Chapter 5
Tatum
I stand here watching him retreat outside. There are no lights to mark his path.
“If I was you, I would be running after him before you get lost.” I spin around to face the guys and frown. The guy with unruly brown hair rolls his eyes. “You aren’t staying in here with us.” I jerk back and cock my head.
“Who are you?” I blurt.
“Pope. Now, chase after him before I throw your fucking ass out of our house.” I scrunch my face and stay where I am until the guy with black eyes—Omen I think his name is—takes a step toward me and I dart out the back door Alex just disappeared through and squeal as the moist ground touches my feet. I run blindly into the darkness. The moon offers no fucking light tonight. Fear begins to wind its tendrils around me as I don’t see Alex ahead. I hear leaves crunching to my right and I veer that way but my breath hitches and I slam to a halt. I spin around in a circle and instantly my eyes widen. I’m surrounded by… nothing. The lights from the house behind me are nothing but a faint glow. I hadn’t realized I had run this far.
I inhale and all I smell is nature. This place is nothing like Hollow Hills or any of the places I have lived before. It’s quiet and… peaceful. Suddenly I don’t care. I'm alone in this strange place with a serial killer and his four sidekicks. I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a second before I feel his heat at my back. He doesn’t touch me but he stands close enough to shroud me in his shadow.
“Do you see now?” he asks me quietly.
“See what?” I whisper.
“There is nowhere for you to run, Tatum. Even if I let you go you would never find your way to town. This place can be a prison without having any need for bars on the windows.”
I shake my head as I look out at the night sky. “I don’t see a prison,” I admit.
“What do you see?” The curiosity in his tone is clear and I choose to answer rather than fight him and ruin this moment.
“Freedom,” I say barely above a whisper.
“That’s what she said.” Hurt laces his tone. I turn and face him ready to ask what he means but he silences me when he grabs my hand and drags me after him. A whimper escapes me when I step on something. He stops, then turns to peer down at me. “What happened?”
“I stepped on something,” I mutter. He curses beneath his breath, then suddenly I’m being swung into his arms bridal style. My arms band around his neck on instinct. His scent overwhelms me and I know for sure that whatever this attraction is between us, it isn’t fucking healthy. I’ll admit the first night I saw him in Lividica I was stunned, he’s not like any man I have ever seen before. He is fucking stunning yet he doesn’t walk around with big dick energy. He has no idea how fucking beautiful he is.
“I’ll have Vat bring your bags to my place,” he mumbles. I’m about to ask what that means but then he rounds a bend and suddenly my train of thought derails at the sight of a small cottage nestled in a gully next to a creek. The moon shines enough light on this side for me to make things out. Alex kicks the door open, clearly he doesn’t need to lock it living out here. He places me on my feet then steps away, a moment later I’m bathed in light. It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust, I turn in a circle and marvel at the beauty of this place. It’s all open—the kitchen, the living room and even his bed is all in here. I see a door off to the side and I’m guessing that’s the bathroom, at least you can pee in private then I guess. “What? No smart-ass remark?”
I turn back to face him with a frown. “Huh?” I ask genuinely confused.
He shoots me a deadpan look. “You aren’t going to say you’ll blow my stick house down?” I cringe and shoot him a sheepish smile.
“I’d much rather blow the straw house down and keep this one, thank you very much.” If my reply shocks him he doesn't show it. I leave him there as I make my way around the tiny space and gaze at the photos that decorate the walls. I can feel his gaze boring into the back of my head but he doesn’t stop me when I reach out and trace my fingers over a picture of him with a beautiful girl. I don’t need him to say it, I know without a doubt that the girl in the photo with him is his sister.
Elenor Denver.
God, she was stunning. She has his eyes. Her long strawberry blonde hair reminds me of Blake Lively’s. He has his arm wrapped around her while she stares up at him with the biggest smile on her face. You can see the love she has for him in her eyes. Suddenly it becomes too painful to look at the picture, I close my eyes and turn away from the image.
Alex moves behind me and I tense in anticipation but when I spot him moving toward the closed door, I frown. He’s really just going to take a shower and leave me out here to dig through his personal items? When the door clicks shut behind him I have my answer. I make my way to the kitchen and check the fridge, nearly crying at the sight. I grab everything I need to make a sandwich.
I decide to be gracious and make the Aztec god one as well. I carry our plates over to the bed and sit down, tucking my legs beneath me and resting my plate in my lap. My stomach growls. I collect the sandwich and my mouth waters as the scent of turkey hits me. I open my mouth to take a bite but freeze when the door opens and Alex steps out wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist.
My mouth is watering for an entirely different reason now.
Steam billows around him, his hair wet and slicked back. All his tattoos are on display and I greedily run my gaze over him but freeze at the sight of the tattoo in the middle of his chest.
Ellie.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Ellie is Elenor . The next tattoo that captures my attention is the one in an upside down U shape around his abs.
De Santis Cosa Nostra.
My eyes bug out of my fucking head, I’m not dumb I know what Cosa Nostra stands for. Mafia. Is that what he is, a made man? Alex’s gaze meets mine and I can see the warning in them, if I ask the question that is burning in the back of my mind he’ll shut me down. But, if I keep my mouth shut and wait it out, I could do some research on whoever the fuck Da Santis family is while they go to that meet.
“Whatever you are plotting, don’t,” he scolds as he stalks toward me. I drop my sandwich on my plate and stare at him, partly praying that he stays the fuck away from me but also wishing he would drop that towel and rid me of this sexual tension I can feel pulsing between us. When he veers off at the last second toward the dresser, I hate that I’m annoyed he didn’t attempt to touch me.
“I wasn’t plotting anything,” I mutter as I finally pick my sandwich up, which doesn’t taste as good as I hoped. It was the sight of him that ruined this beautiful snack for me. I was fine and happy until he walked out here looking like a fucking God and making me want to take a bite out of him and not my actual meal.
“This for me?” I swallow and peer over at him to see him standing there in a pair of gray sweats. I want to fucking whimper at the sight of him. Jesus this is so fucking unfair. Why did he have to be a raging asshole who wants to ruin my life?
“Yes,” I snap. When he continues to eye it warily I growl, then snatch half the sandwich, meet his stare and take a bite. “Happy?” I say around a mouthful of food. His eyes narrow in disgust so I swallow and smile sweetly. “No rat poison was used, scouts honor,” I say, holding up two fingers. His face slackens.
“I’d bet my fucking life that you were never a scout,” he mutters as he snatches his plate off the bed and stands there eating the sandwich I made for him. I hate that his sandwich now looks more enticing than mine! We both eat in silence but it’s charged. Not in the awkward kind of way but in the way that you can feel so many unasked questions hanging between you both. I get so lost in my own thoughts, I don’t realize he has taken the plate from my lap and turned out the lights until I feel the mattress dip from his weight.
I gasp and scoot around on my ass to face him. He sits there on the edge of the bed with his phone in his hand, reading something like nothing is wrong.
“What are you doing?” I ask when he locks his phone and places it on the bedside table. I may not be able to see him but I can feel his eyes on me which just heightens my awareness of him in the dark. Goose flesh begins to break out over my skin and a small shiver works its way down my spine.
“Tatum, I’m a twenty-seven year old man who is quite fucking capable of sleeping next to a woman without sinking my cock inside her.” I feel a blush coating my cheeks but what’s worse, I can feel myself growing wet at the picture he’s painting and without consent, images of him pop into my head of him naked and on top of me as he thrusts— “I’m tired. Now lay the fuck down and go to sleep.” I swallow and suck in a ragged breath, trying to calm my thoughts. I have never, and yes I mean fucking never, met a guy and wanted to fuck them. I normally steer clear of the opposite sex and don’t find any of them attractive, but it seems like that isn’t the case where Alexander is concerned.
Yippee!
“Why did they say I couldn’t stay in that house with them?” I blurt, trying to buy myself some time to think of some plan so I don’t have to sleep next to the fucking Butcher.
He sighs and I can tell he is at the end of his patience with me. “Fine. If I tell you, will you shut the fuck up and go to sleep?”
“Pinky promise.”
“They won’t let a female near them. They have their reasons why and you being around for the foreseeable future until we… get what we want is going to cause problems. Now, go to fucking sleep.”
“Asshole,” I mutter as I toss the sweater I’m wearing onto the floor, then stand so I can rid myself of the sweats. Just as I kicked them to the side and peel the covers back his words stop me.
“What are you doing?”
“Uh, going to sleep?” It comes out as a question.
“Why are you undressing?” The tightness in his tone has my brows raising.
“I thought you said you could control yourself? Or were you lying again and you do actually find my vulgar ass attractive?”
I roll my lips over my teeth to keep from laughing when he growls out loud. “I may just decide finding that cunt isn’t worth it after all,” he mutters to himself. I preen and climb in beside him. I lay on the edge of the bed, not wanting to touch him. Silence stretches between us, I have no idea if he’s asleep or awake but I can’t shut my mind off long enough to even try to sleep. It doesn't help that I suffer with insomnia and have no melatonin to help put my ass to sleep.
I start to delve into everything I have learned. Alex is clearly part of some mafia. His sister is dead, he blames my brother. He wants me to give up the only family I have left because he thinks Nexus is the one who murdered his sister. I know Vivian and her friends think he did it as well, but the brother I know, he would never hurt anyone. He saved me from our father. He’s never asked me for a thing, I was the one who promised to help him hide.
“He didn’t do it,” I whisper.
I feel him shift beside me and lay on his side facing me. I keep staring up at the wooden beams not wanting to look at him. It seems whenever he is around I can’t keep a level head and that is a huge problem considering what he wants from me.
“How well do you really know Nexus Valerian, Tatum?” His tone is soft and that surprises me more than his question.
“He would never hurt anyone.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve looked evil in the eyes and know exactly what the devil looks like. Nexus isn’t bad.” I don’t know why I’m getting so emotional speaking about this but I find myself fighting back tears.
“Who hurt you?”
I clench my jaw and inhale through my nose. “No one.”
“Halo will return your laptop to you tomorrow. All your emails and searches will be monitored. You can work from here but you will be watched.”
“So, I’m a prisoner?”
“Only if you want to be.”
“What the hell does that mean, Alex?” I cringe, since when did we become familiar enough to shorten each other’s names?
“It means your freedom is your own. You can have it whenever you want but you know what the cost of that freedom is.”
“Yeah.” I scoff. “I just have to sell my soul to Satan.”
“If that’s how you want to see it.”
“Let me ask you this, Butcher , if the roles were reversed and I was forcing you to give up your sister—” The remainder of my question dies on my tongue when he yanks me toward him, then rolls so he is nestled between my legs and hovering above me. My breaths turn ragged. Twenty minutes ago this exact image was burned into my mind but now, it doesn’t have the same feelings attached to it like my daydream.
“This is your one and only fucking warning, Tatum. Don’t ever mention my sister again. I told you I had a breaking point earlier, she’s that point.” His raw honesty is astounding and refreshing.
“Who hurt you?” I ask.
“I wasn’t hurt, I was annihilated.”
“Who annihilated you, Alex?” I whisper.
“Your brother. Then your father framed me for murder.” I gasp.
“What?” He tries to roll off me but I wrap my legs around him, holding him in place, surprising us both.
“Tatum,” he says my name like a warning.
“Did you drug me again?” I blurt. That is the only explanation why I am acting like a hussy around him.
He jerks. “What?”
“Did you or not?”
“Why the fuck would you think that?” I decide not to answer and release him. He rolls over and I scoot back to my side. This time I close my eyes and force my mind to go blank, willing sleep to claim me. Everything will look different in the morning… I hope.