23. Chapter Twenty-Three Cam #2
Jesus Christ. I was going to drive myself insane.
Meanwhile, all this torture shit was happening to my girl.
While I'd been locked up, being trained and tested and shaped by people I'd thought were protecting me, Lakey had been in a basement under a church with electrodes on her skull and drugs in her veins.
I'd failed her. I was the one who broke her because I wasn't there to protect her.
It was worse than I'd imagined. They hadn't just hurt her. They'd experimented on her. Cut her open. Drugged her. Taken things from her body that she'd never get back.
And I'd been in a cell, fourteen months deep, with a guard's hand on my neck, being told I was doing so well.
We'd both been abused, just differently.
"Cam?" Lakey's voice snapped me back. "You okay? You looked like you were a million miles away."
I swallowed hard. "I'm good, baby. Just thinking about how we're gonna make these fuckers pay."
Her hands started working my thighs, kneading out the tension. "Mmm, I like the sound of that," she said, planting a kiss on my neck.
I put my hands on hers, squeezing before letting go so she could keep working on a knot in my quad. "We're gonna send the lot back to hell. And then when we arrive at those flaming gates, we'll track them down all over again."
She stood, flexing her fingers before sitting down to face me, straddling my lap. "You always did know how to sweet talk a girl, Axley."
I pulled her close. "And don't you forget it, sweetheart. Now, how about you tell me what ideas that pretty little psycho brain of yours is cooking up?"
I looked at Lakey, seeing the mischief and mayhem. But beneath it all, I could sense her exhaustion. The Steven situation had taken more out of her than she'd admit. Time to switch gears.
"Actually, you know what? Fuck the planning for tonight," I said, gently lifting her off my lap. "I've got a better idea."
I went to our beat-up liquor cabinet, fishing out a dusty bottle of peach schnapps and setting it on the counter.
"No fucking way," she breathed. "Is that...?"
"The same shit we stole from Mrs. Hannigan's cellar when I was fourteen? You bet your sweet ass it is," I said, grabbing two mismatched glasses. "And that's not all."
I reached behind the TV, pulling out a worn VHS tape. Lakey's jaw dropped.
"'The Goonies'? Cam, you sentimental asshole," she laughed, but I could see the emotion in her eyes.
"What can I say? I'm a sucker for the classics," I shrugged, popping the tape into our ancient VCR. "Now get your cute little dimpled ass over here."
Lakey flopped onto the couch, accepting the glass of schnapps with a smirk. "You trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me, Axley?"
I settled in beside her, draping an arm around her shoulders. "Please, like I'd need to get you drunk for that."
As the movie started, she relaxed against me, the tension melting from her body. She sipped her drink, a soft smile on her lips.
"Remember when we used to dream about finding pirate treasure?" she said, her eyes fixed on the screen.
I ran my fingers through her hair. "Yeah, and now we're chasing down psycho cult leaders instead. Funny how life works out, huh?"
Lakey snuggled closer, her voice taking on that rare, vulnerable tone I only ever got to hear. "I wouldn't want it any other way, Cam. You and me against the world, remember?"
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, my chest tightening. "Always, baby. Always."
As the movie played on, I found myself watching her more than the screen.
The way her eyes went wide at certain scenes, the little snort she'd let out at the cheesy one-liners.
It was fucking adorable. This was the Lakey nobody else got to see.
Not the killer, not the dancer, not the nut with the karambits.
Just the girl who stole peach schnapps and loved pirate movies and fit perfectly in the crook of my arm.
"You know," I said, tracing lazy circles on her shoulder, "if we ever did find buried treasure, I bet you'd make one hell of a pirate queen."
Lakey looked up at me. "Oh yeah? And what would that make you? My loyal first mate?"
"Nah, baby. I'd be the rival captain who steals you away."
"Mmm," her lips brushed against mine. "I'd like to see you try."
The kiss started slow, a gentle exploration that quickly turned hungry. I tangled my hand in her hair, pulling her closer as she climbed into my lap.
"Fuck the movie," Lakey breathed against my mouth.
I laughed. "Thought you'd never ask."
My hands slid under her shirt, tracing the landscape of scars and soft skin. Every piece of her meant everything to me. Sometimes I forgot that in our everyday. I kissed the scar on her collarbone, remembering the night I'd stitched it up in a dirty motel bathroom.
"Mmmm, baby, keep going.” Lakey said, nipping at my earlobe.
I flipped us so she was pinned beneath me on the couch. "Yeah? Maybe I’ll just tease you a bit more. See how long you can hold out."
She pulled me down by the neck and bit my lower lip hard enough to taste blood. Her legs wrapped around my waist, heels digging into my back, pulling me against her. I could feel how wet she was through the thin fabric of her shorts. My cock was already straining against my pants.
"Off," she demanded, tugging at my waistband. "Everything off. Now."
I stood just long enough to strip, watching her do the same. She peeled her shorts down her legs and kicked them onto the floor, then pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it at my face. I caught it, brought it to my nose, inhaled, and threw it over my shoulder.
"You're so fucking weird," she said.
"You love it."
"Unfortunately."
I was back on her in a second, my mouth on her neck, her collarbone, the space between her tits where I could feel her heart slamming. She arched up into me, her hands in my hair, pulling hard enough to sting.
"Inside me," she said. "Now, Cam. I don't want foreplay. I want you."
So I gave her what she wanted. I pushed inside her in one slow stroke, both of us groaning as I bottomed out.
She was tight and wet and warm and every time, every single fucking time, it felt like coming home.
Not the kind of home we'd grown up in. The kind we'd built. The kind that only existed between us.
I started slow because it would drive her crazy. Long, deep strokes that made the couch creak and her fingers dig into my shoulders. She tried to speed me up, grinding her hips, but I held her down with one hand on her hip.
"Patience," I said.
"Fuck patience. Fuck me."
"I am fucking you."
"Faster."
"No."
She made a frustrated noise that was half growl, half whine, and I grinned against her neck.
This was my favorite game. The one where I kept her right on the edge, right where she couldn't think, couldn't plan, couldn't spiral into the dark corners of her brain where Steven's words lived.
Right here, with me, she was just Lakey. Just mine.
I picked up the pace when she got close, her breathing going ragged, her nails leaving tracks down my back. I reached between us, found her clit, and pressed.
"Cam, fuck, right there. Mmmm fuck, yes. Don’t change anything."
I kept the same pace and she started to moan, her pussy clamping down on me.
I fucked her through it, her body going rigid and then liquid, her mouth open in a silent scream that turned into my name.
I followed her over thirty seconds later, burying my face in her neck, my body emptying into hers while the Goonies played in the background because our life was nothing if not absurd.
The credits rolled, casting a flickering blue light across our tangled bodies. I ran my fingers through Lakey's hair, loving how peaceful she looked.
"What're you staring at, weirdo?" she mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes.
"Just admiring the view. You're almost tolerable when you're not talking."
She cracked one eye open, her lips curving. "Careful, Axley. I might start to think you actually like me."
"Perish the thought," I said, but pulled her closer all the same.
We lay there in comfortable silence, the white noise of the TV a soothing backdrop. For a moment, I could almost pretend we were normal. Just two people in love, not a pair of fucked-up killers with a laundry list of enemies.
"Hey, Cam?" Lakey's voice was uncharacteristically small.
"Yeah, babe?"
She traced the outline of her name on my chest, her touch feather light. "We're gonna make it through this, right? All this Chimera bullshit?"
I kissed the top of her head, inhaling the lavender scent of her shampoo. "Hell yes we are. And if we don't, I'll meet you on the other side. I'll follow you to hell in this lifetime, and through the next."
"Always," she whispered.
As the last notes of the credits faded, I stared at the ceiling.
Tomorrow, we'd dive back into the chaos.
Back to unraveling Chimera's web, back to planning stakeouts, dancing at strip clubs and torturing people for information.
But for now, with Lakey's warmth pressed against me, I allowed myself to believe in the lie of a normal life.
Just for a little while.