Chapter 7
Koby
For the longest three seconds, I’m too stunned to move, watching Leilani sprint toward the front door like she’s breaking out of a maximum-security prison.
“What the—Leilani!” I snap, chasing after her just as Carter mutters “For fuck’s sake” behind me.
She’s halfway down the concrete steps outside before I hit the threshold. Her heels fly off mid-run, one launching sideways into the bushes, the other clocking the bouncer’s stomach. He grunts, watching Leilani sprint across the driveway barefoot, her hair a wild mess.
“Leilani! What are you doing? Stop!”
“Fuck you!” she screams back like I’m the prison guard. “Go away!”
What. The. Fuck.
This can’t be the same girl who trembled in the passenger seat of my car. Not the same girl who flinched when Jax got near her at Scarlett. And definitely not the same one who looked at me like I was the first good thing that happened to her in years.
I push harder, gaining on her fast. She’s small but quick, her legs pumping, arms swinging as she eats up the driveway, using the downward slope to her advantage.
Gravity gives her a boost, but my legs are longer.
I catch up halfway down, wrap a hand around her wrist, and yank her back. She crashes into me, elbow first, driving the oxygen clean out of my lungs.
“Let go!” she shrieks, twisting and jerking. I barely have time to register the words before she starts swinging. “Let go! Let go!”
The first punch cracks against my jaw, snapping my head sideways. It’s no girly slap, though. Not a desperate shove.
No, no, no. Leilani doesn’t play games.
She hits with her fist.
I blink like a dumbass who didn’t see the train coming. My brain refuses to compute what just happened.
“What the—”
This is the girl who trembled in my passenger seat, who ducked her head every time Jax got too close. The same girl who looked like she’d shatter if someone breathed too hard in her direction is trying to take me down barehanded...
And it’s working.
The second hit lands before I recover from the first. My chest absorbs it, ribs flaring with heat. She keeps going, pummeling my stomach hard enough that I grunt.
Jesus Christ. She’s actually causing some damage.
I’ve been in more fights than I can count. I’ve taken punches from men twice my size, brawled in alleys until both of us were painted red, but no one’s caught me this off guard.
No one was ever this feral. So absolutely fucking violent.
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
Whack. Her fist slams into my ribs.
“You can’t keep me here!”
Whack. My shoulder takes the hit.
“Let me go!”
Whack. My jaw again.
She’s everywhere at once, savage and breathless, and I’m just blinking, dumb as fuck, while this dainty little thing pummels me like I’m her personal punching bag.
“I think you should listen,” Broadway says behind me. “She looks like she’s just getting started.”
“Aren’t you fucking helpful,” I spit out, ducking a wild swing that nearly clips my ear.
Broadway chuckles. “Suit yourself. I don’t mind the show.”
Asshole. Of course he’d watch and smirk while I’m getting my ass handed to me by a rabid little hellcat. She’s raging, and fuck if I know how to get her under control without breaking her in half.
Somewhere in the back of my head, a voice says, Move, you idiot, but my brain’s still rebooting. Five full seconds pass before I get my shit together enough to clamp her wrists to my chest.
She thrashes about until she pulls her hands free and slams her fist into my rib.
Broadway snickers when I damn near double over.
I glare at him over my shoulder. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Immensely. Keep still, maybe she’ll knock you out.”
“Asshole,” I mutter, covering my face with one arm while Leilani tries peeling my skin off. “Okay, enough. Calm down, I’m—” Pain detonates in my shin, and I stagger back with a hiss.
I get the feeling she was aiming higher.
“Son of a—”
I release her on instinct, and the second I do, she’s back on me, punching, kicking, and scratching my face. I try blocking the worst of it, but she’s fast.
And so fucking mean.
“I’m not going back!” she snaps, panting like a caged animal set loose for the first time in years. Hair sticks to her damp forehead and her chest heaves against the thin fabric of her dress.
I don’t have time to ponder her words because I finally catch her elbows and yank her back into my chest.
“Enough,” I clip. Her fists keep swinging uselessly, knuckles grazing my chin. “Cut it out.”
“Don’t fucking touch me! Let go! Let me go!”
Her arms are still swinging, but I keep her immobile enough to stop the worst of it.
Or so I think.
I’m wrong because she sends her knee right where she means to... into my balls. I fold with a strangled hiss, pain flooding every nerve, my vision tunneling.
“Jesus... Fuck...”
Leilani reels back, fist raised for another hit, but Broadway finally decides to play the hero. He jumps into action, twisting her arms gently behind her back.
“Easy there,” he says, eyes gleaming, lips twitching with the smile he can barely hold back. “You might want to save some of that for later. He’s had enough.”
“Once you calm down,” Ryder says, his grin hinting that watching me fail at basic self-defense is the best entertainment he’s had in weeks, “remind me to buy you a drink. That was priceless.”
The fight fizzles out of Leilani when I twist myself back, landing ass-first on the driveway. My cheek stings and when I wipe it with the back of my hand, it comes away smeared red.
Great. She broke skin.
“What just happened?” Carter demands, his dark eyes cutting between us.
“Wish I knew,” I mutter.
She’s not trembling anymore. She stands straight, five feet of pure, unrelenting defiance.
And God help me, I’ve never wanted anyone more.
“You can’t keep me here.” Leilani spits the words at Carter. “I made a mistake. I thought you’d help me, but you’re working with Blaze and Octavius!”
“I don’t work with Octavius.”
Her wide eyes search his for lies. “No?”
“No,” he clips, then softer, he adds, “And even if I did, have I ever given you the impression I’d let anyone hurt you?”
“No, but...” She blows a stray lock off her face. “I panicked, okay? I haven’t seen you in years, and me and Aalyiah—”
“You might’ve fallen out with my sister, but you were always her best friend. She’d expect me to keep you safe.”
Her shoulders sag, fury fading to leave her shaken. I just sit there, staring up from the driveway, jaw bruised, ribs sore, mind blown, and not one bit mad.
At the end of the day, Leilani’s a dainty girl. Barely five feet tall, doe-eyed, cute-faced... I thought she was a delicate little thing.
Who would’ve guessed she had so much fight in her? Who would’ve guessed she’d kick, scream, and throw fists? Most girls slap. Not this one. Not once.
I touch my cheek where she landed that first punch, my smile growing wider. It fucking hurts.
My cock stirs, twitching as the image floods back... Leilani, her hair flying wild, lips curled back, eyes blazing while she tried to tear me apart with her bare hands.
God, I want that again.
Her on top of me, crazy and unrestrained, riding me while she beats me bloody.
Goddamn it. I’m so fucking gone for her.
***
The calm doesn’t last.
Leilani barely has time to catch her breath before the growl of a big engine cuts through the quiet. The effect it has on her is immediate. She stiffens in Broadway’s grip, fire, claws, and teeth vanishing.
I’m on my feet before the others even register Jax’s black Escalade speeding up the driveway. I pull Leilani out of Broadway’s arms and push her behind me, my body blocking hers from view.
She freezes. Not in that cute, startled way people do when someone surprises them, but in a way that screams danger. Her fingers claw at my pullover, gripping the fabric so tight I feel it strain against my throat.
“Oh God,” she whispers, fear coating every word. “Please, don’t let him take me. Please. Please.”
My heart lurches. What the hell is happening? From throwing her fists at me to holding on as if I’m her lifeline.
From hellcat to doe.
From clawing to quivering.
From raging to pleading.
The switch is so violent, it makes my head spin.
“He’s not taking you,” I say, watching the car halt less than ten feet away. My voice comes out harder than I intended but fuck it. She should hear my certainty. “You’re not going anywhere unless you want to.”
Jax jumps out, slams the driver’s door, and stalks toward us. His anger doesn’t last long, twisting into a smug, knowing smirk as he takes me in.
“That didn’t take long. I see she let her true colors shine. Ready to give her back?”
“In your fucking dreams,” I snap, barely holding back from breaking his jaw in three places.
I glance over my shoulder, finding Leilani worried, the girl who beat me up moments ago long gone. She’s pale, her wide brown eyes on Jax, lips parted like she’s mid-silent plea.
God, I want to grip the fucker’s throat again, tear out his trachea this time. All it’d take is three steps forward, one good tug, and blood would spill.
Jax snorts, shifting his attention to Carter. “Before we tackle the problem that keeping Leilani away from me poses...” He fishes his phone from his pocket, handing it over, “...I believe you’ve got a decision to relay. You’ve stalled long enough.”
Carter frowns but takes the cell, glancing at the screen before putting it to his ear.
“Noretto,” he denotes, then pauses to listen.
“That depends. How lenient can you be while we work out the details?” A long pause ensues, the atmosphere growing thicker.
“I’ll send the date, time, and place with Jax.
” He ends the call, tossing the phone back without looking.
“Glad you’re finally seeing sense,” Jax says, glancing at Leilani. “Come on. Time to go.”
“Not so fast.” Carter steps in front of him. “First, you’ll explain what the fuck is going on.” He juts his chin at the house in a silent command, and marches toward the building, urging everyone to follow.
Moments later, the six of us sink into the plush furniture around his living room. The other girls are gone, back upstairs under Apollo and Arthur’s watchful eyes.
The less they know the better.
I don’t bother hiding my satisfaction when Leilani holds on to my arm all the way to the love seat and doesn’t even let go once we’re settled. I angle myself toward her just enough so she knows I’m not going anywhere.
“You want a drink, Fury?” Broadway asks her with a grin, as if he can’t feel the atmosphere thickening. “I bet you’re thirsty.”
“Yes, please. Wine.”
He cocks a brow, smiling smug.
It’s barely noon, so I get it, but Leilani doesn’t care, draining half the glass as soon as Broadway hands it over. Her shoulders keep hitching like she can’t breathe right.
Meanwhile, Jax kicks back in the armchair. “Whatever you think you know, you don’t. Trust me, I’d fucking pay you to keep her, but I can’t, so she’s coming with me.”
“She’s not going anywhere unless she wants to,” I snap, images of his still-pulsing trachea in my palm flooding my mind once more.
“She hasn’t told you why she’s running, has she? If you keep her, the deal, the plan... it’s over. If Octavius finds out Blaze lost her, he’ll have his head on a stick within hours, and then he’s coming for all of you.”
Broadway scoffs, “I’m so done with your cryptic bullshit. Get to the point. What does Octavius want with her?”
“Care to explain why you put on that award-worthy show for Koby this morning and why you’re losing your shit every five fucking minutes? Or should I?” Jax asks Leilani.
She shoots him a look, drains the rest of her wine, and sets the glass down with a soft clink.
And the story of her life pours from her lips like she’s been dying to let it out.