CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CODIE
Leaving Stray behind hurt me more than anything I’d ever done. He’d come for me. Proving that I meant something to him after all. Despite my betrayal. Here I was leaving him when he needed me most.
Rebel was here now. I felt better knowing that Stray wasn’t alone. However, it still didn’t feel right to take off and leave them to whatever fate Noah had planned.
I got into Stray’s Mustang, unable to bring myself to start it and drive away just yet. My hands shook. Adrenaline had me breathing hard, my heart racing. I sat there for a while, willing myself to calm down.
My cheek stung from where I’d been cut. A quick inspection in the visor mirror showed me a cut with blood dried over it, making it hard to gauge how deep it may be. I could still feel Colt’s nasty mouth on mine. Fucking disgusting.
Something moving in my peripheral view caught my attention. Auryn’s Porsche slipped around behind the warehouse. As happy as I was to see that Rebel hadn’t really come alone, I worried about what would take place inside. Even though Stray had told me to go, I felt reluctant to do so.
I still sat in the car in the dark, working up the nerve to drive away when another vehicle pulled up in front of the warehouse not far from where I sat in the Mustang.
I watched as Damon got out of a blacked out SUV.
What was he doing here? Having his arm in a sling didn’t stop him from getting involved.
The parking lot light glinted off the gun in his hand. Right now Venom was seriously outnumbered. The Kings didn’t need Damon taking them by surprise.
Moving fast, I started the Mustang and threw the car into drive. Hitting the gas, I sped toward Damon.
The headlights gave me a great view of his face as I hit him. His expression was one of pure shock. Too bad I didn’t have a lot of space to pick up more speed. Even though I hit him, I sensed that it hadn’t been hard enough to keep him down. I was right.
He was up in seconds, racing toward the driver’s door. I went to hit the door lock, but he’d already grabbed the handle from the outside, wrenching the door open. He seemed surprised to find me inside the car. That didn’t stop him from grabbing hold of me and dragging me out of the vehicle.
“You are so fucking lucky I’m hopped up on painkillers right now. Stupid bitch.” Even with one working arm, Damon was stronger than me.
He threw me down to the ground, looming over me with a fist raised. I covered my face and head with both arms, wishing I’d driven away when I had the chance. Instead of hitting me, Damon grabbed my arm and pulled me back to my feet. He gave me a shake before throwing me against the Mustang.
“You’re Stray’s bitch, right? What are you doing out here?” Damon glanced around for the gun he’d dropped when I hit him with the car.
“None of your damn business.” I also looked around for the gun. It must’ve been in front of the vehicle or underneath it.
“Did you escape? That’s okay. I can send Stray a message with you.” Grabbing me hard around the throat, Damon slammed me against the car multiple times.
I clawed at his hand, trying desperately to loosen his fingers. When I managed to suck in a breath of air, I screamed at the top of my lungs. Damon raised his hand as if to backhand me across the face.
Stray was suddenly there. Bursting from the building in a blur as he raced toward us. He grabbed Damon’s upraised hand, spinning him around. Over and over Stray pounded Damon in the face with his fist.
Damon was limited by the arm he had in a sling. His attempts to fight back were meager at best. Blood soon covered his face. Stray hit him repeatedly, knocking him to the hard ground. Targeting Damon’s broken arm, Stray kicked it several times while Damon screamed in pain.
When Damon stopped screaming and lay there in a bloody, unconscious heap, I grabbed Stray’s arm. “You have to stop now. This has gone far enough. I can’t watch you kill him. I can’t live with that memory, Stray.”
“Why not?” Stray’s eyes were wide with rage, his chest heaving. He grabbed his ribs, doubling over. “He probably would’ve killed you. Why have any sympathy for him now?”
“I don’t. I just can’t take any more violence. Please don’t make me watch you kill him.” Worry gripped me as I watched Stray struggle to breathe. “Are you all right? Do you need a hospital?”
He shook his head, struggling to get enough air to speak. “No, I’m good. The ribs are still healing. It’s been a hell of a night.”
I stared down at Damon’s prone form. Being with a man like Stray, witnessing things I never thought I would see, I had to ask myself if that’s something I could handle. If he and I moved past the problems that had divided us, would I be able to live with this?
Storm had managed to look past the harsh parts of Rebel’s reality. She loved him, and she accepted that this was part of who he was. Would I be able to do the same?
“I want to go home.” I turned away so I didn’t have to look at Damon any longer.
“Give me one minute to check in on the guys. Then we’re out of here.” His brow wrinkled in pain, Stray went to the warehouse door, peering inside the building. I stayed put by his car.
He returned looking incredibly satisfied. “Let’s go, strawberry. I’ll get you home safely.”
“Is everything okay?” I motioned to the warehouse as we climbed inside the car.
“Let’s just say that Colt and Noah played a little game called Russian roulette. Colt lost. If Noah knows what’s good for him, he’ll get the fuck out of town. He won’t get another chance to walk away alive if he wants to fuck with us.”
A shiver crept through me. My entire body broke out in goosebumps. Heat blasted from the vents after Stray started the car. It did nothing to chase away the chill on the inside.
The drive back to my apartment was thankfully uneventful. Athena was still out with the rest of the girls. Rebel must not have told Storm how bad things were. He probably didn’t want her to insist on coming along and endangering herself.
“I’m going to come in for a few minutes if that’s cool.” Stray parked in front of my building, coming around to open my door despite his obvious pain.
“Yeah, all right.” Using my key, I let us into the building. My dark apartment greeted us. I couldn’t help but remember the last time he’d been here. When he tied me up.
I flicked on the lights. Being alone with him after everything that had gone down between the two of us left me feeling uncertain. What did I say? What did I do?
“I need to get cleaned up and get out of this dress. So much for seducing you.” With a rueful smile, I kicked off my shoes and padded down the hallway to the bathroom.
Stray was right behind me. “Was that your plan? To come to the party and seduce me? I guess I kind of shit all over that, didn’t I? I’m sorry I was such an asshole. I know you were just trying to apologize.”
“It’s cool. You had every right to be. I did a really fucked up thing. I don’t deserve your forgiveness.” Hyper aware of him standing right behind me, I examined the cut on my face in the bathroom mirror. The bright overhead lights revealed how truly terrible I looked.
Mascara had been smeared under my eyes. Blood on my face and lipstick on my chin. I was a mess.
“You felt backed into a corner because of me,” Stray said. “You did what you felt like you had to do. If I hadn’t pushed myself into your life, you never would have gone to Venom, and they would never have targeted you.”
With a hand on my arm, Stray turned me around to face him. He gently caressed my cheek, careful not to touch the cut on my face. Something like sorrow shone in his eyes. Fuck me, I really was in love with this crazy bastard.
“For the record, I liked that you pushed yourself into my life. I think I started to fall for you right from the start. I’ve never felt that way before, and it scared the hell out of me.
I guess I didn’t handle it well.” I fell hard into him then.
Our eyes locked, and I saw my deepest emotions reflected back at me.
Neither of us seemed ready to say the words. To give life to our feelings and make it all real.
After a long tense moment stretched between us, Stray said, “I guess I should take off. I just wanted to make sure you were all right first.”
“Do you have to?” I asked timidly. “I mean, I want you to stay. I need to get cleaned up. Care to join me?”
I began stripping off my dress. I tossed it on the floor in the corner before reaching to unhook my bra. Maybe it wasn’t too late to seduce him after all.
Stray watched me strip down naked. He gave a slow shake of his head. “Damn, strawberry. You know I can’t fucking resist you.”
He got naked in record time. There was no hiding my satisfied grin. I closed the bathroom door, locking it in case Athena came home. Leaning over the tub to start the water for the shower, I savored the warmth of Stray as he pressed close behind me.
We got into the shower together, doing our best to share the hot spray of water. I winced as the water hit my face, making my cut sting. I tried to gently cleanse the blood away without making it bleed again.
“How bad is it? Do you think I should have had stitches?” I turned my face so Stray could get a good look at the cut now that it was clean.
“Actually, it’s not all that bad. It’s a pretty thin slice. Keep it clean. It should heal up fine. Maybe a faint scar.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose before grabbing the shampoo bottle from the shelf.
I fully expected him to shampoo his own hair. It came as a bit of a shock when instead he shampooed mine. Who even was this guy? Was this seriously the same Stray Hurley that had held a knife to my throat and a gun to my head? I truly enjoyed seeing this side of him.
Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes and relished every second as he lovingly washed my hair. He even worked the conditioner through the length just right. While it soaked into my hair, he used the bath puff to lather me up with bodywash.