2. Roxy
Roxy
“Ikilled him,” I gasp.
I more than killed him.
One hand grips the phone to my ear, the other holds Kitty for dear life.
I hear movement on the other end of the phone, before Maddy speaks.
“You... did what?”
God, don’t make me say it again.
I try to suck in a deep breath, but the scent of violence, copper and piss, makes me nauseous.
“I killed someone, Maddy.” My voice comes out as a whisper.
She’s silent for a minute. That’s fine. It’s not like a rang her over a broken nail. This one might take a moment to sink in.
“W... who?”
I look down at the man, who no longer looks recognisable. The unmistakable stillness of his chest.
I can’t bring myself to utter his name.
“A friend of my brother’s,” I rasp. “He came in here and he... I killed him. He’s dead, Maddy. What do I do?!”
Hysteria is on the brink of taking over. I can hear it in my voice, and the way my body trembles.
“Hey, Roxy. Take a deep breath for me,” Maddy murmurs. “Ash is here and you’re on speaker. He’s going to send someone down to help you. You’re at the studio, yeah?”
“No!” I beg, squeezing my eyes shut. “No,” I gasp, quietly this time. “I need you. I can’t...”
The room shrinks around me. Air catches halfway down my throat, and my lungs heave desperately trying to drag oxygen in.
My pulse pounds so violently that it drowns out Maddy’s voice, each beat frantically rattling through my body.
Peeking back down at the puddle of blood and flesh, bile burns in the back of my throat and I barely lean in time to retch.
“Roxy!”
The deep voice of my best friend’s partner booms through the phone, and I sniffle, wiping my mouth with the back of the phone.
“Ash,” I whimper. I swore off any crime-loving man since the moment I left the South and have only made one exception. Only because he looks after my best friend so well and keeps me far away from the things he’s involved with. Until today. “I fucked up.”
A rumbling growl sounds through the speaker. “If he’s anything like your brothers, then you did the exact right thing.”
“You know my brothers?”
I hate the way fear creeps into my voice at that.
He grunts. “Of course I do.”
Of course he does.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to stop the world from spinning.
“I’m fucked,” I sob, tears finally spilling down my face. “I’m just like them now. Fuck!”
“Listen to me,” Ash’s voice cuts through my panic, stopping the next sob in my throat. “Kai is on his way.” My mouth opens to beg him not to send one of his me, but his harsh voice stops me. “Angel and I are a good two hours away, and you need someone there right now.”
I bite my tongue to stop myself from begging.
“Kai is my most trusted man,” he murmurs, softer this time. “He’s going to help you clean up your... situation... and then bring you to us.”
My fingers sting from how harshly I grip my phone. Silence stretches over the line.
I need Maddy, but I just can’t fucking go to where she lives. Curling in on myself, I squeeze my eyes shut.
“I can’t,” I whisper pathetically.
“Roxy,” Maddy says, and I hear her care for me in that single word. Care I don’t deserve right now. “It’s not safe for you to be alone. Not tonight, anyway.”
I know she’s right.
“I can’t do this again,” I plead.
I’m not making any sense. I know that. But I’m spiralling, ghosts from my past clawing at my heels.
muffled voices echo through the phone, Ash and Maddy murmuring words I can’t grasp.
The blood catches my eye again. The tattoos covering the still arms. The rings on his fingers. The patch on his cut.
“I’m not going back,” I whisper, more to myself than anyone else. “I’m not.”
“You’re not,” Ash replies firmly. “Kai will take you to Maddy’s old apartment. He’ll guard the front door until we get back in the morning, and we’ll go from there. Can you do that for me?”
I nod, although he can’t see it.
“Okay,” I squeak, a fresh wave of tears blurring my vision. “I can do that.”
“Good girl,” he rumbles. “Stay on the line. Kai should be there any second.”
Again, I nod.
And he’s right.
Because seconds later a roaring truck skids out front, bright headlights shining directly onto me.
“He’s here,” I whisper shakily.
I don’t hear what Ash replies. A dark figure strides through the front door, the bells mocking me as it slams shut. Something in me refuses to look.
Sure, I’ve probably tattooed every member of Ash’s club. But in here, they’re the customer. I’m the artist.
The lines have always been clear.
Now. Now the lines are smeared in blood and chunks of skull.
My fingers tighten around the phone until my knuckles crack, my eyes fixed on the ruined floor. It reminds me that I deserve this. Whatever comes after...
The room fades in and out around me.
Someone is talking. Maybe Ash. Maybe Maddy. Maybe the man standing just a few metres away. I can’t tell anymore.
My heartbeat is too loud.
The tang of coppery blood coats the back of my tongue; every breath pulling it deeper into my lungs until I’m sure I will never smell anything else again.
I flinch as a large hand circles my wrist. Still, I don’t dare look up.
He peels the phone from my death grip, pulling the bloodied thing to his own ear.
Both of my hands wrap around the base of the baseball bat. The wood, stained red, comforts me.
“Yes, Boss,” a quiet, raspy voice replies before hanging up the phone.
His gaze burns my bloodied face. I hug my arms tighter around Kitty.
He moves closer, his dark boots stepping through the mess. Once again, he grips my wrist. Trying to fight him off proves futile, and in seconds he has the bat from my grip, silently walking away with my only sense of safety.
Not that it would help. This man is... more powerful than Jacob could ever pretend to be.
Finally, I pry my eyes off the bloody mess. Watching as he prowls across the studio to the sink. My face scrunches in confusion as he brings Kitty under the spray of water, washing the mess off the worn surface.
Now that he isn’t facing me, I soak him in. His tall body, clad in dark combat pants and a long sleeve black shirt that shows all the rippling muscles underneath. Dark hair, as black as midnight, and with dark olive skin.
When he turns, I inhale sharply.
I remember this man. Remember staring at him in a coffee shop with Maddy, when he was watching our every move. Only now, up close, his presence is more than I know what to do with.
As he advances on me, with eyes as dark as his hair and endless as the moonless sky, my skin erupts in goosebumps.
As if I’m staring death right in the eyes.
I’m so taken aback, I almost don’t notice the way he’s handing Kitty back to me, clean from the stain of life that decorated her. Quickly, I reach out and snatch her from his hand, hugging her to my body. Not even caring how insane I must look right now.
Not a single expression dances on his face as he stares at me for a beat before he turns those eyes onto Jacob. Or what is left of him.
Finally, he gives me a sign of life. Just the slightest raise of an eyebrow at the mess I’ve made.
“He attacked me first,” I bite out through clenched teeth.
He turns, watching me through his long lashes.
“Well, he won’t do that again,” he murmurs.
His voice is quiet, but rough around the edges. I almost think he’s telling a joke, though it would be impossible to tell.
Glancing back at the dead body on the floor, I murmur, “No. He won’t.”
Weirdly, it makes me feel better. One of my nightmares that can never haunt me again in this lifetime.
“Let’s go,” he murmurs, turning towards the door. “Ash said we can stop by your home to get what you need, and then we’ll go to Maddison’s apartment.”
I swallow the embarrassment that creeps in, my cheeks heating. Owning a studio in the city is expensive, as well as owning an apartment. Chewing money that I don’t have.
Slowly, I peel myself from the table, tiptoeing my Doc Martens around the gore that I created and trudging into my office.
It’s the perfect size for a small mattress and a box full of things I tossed into it when I received my last eviction notice.
Placing Kitty in the box, I lift the clunky thing off the ground.
It’s ridiculous that walking out of my makeshift bedroom makes me feel humiliated. This man is here because I murdered someone. He doesn’t give a single shit where I sleep at night.
He eyes the room over my shoulder with those dark, unblinking eyes and shame twists low in my stomach.
One step, and he’s in front of me, taking the box from my hands before reaching into it and passing Kitty back to me.
Everything feels better when she’s in my hands. She saved me. Again...
“What about...?” I turn, gesturing to Jacob. Or what’s left of him.
“It’s sorted,” he grunts quietly. “Let’s go.”
I don’t have to be told twice, running after him as he stalks out of my studio. The truck is enormous. I’ve barely climbed in when he tears away from the curb. My stomach lurches with the speed, and I grip the bat until my fingers crack.
The place that was meant to be mine disappears in the rearview mirror.