25. Bay
TWENTY-FIVE
bay
“You kill me, I hope you have a safe place in South Shore to hide.”
He won’t shut up.
I’m seconds away from taking off my own sock and shoving it down his throat because I’ve heard nothing but his mouth since we shoved him in the backseat of Hot Rod’s SUV and drove off to keep him somewhere.
“Do you ever get tired of listening to yourself talk?” I hedge off a sigh. “Or does your dick get hard when you hear it?”
“Why don’t you check?”
He doesn’t think I will. However, he doesn’t know how petty I am. Except touching his junk isn’t going to get my best friend back and we need this exchange to happen ASAP.
I look over at him. “Where’s your phone?”
“Left it at the office.”
Fucking wonderful.
I pull mine out from my back pocket, arching my back and ass off the seat to which Torin takes another leisurely view of.
I’ve never met a bigger pain in my ass.
“What’s Cairo’s number?”
Torin glances out the window, his zip-tied hands resting in his lap. “Don’t know it.”
“Better remember it, or you and I are going to be together for a long time.”
“And your boyfriend’s probably going to be dead.”
I’m grateful that he isn’t looking at me, because I know I’m not hiding my fear of that happening very well.
“Guess you will be, too,” I admit, because if something happens to Levi, Torin doesn’t have a chance. I’ll allow Hot Rod and Juice to do what they will with him.
“I don’t think you got what it takes to kill me.” He steers his focus back to me. “I think you’re a little soft-hearted.”
“Then I will,” Hot Rod offers behind the wheel. “I’d love to say that I murdered the Prince of The Landings.”
Torin slices his glower to him. “Big talk for someone who allows a girl to come get me.”
Hot Rod chuckles, clearly undeterred by that statement. “You obviously haven’t been around her long enough.”
“Oh, Astor and I go way back. I know every inch of her.”
I thrust my elbow into his ribs to shut him up when I say, “ Number .”
Torin leans toward me, the smell of melon and cedar filling my nose.
He still smells the same.
And, God, that scent used to bring me so much comfort, but now it fills me with dreaded anxiety.
“Do something for me,” he mutters. “And I might start remembering it.”
I don’t look at him.
I can’t.
Torin has this way about him that creeps under my skin and it annoys the ever-loving crap out of me.
“Now, we’re asking for favors?”
“Negotiations.”
“What do you want, Torin?”
He brings his joined hands over and rests his right on my upper thigh. “You know what I want.”
I’m thankful that Hot Rod has some music on because this whole conversation could be more awkward than it is. However, Pretty Boy doesn’t have a pot to piss in over here with trying to make compromises.
“I’m not fucking you,” I mutter back.
“You will,” he returns. “But that’s not what I want now.”
I rearrange myself in my seat so that my gun can be prodded into his chest. “I’m done fucking around. I’m also done talking and looking at you, too. We’re going to stop playing this game, and you’re going to give me what I want.”
“And I’m guessing that’s not me.” He turns his neck to look at me, clearly full of himself while he wears a placid expression.
“Put a bullet in him,” Hot Rod recites over the radio. “Dude apparently needs to learn a lesson if he’s not talkin’.”
“Then he’s going to clean the blood out of your car when I’m done,” I quip, to which Torin just grins at me.
“So brave for someone who doesn’t know what you’re up against.”
“I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen so far.”
Torin’s expression lifts in tandem. “Really? Do I need to work out more?”
Silently, I sigh, because what’s the point? He has an answer to everything, ladies and gentlemen.
“I want you to kiss me,” he professes under his breath. “You kiss me, and I give you the number.”
“For someone who wants me out of the picture, you sure do have a fucked-up way of acting.”
“I want to remember if you still taste the same.”
“I do,” I reply. “I’m sweeter.”
His heavy gaze falls to my lips. “I was thinkin’ more sinful.”
I smile. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Pretty Boy?”
“I’m not going to bitch if you wanna kiss me, Wildfire.”
“Who the fuck said anything about kissing?”
He nods at me. “Your breathing. And I just did. That is…if you want the number.”
“We’re here,” Hot Rod announces, thank fuck, and I pocket my gun before glancing around at where we are.
The shipping docks.
We’re in South Shore.
“Damn, Pretty Boy,” I muse through the cockiness still stifling the air. “Looks like you’re more fucked than you thought.”
He takes that moment to observe what’s outside the window and the back of his head hits the padded seat.
Checkmate.
“You’re seriously going to leave me in here with no clothes?” Torin asks me that question as though I’m supposed to have some sort of empathy for his situation.
I don’t.
Especially when he hasn’t given me a number to call and only creates more work for the guys to get the word out to his butt buddies.
“That’s correct,” I say at the end of the red shipping container he’s in. “Sleep well.”
“I’d advise not to deliver a frozen corpse to Cairo or Reeve. They’re not going to be very happy.”
“Then we’ll match, because I’m extra pissed that you took it upon yourself to jump my boy.”
I see half his face twist from the lack of light inside the metal container. “Your boy? I never once heard on the streets that you belonged to Wallace.”
“Then your sources suck as much balls as you do.”
“Baby, I’ve gotten my hands on you once before…”
He has. I hate that he remembers that.
I loathe that I recall it just as much, because Torin Wildes was exactly what his last name portrays. He had me in the palm of his hand, and he didn’t give a fuck what the consequences were going to be for me, just that he’d get what he wanted.
“I want you.” His warm breath against the column of my throat sends my body through a flurry of panic and need. I shouldn’t be here. I should have screamed when his hand reached out for me and pulled me in between two tents to speak to me. “Why are you still with him, when you know he’s never going to end up with you?”
I shake my head, because he’s wrong.
Matteo loves me. He said it himself.
“Let me go.” His arm around my waist only tightens as his fingers splay across my back. It ramps up my sprinting heartbeat. “He’s going to find me.”
And he’ll hurt me.
The last time Torin was near me, Matteo backhanded me and asked me what I did to get him to come speak to me.
I didn’t say anything.
“Then I’ll beat his ass,” Torin replies. “Let me fuck you…and you’ll belong to me.”
“No.”
I can’t.
Even though…the idea does hold a certain amount of appeal.
However, I’m not stupid enough to know that he’ll never stay true to his word. He just wants to rub it in Matteo’s face.
“Bay…” His head rounds to peer down at me. Those eyes that are now dark in the absence of light holding me to my spot. “I’d make it so good for you, baby.”
“I…no, Torin.” I begin—or try—to pull out of his hold. “I need to go.”
His hold falls, but he doesn’t lose the lack of distance between us.
Our chests are still lined up with each other’s.
Our breathing mingling and mixing together into one of fear and desperation.
“Then go,” he mutters before the gentle brush of fingers begins to skate up my naked thigh under my dress. “Go, or I’m going to find out the truth.”
My feet won’t move because, even though Torin and Matteo are enemies and I’m walking a fine line here, Torin isn’t as cruel as Matteo is beginning to be. He blames it on stress and apologizes when he’s too stern with me. He reminds me of what he’s trying to build and that he’s going to give me everything.
I just didn’t think he’d permit his friends to use me while they stroked themselves to completion while Matteo has me bent over in his lap with my underwear pulled to my knees.
“The truth?” I press, unable to pry my stare away from the boy in front of me.
His touch meets my upper thigh right below my panties. “The veracity of how wet you are for me.” The tip of his fingers drags underneath the edge of the cotton fabric. “Let me slide one finger in…God”—He takes in a shaky inhale—“I bet you’re tight as fuck, aren’t you?”
“Why do you do this?”
Those golden eyes flick up at me. “Isn’t it obvious?”
No, because it doesn’t make sense.
Matteo claims it’s only to piss him off. But Torin always seems to be around. Always seeking me out just to get a few stolen moments with me.
He’s filling my head with ideas of how my life could be different.
That he’d make me happier…and I’m starting to believe him.
“You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid eyes on,” he mutters within an inch of my lips. “And this isn’t a game.”
“Matteo says you’re using me to get to him.”
“I don’t need you to get back at him.” The pads of his fingers run along the elastic of my pants near the apex of my thighs. “It’s not hard to, you know?”
“I don’t think…I’m…not sure ? —”
“How do I prove to you that I’m not lying?” His nose brushes against mine. “Tell me what you want, and it’s yours, Wildfire.”
I want him to just take me out of here altogether. For my split with Matteo to not come with so many repercussions.
It’s to the point where I’m hiding from Levi because the bruises are getting too hard to cover on my arms. It’s over ninety degrees and I’m wearing a sweatshirt to conceal them.
“You’re scared,” he concludes. “I can protect you.”
“How?”
“Baby, I’m the Prince of The Landings. I can ? —”
“Bay!” Matteo’s voice rings out, rattling me to my core as I take hold of a well-needed step back. “Bay, where the fuck are you?”
“I…” Shit. I’m so dead for this.
“Want me to walk you back?”
“No. Are you crazy?”
“You need to take a stand. I can take you away right now.”
“You can’t,” I leer, feeling the anticipation of what’s going to happen fills my chest. “I’m with Matteo. You have to leave me alone.”
“You don’t love him.”
“I do.”
“That’s fucking impossible—” I shove him away from me, gaining a few inches of space.
“You don’t know anything about me. You’re just a fuckboy who’s going to use me and get me into more trouble.”
“I’m not ? —”
“Fuck you,” I sneer, right before he clasps onto my bicep and escorts me out of the safeness of the dark.
It doesn’t take long for Matteo to find us.
In fact, it’s like he senses where I’ve just come out. His glare says it all.
I’m dead.
And Torin Wildes just delivered me to my execution.
“What the fuck are you doing with my girl, Wildes?” His crazed-looking eyes fall on me. “Did you fuck him?”
I violently shake my head back and forth. “No. He grabbed me—” Matteo cuts into my story and offers me a look that says it doesn’t matter what I say, I’m still going to pay.
“Torin,” Matteo offers up through his teeth. “I’m going to fucking slice into you for this.”
He didn’t.
Torin’s boys showed up, they fought, and he got off scot-free.
I still wear the scars.
“Sleep well, Pretty Boy.” I push off the edge of the container, well aware that I’m not going to lose any sleep over him being cold or wanting.
He kicks out his feet, accepting that he’s going to need to somehow get comfortable. “I’ll remember the accommodations.”
“You do that. Also, make a mental note not to touch what’s ours.”
He scoffs at that. “Only makes me want to touch it more.”