting the key into the ignition and murdering the gas with his foot. “Let’s.”