Sixteen Ella
SIXTEEN
Ella
In the cabin’s underground computer room, I stare at a screen showing a news crew at the smoldering skyscraper housing Malice Media.
This place is high tech and delightful. Leo has long since gone upstairs to sleep—no doubt on the bed.
Justice types next to me and then finally sits back.
“They hit the penthouse and not the social media hub on the main floors.”
Yeah, I noticed. I turn to face him in the swivel chair, noting he doesn’t look tired. Not like I feel. He appears pissed off and ready for revenge. “You think they want you or me dead?” People know he took me out of that hospital, and it’s easy to find his apartment.
He shrugs powerful shoulders. “Who knows. Maybe both?”
A two-for-one. Smart. This isn’t good for him, not by any means.
It’s public. Thorn’s out of town. If Justice doesn’t strike back at somebody fast, he looks weak, which in the mafia, Irish or Russian, is bad.
He’ll have enemies coming for him. There’s no chatter on the web. “I can’t find who ordered this.”
“Neither can I.” A muscle in his jaw clenches. He has a tough guy jaw. We’re both in danger, and he might be in more than me.
I yawn. “I need to use the bathroom. I don’t suppose you have dog food anywhere upstairs?”
“No, but I keep steaks in the freezer. Take a couple out and thaw them in the microwave. We can feed him one.”
I like that. Leo needs to be fattened up. “Fine.” I yawn again and stand, wobbling slightly. Mud has dried on my jeans, making them stiff. “Extra clothes?”
“In the bathroom cupboard. Nothing will fit you.” He’s already turned back to one of the three computers.
“Great.” I limp to the stairs and chug up them, reaching the main room to see the dog snoring in the middle of the bed. I hesitate. He’s a good dog and I want to keep him. Hopefully Justice won’t hurt him.
I cross the cabin to the bathroom, use the facilities, and look for clothing.
Yep. T-shirts and jeans. The shirt falls almost to my knees, and I have to roll up the too-large jeans.
A lot. Then I move into the kitchen area to quietly open the fridge and take out steaks before going through the few drawers.
There are a couple of good knives, and I filch them.
I need to get away from Justice. He’ll force me to give him the code to create a computer virus, and nobody should have that. It’s too much power, and he might use it against Alana’s family or Rosalie’s man. It’s what they all do. The four families have a lot of blood on their hands.
And we all know there’s someone else on the board. A fifth player who has yet to make a real move. Unless they have, and we haven’t figured it out.
Somebody wants me dead. A lot of people want Justice dead.
While I don’t think he wants to kill me, he does want to have sex with me for the near future.
My body is totally on board with the idea, and my brain knows better.
Probably because my heart keeps going all pitter-patter because the asshole keeps protecting me with his life. Jerk.
I have to get away from him, and this is probably my only chance.
With one last sad look at the sleeping animal, I tiptoe across the living room, open the front door, quietly shut it, and start to run.
Seconds later, heartbeats really, I hear the door crash open.
Fuck.
I duck my head and run faster, dodging between trees and ignoring the punishing rain. It’s as if nature wants to stop me.
He’s getting closer and not being quiet about it. Why would he? This is his territory and he knows it. Plus, he’s faster and stronger.
But I’m smaller.
I duck between two younger trees, crouching to avoid their branches, and keep low.
He’s coming.
Branches slam into me as I run, lungs burning, mud sucking at my shoes. The brambles jab against my side. My chest aches, but I keep moving.
Justice is behind me. No stealth. Heavy boots, breaking branches, closing fast.
I duck under a branch, cut left, then cut right. My breath tears out in gasps. For a second I think I bought space.
I didn’t.
His hand clamps my arm. Hard. He yanks me back and spins me. My feet lose the ground. My back slams into a tree, bark scraping, air exploding out of me.
He’s here. Too close. Rain drips from his face and plasters his black hair to his head. His dark eyes lock on mine, glittering. His arm bars across my chest, pinning me. His other hand braces by my head.
He’s all cut muscle, soaked shirt plastered to his body, chest rising and falling steady while mine jerks. Heat rolls off him even in the storm. He looks like power carved sharp. Dangerous.
My chest heaves. I shove at him with both hands. His body doesn’t budge. “Let me go,” I rasp, voice shredded from the run.
His jaw flexes. His mouth is hard. His breath hits my cheek, rough. “Are you insane? You don’t even know where we are right now.”
I push harder, palms against his chest. Nothing. He doesn’t move. “The forest is safer than you are.”
His laugh is short. Cruel. He leans in closer. The bark digs harder into my spine. His body presses, unyielding. His mouth is near mine now, heat cutting through the cold rain. “The forest at night is much safer than I am,” he agrees, low and certain. “You’ll never outrun me.”
My breath comes too fast. My hands stay flat on his chest. I could shove again. I don’t. My heart slams hard enough to hurt.
His eyes flick down once, then back up. Fury still burns in them, but it’s not just anger. There’s hunger in those orbs. For me.
I swallow. My legs tremble but I hold his stare. My voice shakes but comes out. “Maybe I don’t have to outrun you. Maybe I just need to fight.”
His lips twitch. Not a smile. A warning. His grip on me tightens, like he’s daring me to try.
Rain pounds harder, running over both of us. The storm rages, but all I hear is his breathing and mine.
My pulse hammers as I glare up at him. His arm pins me, body pressed tight, rain dripping between us. The knife digs into my hip where I hid it. My fingers close around the hilt.
I rip it free and slash upward.
Justice catches my wrist before the blade can rise past my ribs. His grip crushes, iron strong. His eyes narrow, fury flashing. “Really?” he rasps.
I twist and fight, my muscles straining. He holds me in an unbreakable grip. Man, he’s strong. I slam my knee up, but he blocks with his thigh. The knife trembles in my hand, but he forces it down.
“Let me go,” I hiss, wet hair clinging to my face.
He rips the blade from my grip and flings it into the mud. Before I can lunge, he spins me, slams me chest first against the tree. Bark bites through the fabric of my borrowed shirt. His palm cracks across my ass, sharp and hot.
I gasp, rage and shock colliding inside me. “Bastard.”
His mouth is at my ear, breath hot. “You pull steel on me again, I’ll make you regret it.”
I shove back hard. He presses tighter, his body pinning mine. His hand grabs my wrists, slams them above my head. His other hand digs into my waist, holding me against the rough bark, and he secures the other knife. That, too, flies through the air.
“Get off me,” I pant, straining.
“Not a chance.” His voice is pure gravel, steady while mine shakes.
I buck against him, every muscle burning. He drags my arms down, spins me around, and presses my back into the tree this time. His hand locks around both my wrists, pinning them above me. His chest crushes mine, hot, soaked, all carved muscle and fury.
Dark eyes bore into me, alive with anger, with something more.
“You think you can fight me?” His voice cuts low.
“Yes,” I rasp.
His lips twitch, dangerous. “You’re fighting yourself more than me. That’s why you ran, baby.”
There’s too much truth in his statement. But that’s not the only reason. I can’t give him the code to create that computer virus. I just can’t. “Not a chance, asshole,” I hiss.
His mouth crashes onto mine.
The kiss is merciless, claiming, and hard enough to bruise. His grip locks my wrists high, unbreakable, his body pressing me flat to the tree. Heat rolls off him despite the storm, his tongue demanding, forcing me to match him.
I bite his lip, sharp. He doesn’t flinch. He growls low in his chest and kisses me harder, swallowing the sound of my defiance. Desire roars through me, louder than the blood rushing through my veins, stronger than the storm gathering around us.
My nipples peak and my thighs tremble. I’m so wet already that it stuns me. I’m craving him. Yeah, maybe this is why I ran.
Rain beats down. Bark digs into my back. His mouth is hot and rough, his body iron, and I can’t move—except to kiss him back.
Pinned. Furious. Alive.
The tree digs into my back. His weight pins me there, chest to chest, his hand locked around my wrists above my head.
His breath is hot against my mouth. My chest heaves against him, furious, my pulse a fist pounding inside me as he releases my hands and pulls me closer by the waist. Such need scares me, but it’s too late.
I don’t think. I grab his shirt, soaked and plastered to his chest, and yank.
The fabric clings then rips up over his head.
Rain hits bare muscle, every line cut, chest broad and hard.
My breath stutters.
He seizes the opening, slams my wrists back up, pins me again, mouth crashing onto mine.
The kiss is brutal. Teeth, tongue, fury. His body crushes mine, my spine grinding into the tree, rain dripping between us. His hand grabs my hip, fingers biting deep, dragging me against him.
I should shove him off. I don’t. My body answers before my head can scream no. My hips shift forward, grinding into his. My fingers claw at his shoulders when he frees one wrist, nails digging into hot skin.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I rasp against his mouth.
“Nothing about us makes sense,” he growls, voice raw. “Doesn’t mean I’ll stop.”
I lunge up, kiss him, mouth open, hungry. He meets me with equal violence, devouring.
His hands tear at my clothes, pulling down the fabric and shoving it aside. The cold storm slams my bare skin but his heat burns over me.
I yank at his jeans, and the wet fabric is rough against my palms. He jerks them down halfway and kicks them off. His mouth devours my neck, my collarbone, back to my lips.
Every move is a fight. I shove, he pins.
I claw, he captures. I buck, he drives me harder into the bark.
My defiance makes him fiercer. His control makes me wilder.
The storm disappears. The danger, the chase, the knives, the guns—gone.
Only this. My naked body lit, my thoughts burned away. Even sound.
He lifts me, both hands gripping my ass as I wrap my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck. His mouth owns mine, his body crushing every line of me.
I gasp his name. He growls mine.
Then he slams inside me. I’m more than ready, and I don’t understand that. Sex and fighting have never gone together before now. But I feel him everywhere. I gasp, arching, completely taken over as he holds me against the tree, my legs around his hips, his cock pulsing inside me. All the way.
I like it more than I should. More than I want to, but I don’t care.
Later, I will, but that’s a concern for tomorrow.
Right now, I’m finally out of my head. Out of my fear of the future, of the enemies coming for me.
There’s only right here and now. I grip him tighter as he starts to pound, his hands protecting me from the bark now.
Spread across my back. I dig my nails into his skin, gasping and climbing.
Fast. Desperately. He shifts slightly to the left, brushing my clit, and I explode.
Crying out his name, I bite into his shoulder, silencing myself.
He keeps hammering, a long time, way past the aftershocks inside me.
I climb again. How is this even possible?
His teeth latch onto my shoulder. Pain and pleasure mix wildly inside me.
I teeter on the edge again and then fall, my entire body gyrating against his much larger one. His hotter one. The guy is an inferno.
When I’ve come down, he stills. His body tightens then he erupts inside me, jerking wildly.
Holy crap.
His teeth release their hold. I gasp, trying to breathe.
The rain pummels us.
He leans back, his gaze intense. Shielded. Dark. Then he slowly withdraws from me. My body shakes, trying to hold him in, and more aftershocks slake through me.
I can only stare at him. Bemused.
One of his dark eyebrows arch. Then, in a too smooth movement, he shifts and tosses me over his broad shoulder, buck-assed naked, before striding back the way we came.
To the cabin.