“What kind of guy are you?”
His teeth ground, hands tensing on my hip, as if warring over what to give. Slowly he lowered me to my feet, his touch so tender as he helped to resituate my clothing. He peeked up at me as he straightened my blouse back onto my shoulder.
“If I could be, I’d be a forever kind of guy. But I gave up my forever a long time ago.”
Affection brimmed inside me, all tangled with hurt and worry for this broken boy. Wishing there was a way to fix it, whatever it was.
I cleared my throat and stepped away from him. “I should probably get going. It’s late.”
He stepped back to put more distance between us. “You probably should or I might not let you leave.”
I headed for my bag, peering back at the man who watched me softly as I went. I could feel his eyes tracing me, caressing me just as sure as his hands. Remnants of desire trembled beneath the surface of my skin.
My body already hooked.
Needy for his touch.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when my phone started ringing from my bag. “Oh…crap…I didn’t even realize I’d left it.”
I guess that’s what happened when you got wrapped up in a hypnotizing boy—you forget yourself.
I fumbled through my bag to find my phone. It glowed where it sat on the bottom, and all that desire I’d been feeling scattered in a bluster of wind like the last of autumn’s fallen leaves.
Avril.
I swallowed hard in attempt to steel myself for her call. I never knew what was going to be waiting for me on the other end. What I did know was it never was good.
Hands shaking, I accepted the call and pushed it to my ear, turning away from Zee because somehow I couldn’t stand to see him watching me as I took this call.
“Avril,” I said, voice low.
Sobs echoed on the other end. “I need you.”
Of course she did.
“I told you, you need to stop doing this.” I’d been telling her for years.
“I just need something to eat.”
My head dropped, fingers on my temples, knowing her excuse amounted to nothing but a lie. “At one in the morning?”
“Please.”
“Damn it, Avril.” It was a sigh of surrender. She knew it well.
She started to ramble. “Thank you so much, Alexis. After this time, I won’t ask you anymore. I promise. I just…need something to get me through the night.”
Agony clutched every cell in my body.
I knew what she meant. Where she’d slipped. What it was she really was needing.
Guilt locked in my chest when I told her to meet me at the same intersection I’d met her at the last time—the day Zee had followed me and somehow set all this in motion.
I ended the call.
Silence swamped the open space, filling it like black waters that lapped and churned and raged.
Goose bumps lifted at my nape when I felt the puff of air exhaled at the back of my neck, blowing through the matted strands of my hair as his rage trickled down my spine like a warning.
“That was your sister?”
Shivers rushed.
I should feel fear. But the only thing I felt was safety in his anger. Comfort in his dread.
“She needs me,” I whispered, hating that I sounded so helpless. But in this situation, that was exactly what I was.
He snaked an arm around my waist so his hand was against my stomach as he yanked me back against the hard planes of his chest.
His mouth was at my cheek. “And what if I need you? What if I need you safe? What if I need you to stay out of that side of town so I don’t end up in prison?”
I felt the truth of his threat.
The words were thick. “I feel her, Zee. When she hurts, I do, too, and I know exactly what it is she’s feeling. I can’t ignore that. Not for me. Not for you.”
Torment. I felt it. His and mine. As if he somehow could understand what it was like to be in this position, he tightened his hold, every inch of him still hard, maybe harder as his muscles bristled with this barely contained storm that threatened to spin out of control.
“I won’t let him hurt you. Told you that night. Not ever again.” His second hand wound around me, belted around my waist. “You know I’m coming with you.”
There was no question behind it.
And I think I knew right then—If Zee made a promise, he was going to keep it.
Chapter Twenty
Zee
I pried the keys out of her trembling hands. Shocked, she looked up at me. Anguish swam in the deep wells of blue that were normally so bright.
I opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
“I can drive.”
I grabbed her hand, pressed it flat across my chest where it vibrated and quaked. “No way, Alexis. You actually think I’m going to let you get behind the wheel when you’re in this state?”
Problem was, I’d put down bets she’d done it a hundred times before. All that time, this girl hadn’t had someone to stand by her side.
Her gaze swept over me as she edged forward, and she nodded slow as she folded herself in the passenger seat. I leaned in, buckling her seatbelt as this insane sense of protectiveness swelled.
A storm building in the distance. Ready to consume.
Every inch of me tightened, my jaw clenching as I started to lean back out and instead got tripped up on her gorgeous, trusting face.
I cupped her cheek. “You really think I’m gonna let you go out there alone?”
Her head shook. “No.”
“I just…I’m not normally like this when she calls. So shook up. I…” She trailed off, her gaze dropping to her lap.
“You what?”
Her eyes fluttered back up. “After that night—”
She swallowed, her confession raw. “It changed me, Zee. He made me fear things I’d never stopped long enough to fear before. I hate feeling this way.”
Anger bristled and burned and twisted my guts. I wanted to hunt the fucker down. Take him out. Wipe his stain from the earth.
I hated for even a second he’d held power over her belief and faith.
I framed her sweet face in my hands, my mouth an inch from hers, our stares locked. “No fear. Just life.”
A single tear slid from the corner of her eye. “You’re the one who gave it back to me. Ensured I didn’t lose it at the risk of your own. Words don’t contain the power to describe what that means to me. How it affected me.”
She grappled for my hand and set it over the thunder of her heart. “How you marked me right here.”
My spirit thrashed the lyrics of her song. One that was hard and confused and so utterly soft. Where the words held too much power and said all the things I’d never be allowed to say.
“I know, Lex. I know. That night changed me, too.”
And there was no chance in hell I’d ever let something like that happen again. Not to her.
Not ever.