Say It's Forever, page 21
All the joking was gone from Logan’s voice.
Like she’d been summoned from the storm, I glanced to my right at the girl who floated my way.
Eyes the color of a toiling sea. The darkest, deepest blue. Body pure temptation.
A motherfuckin’ knockout.
A fantasy.
A dream.
Black-fuckin’-magic.
My conscience screamed with guilt.
Because every second that passed? I only wanted her more.
Music blasted from the speakers from the band that thrashed on the stage while the crowd thrived and toiled.
Place chaos.
Disorder.
Mayhem of the best kind.
People were singing. Shouting. Dancing. Their drinks lifted in the air and their hearts freed in the crashing beat that promised release.
Release.
That was exactly what I needed as I weaved through the throbbing crowd, drawn, compelled, unable to do anything but head in the direction where Eden, Tessa, and Salem danced on the far side of the club.
The three of them had let loose. Their hair whipping around them and heat drenching their bodies as they laughed and danced together like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Celebrating life and all it had to give.
Wanted that for Salem. For her to let go. For the fears that haunted her to melt away and surrender to something better.
Something better.
My guts knotted, and my chest stretched tight. This fucked up feeling taking me over that I wanted it, too.
Trent had followed the group over to where they’d moved to carve out their own little bubble.
Dude looked like peril where he’d taken up post on a stool at the bar facing out, watching over his life, ready to strike if any fool became a threat.
My boots thudded on the hard ground, in time with the rhythm, marching straight into destruction.
But I didn’t really know how to go anywhere else when this felt like my destination. Where I was supposed to be.
Salem shook her hips, that black dress hugging those curves so right. Had to physically restrain myself from stalking up behind her, wrapping my hands around her waist, and pressing my nose into the hypnotic fall of her hair.
I forced myself to take the stool next to Trent. I dragged it so I could sit facing out, too. He slid a beer he’d ordered for me in my direction. “Looks like you’re gonna need that.”
A grunt rumbled out as I took a long pull. “Yup.”
“Funny what life does, yeah?” Trent mused on a low breath. “Way we think we know the way it’s supposed to go—the way we want it to go—then boom, it comes right in and shakes us up.”
He glanced my way with a knowing expression on his face. The baby owl tatted on his throat bobbed when he swallowed. “You know it firsthand, man. How terrifying it is, putting your heart on the line and knowing it can be gone in a flash. Logan’s right, though.”
I grunted. “About what?”
Deflecting with ignorance seemed the way to go.
“Stepping out and letting yourself love someone.”
Alarm whipped a storm through my spirit.
“Love? Getting ahead of yourself there, yeah?”
His brow curled. “Am I?”
“Just want to fuck her, man.” Let the smirk split my mouth.
Trent laughed an incredulous sound, and he reached out and gave a condescending pat on my cheek. “If you just wanted to fuck her, you already would have.”
Then he snagged his tumbler and pushed to his feet, slanting me a telling glance before he strutted his smug ass out to where Eden was dancing. Girl fluid and hot, ballet in her blood.
Beside her, Tessa was dancing like a total spazz.
Shocker.
And next to her…Salem.
Salem whose rhythm was half time. Driving me out of my mind. Her hips rocking and vibrating in this slow seduction.
She glanced my way.
Thunderbolt eyes struck.
Energy crackled.
I roughed a hand over my face.
Fuck.
Keep it together, man.
Trent edged up behind Eden the way I was dying to do to Salem. Nuzzled his face into the back of her neck. Pulled her flush against his chest.
Salem looked at me as she moved.
Eyes raking, whispering, like she was begging me to do the same.
That connection throbbed.
Booming and shivering.
I attempted to scan the crowd for a good target.
Easy. Quick. No strings.
My gaze traveled right back to the girl.
Her gaze raked me.
My insides shook.
Fuck it.
I drained my beer then pushed to my feet.
I was just going to take this one little thing. I mean, what could dancing with her hurt?
I started that way only to get jostled back by an asshole who suddenly went blazing by. He beelined right for the girls.
Karl, that fucker.
Dressed in a suit with his hair perfectly styled and that douchey-ass expression on his face.
Tessa threw her arms in the air to welcome him.
Poor girl.
“Karl, happy birthday, baby!”
Prick sauntered right in.
He slipped his left arm around Tessa’s waist to haul her close, only the creeper did the same to Salem with his right. He tugged them both to him, leaning over and bending them back like he could somehow get more.
Hell no.
Just fucking no.
But that jealousy turned to something else entirely when I saw the way Salem’s eyes went wide as they met mine from over his shoulder.
I was already on my way.
I tapped at Karl’s shoulder. You know, real friendly-like. “Think you’ve got your arms around the wrong girl, man.”
He cocked a smug grin my direction, a fucking mouthful of too-straight teeth. He curled his arms tighter. “Nah. Think I’m doing just fine. It’s my birthday, and I’ve just decided what I want.”
“Get off me.” Salem tried to push him off. Asshole didn’t even budge.
My hand clamped down on his arm. “Told you to let her the fuck go.”
“Fuck off,” he tossed out.
“What the hell, Karl?” Tessa shrieked through the mayhem of the bar that just seemed to amplify the greed. Way this fucker thought he could reach out and take whatever he wanted.
Panic radiated from Salem. The same panic I’d glimpsed in my shop that day when she’d thought someone was after her. Like in an instant, she was lost to the past.
She shoved and hit his chest with her fists. “Let me go.”
A scream ripped up her throat when he hugged her tighter.
Scumbag got no further warning. My hands were on the back of his suit jacket, and I was tearing him away. The asshole made the mistake of swinging as I dragged him around. He clipped me on the jaw, right about the time both the girls went stumbling back.
Had him by the shirt collar in a flash. My arm cocked back. One jab to his pompous face and his nose was bleeding out. Pussy crashed to the floor when I let him go like the pile of trash he was.
Gasps and shrieks hit the air, and people jumped back to get out of the way, while others gathered closer, clearly thirsting for a fight.
At least this prick Karl seemed to be because he scrambled back to his feet and flew my way.
Trent pitched a grin at me from behind, laughing under his breath that this fucker actually thought he stood a chance. Trent didn’t even make a move, just sat back like he was going to enjoy the show, though he edged Eden behind him.
Karl roared as he came my way, and I took him by both hands and gave his scrawny ass a good shake. “Cool the fuck down or I’m going to make this a birthday you don’t ever forget.”
He spat in my face.
“Oh, motherfucker.”
But Tessa was suddenly there, yanking at his jacket. “Stop it, Karl, just stop it.”
I let him go, hating to give him a pass, but this was Tessa we were talking about. Girl was sweet as fuck even though she clearly had horrible taste in men. But Karl whirled around and shoved her.
Hard.
Sweet thing flew back, and she knocked into Salem. Both of them toppled, their asses hitting the floor, sending them in a tumble across the stained concrete.
And Karl was dead.
I had the fucker pinned to the ground before he registered that I’d moved.
I set to wailing on his face.
Punch after punch.
Blood splattered. Bone crunched.
Demon laughed and writhed and whispered in my ear.
Calling me back to who I really was.
A monster.
A beast.
Grim.
I cocked my arm back again to render a blow that would flip the switch.
Lights out.
Only a hand caught me around the wrist and jerked my arm back. Trent’s low voice hissed in my ear, “Want to end the bastard, too, but how about we do it without an audience, yeah?”
I heaved a stuttered breath while the piece of shit writhed and screamed. He held his mangled face as he pushed up to sitting. Blood seeped through the seams of his fingers. “What the fuck? What the fuck? You’re finished, you bastard. Finished. I’m going to own you. All of you.”
I lumbered to my feet, trying to rein the violence that screamed through my veins, trying not to look at Salem because I was afraid if I did, it’d send me spiraling all over again.
Some random dude shouted, “Have you on video pushing your girl, pussy. Call the cops, why don’t you? Dare you.”
That was right as Logan busted through the crowd and came rushing up to my side, eyes darting everywhere. “What the hell? Why do you guys always have all the fun without me?”
Our two head bouncers, Kult and Milo, came barreling in. They shoved back the mob that had gathered around us to ogle the mayhem that always found its way into our house.
Milo and Kult looked around to assess the damage.
Kult yanked Karl up by the collar. Asshole’s feet dangled a foot from the ground. Kult was a goddamned mammoth, and he whipped him around like a rag doll.
“Ambulance or the front door, boss?” Kult asked.
Trent looked at me, telling me it was my call.
“Front door,” I instructed. Prick could get his own ass to the hospital.
Kult cracked a menacing grin. “My pleasure. Out of the way.”
He started to haul a shrieking Karl through the crowd so he could kick the prick to the curb.
Right where the fucker belonged.
One step, and the crush parted, Kult nothing but intimidation and brute strength.
I inhaled a cleansing breath, doing my best to get it together enough to look to where the group was huddled on the floor while my heart raged a riot in my chest.
Eden, Trent, and Logan had already gathered around Tessa and Salem. Eden was frantic, kneeling in front of her friends, her hands shaking out of control as she tried to check if they were hurt.
Milo leaned down, and he gently scooped a sobbing Tessa into his massive, gigantic arms. Dude was basically a mute fortress. Quiet and soft and forbidding as fuck. “You’re safe, little dove. Don’t cry, you’re safe.”
He rumbled it like a promise as he started to carry her through the throng.
Trent gave me a quick glance, and I gestured with my chin. “Go.”
He dipped his head before he guided Eden to follow behind Milo who cut through the crowd.
My attention shifted to Salem. Salem who had her knees to her chest and was rocking. Rocking and trembling and mumbling incoherently.
Logan stood guard over her, watching me, giving me a fierce look that told me not to be a fool. That he was going to step in if I didn’t.
Thing was, it did make me a fool.
A fuckin’ fool as I went for her.
Because that girl looked up when she felt me cautiously approach.
Ground rumbled beneath.
The warning of a coming earthquake.
Of devastation.
Destruction.
I leaned down and slipped my arms around her back and under her knees.
Salem yelped.
A shout from her soul.
Mine clutched.
I gathered her closer. “I have you, Salem. I have you, baby.”
A sob wrenched from her throat, and she buried her face in my neck, into my beard, against my chest, like she could hide away in the safety of my arms.
“I have you.”
And I didn’t want to let her go.
TWENTY-ONE
SALEM
I have you. I have you. I have you.
Jud’s promise rained over me as he curled his arms tighter, and he carried me through the swarm of people that undulated around us.
The band continued to play from the stage where half the crowd still seethed below it. Jud stormed right through, carving a path and dipping us into a narrow, dusky hall.
In an instant, it was only the two of us.
His heavy boots thudded on the floor as he peered down at me with that unrelenting obsidian gaze.
A gaze that speared me to the core.
Tears streamed and my shoulders hiccupped with the sobs that wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t seem to halt the terror that wracked through my body. The panic that had hit me when a stranger had come at us from out of nowhere.
Jud dipped down and pressed the gentlest kiss to my right eye, then the other. “I have you,” he rumbled.
My chest squeezed.
Ruined.
I had to close my eyes against the force of it.
His care.
This giant of a man who’d come completely unhinged. Fury and darkness and brutality.
Because of me.
Because of me.
He didn’t stop until he was pushing out the massive metal door at the end of the hall. In an instant, the cool air of the summer night surrounded us. The heavens were spun in stars, while fat clouds laden with moisture gathered at the base of the moon.
Jud edged down three steps that dropped us into the employee lot where Eden had parked earlier, and his boots crunched on the loose pavement as he carried me to his bike that was parked in a row of five other motorcycles.
Tumult echoed from within, rippled through the walls and rumbled the ground.
It stirred the dense air into chaos.
I struggled to breathe.
“I have you. What do you need?” he asked, his voice close to cracking.
“Take me away from here.” It was the only thing I could manage, but Jud understood.
I wasn’t exactly dressed for a motorcycle ride, but right then, it didn’t matter. Nothing did except for escaping.
Running.
The way I always did.
Only this time, I wanted to run with him.
For once, I didn’t want to stand on my own.
Didn’t want to fight this fight that only cost my daughter and me more and more.
One that forever cast us into loneliness.
Jud swung his leg over his bike, and he slipped me around to the back in one smooth movement.
We never lost contact.
As if he knew it was exactly what I needed.
That for once, I needed someone to hold me.
Someone to support me through the fear.
Through the panic.
Through the dread that promised one day, one day, Carlo would find us.
Jud pressed the button that started his bike, and the loud engine growled to life. Power vibrated through the metal, or maybe it was just the power of the man that vibrated through me.
Tremors rushed over my skin and seeped into my bloodstream.
He curled my arms tighter around his waist. “I have you.”
My legs were cinched up close to his hips, my chest smashed to his back. Our hearts raced at warp speed.
In sync.
Out of order.
In a perfect, chaotic rhythm.
Anarchy.
This man who had crossed into vengeance for me.
The slit of my dress rode up as I hugged him, and I trembled and shook and clung to him with all my might. A big palm spread out over my bare thigh. “Hold onto me, Salem, and don’t fuckin’ let go.”
Frantically, I nodded against his back, understanding the command for what it was. And I wanted to. For once in my life, I wanted to rely on someone else.
Not to be afraid.
To trust.
But trust was such a precious, precarious thing.
His bike faced out, and he kicked the stand and slowly eased through the lot. He took to the street that ran the front of the club, his movements fluid and confident, as if the man and the bike were one, this massive, fierce, grumbling force that blazed through the night.
I didn’t care where he was taking me, just as long as it was away from there.
He made a few turns then he slowed and eased his bike onto the path hidden under the cover of trees just on the outside of town.
My heart sped faster when I realized where we were going.
The bike bounced down the familiar bumpy trail, and I squeezed him tighter as he guided his motorcycle out into the meadow where he’d taken me before. When I’d seen a part of Jud that I didn’t want to see.
But tonight, I wanted him to show me everything.
How could I even allow myself to think it? Consider it? But I couldn’t seem to keep from slipping into him.
Coming to a stop, Jud stretched out his boots to keep us upright.
Remnants of the panic sent me scrambling off the back and stumbling into the meadow. My heels sank into the soft earth as I took two steps back like I could protect myself from the direction I could feel myself tumbling.
He killed the engine.
In an instant, silence whispered and swam.
