Chapter 5 Juliet #2
“Everything.” That lone word is a knife to my gut.
He can’t mean everything everything… can he?
“I’m your lawyer, Juliet. Viks had to give me as much information as possible.
So did Nolan. If there’s anyone you shouldn’t lie to—it’s your lawyer.
So, yes, I know all about you. I know about your father.
Your mother. Your relationship with the recently departed Morpheus Calloway…
” He drifts off as a dark gray sedan pulls across the opening of the alleyway and parks a few feet away.
“You’ve had a rough time of it,” Abel continues, absently glancing at the waiting car. He starts walking again, moving out of the alley and into the lot. I can’t see who’s inside, the windows are too tinted, but the shape of the figure is male and broad.
“This town is small and contained. Places like Silverwood are behind the times when it comes to justice or protecting those who deserve and need it. I know—well, I guess knew because they’re different now—a few girls just like you.
They needed the kind of family that could survive the fire.
” He turns back to me. “Those boys? They’ll die for you.
I gotta respect men like that because I’d do the same for my Rylie. ”
I don’t respond. I don’t know what to say.
He smiles as if he’s not surprised by my lack of a reply.
“I said in the gym that you remind me of some of the other women in my life, and I meant it,” he says. “You remind me of my wife back when I first met her,” he admits. “Chip on your shoulder. Protective. Distrusting.”
Abel’s lips spread into a fuller, wider grin.
“Though, after seeing some of the reports from the high school from earlier this year, I’d say you’re probably more like my best friend’s wife.
More feral than domesticated.” The driver of the sedan honks and Abel’s head whips back to it.
He lifts a hand and flips it off with a scowl.
“Anyway, as I was saying—” He glances back at me even as he starts moving towards the car with a slow, predatory grace.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Gio’s Firebird idling in a parking spot. His head is down, as if he’s reading something on his phone. He hasn’t noticed us yet.
“You don’t need to worry about why I’m helping you, Juliet.” He stops next to the passenger side door and reaches for the handle. “Just focus on the outcome you want. Everything else will fall into place.”
With that, he gets into the vehicle and a few seconds later, the driver guns the engine, speeding past as the wheels shriek against the pavement.
I watch him go before turning towards Gio’s Firebird.
But the sound of the other car screeching off must have gotten his attention, because his head is up now and he sees me.
He pulls out of the parking spot and I stop to wait.
Gio rolls down the window of his Firebird and grins at me from the driver’s seat as he comes to a stop right alongside me. “Your carriage awaits, my lady,” he announces.
I roll my eyes but round the front of the car and get in. Minutes later, we’re leaving the parking lot and the sound of Spanish rock is playing over the Firebird’s speakers, lulling me into a sense of easy reprieve. With a sigh, I sink deeper into the seat and hit the button that lowers the window.
“So, where are we going?” I ask. Cool air invades the car’s interior, causing goosebumps to rise along my arms. Summer is well and truly over and fall is edging into winter.
I watch the trees and buildings go by in a blur as Gio speeds up and cuts across a few lanes, hitting his blinker to turn onto the next street.
Gio shoots me a look that has his eyes glittering and I frown at him, suspicion curling in my stomach. His next words don’t ease the feeling. “Thought I’d take you on a date,” he says.
I groan. “Gio.”
His laugh is unrepentant. “Come on,” he urges. “I’ve not taken you on a date before and you spend more time with Lex than me.”
“That’s not true,” I say immediately. Gio arches a brow at me.
“It’s totally true,” he argues. “So, I’m claiming the rest of the afternoon for myself.”
“Yeah?” I fold my arms across my chest. “What’s your idea of a date? Taking me to a hotel and fucking me until I pass out?”
Gio snorts. “No, of course not—that’s for after the date.”
I flip him the bird and slump in my seat. Gio’s responding smile is bright and easy. I blink and the memory of him standing over one of my kidnappers, face speckled in blood as he drove his fist into the man’s face over and over, resurfaces.
Like me—these men have two faces. Who I was and who I am now. Who they are in the dark and who they are to the rest of the world are theirs. Gio reaches over, as if sensing my thoughts, and settles his hand over my thigh, squeezing in such a way that my core contracts and my lower belly tightens.
The sight of Gio’s hand, far larger than my own, cupping my leg, makes me want to drag it farther up and press it between my thighs. Instead, I clear my throat and unfold my arms, letting one drop to lean on the door and the other to the console.
“Fine,” I say. “A date then, but you still haven’t told me where we’re going.”
His grin is smug. “You’ll see,” he hedges.
Damn it. I swear if we actually do pull into a hotel, I’m going to kick him in the balls.
Half an hour later, I gape at the building Gio passes and then slows to turn into the parking lot. “Is this a joke?” I ask.
“What?” he asks. “You don’t like rock climbing?”
“I’ve never done it,” I admit. “But that’s kind of weird for a date, isn’t it?”
He shrugs and parks behind a bright yellow truck with twin black stripes going down the side. “It’s more interesting than lunch and a movie,” he says, then waggles his brows as he pockets his keys and gets out of the car. “Besides, it’ll be fun to see if you can beat me to the top.”
I follow him out of the car and peer past him to the building.
The sign above it is a vibrant bright green and blue with a thick scrawl that reads the name of the place: Rock & Climb.
My gaze moves down to the impressive mural painted on the redbrick siding.
It depicts several people—men, women, and children—laughing as they climb up the rocks.
I shoot Gio a look as he jogs towards the entrance.
“Come on!” he calls out. “They have a discount hour and I want to get in on it for both of us before it ends.”
To my surprise, when we get inside, the whole place feels open rather than confining.
Several temporary walls are marked with different levels of experience from beginner to expert.
Gio, of course, goes for the harder courses immediately.
Despite my initial trepidation, however, I start out with the beginner’s and find the exertion of scaling the side of a wall far more fun than I expected.
I blow through the first two courses and then on to intermediate within the first hour.
By the second, I’m watching Gio get a quarter of the way up the expert wall, twisting his body in all sorts of weird angles before he slips and drops back down.
My chest tightens when he loses his grip, but the ropes and harness keeping him up cinch tight and keep him from falling to injury.
The employees are professional and they’re nice—but maybe that’s because we’re on the outskirts of Silverwood and technically in Tangier and no one here has knowledge about who I am back home.
Either way, by the time our two hours are up, I’m sweaty and laughing as Gio, once again, misses a rock and slips off the expert wall, cursing up a storm as the employee anchoring him begins to lower him back to the floor.
“I almost had it!” Gio complains as his feet reach the ground and he straightens.
“Maybe you should’ve started on the beginner walls,” I suggest.
“Pft.” He waves a hand my way and glares at the rocky wall in front of us with its various curves and jutting parts. It’s actually built to resemble what I imagine would be a real cliffside save for the obvious colorful handholds on the gray surface.
“Do you want to book another session?” the man who’s been acting as Gio’s anchor the whole time asks.
“Nah,” Gio says with a shake of his head. “Besides…” He rubs his stomach and looks to me. “I’m hungry as fuck.” The employee nods and then starts loosening the ropes and reins of Gio’s harness from the floor hook and himself.
Once we’re all checked out, Gio takes my hand and presses a kiss to the back of it as he leads me out into the parking lot and the evening that has fallen since we came in. He stares ahead as we walk side by side, but my attention is locked on him.
“Today was… nice,” I murmur.
His lips curl up and the hand in mine squeezes tight. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
“But do you think we should really be doing stuff like this?” I ask, pausing as we reach the car.
Gio stops too and looks down at me. “Did you have fun?” he asks.
“Of course,” I say. In fact, I think the last two hours were some of the first where I didn’t think about all of the bullshit going on even once in weeks if not months.
“Then it was worth it,” he answers, gaze holding mine. “We’ve been dealing with this shit for months—you even longer. If we wait until it’s all over to have fun, to live—then we might as well wait until we die.”
My lips part in surprise and he shocks me again by swooping in and landing his mouth on mine.
Gio kisses me with a heady expertise that has me sagging against his chest and creeping my hands into the longer strands at the top of his head.
His tongue invades my mouth, curling around mine.
When we part, he nips my lip, sending tingles down my spine and into my pussy.
“But—why rock climbing?” I ask. “Was it just because it was out of town?”
Gio shakes his head and then pops the passenger door of the Firebird open before nudging me inside. He doesn’t answer until he gets back in the car.
“Rock climbing is fun, and yeah, okay, maybe I chose it because there was a good place away from Silverwood to do it,” he begins. Gio places one hand on my headrest as he turns and looks over his shoulder and back out of the parking spot. “What did you think about when you were climbing?”
“Uh…” I grimace. “Honestly, not much of anything save for where I was going to put my hand or foot next.”
He nods as if that was expected. “Exactly,” he says.
“Exactly what?” I ask.
“That was the whole point, Prep Girl.” He steers the Firebird onto the road, the headlights washing across the mural. “You weren’t supposed to think about anything else. Just focus on moving forward.”
I blink at him. Is he fucking serious? From Nolan, I could expect that level of deep thinking, sure. But Gio? Playboy, fuck around and find out, Gio?
“Rock climbing builds your muscles and makes you think strategically,” he continues. “Next time, I’m going to take you to Cory’s for a few rounds after we’ve gone rock climbing instead of before.”
Strategy. I narrow my eyes on him. “This was training?” I clarify.
His lips twitch and he looks my way before returning his attention to the road. “Sure was,” he says. “But it was also fun. Don’t forget the fun bit—it’s pretty important.”
He says that, but the fact that he’s already planning on bringing me back and then taking me to Cory’s afterwards tells me he’s got a lot of things on his mind. He’s got plans that none of us—well, at least, I—have no awareness of. I never would have guessed.
With my eyes so focused on the man next to me, I see the change come over him in an instant. His shoulders stiffen. His knuckles whiten as he grips the steering wheel a bit tighter, and his expression sobers.
“Morpheus might be gone, but the person who killed him is out there,” he says, voice low.
“We never fully confirmed why Morpheus had you kidnapped or was going to kill you—it doesn’t really make sense if you think about it.
You were kidnapped and the kidnappers admitted that they’d been told to kill you, but then Morpheus blackmails you into moving in with him? ” He shakes his head.
Cold ice invades my veins. “We don’t have time for this,” I mutter. His reminder of what’s happened is nothing short of proof that playing around is not a priority for me right now and it shouldn’t be.
He sighs. “You deserve to have fun, Jules. Maybe you forget—hell, I know we all do—but we’re still just teenagers. Sometimes… sometimes it’s good to stop thinking about the rest of the world for a little while. Sometimes it’s just about having a good time, not survival.”
Survival. It’s the only thing I’ve been concerned with for so long that I’d forgotten the truth of his words. When was the last time I actually felt like I was just a teenager?
Relaxing into the seat as Gio drives the two of us back towards Silverwood, I find myself turning his words over and over in my mind. At the end of the day, though, no matter what I do—moments like these are going to feel stolen. Little pieces of hope and light in the dark.
I close my eyes and whisper my reply. “Thank you.”
Maybe he hears it. Maybe he doesn’t. But a few seconds later, Gio reaches over and his hand is warm on my thigh again. He holds it, and me, the whole way back.