Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
What the hell does that even mean? He can make it happen. If I want him to be mine, I can have him? He has to be fucking with me, messing with a girl’s head just to fuck with her more. I can see him now, laughing his ass off if I’d uttered the one word that kept flicking through my mind.
Yes. I wanted so badly to just say it, but that would be stupid. I’m not here because we met at some random party and hit it off. We’re not dating. We are faking it. It’s all pretend. Even this whole I can have him if I want him bullshit. Well, I, for one, am not going to fall for it.
I’m annoyed with myself for even thinking that I could have someone like August Wade, for even wanting someone like August Wade. The guy threatened my little brother. There is something seriously wrong with me. Is it too soon for that mental illness where the captive falls for their captor?
Whatever it’s called, it most certainly is too soon, and I have not fallen.
I get out of the car, closing the door a little harder than I intended. August rounds the hood, his jaw tight. “You need to wait for me to open your door,” he says.
“Why?” The moment the question leaves my mouth, August’s head snaps to the side and then he’s jumping on me. My back hits the ground. His hand catches my head. And…
Are those gunshots?
Oh my god, they are. My body freezes.
“That’s why,” August grits out between clenched teeth. “Stay down.” He scans our surroundings, his free hand clutching a pistol.
Where did it even come from?
When the firing stops suddenly, I feel August release a breath. He looks over at me. “You okay?”
I nod my head. “Are you?” My hands go to his chest. I don’t know why, but they start roaming all over him.
“Looking for something?” August cocks a brow at me.
“Bullet holes,” I tell him. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know.” He pushes to his feet. “Don’t move.”
I don’t know where he thinks I’m going to go. My legs are numb. I’m not even sure I could stand on them right now.
“Boss, you good?” Andre walks around the front of the car.
“Yeah, you?” August asks him.
“Yep,” Andre replies.
“Anyone hit?”
“Not ours.”
“Any survivors?”
“One, we got him over here.” Andre nods his head to the right. I turn to look, but I can’t see anything except a car tire.
“Stay with Hayley,” August grunts, and then he’s moving.
He’s walking away. Wait! I scramble to get up. Where is he going? He can’t just leave me here!
I stumble once I’m standing, and Andre catches me. “Miss Bell, are you all right?”
“Where is he going?” I ask.
“He’ll be right back. Maybe you should sit in the car,” Andre suggests.
I stare at him. Sit in the car? Sure. I’ll do that. Not.
I shake my head and turn around. When I do, I see August. He’s over by another car with two other men. One more is on the ground. Then I watch as August crouches down, says something, and shoots the guy right between the eyes. A scream escapes me and I fall onto my ass.
“Miss Bell, you’re going to be okay,” Andre says.
Am I? I knew I was living with a monster. I’ve heard the rumors. Damn it, he’s told me the sins he’s committed himself. But hearing about them and seeing them firsthand are two different things. I close my eyes and put my hands over my ears. I can feel myself rocking back and forth.
When I feel someone reach for my arms, pulling them down, I scream again. Then that someone is picking me up.
“Shh, it’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” August’s voice seeps through my fear-hazed brain.
I open my eyes and stare up at his face. “You… you… why?” I ask him. “You shot that man. Why?”
He tilts his head at me. “Because he could have hurt you,” he says. “I won’t let anyone try to hurt you, Hayley.”
I shake my head. That’s not why he killed him. He wouldn’t kill someone because I just happen to be here. In the wrong place, at the wrong time.
The movement of the car has me sitting up. “Where are we going?”
August doesn’t let me go when I attempt to slide off his lap. “Home,” he says.
Home. We’re not going home. We’re going to his home. I don’t bother to argue with him. What can I say? I’m literally at the mercy of a madman right now.
Even with that knowledge, my head willingly rests on his shoulder, and I close my eyes. “Who is trying to kill you?” I whisper, but August hears it. “I’ve never been shot at before.”
“And hopefully you never will be again,” Augusts says, but something tells me the longer I’m around him, the more likely it is to happen.
“I don’t know. But I will find out.” He presses his lips to the top of my head. “I’m sorry.”
My brain is telling me that he’s the reason that I was even in that situation. Still, I’m willingly taking comfort from him and a stupid part of me feels safe in his arms.
“Why would you jump on top of me, August? Someone was shooting at you. And you jumped on me. You could have been hit.”
“Hayley, there is no world that exists where I would ever save myself over saving you,” he says, and for a little while, I let myself believe that this could be real.
I really could see myself falling for a monster. Season of sin. Jade’s words ring back through my mind.
“We didn’t get a tree…” I mumble.
“I will get you a tree,” August says, and I close my eyes again, letting his warmth wrap around me.