Chapter 18 #3
I shake my head. “It’s fine. Just...we’re clear on the difference between kinky play and real-life rape, yes?”
He smiles awkwardly. “Of course. I just got carried away.”
I nod and pat him on the shoulder. “So…” I glance at him. “Who is this chick?”
He groans. “I don’t know. But she’s so hot. I can't stop going back to her content online. Honestly, I think she might know who I am now. I keep buying stuff for her off her wish list.”
Aha.
This is making more sense. It also just got ten times sadder, because I’m pretty sure Nacho’s crush is some OnlyFans chick.
I wince. “Oh man, Nacho…like a cam girl? Is that who you’re hung up on?”
He smiles weakly. “Kinda? She doesn’t do porn, man. It’s not like that, I swear.” He gives me an embarrassed look. “Let me just show you a picture.”
He tugs his phone out of his shorts pocket and taps the screen a few times.
“Check it out, man. Hot as fuck, right?”
A sensation I don't quite understand crawls over my skin, burns into my fucking eyeballs, and incinerates the smile from my face when Nacho shoves his phone into my face and shows me a screenshot of Galina.
Well, Velvet Villainess. It still provokes the same violent, wildly unexpected reaction, though: pure, unadulterated. Fucking. Fury.
“This is the girl?” I snarl with venom in my voice.
I really wanna just…fuck the shit out of this chick, you know?
She’s so hot.
She might know who I am now. I keep buying stuff for her off her wish list.
Find her and grab her and just fucking fuck her.
I can get angry sometimes. But the pure violence surging through my veins right now is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
Part of me wants to rip Nacho’s fucking head off right here on the side of the road for saying all that vile shit. How he wants to fuck her. How hot she is.
Christ, he’s fantasized about raping her.
…I fucking should rip his head off.
Another part of me sees fucking red at the idea that Galina has a goddamn wishlist online and guys like Nacho—or anyone—are buying shit from it for her.
“Uh…Lochlan—”
“Is. That. Her?” I seethe.
“Uh, yeah, man,” he frowns, looking uncomfortable. “She goes by—”
“Yeah, I know who she is,” I hiss through clenched teeth.
He peers at me. “Wait, like you know who she really—”
“Stay the fuck away from her,” I growl.
“Word is she’s a Knightsblood student,” he barrels on, completely oblivious to how close to being decapitated he is right now.
And even if I’m not really hearing him anymore as the violence and the rage roars through my skull, every word he says brings me another tick of the second hand closer to detonation.
“…just so fucking hot. I mean, imagine finding out she’s in your class or some shit? I mean goddamn, that ass—”
“Stop talking.”
“…and some of her videos…fuck, bro, they get me so—”
Nacho chokes on his words when I grab the front of his shirt at the neck and yank him into my face.
“Stay. The fuck. Away. From. Her.”
The forest around us goes silent. I feel Nacho gulp against my fist as he quickly nods his head.
“Oh…yeah, no problem, bro,” he blurts, looking both confused and like he might piss himself. “Sorry if I was out of line.”
Fuck.
Nacho doesn’t just look scared right now, he looks terrified for his life.
And suddenly, my every fear about the blood flowing in my veins comes roaring to the surface.
Every worry about my lineage and every concern about the evil that could be buried inside me emerges from the darkness and swirls around my head like so many leering phantoms.
My eyes fall shut as I suck in a slow, steadying breath of cool morning air.
You’re not him.
You are not Seamus.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, man,” I growl quietly as my hand drops from Nacho’s shirt. I step away from him, genuine concern flooding my face as my brows furrow. “I just…”
Think. What makes you look NOT like a fucking psycho right now…
“The rumor I heard,” I say as I lean closer and lower my voice conspiratorially, “is that she’s working with the Bolinaro Cartel.”
The fear in Nacho’s eyes fades instantly and is replaced by anger. Well, forced, almost overly theatrical anger, but whatever.
The Bolinaro Cartel, still led by Ricardo Bolinaro even though he's in his eighties, is the other most powerful family in the cartel world. Unsurprisingly, that makes them the archrivals of Nacho’s family.
…I resist the urge to give myself a round of applause for thinking of that so quickly while still seeing fucking red.
“Seriously?”
I nod somberly. “Sorry, man. I know you’re into her and all. But…” I shrug. “Hell… It could even be a honey pot trap.”
“Hijo de puta!” he hisses under his breath. “Fucking Bolinaros…”
I click my tongue sympathetically. “It’s just what I heard. Maybe it's not true—”
“Can’t be too careful, Lochlan,” he grunts. “Not in the cartel world.” Nacho sighs and hangs his head. “Fuck.”
“Sorry, bud.”
But stay the fuck away from MY girl.
And as unexpected a sentiment as that is about a girl I’ve never slept with, who doesn’t even know who I am?
Well, tough. It is what it is.
Galina is mine.