30. Roxy
Roxy
The weight of someone's eyes has me stirring. Tiredness, like I’ve never felt, weighs me down into the soft mattress, warmth radiating from the man beside me.
Kai found us after I had already come four times and scooped my boneless body off the table. Without a word, he draped his cut over my body and took me upstairs to his apartment, leaving Kaleb cursing behind us.
Ash called out to Kaleb when he tried to follow us upstairs, and the door to the club slammed shut, vibrating with the man’s frustration.
He hasn’t been up yet. Bonus of being with twins means I always get one of them, at the very least. Though there is nothing quite like having both their attention on me at the same time.
I force my tired eyes open, and just as I knew they would be, Kai’s dark gaze is fixed on me. He doesn’t speak or even acknowledge the fact that he’s been lying here staring at me.
Anyone else and I’d be completely freaked out. For some reason, Kai’s possessive quirks make my pulse flutter.
Stretching closer, I press my lips against his. When his warm lips brush mine, he stiffens. The muscles in his body lock tight, uncertain about my soft movements. I almost pull away, thinking I'd misread the situation.
Then his hand finds my waist.
His body softens as he closes the distance between us, returning the kiss with a softness I didn’t know he was capable of.
He slides his tongue against mine, deepening the kiss in an instant, pulling me on top of him. Pain flares through my body.
“Too sore,” I whine, pulling back an inch.
His eyes stay on my lips.
“I don’t care,” he murmurs, gripping my head and tugging me to his lips.
In an instant, I melt back into him, moaning when he hardens against my stomach. Surely he should be well and truly spent by now.
“Kai, seriously,” I hum against his lips. “My pussy feels like it’ll never recover.”
Wrong thing to say. His chest rumbles with hunger, and he flips us until I’m on my back, settling between my legs. Even with the burn, my body shivers with need.
“My cunt to abuse as I wish,” he rasps against my lips.
His filthy words have me grinding against him. This close, I can see the small cracks in his mask. I pull away from him, narrowing my eyes as I look him up and down.
Half-asleep, I didn’t notice it. But I notice it now. His hair sticks up wildly, and purple smudges mark under his eyes. The harsh angles of his face look softer, dulled by exhaustion.
“When was the last time you slept?”
He captures my lips, biting down hard on my bottom lip until I whimper. Until my brain empties. My hands find his chest and shove hard when I remember what I was trying to ask him.
“Kai!”
He pulls back, locking eyes with me.
I slide my hands through his hair, pushing down the messy black nest. “Where were you today?”
He shakes his head, and my heart cracks. My thumb traces a slow line beneath his eye.
“This can’t be how it is.” My voice cracks with emotion. “This constant fight. When does it end?”
His eyes harden, flicking between mine.
For a second, I think he won’t reply. When he does, I wish he didn’t.
“When I’m dead.”
A shuddering breath falls from me, and my eyes close. Incapable of imagining a future where that happens.
It’s inevitable, though. In this life, death is the only constant. My father succumbed to it. Just like many before him and many after him.
“Kai?” When he doesn’t reply, I pry my eyes open. “I’m scared.”
Voicing those two words feels like reaching into my chest cavity and tearing my heart out, handing the bloody organ to him to ruin.
That impenetrable mask is back on his face. Hiding anything human that stirs beneath it. I curl my fingers into his chest, fisting the material until my knuckles turn white.
“I need to meet up with them,” I whisper the words. “My brothers. See what they want. I need to try to get all of this over and done with.”
His lip curls over his teeth.
“No.”
I smile sadly at him. Always trying to protect me. But it’s my turn to protect people. How many more people need to get hurt before they are wiped off this planet?
“I... I think I need to do this,” I murmur to myself.
“No,” he bites out, harder this time.
I shove at his chest, his weight barely budging on top of me.
“Right, but you can go off and spend hours doing God knows what? Risking your life and Kaleb’s every damn day you wear this vest and call yourself a Devil,” I yell.
Anger heats deep in my stomach.
“I said, no!” he roars, and I flinch.
I’ve never heard him yell before. Hearing it now makes every muscle in my body lock. Tears slip past my lashes and run down into the pillow.
The room falls silent, and his chest heaves with fury. His jaw ticks, teeth grinding loud enough that I can hear it.
“They will kill you,” he mutters quietly this time.
My mouth parts, but before any words come out, he clamps his palm over my lips. Stopping any words from squeezing past. Fingers bite into my cheeks, and I whimper at the sharp pain, the soft insides of my mouth grinding into my teeth.
Keeping his hand over my face, he uses the other to reach in between our bodies, pulling his hard cock out of his pants.
My teeth grit as he pushes himself in. My pained cry is captured by his palm. He doesn’t say another word to me as he fucks me slowly into the mattress. Our eyes stay locked on each other. Mine teary. His covered in shadows.
Although my body is spent and aching, he pulls a soft orgasm out of me, following me and pulsing inside of me with a hiss through his teeth. When he rolls over, I silently cry.
Not because I’m mad at him. But because I’m mad at the world for being so cruel to him, that he’s blind to anything else.
Violence in necessary. Pain is necessary. But there is also goodness and laughter and sadness, and fun.
It doesn’t exist while my brothers are out there. Not for me, at least.
Finally, exhaustion pulls him under. His soft breaths trickle from his parted lips. All of his features soften in his sleep, and my heart stutters just watching him. My sweet sunshine.
I wait another hour, making sure he’s deep asleep, before I slide my legs from the bed. Each movement is careful, trying not to wake him. My hand grips the door frame, and I turn back to look at him, still sleeping.
And then I move.
It won’t be long till he wakes up to find me gone. I don’t need long. I just need to find Ash or Maddy, or Leon. One of them can help me without turning into an overprotective caveman.
Barefoot, I pad down the stairs, arms hugging tight around the oversized, long sleeve shirt that Kai forced me into. When I get to the last floor, the door is cracked open, just an inch.
It doesn’t matter that it’s past three in the morning; voices and warm light spill into the staircase.
All I can see are shadowy figures through the tiny gap.
“And you're certain?”
The voice that comes from Ash is flat. Unlike anything I’ve heard from him.
“Yes,” Kaleb grunts.
So that’s where he’s been all night.
“Boss, that’s two dead Devils in twenty-four hours,” Griff growls.
My stomach turns and I swallow down the nausea that threatens to turn my stomach.
The room falls silent; my breaths amplified in the quiet staircase.
“Fuck!” Ash screams, followed by the sound of glass smashing.
I flinch away from the door. It sounds like he’s wiped the bar clean of bottles and glasses in a fit of rage.
“Fuck,” he murmurs, quietly this time.
“We are out of time,” Griff growls, his voice escalating. “No more sitting around and watching. No more waiting for him to come out of wherever he is fucking hiding. We need to fucking strike!”
Boots crunch on broken glass.
“With what weapons?” Ash’s voice turns deadly. “With what allies?”
“We’ve got enough, Boss,” Griff implores him.
“Yeah, for these fuckers, maybe. But what happens when Zeke returns? Because he will return. And we have nothing left but a bleeding club.”
Ash sounds completely unravelled. Like a sweater with a string sticking out, and someone keeps on pulling and pulling until it’s just a ball of wool.
“I can’t lose any more family,” he sighs. “I can’t lose my Angel. I can’t let him take her again.”
Griff growls a frustrated sound. “Well, we’ll lose more if we sit here and let them pick us off one by one.
Did Kaleb tell you what he saw at the docks last night?
A fucking policeman. Sniffing around our empty shipping containers.
These fucking Wraiths are making it impossible for the cops to cover our asses. ”
The silence that hangs in the air makes me shiver.
This is more serious than I ever could have fathomed. My best friend’s life is in danger, once again. All because she fell for a Devil.
Without warning, another crash echoes through the club. Bottles explode against a wall, and glass shatters across the floor. The scent of straight liquor hits me from where I hide.
My heart is lodged in my throat. Ash is losing control.
And if he’s scared... then I’m fucking terrified.
Plastering my eye to the small gap, I see him. He stands in the middle of the shattered glass, his chest rises and falls with heaving breaths, and his eyes are wild, like a feral animal.
Kaleb watches him, not moving or speaking to comfort him. Griff glares at him, the towering man vibrating with fury. It’s like they’ve seen this before.
Ash plants his palms on the bar, his head hanging between his shoulders. When he finally speaks, his voice is so quiet I almost don’t hear it.
“We are fucked.”
Three words. Three words that have dread curling through me.
Fear has my instinct begging me to sprint back upstairs to the warm bed that awaits me. To bury my thoughts and pretend I didn’t just hear this.
Instead, I stand frozen in the stairwell, trembling and clutching myself. People are fucking dying. And soon, those people will be the ones I care about.
I’m so far in over my head that I can’t even see the surface anymore. My shaking hand reaches for the door handle. I can’t offer much, but I can do something. Meet my brothers and see what they want.
Find out anything that might be able to help Ash. Even kill them if I get the chance.
Because I will kill them if I get the chance. Finish what I couldn’t do before.
When I try to pull the door open, a palm lands on the door, just by my face. My muscles tense, seeing the familiar scars on the back of his hand.
I yank the door, trying to pull it open, anyway. Of course, it doesn’t budge. Slowly, he steps closer, his warmth pushing against my back. With strength that beats mine every time, the door slides shut with a soft click.
Warm breath dusts my ear.
“Please, Kai,” I whisper, staring at the now-closed door.
“I’ll say this one more time, Roxy,” he murmurs against my ear.
His lips graze against my ear and my traitorous body shudders against him. His hand wraps around my body, sliding up until his fingers wrap around my throat.
“You will not be going to meet your brothers.” He says each word slowly, making sure I understand. “I will tie you up with rope and hang you in the warehouse, if I have to. Feed you, fuck you. Toilet you like a dog.”
His fingers squeeze tighter, and I whimper past the resistance.
“When I said you were mine, I wasn’t lying. Either you listen to me now, or I'll treat you like the misbehaving pet that you are. Do you understand me?”
His words are horrible. Demeaning and disgusting. So why does my core ignite with need and my back arch into his touch.
A part of me is relieved. There is nothing I want less than seeing my brothers. To risk being ensnared in their grip again. I know I wouldn’t survive it this time.
I nod, leaning into his chest.
“Say it,” he grits out.
“I will not go see my brothers,” I whisper, barely able to hear Ash, Kaleb, and Griff resume their conversation past the wooden door.
He shakes me softly. “Promise me.”
I melt against him. “I promise.”
Seeming satisfied with that, he scoops me into his arms and carries me back to bed. Back to the safety of the warm covers and his hard body. This time, when he fucks my sore body, he seems angry.
Muscles tight and rigid as he drives into me roughly and takes the air from my lungs with his hands around my throat. It terrifies me to think that he might be scared, just like Ash is.
So I let him. And commit every part of it to my memory.