Chapter Five – Mike
Laina changed into pink sweats and a baggy t-shirt before she grabbed her home bag and we got going.
Something was off about her, something in the air.
She was lost in her own thoughts—as she was often, I’d found out these last five months.
The girl had spent two whole years locked up in a basement with no one else as company, so it wasn’t surprising she sometimes reverted inside herself.
I thought about asking her what was wrong, but in my experience, asking someone that question did not automatically mean they’d answer, let alone answer truthfully. She would talk about whatever it was when she was ready.
Of course, my thoughts did go somewhere after seeing her in that dress. A picture was one thing, but seeing how good she looked in that pink number was another thing entirely. It was possible some asshole had tried something with her in the club, and she didn’t like it.
Or maybe she did.
Laina knew what she liked, who she liked, and she wasn’t afraid to go after it.
It’s how she got entangled with Fang, pretty much right after they met.
And Kieran… don’t get me started on that one.
I was still pissed at him for doing what he did, even if I did understand that if he didn’t do something back then, Tessa would have hired someone else to do the job—and they would have done it with no hesitations whatsoever.
And if that would’ve happened, Laina would be dead. Maybe she would’ve been tortured and raped before she was killed. In a city like this, you never knew.
It was the only reason I could stand to be in the same room as Kieran without strangling him. That, and because Laina loved him.
Never thought I’d be in a situation like my brother, but here I was, caught in a relationship between one girl and three guys.
Hell, I never wanted to be in a situation like this, but Laina…
I couldn’t walk away from her if I tried—and I had tried, in the beginning.
Even before our relationship became official, I couldn’t leave her.
That girl had me wrapped around her finger from day one.
The others? I didn’t know if I trusted them. She did, and I had to follow her lead when it came to them.
We got to my place, a smaller house not too far away from Lola’s and the Luciano’s abode.
I used to share it with my brother, but he moved in with Lola, so it was just mine now.
When Laina was done with school, or hell, even in the summer when she had no classes, I wouldn’t say no if she wanted to move in with me instead of going home to her dad.
Knowing her, it was a toss-up. She and her dad had been on good terms lately, after the whole thing with Tessa. I was happy for her when it came to that; I remembered how torn up she was when she used to think her dad was responsible for it all.
Once my car was parked in the garage and we were in the house, I asked her if she wanted anything to eat.
Laina dropped her bag near the stairs heading up and meandered right to the living room, where she plopped down on the couch and got herself comfortable.
I followed her, grabbed one of the folded blankets hanging off the back of the couch, and sat down with her, draping the blanket over us before pulling her to my lap.
I’d never get over how perfectly she fit on my lap.
With my arms around her, she could go nowhere.
Not that she would. She was the reason we were both here.
If she hadn’t pushed me, if she hadn’t made it clear that she wasn’t going to stop wanting me, I couldn’t say that I would’ve crossed the line myself.
I meant it way back when I said she was temptation, and that I wasn’t a man who often gave in.
Something about her, though, called out to me, and I honestly wouldn’t change a single thing.
I might not particularly like the fact she had other boyfriends, but I’d never dare wish to change who she was.
Neither one of us went to turn on the television.
We sat there in the semi-dark, with only the light from the hallway shining.
She leaned her head back on my chest and gripped the arms encircling her, tracing absentminded shapes along my skin.
Feeling her touch, having her on my lap…
one was enough to drive me crazy, but both? I was fighting myself all the while.
“I thought going out with Kelly would be fun,” Laina finally spoke about her night out with her friend. “She’s been asking me to go out with her every weekend. I always have an excuse ready—of course I’d rather hang out with you, Kieran, or Fang.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just thought…”
I tightened my arms around her, knowing she’d continue without me prompting her.
“I met someone at the club.”
When she said that, I was suddenly on high alert. I couldn’t help but get possessive over this girl. Two other guys in the picture was bad enough; I didn’t want to invite another into our atypical relationship.
Then again, was it really so atypical? For this city, it almost felt like the norm. Lola had three boyfriends. Fang’s brother, the Beast, had a girl he shared with two of his men. Roman and Carter shared Zoey with some normie named Lake.
That prompted me to say, “Who?”
“I don’t know who he was,” she said, and when she said that, I couldn’t lie—I relaxed. If she didn’t know who he was, then odds were everything was fine. “But he was someone. He had to be someone. He was older, maybe my dad’s age. He had this air about him that… it’s hard to explain.”
What would someone her dad’s age be doing at a club near a college? I had to assume the oldest people that frequented places like that were teacher’s assistants and graduate students, not people who were in their forties.
And just like that, I was on high alert again.
“He never told me his name. He was covered in tattoos. The vibe I got off him, well, he reminded me of someone Lola would deal with. Or maybe Sylvester.” She paused. “A criminal, but I don’t know for sure.”
An older man, covered in tattoos, in a college club. Someone like that, of course Laina would be drawn to him.
“Was he doing anything fishy?”
“No, I don’t think so. He was standing on one of the balconies overlooking the rest of the club… just watching. He left right after I went up and talked to him, which makes me wonder if—” She quieted. “—if he was there for me.”
The possibility put me on edge immediately, and I couldn’t possibly hold onto the girl tighter than I already was. “Why would he have been there for you?” I admit, it was odd of him to leave right after she spoke to him, almost like he had been waiting for her to spot him.
There had to be another explanation. Maybe he was checking out the club, selling drugs, or something. Illegal shit went down all the time in clubs like that.
“I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched.” She sighed. “I know it’s probably just leftover paranoia from everything that happened with Tessa, but… I can’t shake it.”
“I can’t speak for the others, but I haven’t seen anyone tailing us when we’re together.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s all in my head.”
“He might’ve been a dealer or something. I wouldn’t think too much about him.” I moved a hand and cupped her chin, and though it took some maneuvering on our parts, my mouth found hers.
Was I happy to talk to her about another man?
Of course not, but odds were she was putting too much weight on something that, ultimately, meant nothing.
She’d been through so much, seen so much, that she automatically came up with her own conspiracy theories about everything.
I couldn’t blame her, but I could help her take her mind off it.
Take my mind off it, too.
Truly, the only thing that mattered was her. Laina had become everything to me in such a short time, I couldn’t see my life ever returning to the way it was before. Such a lonely existence; life really was better when you shared it with someone… even if you shared that someone with two other guys.
As long as they never harmed a hair on her head, we’d be cool.
Laina hummed into the kiss, and when I pulled my mouth off hers, she murmured, “I missed you, Mike. I hate not seeing you every day.” She kissed me again, sucking on my bottom lip in a way that made certain parts of me rock hard.
One part, specifically. One part of me that had already been struggling the moment I pulled her onto my lap and she started tracing those shapes on my arms.
“Is it weird that I kind of miss how things were before?”
I shook my head once. “No. I miss seeing you more often, too.” I smoothed down her wavy pink and blue hair as she gazed up at me with those unnatural-colored contacts. “I think about you all the time.”
The grin she gave me after that told me she wanted to know more.
I didn’t often talk about my feelings. I didn’t often talk in general.
Laina, though, brought it out of me left and right…
and yet, still, there were three tiny words I’d never spoken to her.
I don’t know why. It wasn’t like I didn’t love her.
I did. I had for a long time. There was just something a little terrifying about those three words, like I’d be admitting to myself, to her, and the world, that I could never be whole if she wasn’t by my side.
Like I was inviting all of my enemies to try to take her from me, to hurt her and therefore hurt me.
“I—” I weaved my fingers through her hair, running my thumb along her cheek. Fuck. How could I be so lost in her, even now? Would that feeling ever go away, or was that what love was supposed to be?
“You…” she trailed off, trying to pull the words from me. She knew I wasn’t good at this sort of thing. All this time, she’d been so patient with me.
I wanted to say it. I did. I’d wanted to say it for a while, but the words just wouldn’t come out.
Instead, I ended up whispering, “I need you.”