Chapter 12
Poison
Succumb to the dark, sweet beauty
I was sound asleep when the warm flush of a body ground against me. I woke instantly, my eyes struggling to open from the deepest sleep. And there she was, nestling carefree into my embrace. So soft, so delicate. So venomous.
My heart contracted into a considerable leap when she took my free arm that was straight across the pillow under her and wrapped it around the front of her neck and rested it on her shoulder. All while being under the spell of sleep. Did she know she was practically covering my body over hers? She may not know, but I knew the more I shielded her, the more I never wanted to leave the spot.
We fucked last night. Well, not fucked because I’ve never fucked a woman like that before. I don’t even know what the fuck that was. I didn't even get to taste her pussy or do anything correct. We were both so damn eager to get to the source that it all went out the window.
My chest tingles from it because it didn’t feel like just a fuck—no, this was something different, something more magnetic than my body can explain. It was...
It was the most pleasant, most deranged thing I have ever felt.
Being inside of her was like standing in the freezing cold for years, only to finally find a hut with a warm fire, safety, and comfort.
I have never cuddled with a woman before. I didn’t see the point, and I never understood the gist of it—laying with someone else and purposely allowing yourself to become heated like a furnace. But as I laid with her, I realized it’s more than that. My throat tightens as I shift in the lounge chair.
I understand what they mean and what they feel . To have her next to me so closely in that way...it’s dangerous, and I'll accept it. I'm not holding back.
Last night was such a pile of emotions. The shit with Victor had my mind so fucked and discombobulated that I felt...like a failure—again. Then I opened up to her more than once. I’ve never done that, only when my mother was alive, and she was that safety net I had. And I haven’t experienced that since.
Until last night. Anita allowed me to feel safe and to be...open without judgment. She saw my scars and wasn’t recoiling in detest; she cried for me, and for some reason, it turned me on so goddamn much. For someone like her , a woman who hated me, a woman with the hardest shell to cry and acknowledge my pain.
She kissed my marks and made me see I don’t have to hate myself. I only need to accept myself. I close my eyes slowly, dwelling on the gentle kiss she applied to my marred skin while I was waking up, kissing the wounds, and the last part of me that makes me who I am.
Maybe it’s why I came so hard that my soul split from my vessel.
I hope Carter doesn’t hate me.
I now sit in the corner of the room, hands clasped up to my chin, only a few feet from the bed where she sleeps soundly. Watching her. Her light breathing with the glow of the waning moon bursting over her gorgeous skin from the overhead window. The cover fits under her arm, revealing a perfectly curved collarbone with bruising from my teeth marks on her and the dent lining down to her breast. My eyes sketch out her body, perfect in every way, even through all the fucked up shit and hard exterior. Underneath lies a different kind of interior.
I want it all, her good, bad, ugly, the rawness of her, the skeletons she chose to lock in the closet. The demons she forces to keep at bay, but I'll be the one to stoke the fire, set the circle, and summon the bastards. We’ll burn them down together, wreak havoc like a chaotic duo ready to blaze to glory. I’ll bust through that shit and kick out all the brittle bones. Consuming them with my own body and darkness. Becoming one.
I need to know more about her. How did she get into this world? What happened to her father? I already knew he had a military background, but did he do this to her? Did he make her this beautiful, dangerous person?
I let out a silent breath before flipping open the laptop sitting on the coffee table. The reason I got up in the first place is to ensure Bedford sent me exactly what I asked for. I adjust the laptop to get a clear view on the glowing screen. A soft moan skirts from in front of me, and I freeze mid-finger. Anita stirs under the plush covers, bringing them over her shoulder, tugging them lightly to her neck. She doesn’t wake, but I listen to her slow breathing, like a soothing melody. Her wild, curly hair mushed around her slender face, her golden-brown skin resembling cream that you’ll beg to smear all over your body until the entire container is empty.
She’s so fucking beautiful.
A thickening lifts between my thighs. Not now. So, I grit my teeth and focus back on the screen, patting my hardening cock down like a tempered dog.
In the midst of the gun fire Bedford scanned a facial recognition on everyone who was in that office, leading me to the man of the hour.
Jax.
I tap my finger into the key and up pops his picture. A picture from when he served in the military. They recruited him, and then he served as a secret agent. From there it’s blank. Only an honorable discharge. Nothing about what exactly caused his discharge.
What the fuck? My face dulls. If I had the moral capacity, I would give a shit about his life path, but I don’t.
“Here we go,” I mutter, clicking on the data, my eyes gliding up at the beauty before me, making sure that my quiet words alone didn’t wake her.
Nothing.
I skate my eyes back down to the digits and map, zooming into a location. A home address. I’ll be seeing you tomorrow, right when you least expect it. If he cares about his life the least bit, then he’ll come through with the location of the kids. I do have the GPS tracking Victor’s every single move. I can blast a hole into his entire corrupt corporation and blow the entire thing into smithereens—along with parts of his body. But he’s a nuisance to me at this point. Irrelevant. Like I wasn’t even seeking blood from his death to begin with.
The kids are more important. Much more relevant.
I press the key, revealing what I need. Bedford always comes through. In the back of my mind, I make note to add those two bonuses in his Christmas payout.
Oh, shit .
Christmas. School. Another week. I grit my teeth even harder as I remember the kids petitioning for a Winter Christmas dance. Something that I relentlessly promised to them to make them feel what’s the word? ‘Normal.’
Fuck that winter wonderland dance. There are bigger things at hand. I don’t have the time to maneuver around rescuing kids, getting to Victor before he tries another sick stunt, while also preparing an entire school and chaperoning a dance.
You’ll disappoint them.
They’ll be fine; we don’t get through life expecting everything to go the way it was supposed to.
This situation with Victor needs to end, and it must be now. I snatch the centipede pendant off the coffee table and study the ugly design. After yanking it from Victor's chest, it only confirmed what I’m thinking. Each of the victims had this pendant. Besides Joe, I never got to see because Anita got to him first. I don't recall Tractor having one.
I quickly took a picture and sent the symbol to Bedford.
Me: I need any information that you can find on this.
I should have done this a long time ago, but now it's imperative that I know because it could be an entire underground cult that I know nothing about. Anyone could be a part of this...
I flip it in my fingers; the tiny legs curved out, and the body twisted like a circle. Who are these people? What is the centipede for? An ache permeates in my chest. How deep does this shit really go?
My phone vibrates on the nightstand, and I rush to get it before it wakes her up. I stuff the pendant into my pants pocket and check the name. I grin.
I head to the balcony and shut the doors.
“Seems you couldn’t last more than a month without speaking to me. That's a world record.”
Detective Gear grumbles on the phone as a car door slams in the background. “Of course, I should've known you'll still be awake.”
“I stayed up until two a.m. waiting for your phone call,” I say sarcastically, crossing my arm over my chest as the chilly London air licks my skin. “What do you want?”
He sighs long and hard with annoyance. “What's this shit I hear about a Gala that was raided, multiple gun shots and dead bodies appearing onsite?”
I look off to the lake as the moon glistens over it. “Nothing of your concern, Gear. This isn't your jurisdiction.”
“I should've known it was you. Everywhere you go, bodies appear.”
My eyes dull at his constant bitching. “Dead bodies will appear with or without me.”
“Yeah, but in a considerable amount? It will always be you.”
I scratch my jaw. “The job had to get done. There is more to that Gala raid than a shootout, and innocent people that were killed.” Not one of those idiots were innocent. “It's not what you think.”
Thinking about it more makes my blood boil, and I want to appear where those kids are and free them from the fear of that cold, dark room that they're in.
I can picture them crying hysterically, afraid, sleeping upright with a bomb strapped to them, terrified to touch it, or it might go off. Squeezing my eyes shut, my heart slams against my ribcage. I forget Gear is on the phone until he speaks again.
“What are you not telling me?”
I rub my temple and glance behind me through the balcony doors at Anita. “Like I said. Nothing of your concern.”
“Bullshit,” he says. “It is my concern if it has to do with the people of Hollow City. What the hell is going on, Alvarez?”
I consider telling him because we have an understanding with each other. I do what I need to do, help him out occasionally, putting sick fuckers away (if I don't kill them first), and he keeps shit off my back. But this time is different. If I let him know, then he’ll go ape shit and notify every law enforcement agency he can think of, and that’ll get back to Victor somehow. I don't know who he works with, or if I can trust them, for all I know, someone in law enforcement could be coercing him along with Victor. The only people I trust are myself...and my team.
I turn, doing a 180, placing my hand on the knob. “You’ll know soon enough.”
He mutters a curse, then after another aggravated huff states, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Opening the door, I pause. “No.”
Then I click the end button. I stroll into the room as quietly as I can, closing the door with a gentle click. Her sweet humming sounds fill the room as she sleeps away, so I head to the restroom, retrieve a rag, wet it with hot water so by the time I make it to her, it’ll be warm. I don't care how much it stings my skin.
Carrying the steaming rag, I head to her sleeping body, truly looking so innocent and beautiful. I move the covers carefully to expose her thighs and pussy. My chest tightens at the sight of her sex on display, and my dick instantly becomes hard. I bite back the urge to do something I shouldn't, and I begin to wipe her slowly on the inside of her thighs and all the way to her cunt.
I make sure to clean discreetly so she doesn't awake. She deserves all the sleep she can get.
Once I’m done, I toss the rag off to the side and check the time again. Five more hours before everything goes back to reality. The kids, the money, Victor. It's rampant in my mind, but I can’t get through the next day running on fumes. And the thought of lying next to her brings a taut relaxation to my shoulder. A heaviness to my eyes.
Everything can wait for now.
I go over to shut the laptop with a soft click, and look back at her moving figure, searching for comfort.
I’m here.
I lower my sweats, the cool air touching my naked skin, a chill runs down my stomach from a seeping breeze. My body’s vibrating, eager as fuck to lay next to her, to suck up all her discomfort and shower her with some warmth. Whatever warmth I can give.
I stroll to the side of the bed, positioning myself to smoothly glide in behind her, careful not to disturb her. I wrap my arms around her curvy waist and gently tug her into me. Unknowingly, she accepts the invitation, her fingers intertwine with mine and a mild sigh escapes her. My thoughts shut out along with the endorphins in my brain mellowing into mush, my tense muscles that were weighing like bricks on my shoulders, instantly ease. I can’t help but apply a gentle kiss right on her jawline where a birthmark lies. I never noticed it until I had my hands wrapped around her throat as she came around my cock.
I close my eyes, my nose falling to her hair, breathing in her scent, the smell sending me further into a deep, peaceful space. My body sinks into hers. I hope she can breathe because I’m not fucking moving, she feels too good. This feels too good. I drift off into oblivion, realizing this is the first night I'm comfortable and with the only last words I hear in my head.
She’s going to ruin me.