Chapter 8
Seeing Jade was enough to rock my already unhinged world.
But seeing her safe and still just as headstrong as always, even in the face of her own kidnapping and the overall shitshow this last week has been, throws me off even more.
Most people would be terrified, and rightfully so.
They would run back to safety, not back into all the bullshit, and definitely not back to someone who claims to hate them.
And I have no doubt she knew I was here.
Not Jade, though.
No, Jade is another breed altogether, like nobody I’ve ever met before and probably never will again.
It’s not that Jade can’t be broken; it’s that she already has been.
She’s made up of a mass of broken pieces she put back together herself in order to keep others safe.
She’s all hard edges and fierce words, but like me, she’ll do whatever she can to keep those she cares about safe.
It’s hard not to respect, if not outright admire, it. Add that to the fact that she put her life on the line for my brother.
Damn it.
If I’m not careful, I’m going to start sounding just like the rest of these assholes who worship the ground she walks on.
Not that it matters. I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it just for kissing her.
Her hand moves up into my hair, and I have to swallow down the groan that threatens to slip free when she grips hard and tugs.
Fucking brat.
I press forward, crushing her further into the wall before I catch her lip between my teeth and bite down. I expect her to pull back or, at the very least, show some form of discomfort. What I wasn’t expecting is the moan that falls from her mouth right into mine.
Holy fuck.
Never has a sound gone straight to my cock the way her moan just did.
It wasn’t just a sound of pleasure but of acceptance.
A show that she’s okay with it, and for someone who fights me at every damn turn, it’s kind of a big deal.
My cock agrees, and if she didn’t notice my growing arousal before, there's no way she won't now that I’m damn near sporting a steel rod.
Her lips fall open, giving me better access, and I don’t waste the chance to explore her mouth with my tongue.
With my hand still around her throat, I press my thumb to the bottom of her jaw, forcing her head up as I lean into her.
Her compliance only goes so far, it would seem, and she nips at my tongue, causing me to pull back.
What I wouldn’t give to tie her down and make her comply.
No more smart-ass mouth, and nowhere for her to run.
The little bit of compliance she gives is like a drug, and I intend to get my fill.
It’s no wonder my brothers are so drawn to her.
She’s a walking temptation in so many more ways than I want to admit.
The more she’s around, the more my resistance seems to crack.
Her disappearing, only to show up again like this, seems to have pushed me right off the ledge and into crazy land.
I’d only touched her to ensure she was real.
To prove that I hadn’t simply lost my mind and hallucinated her after the mental break that led me to trash her room.
I hadn’t thought one simple touch would be what sent me over the edge.
I thought I could manage, but I was wrong, as I often seem to be with Jade.
I pull away, and she lets me. Her eyes flutter open slowly, but as they focus, I see her usual guard sliding back into place. She’s prepared for us to go right back to normal, for this to have been a one-time thing.
That’s what it should be.
I’ve been nothing but terrible to her most of the time she’s been here, and the times I wasn’t, I largely ignored her for the sake of keeping my job and my head. I don’t deserve to touch her, or her simple acceptance of the rejection she’s waiting for.
I don’t deserve a lot of things, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want them, anyway. Her easy acceptance only makes my choice simpler. I’m unsure whether it’s because I want to do the opposite of what she expects or because I need to prove her wrong, but it doesn’t matter.
It takes all my fragile willpower not to press her back into the wall, but my need for information is just as nagging as my need to feel her against me again.
“What happened?”
My voice comes out deep and husky, and I watch her pupils expand as she looks up at me.
“There were players on the board that I wasn’t aware of,” she tells me with a smile that's all teeth.
How someone who looks like an angel most of the time can so easily slip into the demon I named her for used to shock me.
However, now I think she might be more demon than the poor, innocent girl we first mistook her for.
“But they’ve been handled, and when we get the others here, I can go over everything so we can figure out our next move.”
She slips into boss mode so easily. I’ve fought with the idea of her being the head of Vengeance ever since they dropped that bomb on us.
Kratos should be leading. He built it. We follow him.
I thought it was unfair that he should hand everything over to her because of some sense of obligation, but that’s not what it is at all.
She might be the head, but Kratos and Jade run Vengeance together, equally important in their own way.
I doubt Vengeance would even be a thing if not for her.
Kratos needed something to push him, and Jade was exactly that.
Plus, it allowed her to help people outside of the rings, which is a huge deal for her.
“Next move?” I question as her words sink in.
I’d thought the goal had been to take Randall out and handle the last ring. Considering Randall is dead, I thought we’d accomplished what we set out to.
“Yes, things have changed a bit, but the end goal is still the same. It might just take a little more work to make it happen, and I need to make sure everyone is still on board. Of course, if any of you want out, I’ll understand,” she says without a hint of malice as she makes to move around me.
Her words are simple enough, and I know she means them, but they piss me off all the same.
After all this, she really thinks we would let her go through this alone. I see how she might question me, and while I might not like it, it makes sense. But the others? Zander, Kratos, Rick, Trent, and even Jake would all lose their shit if they even heard her suggest she do this alone.
I move without thought, grabbing her chin and pressing her back against the wall again.
Her lips are damn near smashed together from my grip on her face, but I see the amusement that shines in her eyes.
The same look that used to piss me off now almost makes me smile back like a fool because I know she’s letting me hold her.
She likes this push and pull; she enjoys our dynamic, and I’ll be damned if I don’t as well.
“What happened?” I ask her when she winces slightly. I know better than to think I’m hurting her. Whatever it is had to have happened before.
“Nothing,” she says through pursed lips, but I know she’s lying. Dropping my hold on her face, I grab her hand, pulling her behind me into the bathroom, where I haven’t destroyed the lights.
Damn, temper.
I flip them on, my eyes struggling to focus after being in the dark for so long.
I push past the sting to turn and face her.
Blinking a few times, my vision finally refocuses, and I find Jade sitting on the counter, kicking her legs as if she hasn’t a care in the world.
She might be strong, but this is that mask again, the same one she wore when she first arrived.
I hate that whatever happened made her go back to this.
She moves her legs so that I can stand between them.
Hooking my finger under her chin, I crane her head back, turning it to the side to better see what might be wrong.
The left side of her face has a few scratches and bruises, but most of it looks superficial, especially when I’ve seen the conditions she can endure.
It’s not until I see the gash over her right temple that I understand.
Pushing her against the wall probably didn’t feel great with that.
The cut doesn’t look terribly deep, but head wounds bleed a lot and can be pretty painful.
There's a fair amount of blood, though it appears dried now. How long ago did this happen, and why didn’t she clean it up?
“What happened?”
I can’t keep the demand from my words as I hold her in place, carefully pressing at the skin around the gash to test how deep it is. She doesn’t make a sound, but I see her eye twitch when I get too close.
Must still be pretty fresh.
“It was just a little run-in with some people who were less than thrilled to see me alive. Same old song and dance,” she says, tugging her chin from my grip. She glares up at me, and I know she wants me to let it go.
That's not going to happen, though.
“It needs to be cleaned,” I insist, standing my ground. I know if I move, even just to grab the first-aid kit, she might bolt.
“I’m fine. Honestly, we need to figure everything else out, and then we can handle the scratch,” she says, rolling her eyes at me as if I’m being unreasonable.
I throw my head back and laugh, unable to help it.
“What’s so funny?” she asks, raising a brow at me like I’ve lost my mind, and at this point, I just might have. Never would I have imagined this was how my night was going to go. Hell, I wasn’t even sure we would ever see her again after the trail went cold.
“If you think any of the guys are going to show up and talk plans and logic with you bleeding from the head, then your injury might be worse than I thought,” I tell her, raising a brow at her in challenge as I watch understanding light her eyes.
I’m right, and she knows it.
She sags forward with an annoyed huff before glaring up at me through her lashes.