Chapter 2
Collapsing on top of Eli, I can’t help but laugh before rolling over. In a state of complete euphoria, I forget about my ribs and bruising.
“Ow,” I mumble, reaching around them.
It’s been a wild hour since he knocked on my door. I’m uncertain when I decided I wanted to fuck him, but here we are.
He exhales, staring up at the ceiling and just letting out a chuckle. “Well, that’s not how I thought this was going to go.”
“Me neither.” I smirk as I lie next to him, trying to catch my breath as well.
We lay in a weighted silence, both of us afraid to say the wrong thing.
“I’m gonna get murdered, you know that, right?”
It actually makes me laugh this time as I nod my head.
“That’s why we never speak about it.”
“Yeah…”
He trails off as if he doesn’t want to agree to that, or maybe because we’re both thinking how sex with someone new is generally awkward. And both of us feeling comfortable most likely means that at some point we’re going to cave.
Keeping one time a secret, sure.
Keeping a recurrent fuck buddy a secret is much, much harder.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asks me.
“Yeah, it’s just sex.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“I’m fine.”
“Drew…” he trails off, as if he’s afraid to ask me anything else.
“This is just sex. You don’t need to pretend to care.”
It’s a defense I’ve developed over the years. Don’t let people in, and you won’t get hurt. Apparently, someone murdering both your parents when you’re sixteen will fuck you up. Who knew?
“I know that’s what you said.” He nods his head as if he doesn’t believe me.
We lie looking at one another and feeling as if the air in the room is shifting.
“You want me to leave?” he asks.
The logical side of my brain is telling me to say yes, tell him to leave, cut this off before we tiptoe into territory that I’m not comfortable talking about with him.
But every other fiber of my being is telling me to tell him to stay. Talk with him. Open up. Let this feeling of safety last a little longer.
Opening my mouth to say something, looking at him, not really sure what’s about to come out of my mouth.
The knocking on the door breaks the moment and lets me not have to decide as my eyes widen.
“Shit,” we both whisper as I look around the room for our clothes, remembering that we left them in the living room.
“Damnit,” I mutter again as a second round of knocking starts, and I feel like I hear someone call out, but can’t hear what they’re saying.
The key in the lock brings out a panic.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I gasp out as I look over at Eli. “It’s Z.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s the only one with a key.”
Eli’s eyes widen as I say it. He looks around, and I see the fact that our clothes are all out in the living room register with him.
Grabbing a towel, I wrap it around me and move out of the bedroom as I hear the chain stop the door from opening.
“Drew!” he shouts into the apartment as I enter the living room.
“Chill out.” I try to keep my own voice calm, peering at him through the tiny crack the chain allows. “Why are you so impatient? Hold on, I just got out of the shower, and I’m not dressed.”
He lets me close the door before I frantically grab the clothes around the room, throwing Eli’s at him as I walk back into the bedroom.
“You’ve got to go.”
“How?” I grimace as I look at him.
“You’re good at landing on your feet, right?”
“What?” he looks at me confused.
“The balcony’s the only other door.”
“Of course it is.” He shakes his head as I pull the shirt up over my head, walking out of the room behind him.
Opening the door, he doesn’t even step out before retracting.
“What?”
“That’s not gonna work.” He pauses, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “Half the MC’s out there.”
“Fuck,” I mumble again.
“Dammit, Drew, just get some clothes on!” Zane yells from the other side of the door.
“Hide somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere. Go. Go. Go.” I push him back down the hallway as I sigh, trying to compose myself.
Anyone else, quite literally anyone else, I would have just told him to leave out the door in front of Z, but Eli’s right… the only thing that would prevent my brother from killing him is me standing between them, and that’d only prolong his death until he got through me.
Pulling the chain from the slide, I open the door, welcoming my brother into the apartment.
“Fuck Drew.” He rolls his eyes as he walks inside.
I’m taken aback when I’m pulled to him. He grips me so tightly that I can’t breathe.
“You scared the shit out of me.” He admits as he pulls away and looks at me again.
“I’m fine.”
He nods his head, walking over to the kitchen and leaning against the counter, ironically in the exact spot where I just had Eli’s dick in my mouth.
“How’s Tate?” I ask him, smirking, telling him I know it’s more than he’s ever wanted to admit.
“She’s okay.” He nods his head. “Broke her arm. A little shaken up.”
“Tell her I said thank you.”
“She knows.” He smiles, nodding his head again.
“Don’t be an idiot this time.”
He laughs out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Okay.” I roll my eyes at him.
“It’s not a good time.” He tells me.
“Zane, if you wait for it to be a good time, you’re going to end up missing any time.”
Shaking his head, he sighs. “I wish it were that easy.”
“Do you think she’s gonna wait for you forever?”
He stops, not saying anything this time.
There’s an awkward pause in the living room as I remember Eli’s hiding somewhere in the apartment right now.
“You don’t even know her.”
I just shrug. “I’ve seen the two of you together. I’ve heard stories. I know enough.” Emphasizing the last part. “I know she risked her life to save me yesterday.”
At the mention of what happened yesterday, Z’s face falls, and he drops his MC exterior.
If I didn’t know him, it would surprise me as he pulls me in again, hugging me even tighter. “I was so fucking scared when I picked up the phone and you weren’t the one on the other end.”
“I can imagine.”
“What do you remember?”
“Nothing really, besides what he looked like. He came up to me at the bookstore, and we talked for a while before I agreed to go have a drink with him. I remember walking into the bar, and then I woke up in the hospital.”
His eyes drop, looking at me. I haven’t seen this side of him in years, and it’s bittersweet. I miss my brother, but I’m sad it took something like this to bring it out of him.
He nods his head, pulls out his phone, and presses on the screen until he turns it around to show me. “This him?”
New images from yesterday flash through my head, causing me to look away quickly.
I’m sure that Z can tell by my reaction that it’s him, but he needs me to confirm it.
Even though I’m not looking at it anymore, the photo is seared into my mind.
He sits tied to a metal chair, duct tape covering his mouth.
If I’d have to put money on it, I guess it would be in the basement of Pistons.
Blood is streaming down his face, covering the tape that’s over his mouth, onto his legs, and soaking through the jeans he’s wearing until, I assume, pooling at his feet.
I’m thinking he’s unconscious cause his eyes are closed as Spyder holds his head up by his hair.
“Yeah,” I whisper, my exterior finally breaking.
“You sure?” he double-checks with me.
“Yes, I’m positive.” Looking up at him, I know exactly what confirming it will lead to.
“Good.” Z sighs with relief, pulling me in for another tight hug. “Call me if you need anything at all.” He reminds me, just as he always does.
“I know.” Pulling away, he turns to the door. “What are you going to do?” I shouldn’t ask him, but I can’t stop myself. I need to hear him say it.
“Take care of it.” An evil smirk spread across his face as his persona comes back into place.
“I’m going to make sure of that right now.
I just needed you to confirm it.” And that’s the whole reason he just showed up at my apartment.
I don’t doubt he was worried about me, but that took a backseat to the revenge that the MC prez wanted to get.
I attempt to keep my panic at bay as I hope Eli is hiding somewhere far enough that he didn’t just overhear our conversation.
Wondering if he’s already making calls. Wondering if I should tell Z not to go through with it.
Wondering if I should tell him to come out and have a murder unfold right in my living room.
“Good,” comes out of my mouth before I can decide, so I just look up at him, nodding this time. “Cut his cock off.”
He just shakes his head as he looks at me. “Come on, Drew, don’t say cock, it’s weird for me.”
“You know I’m an adult, right?”
“I know, and I know you have sex.”
Oh, the irony.
“But then someone says it to me, and all I can think about is when you said it. It just ruins it for me.” He shakes his head.
“Fine, dick?”
“Not any better.” He’s laughing this time.
I can’t help but roll my eyes as he says it, and I can’t help but wonder if he didn’t leave college after my parents died and take custody if he’d still be this fucking protective.
“I’m gonna have Spyder stay.”
“No.” I almost jump towards him.
“What?” he turns, looking at me, suspicious.
“You’re gonna need everyone, right? It’s an all-hands-on-deck type of thing.”
“I can sacrifice one.”
“Not one of your primary enforcers.”
He contemplates what I’m saying for a moment, nodding his head. “I don’t trust anyone I can sacrifice enough.”
I already knew that.
“I’ll call Ella back over.”
He nods his head. “Okay, but if I don’t hear from her by the time I get back to Pistons, I’m sending one of them back.”
“Got it.” I laugh, nodding my head again.
“Do you?”
“Crystal clear.”
“Alright.” He shakes his head, the evil smirk settling in again as I imagine he’s planning all the ways in his head to make him pay. “Love you.” He says, stilling me for a moment, my brother’s not one to show emotions.
“Love you too.”
As soon as he shuts the door, I rush towards it, locking it back and placing the chain back in place.