Chapter 11
11
Grim
After the way I treated Karma, I would’ve come anywhere she wanted me to. So I could grovel and beg her to take me back. She wanted me in LA so here I am. But I can’t grovel because she’s here with that Scorpio guy, one of the Lost Sons. And they didn’t just meet randomly either. They came here together. From wherever they were, also together, while she wasn’t answering my texts. She hasn’t admitted as much, and I haven’t asked, but it’s written all over their faces that they’re into each other. I wish I saw some guilt in hers too, but I don’t.
They’ve been here together for the past two days too, waiting for me. Sharing a room in the falling down hotel across the street.
They haven’t so much as brushed hands since I got here and they’re even sitting at opposite sides of the table, but the energy between them… they might as well be doing it right here on the table in front of me.
Those glances they keep exchanging. Like fire. He’s glancing at me too. And I can’t tell if it’s shame, or something else. Looks a hell of a lot like interest. Like some sort of question he wants me to answer. And not at all like guilt for stealing my woman. I’ll have to fix that.
Scorpio’s already caused fights between us while Reaper was still alive. And those were nothing to sneer at, but the one he’s caused by fucking Karma behind my back will make them all look inconsequential in comparison.
We’re in a seedy dive bar with sticky floor, chairs and tables, in a seedy part of LA. The place is filled with people who’ve long since given up all dreams except the ones revolving around getting high and having a good time. The music and chatter’s so loud I can hardly hear myself think. Let alone have a conversation. Not that I’m interested in talking. I’m gonna stake my claim, one way or another, and the way my blood keeps boiling worse and worse the louder the music gets, it won’t be pretty. I need some air. I need some alone time with Karma. Or I’ll blow and damn the consequences.
The only thing Scorpio’s got going for him right now is that he’s hot as sin. Those chiseled muscles, dirty blond hair, dark blue eyes and a very fuckable mouth… he somehow looks even better than the last time I saw him. More color in his skin, an easier smile. It lights up his face every time he looks at Karma. No surprise there… all of that is probably because she finally let him fuck her. She has that rejuvenating effect on guys. I know she did on Reaper and me and it never stopped.
Scorpio had spent over a year trying to get her. Must’ve been like a dream come true when she finally gave him some. Maybe instead of fucking him up, I should just fuck him… then Karma and me will be even and we can go on with our lives like I didn’t make the biggest mistake of my life just a week ago by letting her go.
But no, Reaper would be turning in his grave if I go there… he wouldn’t speak to me for days the time I suggested we just bring Scorpio to bed with us, since he wouldn’t leave Karma alone anyway. And because I wanted some too.
For all his other qualities, Reaper was a possessive guy. And so am I.
I’ve had enough of this silent stare-off, or whatever it is we’re doing in here.
I stand up and lay my hand on Karma’s shoulder. What I want to do is drag her to the nearest empty room and show her just how sorry I am for the shit I said to her. But I have a very strong feeling that for the first time in over fifteen years it’s not gonna be enough.
After we found her wandering the streets covered in the blood of the men she had killed, Reaper was the one who decided we couldn’t live without her. But I’m pretty sure I fell more in love with her in the years since, than he ever was. Being without her this past week, and fearing she won’t take me back, felt like a limb was missing. Don’t know what I was thinking trying to let her go. Because I totally chewed that limb off myself. And just like a real limb, it might never grow back now. Fuck.
Just touching her skin is making rivers of memories flood my mind. Good memories, perfect fucking memories now covered in black rot.
“Let’s talk,” I say since she’s just looking at me questioningly.
She looks at Scorpio, they lock eyes and all sorts of things pass in that look. A whole fucking silent conversation that makes me wanna grab his throat and not let go until he’s no longer breathing. I settle for squeezing Karma’s shoulder tighter.
“Alone,” I say. “Just the two of us.”
She sighs and nods, and Scorpio leans back in his chair. For all his rather clueless, pretty boy vibes, he’s giving me a look that promises murder if I hurt her. But I already know he’s a lot more dangerous than he looks. And a lot more cold-blooded than his easy smiles suggest. But he’s got nothing to worry about when it comes to me hurting Karma. That won’t happen. As for hurting him for getting her all messed up and infatuated with him… that might very well happen.
Karma gives him one more kinda worried glance then stands up, collecting her riding jacket off the back of the chair and looking me in the eyes. That look... anger, regret, love, sadness and passion all rolled into a perfect summer storm... It never fails to throw me off balance. It’s why I like messing with her so much… just to get that look. But I crossed a line I never should’ve crossed this time. I do understand that from her look too.
“Let’s go,” she says and leads the way out of the noisy bar.
I follow her like she’s got me on a leash, all the way to the edge of the parking lot where the music and noise from the bar is just a faint suggestion.
“Don’t give me the puppy dog routine,” she snaps. “I’m not falling for it. You pushed me too far this time.”
“Right onto Scorpio’s dick it looks like,” I say, the anger that fled as soon as I got her alone, returning like a brutal gust of wind. “I thought you didn’t even like the guy.”
She shakes her head. “I never gave him the chance. That’s not the same as not liking him. Out of respect for you and Reaper.”
His name sticks in her throat the way it has since he was ripped away from us. I was angry before, now I’m starting to see red.
“What about respect for me?”
She just looks at me, her eyes shooting bolts of lightning straight through my chest.
“Fine,” I say and take a step back, as if that’s gonna get me out of the line of fire. “I said some crap I didn’t mean. I regretted it the moment I realized you were gone. How many times has that happened over the years? Huh? You know I got a problem with thinking before I speak.”
“You can say that again,” she says, the storm in her eyes subsiding just a little.
“But you know I always come through for you, and you know I’d never leave you,” I say. “So why the hell did you just run out on me? And why the hell did you just hook up with someone else?”
Cars, buses, trucks and whatnot are rushing past us on the road, creating a whole different unbearable sound. This fucking whooshing like my whole life’s just been picked up by a tornado and nothing good’s gonna be left once it passes.
Sadness washes most of the anger from her eyes. “I was in shock, Grim. I’ve been in shock since Reaper died. And then you just cut me loose. I had to get away.”
“Straight into another guy’s bed,” I mumble.
“None of that was planned,” she says. “It just happened. And I’m not giving him up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” It’s just like her to drop a bomb and then pretend the fallout can’t reach her.
“I don’t know.” At least she’s honest about it. “I didn’t just stop loving you.”
For the first time since I came to meet her in LA her eyes are soft.
I brush a strand of hair off her cheek. She hasn’t braided it and it’s hanging loose and soft down her back, framing her face like a golden mane. Or a wedding veil. “I didn’t either.”
“I know,” she says and looks down at the dusty sidewalk at her feet. “But things are different now.”
I was gonna ask her to come with me to a room—one with clean sheets that she likes so much—and let me show her just how much I still love every perfectly imperfect inch of her. But what she said took that wonderful idea out like a bullet to the brain.
“I don’t understand,” I say and it’s not even a lie. “It’s been a week. How different can things be?”
She smiles faintly, and I don’t think she’s even aware of it. I hate that smile so much. It’s the same one she and Scorpio have been sharing all afternoon, probably thinking I didn’t notice. I saw every twitch of their lips.
“I still want you the same as I ever did,” she says. “But I want him too.”
There she goes tossing another of her bombs. She’s a head shorter than me, and way slighter, but she’s always been able to hold me in the palms of her hands and shape me exactly like she wants me. She says jump, I ask how high? That kind of thing. Only I can’t tell what she’s asking me to do now. And I can already feel myself slipping from her palms. It’s so bad, I’d punch a wall if we were standing next to one.
“What do you want from me?”
She shrugs. “Make it work. Somehow.”
She’s not just being coy or cute on purpose. She’s not faking not knowing where we stand. She’s not just pretending… she really doesn’t have the answers.
“How?” I ask anyway.
She puts on her jacket and pulls her keys from one of the pockets. “I’m going to meet Isabella now and finally get those tattoos I’ve been dreaming about. I’ll deal with this afterwards.”
Then she stands on her toes, throws her arms around my neck and finally gives me that kiss I’ve been craving since she walked into that dive bar earlier. The one that stops the world from spinning so very fast and has the power to muffle any kind of whooshing in my ears. Even the kind caused by a tornado.
But even her calming energy and lasting sweetness is different now. There’s a new note to it. A distant hum of a new melody. One I don’t know. One I don’t know if I like.
“I’ll come to you later,” she whispers breathlessly once she breaks apart from me. “But I might be late.”
“And what am I supposed to do until then?” the hard-on she just gave me is growing painfully large against the zipper of my jeans, fed by all the anger of those bombs she flung at me before. The ones that didn’t touch her at all, just like I suspected they wouldn’t.
She brushes her long, skilled fingers over my cock, making everything worse. Then she kisses my neck. Dropping more bombs.
“He goes both ways, just in case that makes any difference,” she whispers in my ear before nuzzling on my earlobe. “I confirmed it.”
Then she steps away from me, deftly avoiding my hands as I try to grab her and make her stay.
“Don’t wait up for me, if you don’t want to,” she says as she smiles coyly over her shoulder.
Another bomb.
What does she expect me to do? Fuck him and then fall in love with him too like she seems to be doing.
Not gonna happen. Reaper was the only one for me. I knew that way back when we first met and I’m gonna need years—decades, probably—before I even start thinking about that changing.
And I’m certainly not gonna change that for Karma’s new toy. Especially since all I want to do to him is shake him by the throat while shouting that she’s mine.
But, nah. He’s not worth even getting upset over. She’s just infatuated with how shiny and new he is. And she’ll get over him just as fast as she fell for him. Probably even faster after I mess up his pretty face.