RAIN
Chapter forty
Rome stares at me after I’ve explained everything that’s happened because of me. Every person I tried to help, everyone caught in the crossfire.
Alexa. Blade. Atticus, although I don’t give two fucks about him. Rome.
His eyes are distant, cold and hurt. “You’re saying people are out to kill me? People are going to hunt me down to use me because I’m a weakness to you? A vulnerability.”
His body trembles, and I move in front of him, but he retreats, stumbling on the easel. All four paintings tumble to the floor like dominos.
“My sisters.” His chest rises and falls erratically. “My mother, they’re—”
“Being watched over,” I interrupt, knowing he’s about to be disgusted by the sight of me. “The reason you’re here is so that you’re safe… You can’t go back home.”
His wide eyes meet mine, but he’s not actually looking at me. He palms his chest with a trembling hand.
No, fuck.
“Baby,” I whisper. “You’re having a panic attack. You need to breathe.”
“D-don’t—c-call me—that.”
Blade groans, “Come on, pretty boy. You aren’t dead yet.”
“Fuck. Off. Blade.”
I was going to calmly explain everything, but if there’s one thing I can count on Blade for, it’s to fuck up my plans.
Rome’s breaths splutter in and out as he drops to the window seat, closing his eyes.
“That’s it, baby. Keep breathing.”
“Is that what the money was for?” His eyes flick open.
“The flowers, the car. To manipulate me into falling for you?” I shake my head, and his face falls with understanding.
“The door handles, the new infrared cameras, and the people watching me.” He shoots up, taking an enraged step toward me. “That’s what it was all for?”
“Rome,” I plead as his hands land on my chest, shoving me backward. “Baby.”
Tears glass his eyes. “I was a fucking idiot to get so caught up in how I felt and ignore my mind screaming at me to ask questions. You put my family in danger because you wanted to be fucking selfish!”
I grind my teeth when the tears spill to his cheeks. “Baby, I…”
“What?” He shoves my chest again. If he wants to punch me, hurt me, hate me, I’ll let him. What I won’t do is let him leave. “Apologising won’t make me any less of a target.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“You could have left me alone.” He shoves me harder this time, forcing me to reach for the piano for balance. “I was fine living the life I was.”
“You were drowning.”
He lifts his chin. “At least my head was above the surface.”
I couldn’t risk that, because I was in jail in association with his father, Ezra may connect us.
I can’t blame him for retreating from me like he is right now, I can’t blame him for displaying nothing but hatred and disgust. The second I knew who came after Blade, I should’ve shown some ounce of control and ceased communication with Rome.
I should’ve. I couldn’t.
Rome Hunter Aston is kind and selfless, two things I’ve been kidding myself by pretending I am. I’m not a good person. I hurt people. I kill. I destroy lives for my own gain.
Rome clears his throat and wipes his tears, looking to Blade, who looks bored out of his mind. “Yes. My answer is yes.”
Blade grins. “Well, this has been informative.”
“You’re a cunt,” I spit.
“I like to think myself a god who possesses the power to reach into others and drag out their true selves.”
“A fucking cunt, then.”
Rome jumps when a knock echoes from downstairs, and Blade smiles.
“What the fuck did you do?!” I shout and Rome flinches again, so I soften my voice. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“You brought in pretty boy.” Blade licks his lips. “So, I brought in someone.”
“No,” Rome whispers. “Not Xander.”
“Yep. I figured he’d have fun being involved in this.”
“Fun,” Rome scoffs, dropping to the window seat, head falling to his hands. “He acts as though nothing bothers him, but he’s just suppressing every bad thing he’s ever done.”
“Emotions are a fucking nuisance,” Blade says as he leaves the room and disappears down the stairs, shouting, “Xan! If you keep pounding your fist on my door, mine’s going to pound your head until I can put to rest a theory about whether you actually have a brain!”
Rome releases a shaky breath, tugging at his hair.
“Baby.”
“Fuck off, Rain.” The coldness in his tone is something I’ve only had nightmares about, but the fact remains: he’s mine, and he can’t leave.
“I’ll come to every training, game, and event with you. You won’t leave this house without me.”
“I’ve just been publicly humiliated for fucking a man, and now you want to be joined at the hip? Just give them more to speculate about, why don’t you?”
“At least the world will see you’re off limits.”
“I wish I’d never met you.”
Rage rips through my chest. “Never say that again.”
His bright eyes darken as he stares through his brows. “Get the fuck out of my face.”
“Baby.”
“Now!”
“No.” I step toward him. “You’ve shown me all of you, and now it’s my turn. From now on, you do as I say. Everyone has a different meaning of love, baby. I will kill for you, I and I will not hesitate for one goddamn fucking second to die for you.”
“You had so many opportunities to tell me…yet you didn’t, and I’m right in saying you waited until today to do it because you needed me in your territory, under your thumb, so I had no chance to leave.”
“I wouldn’t have let you get away, regardless of where we were.”
“Congratulations, Rain. You just lost all respect I once had for you.”
“Baby.”
“Get out,” he whispers.
Refusing, I sit on the floor and lean back against the seat. Tension eats the minutes while I stare at the toppled paintings.
“You’re safe here,” I finally say.
“And my mother? Sisters?”
“Like I said, they’re being watched over.”
He peers past his hand to me, hurt drowning that beautiful green. “You do understand I have no choice but to trust your word?”
“I do.”
He scoffs and pushes to stand, stalking out of the room. I scramble to my feet and follow him into our room. Snatching his bag, he steps into the adjoining bathroom. Before I can reach the threshold, he slams the door in my face and locks it.
“Rome, please.”
“Leave,” he orders coldly.
“Baby—”
“I said fucking leave.”
I have no right to despise the fact that my heat is cracking. I caused his hurt; I deserve to experience much more for inflicting any pain. Flowers, money, cars—none of that will repair the damage, I’m not sure if killing Ryan White and Ezra Smith will make him hate me or forgive me.
I step onto the back porch and slam the door closed. Blade and Xander cease their conversation. My body hums at the familiar scent of cigarettes, but I vowed in that jail cell to never have another.
“No smoking in the house.” I approach them sitting on the corner lounge. “No drinking near Rome. Neither of you go near him.”
Blade takes a drag, draping his arms over the back of the lounge.
Here we go.
“You’re trying to dictate where I smoke and drink?”
“Rome’s an athlete,” Xander supplies.
“And?” Blade arches a brow.
“I can’t understand why he’s friends with you.” I trail my gaze over Xander’s form.
“We’ve been friends since primary school. I know a lot more about him than you.”
I can’t seem to see the appeal; he’d only bring trouble into Rome’s life.
Okay, yes, I may too, but I’d die protecting Rome, I doubt this motherfucker would.
I also find it ironic that Blade continues to find an acquaintance in a drug dealer, considering he despised the very fact that Alexa was doing cocaine at least once a month and smoking weed daily.
I’m sure the police departments were thankful for Blade, considering he killed three of Alexa’s dealers purely because they sold to her. In his defence, he only threatened her with their deaths if she bought again, never the dealers, but she did, and they died. Poor fuckers never got a warning.
Taking the packet of gum from my pocket, I slide a piece into my mouth and drop onto the lounge next to Blade. Xander adjusts his hoodie, showing me the clear outline of a gun in his pocket.
I smile. “Threaten me again. I dare you.”
His hazel eyes gleam. “I just want to show the repercussions if you hurt Rome.”
“An old lady has first dibs.” I slide my gaze to Blade. “You have information?” He blows the smoke in my direction, refusing to speak. “If you want this over with so you can bring her here, speak.”
“Like you said, little brother, none of this is impacting me seeing her.”
“Alexa, Alexa, Alexa,” Xander groans. “Pick another girl to pine over, mate. Her pussy can’t be that good.”
Blade slides his hand behind his back, and I roll my eyes when he cocks his gun, pointing it at Xander. “Say one more word about her, and I’ll draw a smiley face in your splattered blood.”
Xander relaxes back, taking a long drag. “I’ve had guns pulled on me since I was six, G. That shit doesn’t scare me.”
“Put it away,” I demand. “Fucking speak.”
Blade rests the gun on his thigh, keeping it pointed at Xander.
“No one has seen Ezra in London, but Ryan was spotted two days ago. He’s shaved his head and wears shitty brown contacts.
One of Dad’s men followed him from the airport to a hotel in the city.
I took over and familiarised myself with his schedule.
He’s only left the building twice, and while I wanted to shatter his fucking windshield with bullets, I didn’t.
I hope you’ve been practising your card counting skills, because I got us an invitation to the poker game I followed him to.
I think he’s trying to find underground sources to sniff out our location. ”
“When?”
“Tomorrow night.”
My open mouth snaps back closed when I catch Rome through the window, moving toward the living room lounge with a pillow.
What the fuck does he think he’s doing?
Typing in the pin, I swing open the door and gently shut it behind me. “Baby, you aren’t sleeping on the lounge.”
He pulls his hood over his damp hair and throws the pillow down. Taking the black blanket laid over the end of the large ‘U’ shaped lounge, he unfolds it and lays down.
“Rome,” I grit, moving to stand over him. “Go upstairs to our room. You aren’t sleeping here.”
“Your room.” He rolls to face the cushion. “I’m not sleeping beside you.”
“Do you want a list of facts about the damage sleeping on a sofa can do to your body?”
Silence.
I snarl at the back of his head. “Either we both sleep here or in bed.”
Those three nights in jail were torture.
I never want to spend a night without him, but how am I supposed to sleep beside him and not touch him?
That’s impossible. I’ll subconsciously do it even if he’s asked me not to, because I love this man with every fibre of my being, and it’s a crime to force my hands to remain still while around him.
“Go upstairs. I’ll sleep here,” I sigh.
“I know you, Rain. In the middle of the night you’ll to sneak into that bed.”
“I didn’t think I was that transparent.”
“You are.”
I catch his right hand move to pull the blanket higher. “Where the fuck is your ring?”
“On your bed,” he whispers. “Once this is dealt with and I can leave, I don’t want to see you again.”
He stiffens, breathing heavier when I lean over to whisper near his ear. “We will be beside one another until the day I die, baby.”