Chapter 17 Jamie
JAMIE
The week went by quickly.
Mostly because work had kept me busy since we were expecting a large sum of money that would go toward some renovation costs for the old library soon, and I was in charge of that. And also because Reign and I hadn’t spent a night apart, and I didn’t know what to do about that.
Friday evening, he picked me up in his car.
It was a typical black compact car that looked and felt expensive without drawing attention to itself.
I was sure that was on purpose.
I looked at him from my spot in the passenger seat as he took the familiar route back to my apartment.
He liked my place.
I didn’t know why that was, considering his was probably more secure than mine. But then again, his did get broken into a few weeks back.
“Did they ever catch the person who broke into your apartment?” I asked.
He pulled the car up to a stoplight and turned to look at me. “No. And I’m not really pursuing it.”
I frowned. Either he didn’t keep any valuables in his home or…
“Are you not pursuing it because you already know who broke in?”
He nodded.
I swallowed.
There were many aspects of my dad’s and brother’s jobs that I hated. And several of those aspects were a part of Reign’s job as well. If he knew who did it, then it didn’t matter if he took this to the police or not. I doubted that person was still alive.
He smiled, though this smile was different from all the other ones he had given me before. “What were you thinking about to cause that horrified look on your face?”
I quickly shifted my expression back to neutral, not answering him.
The light turned green, reflecting on his tan skin.
“The light changed,” I said.
He nodded and slowly turned his attention back to the front and drove off.
I was still reeling from our conversation when I felt his hand engulf mine. I didn’t react when he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it, even as I could feel a slight tinge of electricity hitting my skin from the contact alone.
Even with everything I knew about him, there was still no way to keep myself from reacting to him.
Finally, we pulled up to my apartment, but neither of us made a move to get out of the car.
I sat there, looking out at the pedestrians. Close by, an older couple walked past our car, the woman clinging to the man, smiling at something he said to her.
I smiled a little at the sight, feeling a small pang in my chest.
I had asked Caine if he wanted to fall in love, but perhaps that was just me projecting. Perhaps it was just me wanting to fall in love myself. And having to keep my distance from anyone who wasn’t Etta was lonely.
I had been lonely, but it didn’t feel that way now.
“It was my dad,” Reign said.
“What was that?” I asked, turning to him.
“I’m sure it was my dad who hired men to break into my apartment.”
“What? Why?”
I knew Reign didn’t get along with his dad, but to have someone break into his son’s apartment… that was just crazy.
“He was looking for something.”
“And you know what that was?”
He nodded. “I don’t keep important shit in my apartment.”
“Where do you keep it?” I asked.
He looked at me, amusement clear in his eyes. “Are you asking me to tell you all my secrets?”
I shrugged. “You can if you want. I’m good at keeping secrets.”
After all, being in a relationship with him was the biggest secret I was keeping from my family.
He seemed to be mulling something over. I hadn’t really expected him to spill to me. I was sure that keeping secrets was something he had been taught at a young age.
“He’s looking for a flash drive… in a safe deposit box,” Reign confessed, surprising me.
I turned to him with wide eyes. “Why would you just tell me that?”
Was he stupid? I could betray him. Whatever his dad wanted from him must be important enough that he would break into his own son’s apartment to get it. I was sure it would be something my dad and Caine would have wanted to get their hands on.
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Come on, let’s go up.”
He got out of the car before I could say anything to him. My heart burned. I was fuming, and I didn’t even know why.
Seconds later, my door opened, and he held out his hand to me. I slapped it away and got out of the car myself, walking past him and to my apartment building. He followed close behind.
I didn’t look at him in the elevator, nor did I look at him when I opened my front door and went inside. I would have left him out there if his hands hadn’t been quick, blocking the door before I could close it.
“You’re mad,” he said behind me as I pulled off my jacket and threw it on the couch.
I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
“I don’t understand. Why are you mad?” he asked.
I shook my head, not answering him. He moved up and wrapped his arms around me. I tried to shrug him off, but like every time I tried to escape his touch, he was like a fucking barnacle on the bottom of a boat.
“How could you just tell me that?” I said.
“Why not?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I could betray you!”
“Would you?” he said easily, as if the thought never even crossed his mind.
“God, you’re infuriating.”
The only reason he didn’t think I would betray him was that he didn’t know who I was. And once he found out…
I closed my eyes.
“You can’t just go around being a fucking blabbermouth.”
He chuckled, his chest pushing against me. “Who says I’m a blabbermouth?”
“Me!”
I thought he was smarter than that, but obviously, I was wrong.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, turning me around to face him. I shook my head, trying to push him away.
He kept his arms around me, leading me over to the couch and pulling me down onto his lap. I faced him, taking in his blue eyes, his messy blond hair, and…
I closed my eyes, imagining blood dripping down from his head.
There was a strong chance that it could happen, and he decided to just spill his secrets to someone he barely knew.
Stupid, stupid boy.
“Has it ever occurred to you not to trust so easily?” I asked, raising my hand and cupping his cheek.
He grinned. “I don’t trust easily.”
I shot him a pointed look. His smile only widened as he turned his head toward my palm and kissed the skin there.
“I promise you that, so stop worrying.”
He said it like it was easy.
And while I was still so angry at him for being like this, there was a part of me that was happy he trusted me, even if his trust was based on a lie.
I wouldn’t betray him, but would he still believe that once he found out who I was?
God, what a mess I had made of things.
He locked his hands together at the small of my back and pulled me in closer to him until our faces were a mere centimeter apart.
“Kiss me,” he said.
“You’re really thinking about kissing right now?”
“Oh, I think about kissing you every moment of my day. Hell, I think about more than just kissing you. I think about the way your pretty little cunt tastes on my tongue, the way you squirm when I play with your clit, your phenomenal tits… Fuck me, baby. I’m getting hard just thinking about it now.”
I could feel it.
Fuck.
“Kiss me,” he repeated.
“Why won’t you kiss me?” I said.
His eyes turned soft. “If you want me to kiss you, baby, I will. But I’m always the one to take the initiative. I want this kiss to be because you want it. Because you crave this kiss as much as I do.”
I kissed him.
He froze against me for a fraction of a second before he responded to me, his lips slanting across mine as he let me take the lead.
I did what he had done to me many times before, licking his bottom lip over and over again, coaxing him to open his mouth for me, and when he did, I plunged my tongue inside, tasting him. Feeling him.
Craving him.
He groaned against me, the sound vibrating across my lips and sending a wave of heat so intense, I almost felt drunk from it.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down even closer to me, pressing the front of my body firmly against his until there was no such thing as space between us.
I didn’t want to be separated from him.
Not ever.
He won.
He made me crave him.
And I completely lost the plot. I lost the game.
I surrendered.
Tears filled my eyes before drifting down to where our lips touched. He pulled away when he tasted them, frowning slightly.
“Baby?”
I shook my head and pulled him back to kiss me again, tugging a little on his hair, as I had learned how much he liked the pain.
His kiss grew more fervent. Frenzied.
We stayed like that for what felt like hours, kissing each other as if we were in high school, afraid to take the next step, but still so desperate for contact that we didn’t want to pull apart.
And I didn’t want to be apart from him. I wanted to rip his skin away and crawl inside his body. To just stay there and let him protect me. Let him tell me the world could never make me leave because he simply would not allow it.
And for it to be true.
I had fallen.
And how scary that thought truly was.
I woke up late the next morning.
Reign was still in bed with me, still in his usual position with all limbs wrapped tightly around my body, as if he were afraid someone might come in the middle of the night and take me away from him.
I smiled at the thought and snuggled in closer to his chest.
“You’re awake,” he said, his voice clear.
“And you’ve been awake for a while. You don’t have to stay in bed with me. I’m sure you have a lot to do.”
“I’ve got nothing going on today. I’ll have to leave later to take care of some… family business, but I’ll be back later tonight.”
“Oh.” Family business said enough. I doubted he would really tell me what was going on if I asked him.
His telling me he kept a flash drive in a bank safe deposit box was one thing, but going into detail about all the gory things he did for his family was something else entirely.
I looked down at the few chest hairs he had, my finger moving across the warm tan skin, tracing along the inked lotus flower on his chest.
Reign wasn’t as heavily tattooed as I expected, but he had enough that I found fascinating. I didn’t really understand the appeal of tattoos until I saw his.
Now I was wholly fascinated.
“You’ll be back to sleep with me?” I asked.
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” he said without hesitation. I smiled and pressed a kiss on his chest, wondering when I had become like this.
Someone who was so consumed with desire for another person, I didn’t know what to do with myself when he wasn’t around.
And so we spent the entire day together. I attached myself to his side until the very last minute when he had to go. I stood by the front door and watched him walk out.
“Lock the door behind me, okay?” he said.
I nodded.
“And don’t open the door to strangers.”
I smiled. “You act like you're talking to a ten-year-old. I’ve been living by myself since I was twenty-one.”
He didn’t smile back.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe because I spent the entire day with you, but everything in me is saying to stay.”
“Then stay,” I said, trying not to sound so clingy.
“I wish I could, sweetheart.”
I took in a deep breath. “Then go. I’ll be here waiting for you, okay?”
He hesitated. I offered him an encouraging look. Finally, he turned around and headed to the elevator. I stayed by the front door and watched him, not going back inside until the elevator door closed, and I could no longer see him.
Then I did as he asked and locked the door behind me.
I was rummaging through my fridge, trying to decide what I wanted to cook for dinner, when a loud bang came from my front door.
My heart dropped in fright from the sound, and I moved without thinking, grabbing my phone and rushing forward to my room, where my gun safe was located, and pulled out Barbara.
I sat in the corner, waiting anxiously to see if there were going to be any more noises coming from outside as I pulled up Reign from my contacts. I waited for the call to go through, but that didn’t happen. I hung up when I got his voicemail and called Caine next.
Voicemail.
I tried Dad, but I got the same thing.
Was everyone just not available at the same time?
Another loud bang came out, and I nearly dropped my phone.
I pulled up the dial icon and typed in 9-1-1.
The police would be a last resort.
I took in a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart while taking aim at the threshold of my bedroom door.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
I was almost convinced that whoever was making all those sounds in front of my apartment had given up and left.
But then the sound of wood splitting rang out, and my door burst open with a bang.
Two men came into my apartment. I aimed my gun at one and pulled the trigger, hitting him in the leg. He let out a pained cry and went down. The second man charged at me.
In my panic, my shot was off, and I only managed to graze his arm.
It wasn’t enough to stop him.
He found me before I could send the call to 911. He slapped the phone out of my hand and then slapped me.
A sharp ringing sound entered my ears, and I shook my head, trying to will away the disorientation.
I looked up, my eyes widening in surprise when I got a good look at the man staring down at me with clear hatred in his eyes.
Before I could say anything, he punched me. I fell to the floor, trying to stay conscious.
It wasn’t possible.
I closed my eyes, and darkness crept in, and then…
There was nothing.