Chapter 16 #2
"Ethan and I often work on music together," I answer, loving the way her eyes round as they dart to Ethan, and not knowing what to say when he simply nods.
Chase gets out of his car, rounding the front to come stand by my girlfriend.
"Is there an issue here?" he asks in what I'm sure he thinks is a threatening voice.
I shake my head, saving Nyx from having to defend me, but there's not a universe where I let her leave with him tonight.
So I do what I do best. I create chaos.
"You look beautiful tonight, Nyx," I say casually before softly brushing strands of her fringe out of her eyes.
I think her heart stops from the way she freezes, but her cheeks pinken in the most beautiful way. Oh, she's coming home with me tonight.
"Don't look so shocked." I chuckle. My gaze lands on Chase. "Someone had to tell you."
"Back off," he growls pathetically. "Or you're going to go home back to your rich friends minus your pretty face."
I wink at Nyx, that arrogant smile she hates so much plastered in place. "He thinks I'm pretty."
A crowd of his big, muscly friends gathers behind him, and it takes all of me not to burst into laughter. Instead, I shake my head disappointedly at Nyx.
"Is this why you refused dinner with me tonight? So you could cheer him on and be ignored? You should be rehearsing. That I would’ve accepted."
"You need to leave," she answers shakily. "Nothing’s ever going to happen between us. Drop it."
So, she's going to go along with that little lie of hers. Hide from him forever that she came on my dick while screaming my name.
Chase lets out a low whistle, stepping a little farther into my personal space. "Looks like your money isn't going to buy you my girl."
"Surprising," I say flatly, "because your cash buys you her company."
There's a general sound of disagreement within his friends, and they all come closer again.
"It's alright. It's alright," he says, raising a hand to hold them back.
He squares his shoulders, but my eyes are on Nyx. I want her reactions, her attention.
"Do you think you can take her from me?" He wraps an arm around her waist, and her nervousness makes her twitch in his hold.
"It doesn't matter," Nyx jumps in. "Let's go back to the race. What matters is, I'm here, with you. Enough of this, please."
I ignore her plea, answering him. "The question you should have asked yourself a long time ago is, do you think you have what it takes to keep her? Because I can tell you, you don't."
His dogs are ready to unleash on me, but instead, he shakes his head.
"Rich boy wouldn't last a second when it comes to our fists. Let's try to put him on an equal footing." He pauses for effect before saying, "Race me. Then we'll see who's the real man Nyx should go to."
I blink at him for a few seconds, wondering if he actually just said those words to me. I turn to Nyx, and she must read the mockery on my face because she shakes her head in one last plea.
"Is this what you worked so hard for, Nyx? So you could take care of a man-child in his late twenties? Did you get into the toughest music school in the country, and fight for your space in an orchestra to then be wagered by your boyfriend like you're a cheap remake of a Vin Diesel movie?"
I look at him again, my patience running thin. I'm about to fuck him up if I don't leave soon.
"Listen, big boy. I'm not going to race you. Want to know why? Because there's no point betting money when you've got none. And there's no point betting your girl when she's already mine."
He lets go of Nyx, comes closer, slightly shorter than me but not in a way that matters, and presses his forehead against mine, attempting to intimidate me further.
"Chase, please, don't," Nyx panics.
Does she think she needs to save me from him? Is she delusional?
He steps back when I don't retreat and says, "She was biting her lip in this very car less than an hour ago riding my dick. I think you should get the hint when she says she doesn't want you."
"Please," I snort. "The only reason Nyx would bite her lip when you fuck her is so she doesn't scream my name. But you don’t believe me? Here. Knock yourself out."
"No, please," she tells me, head shaking like a broken doll.
I pull out my phone, opening the album I have of her on there, and throw it at him.
"No, no, no." She tries to grab the phone from him, but he pushes her away, and I take the opportunity to pull her to my side. Her heart is beating dangerously fast when I keep her against me, her back to my chest.
"Chase—" she attempts, but it's too late.
His face reddens, his teeth gritting. He doesn't give a shit that she doesn't love him. He cares about being humiliated.
"You fucking bitch," he seethes.
"Now, let's not lose our temper," I mock. "Keep scrolling."
I know when he sees it. The picture of Val Brolik's soldier.
The one who gives Chase orders. The one he pays Nyx's dad's debt to.
Those are the people who make him feel important.
He thinks that working for some pathetic low-level Russian mafia soldier makes him a big boy on the North Shore.
Now, he's looking at a picture of what I did to that guy.
The slit throat, the slit wrists. He might or might not notice the circle I carved into his chest so that if the police discover the body it would be linked to the Silent Circle, and I'd be protected.
All he sees is a body hanging upside down in a warehouse on the North Shore and that it could possibly be linked to him since Chase is their contact in that town.
That's what I did all day while I was thinking of taking Nyx to dinner; paid her dad's debt, killed a man to terrify Chase. It's been a busy few hours, but it was worth it.
I huff dramatically. "I'm not going to lie, I'm not too worried about you, Chase.
You and I don't play on the same level. So, beat me up, I won't fight back.
" No way I'd risk my precious hands on this fucker.
"But then I'll find you, your family, and all your little friends around here.
And one by one, you're going to end up like this guy in the picture. "
He throws my phone to the ground, so red he might explode.
"You want the slut?" he sneers. "Have her.
" He spits on the ground at her feet, and it makes her press harder against me.
"She's not the innocent little doll she pretends she is with her violin and her fear of every-fucking-thing.
She's a jealous bitch who's going to make your life a living hell, asking you where you are and what you're doing, who you’re with.
She's going to fight the women who hang out with you because she's insecure and knows they're better fucks. "
Doesn't he realize that I’d do just about anything to have Nyx Mayer be jealous for me?
"And she's going to bleed you dry, just like she did with me."
Now I can't help but laugh. "I’d be surprised."
"She's a gold digger. Trust me on that one."
"How would you know?" I ask, truly curious. "Wouldn't you need gold for her to start digging?" I shrug. "I can handle her just fine. Don't you worry about my bank account."
"Fuck you," he spits one last time before turning away and getting in his car.
"Chase!" Nyx screams in my arms, and the second she steps away, I drag her back by the back of her neck. "Please, I'm sorry."
"Tsk, tsk," I scold her. "Don't you dare lower yourself to his level."
She shrugs me off, turning around and shoving me. "You said you wouldn't tell him anything!" she shouts. "I did everything you said. I played my part of the deal, and you…you didn't keep your word."
"I couldn't," I admit, but she can't hear regret in my tone because there is none. "I couldn't watch you with him for one more second. It was this, or him six feet under. I came to the conclusion that your empathetic little soul wouldn't want him dead. I can change that if you want."
"You told me if I did everything you said, you wouldn't tell him," she repeats in a weak voice. As if this situation can't be really happening.
"I lied."
Her lower lip trembles, but she doesn't give me the pleasure of seeing her cry. Instead, she takes off in a sprint, disappearing through the crowd. I reach for my pack of cigarettes in my jeans, putting one in my mouth by the time Ethan rips it away from me.
"It’s a fucking race. Fumes? Flammables? Did that girl eat at your common sense as well as your sanity?"
A low laugh gets my attention, and Elliot comes to stand next to me. "And I thought I did some shady things to get my girl."
I nod, my eyes stuck on the spot in the crowd where I lost her.
"I think," I say peacefully. "I think there's absolutely nothing I wouldn't do to make her completely mine."