Chapter 6
Chapter Six
VANNA
“Thanks, Bug. Yeah…I’ll talk to him.”
When my phone rang before, I expected it to be Devil, but when it came up as an unknown number, I wondered if somehow Bria had found a way to call me. Nope, just the guy who locked down my phone in the first place kindly telling me my brother and my captor had gotten into a brawl at the clubhouse.
Over me.
I had a little thrill run through me like maybe there was a reason for it, but then I was mad because he locked me up without any say and now he was fighting with my brother. I mean…I called my brother and not him. Why can’t Vinny just help me?
He was so infuriating. Infuriating and hot and protective…and growly. Dear God, when he growled!
Why would they be fighting? Didn’t Vinny send him to look after me?
According to Bug, Devil had been sent home to “cool” off so whatever the fuck happened, it was bad. I don’t think I ever saw the two of them fight so this had to be really bad.
I paced the living area, looking out the window, to try and calm myself down. My anxiety was at its peak, and usually when that happened, I drew. I designed new tattoos, it took me out of my head and then I could battle whatever I had to.
But the asshole had basically kidnapped me with nothing and all I had was my phone which had a cracked screen and none of my design programs on it.
Not that they’d install because I had no fucking data.
Why hadn’t I just told Bug to give me data? I needed to know what was going on. I needed to know if my brother was okay. Out of the two of them, my brother wasn’t as strong of a fighter as Devil was.
It took twenty minutes before I heard the lock on the door unlatch and the door opened. Spinning around to give him a piece of my mind, I gasped when I saw the state he was in. His eye was swollen, his jaw was bruised already and blood was on his arms and on his lips.
“What the fuck?”
I forgot why I was mad and ran for him, looking up into his eyes. They were dark, the pupils almost the same colour as his iris, but he didn’t flinch when I touched his jaw.
“Noah…”
“I’m fine. I expected worse.”
“Talk to me…”
“Later,” he grunted. “I need a shower.”
I couldn’t find the words so I let him go, watching as he favoured one side as he lumbered down the hall and in through a door on the right side of the hall. The sound of the shower was loud before he closed the door and I was left standing here, my mind racing.
I sat down on the couch, and watched the TV move with the show that was on but I had no idea what was happening.
My ADHD got me sometimes and I fixated on zoning out and coping that way.
None of my other methods were here so I had to go to a safe place in my mind because it felt like everything was falling apart.
Who knew how long I was sitting on that couch, but when I saw Devil come back into the room, I looked up at him in a simple black t-shirt and black sweatpants. He looked like he stepped right out of one of my romance novels and I had to look away so I didn’t do anything stupid.
I stood up and watched as he leaned against the doorway, his eyes on me. His face looked sore. His jaw had turned a dark purple, and his eye was puffy but not swollen like it looked before. And he’d washed all the blood away.
“What?” he asked finally when I left everything unsaid, a million questions forming in my mind but none had won out on what I would ask. “Just tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Bug called me.”
“I figured,” he grunted. “What did he tell you?”
“That you got into a fight with Vinny.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“Fuck…Noah…is Vinny okay?”
He sighed, pushing off the wall with his shoulder and he moved over to where I was standing by the window. “You think I would hurt him?”
“Your face?—”
“I let him hit me, Van. I didn’t hit him back.”
“What?” I asked, gasping. “Why?”
“Because he had every right to hit me, to hurt me. He was angry and I let him take it out on me. I owed him that much.”
“This is about me, isn’t it?” I asked him.
“It doesn’t matter, Van. You’re safe here, with me. Nothing is going to get to you, I promise, and the club is already looking into what was happening at your shop.”
He was about to turn to head into the kitchen, but I wasn’t done with this. “You claimed me.”
Devil froze, his hand on the marble countertop and his back stiffening. Slowly, he turned around.
“I did.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why would you do that?”
He sighed, grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge and turned to face me. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me…why would you claim me?”
My heart was in my throat as I waited for him to respond, for him to make sense of what Bug had told me.
“It means you’re protected, Vanna.”
“I know what claiming means in the club, Noah. I grew up in the same club as you did. I also know how serious it is. That’s why he threw a punch at you, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said simply. “I deserved it, but now you’re protected by me, and he knows that.”
“Noah, you can’t undo this. It’ll destroy your friendship with him. Why?”
“Leave it, Van.”
He was making a move to leave but I could feel the frustration bubbling up inside.
He used to tell me everything, back then, when I fell in love with him, he told me about what he wanted, what he loved, what he hated.
He told me about his bad days and the days when he didn’t think he could keep doing what his dad wanted. He told me about what he wanted.
Until he didn’t anymore.
Until he closed himself off when I wanted to give myself to him. I’d wanted him to be my first, to take my virginity, and he’d turned me down.
It had hurt so bad I couldn’t show my face in the club, especially not with him around. It still hurt to look at him, knowing he felt the same way about me, but he refused to touch me.
“Why did you claim me?!” I screamed at him.
He spun on his heel, “Because I love you,” he yelled back.
He threw the bottle of water to the side and stormed over to me, grabbing me by the throat and pushing me against the wall.
I went willingly, the heat from his hand on my throat, the way he looked at me like I was something he wanted but couldn’t have, like I was dangerous.
Everything about this situation was fucked up and yet, I wanted him to pin me here, I wanted him to kiss me, to tell me he claimed me because he wanted to and not because he wanted protection for me.
I wanted to be…wanted.
“You…”
“I fucking love you, Vanna. I’ve been in love with you for eight years. Don't you know that?”
He was breaking apart. I could see it as he tightened his hold on my throat, the way his eyes looked at me like it tore him to pieces to admit that to me.
“Show me.”
His eyes moved from mine, to my lips, then back to my eyes before he closed the distance between us, and slammed his lips onto mine.
It wasn’t a soft kiss, it was a brutal taking, a claiming, and I melted into him, relishing the burn of his fingers on the sides of my throat as he took what he needed from me.
When he pulled back, his forehead against mine, our breathing choppy and laboured. “This changes everything. You know that, right? Once I take you, Vanna, that’s it. You’re fucking mine.”
I ran my hand through his hair and pulled, causing his head to fall back, his eyes widening in the sting of pain I’d caused. “I’ve been yours for eight years, Noah. You claimed me in the club, now seal the deal and claim my body.”