Chapter 21 Xave #3
“Yeah,” he says softly. “I liked knowing that you were following me. It made me feel safe. And it made me feel special.” He slides his gaze to the fireplace.
“I know that’s not the same as trust, but I wouldn’t have felt those things if I didn’t trust you.
” He blows out a slow breath. “I don’t have a lot of people in my life I can count on.
Even my best friend is too busy for me now, and my only other friend has her own shit going on.
You’re the only person who seems to give a crap about me, and I’d literally be dead multiple times over if it wasn’t for you.
” He slides his gaze back to mine. “Why is someone trying to kill me?” he asks, his voice small.
“I don’t know,” I tell him gently. “But we’re going to figure it out, and it’s going to end very badly for them.”
The corners of his lips tip up in a smile. “I know you saying that kind of thing is a giant red flag and it should freak me the fuck out, but it doesn’t. In fact, I like it.”
“Do you like knowing that the asshole who jumped you is dead?”
His smile turns into a smirk. “Yes. Did you have something to do with it?”
“No,” I say regretfully. “Someone got to him before I could. And they were a lot kinder than I would have been because he didn’t suffer nearly enough.”
“And there’s more of that talk that should scare the fuck out of me.” He shoots me a little smile. “What about the guy tonight? What are the twins and Killian going to do to him?”
“It’s probably best if I don’t tell you specifics,” I say. “But they’re going to get whatever information they can from him, then take care of him.”
“You mean kill him?”
I nod.
“And when Killian said he’d take care of things, that’s what he meant?”
“Not exactly. He was telling me he’d make sure the twins didn’t have too much fun and get carried away before they kill him.”
Damon’s eyes widen for a few beats, but his shock quickly melts into curiosity. “Does that have anything to do with them being different?”
“It does,” I say, my voice serious. “And I’m going to tell you something no one outside of our family knows. Something that can never get out.”
I might trust him with my secrets and the secrets of the frat, but this is different. Hopefully he realizes that betraying the twins’ trust would be a fatal mistake, and not even my feelings for him or protection would be enough to stop them from seeking their revenge.
“I swear I won’t tell anyone, not ever. It doesn’t matter what you say, I promise I’ll take it to my grave,” he says quickly, and I can see he’s being sincere.
“Jax and Jace were diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder when they were kids,” I tell him, not mincing words. “Technically, they’re both functional psychopaths, and they need Killian and me to rein them in so they don’t go too far or get too carried away.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense now that I’ve seen them in action, so to speak.
” He lets out a bewildered laugh. “And it’s another thing that should terrify me but doesn’t.
” He glances at the fire for a few beats.
“So someone hired that guy tonight, and that other guy a few months ago to kill me?”
“Yes. Did you know that first guy had a gun?” I ask.
He swings his gaze back to mine, his eyes round with shock. “He did?”
I already assumed he didn’t see it, and that’s probably one of the reasons he didn’t think it was more than just a random attack.
“Yeah. But Eden interrupted him before he could use it.”
“Jesus.” He flicks his lip ring a few times. “I really thought it was just a prank or something like that.”
“It was a hit, the same as tonight. Are you ready to hear what I know about what’s going on?”
He nods and sits up straighter, like he’s getting ready to pay attention in class.
I spend the next few minutes telling him everything Jace and Carter found out about our kidnappers, and what’s happened since he got back to campus.
I leave out the stuff about the blackmail files and his real last name showing up in them, but tell him about how Jace found his original birth certificate and how both he and Carter know about his alter ego.
There’s a long pause when I finish talking, but instead of getting angry or being pissed that I know so many of his secrets, he just undoes the buttons of his jacket and shrugs it off.
“So you think the kidnapping wasn’t random?” he asks and tosses his jacket over the arm of the couch. “That there’s more to it than them just wanting my fee for the gig?”
“I think so,” I say. “Jax pointed something out when I told him and Killian what happened to us that really made me start questioning things.”
“What was it?”
“Carter might have figured out what we were drugged with, but Jax was the only one who’d ever heard of it before.
He told me the dosing is incredibly precise, and even a slight miscalculation can be the difference between knocking someone out and killing them.
They would have had to know your weight and height and done some advanced math to make sure that they gave you just enough to slowly affect you over the course of a few hours so it didn’t kick in while you were still on stage and working.
And he also pointed out that I probably got the same dose as you because it was meant for you.
And the only reason I’m not dead is that I’m bigger.
Apparently mixing it with alcohol is a death sentence, but since I only had a few drinks and I have more body mass, the drug hit me harder, but it didn’t kill me. ”
He nods slowly. “That makes sense. You were out longer than I was, and I wondered why they didn’t kill you if they weren’t planning on ransoming you or anything like that.”
“I’m sure they were going to once you transferred the money to them.
But they wanted answers first, and you can’t get answers from a dead man.
But all that points to someone either planting the idea to kidnap and steal from you in their heads and giving them enough info about you to come up with the right dosing and timing for everything.
Or someone hired them, gave them the drugs, and gave them all the info they needed to kidnap you so they could steal your gig fee. ”
“Which do you think it is?”
“Considering what I learned about them, the second one. None of those assholes had the skill or the experience to pull off such a complicated job on their own.”
He lets his head fall back against the cushion of the couch and blows out a soft breath.
“This is all so surreal. And now my next gig is probably another trap, and I’m not even safe on a campus that’s supposed to be one of the safest places on the planet.
” He rolls his eyes to meet mine. “I don’t understand why any of this is happening.
Why is someone after me? I’m nothing special, and I’m not important. Why would someone want to kill me?”
“I don’t know. But I promise we’ll figure it out and make them pay for all of this.”
He nods and toys with his lip ring some more, and I pull off my hoodie.
The fireplace isn’t especially powerful, but the room is significantly warmer than it was when we got here, and having so many layers on is getting uncomfortable.
I don’t miss the way his eyes move over my chest and down my torso, or the appreciative look in them, as I toss my hoodie aside. And a knot of heat gathers low in my body when he slowly drags his teeth over his bottom lip.
“So what happens now?” he asks, his voice breathy as he lifts his gaze to mine.
I slide a bit closer to him. “We figure out who’s behind all of this, and we end them.”
His breathing hitches. “What if we can’t?”
“We will,” I assure him. “And do you know why?”
He gently shakes his head.
“Because you’re mine,” I tell him. “You’ve been mine since that night at the AV party. And I always protect what’s mine.”
He lurches forward, and the next thing I know, he’s practically in my lap as his lips meet mine in a hard kiss.
I immediately open for him and wrap my arms around his lithe body, pulling him closer as he shifts to straddle me. His kisses are hard and hungry as he ravages my mouth.
A low moan rumbles out from deep in my chest, and I’m hit with an overwhelming sense of rightness as our tongues tangle together and our breathing syncs up.
Nothing about this moment feels like a first kiss, and it’s also not like any kiss I’ve ever had.
Kissing has never really been a thing for me. I don’t dislike it or anything, but it’s not something I really enjoy, either. It’s a means to an end, but with Damon, it’s so much more.
Every swipe of his tongue and press of his lips is lighting me up from the inside, and even though my dick is as hard as a steel pipe and I’m so turned on my balls are aching, I don’t feel the need to press for more and am happy to just keep kissing him.
Damon seems to be of the same mind as he runs his fingers through my hair and tips my head back so he can take full control of our kisses.
I’m not a passive lover, but seeing this side of him is hot as fuck, and I just grip his ass and hold him tight against me as he nips at my lips and teases me with soft, fleeting kisses that are just as hot as the deep, hungry ones that rocked me to my core.
“I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he murmurs against my lips.
I squeeze his ass and rock him in my lap so his cock drags against mine. “Me too,” I whisper, then flick my tongue against his lip ring. “I like this.”
“Yeah?” He traces the tip of his tongue over my bottom lip.
“Yeah. Does it feel good when I play with it?” I ask, then gently stroke my tongue over the thin loop.
“Yeah,” he says on a gasp.
Grinning, I gently catch the ring between my teeth and give it a little tug.
His breathing hitches, and he wiggles closer to me, rubbing his cock against mine in a deliberate way that sends a jolt of pleasure shooting through me.