38. Tristan
38
TRISTAN
W e barely even make it into the small room before my hands are on her body and my lips on her throat. While I’m kissing my way to her neck, I kick the door shut with my heel and slide my arm around her ass.
Elle moans and wraps her legs around my waist as I lift her up and brace her back against the smooth marble wall.
Out here in the annex, we’re far enough away from the party that no one will hear her screams.
Because I am going to make her scream. And beg. And moan my name in that perfect breathless voice of hers.
Fuck, ever since she walked out of her dorm room wearing that gorgeous green dress, it has been a fucking battle to keep my hands off her. She is illegally attractive. And so absolutely incredible.
I still can’t believe that she’s actually here. Actually doing this. That Elle Summers is selling drugs. To save me .
The thought still makes my head spin.
With one arm still under her ass, I keep her pressed against the wall as I kiss my way up her throat and over her jaw. She throws her head back, breathless noises escaping her sinful mouth. I grab her chin, tilting her head back down and claiming those wicked lips for myself.
She rakes her fingers through my hair and rolls her hips against me.
Pleasure pulses through me and my cock hardens. She grins against my mouth since she can no doubt feel it. I squeeze her ass in response.
She let out a surprised squeak.
A dark laugh rolls from my chest as I bite her bottom lip and roll my own hips right back at her. She moans into my mouth.
Fuck, I need to get this dress off her. I need to feel her naked body against mine.
Elle slips her hands down to the back of my neck, pressing my mouth harder against hers as she kisses me with such desperation that my heart skips several beats. I slide my free hand up her thigh, pushing the skirt of her dress up towards her hip. A shudder rolls through her body at the touch.
Fire burns through my veins.
I reach her hip and curl my fingers around the top of her lace panties. She whimpers into my mouth, and grinds against me again. My cock aches with need for her. I start sliding her panties down her hip and?—
The door bursts open.
Dropping Elle back down on the floor, I whip around and get ready to murder whoever it is that dared to interrupt us.
But then I freeze.
For a few seconds, I can’t comprehend what it is that I’m seeing .
Four police officers charge in through the door. Two of them with weapons raised.
Behind me, Elle lets out a cry of surprise. Clothes rustle as she no doubt yanks the skirt of her dress back down again. But I can’t turn around to look at her because my brain is still stuck on the fact that four policemen now surround us.
“You,” one of them says, his eyes locked on me. “Slowly step away from the wall and out into the middle of the room.”
I quickly sweep my gaze over them, but it takes less than a second to make a decision. I’m not stupid enough to fight four police officers. Especially not when they have guns.
So I slowly walk a few steps out onto the floor.
“On your knees and lace your fingers behind your head,” the same guy orders.
I lower myself to my knees and raise my hands behind my head.
By the wall, Elle stands frozen in shock, staring at the scene before her with wide eyes.
“Search it,” the policeman says, and jerks his chin at his colleagues.
The two guys without guns immediately fan out and start searching through the room while the one giving orders holsters his gun and pulls out a pair of handcuffs.
Ice spreads through my veins.
The bag of drugs is in here.
Fuck.
How did this even happen?
The policeman in charge takes my wrists one at a time and moves them behind my back, while the fourth guy remains standing in front of me with his gun trained on my chest. Cold metal presses against my skin as the leader handcuffs my hands behind my back .
Right as he is walking back around me, one of the other two calls out, “Here!”
Dread washes through me as I twist my head to see him pulling out the small black bag from its hiding place behind a stack of chairs in the corner.
“Well, well, well,” a new voice says from the doorway.
I snap my gaze towards the sound of the voice.
A fifth policeman walks into the room with lazy, confident steps. He has brown hair and gray eyes, and a very neutral sort of face that makes it difficult to tell how old he is. Maybe somewhere around thirty?
“Would you look at that?” he says, his eyes locked on me.
He’s looking at me as if he knows exactly who I am. I’ve had some run ins with the cops in this city, but I’m pretty sure that I have never met this guy before.
“Tristan Kane, member of the White Serpents and high-ranking subordinate to Rob Bracken himself, caught with a bag of drugs,” he says, a distinctly smug smile on his lips.
I’m just about to open my mouth and speak, but someone else beats me to it.
“You,” Elle blurts out.
“Hello, Elle,” he replies, turning towards her. “Thank you for leading us right to him and the drugs.”
My heart stops.
Fucking stops dead in my chest.
Coldness spreads through my limbs like poison. My body feels numb. I try to draw in a breath but I’m not sure if it actually contained any air.
“You know him,” I manage to press out, my eyes locked on Elle. It’s half statement, half question.
“I… well, I…” she stammers.
“Of course she does,” the guy interrupts. Turning back to me, he flashes me a smile full of smug superiority. “She has been spying on you for me for weeks.”
Everything inside my head goes dead silent. For a few seconds, I’m not even sure if my heart is beating anymore.
“That’s not…” Elle begins. Panic and regret flash across her face as she stares at me with pleading eyes. “It’s not… It wasn’t like that. It?—”
Realization hits me like a knife to the gut. “All that time you were following me around, hiding in the bushes outside my window, watching me… You weren’t keeping tabs on me for yourself. You were spying on me. For him.”
“I…” Desperation washes across her features. “Yes, but it’s not?—”
A cold laugh rips from my lungs. It’s so harsh that I almost taste blood.
I feel like my heart has just been ripped out of my chest.
It was a setup.
It was all a setup.
She didn’t offer to pay off my debt to help me. She didn’t make a deal with Bracken to sell drugs for him because she cared about me. She did it so that she could get me and the drugs in the same room, and then call the police on me.
Pain slashes through my chest like shards of glass as another harsh laugh rips out of me.
Fuck, I underestimated her. If this isn’t the best fucking revenge she could ever have concocted, I don’t know what is. What a ruthless fucking savage she is.
“Get him up,” the guy with the gray eyes says, and jerks his chin at the man I thought was the leader. “And take him to the car.”
He nods in acknowledgement and grabs me by the arm, pulling me to my feet .
My ears are ringing. I feel like I’ve been caught in the blast radius of a dirty bomb.
“It wasn’t like that!” Elle cries.
Another policeman has stepped up and is holding her back as I’m led towards the door. She struggles against his hold, her eyes wild and desperate as she stares at me.
“Please, Tristan,” she calls. “It wasn’t like that. Yes, I spied on you for a few weeks. But I didn’t know that he was a cop. And I only did it because I needed protection. I stopped it the moment we decided on a truce.” She struggles hard against the arms holding her. “Tristan! I didn’t?—”
Fury flashes through me, flamed by the searing pain where my heart would’ve been if she hadn’t just ripped it out of my chest. I can barely concentrate on her words. I just know that I don’t want to hear my name on her tongue one more fucking time. Because if I do, the pain inside me is going to rip me apart.
“I should’ve known,” I snarl, cutting her off. Rage laces every word out of my mouth, and disgust pulses through me as I lock cold eyes on Elle. “Once a rat, always a rat.”
Hurt washes over her features. It’s followed by desperation. “Tristan, please?—”
“The next time I see you, I will finish what I started that day when I made you drive out into the woods.”
She jerks back as if I had slapped her.
But before she can reply, the cop holding me hauls me out the door and into the warm evening outside. Three police cars are waiting there. No flashing lights this time. I walk numbly towards them. Every step sends a jolt of pain through my cracked chest.
Inside the annex, Elle is still calling after me.
But I can barely hear anything over the loud shattering of my heart.