“You okay, Lakyn? You fell and bumped your head.”

  He narrows his eyes at me and I chuckle. I haven’t unlocked the doors yet, and until I feel like letting him leave now, he stays.

  “What the fuck happened?” he asks me as he struggles to get to his feet. He winces once he’s standing up and I tilt my head and give him a level stare.

  “Nothing important,” I reply.

  I decide to withhold the little love fest from him for now because I know it’s something that I’ll be able to use against him when the time is right.

  “But I’m beat,” I continue as I yawn and scratch my chest. “And you’re probably tired too, come to think of it.”

  I have to bite my lower lip to keep it from twitching.

  “Yeah, I’m sore as fuck. Can I get some ice?” he asks, taking a wobbly step toward me.

  “For?” I ask curiously.

  “My head, genius,” he barks at me.

  “I thought you meant for your asshole,” I shoot back, a malicious grin crawling across my face.

  I did want to hold it back from him longer than a few minutes, but the look on his face now at realizing what happened while he was unconscious, is enough to make me feel better about losing the small battle.

  Because in his eyes, I’ve won a war that no one else has.

  Ten

  Even-Steven

  Lakyn

  Huh.

  I should be angry about what he’s suggesting happened—I know this, however, I can’t help but appreciate in the slightest of ways that he did something I myself would have done. Not to me of course, but …

  I raise my wrist and glance at the time again, then reach into my pocket for my cell phone.

  I tap the screen to life, send a message off into the universe, then turn my location on.

  “Do you think that makes you more of a man than me now?” I ask him thoughtfully as I slide the phone back into my pocket. “I mean, it was bound to happen eventually so I hope you don’t think this makes you some kind of a badass.”

  The grin on his face falters slightly.

  So easily baited, I think trying my best not to roll my eyes.

  Do I feel like less of a man because of what he did to me?

  Yes and no.

  Yes because that’s not something I should have missed. Let’s be honest; if someone is going to go through the trouble of fucking me, they should have at least let me find out if it’s something I might be into once in a while. But, then again, I’m not into dick so I guess he did me a favor in a way.

  No because the only other person that knows this happened is standing in this building with me, and I’ll be good and goddamned if I’ll let him flap his fucking gums about this to anyone. If he thinks he’s handy with a thread and needle, he hasn’t seen anything yet.

  I smile slightly when the phone vibrates in my pocket.

  “Anyway, about that ice?” I ask him as I walk into the kitchen. Gray follows closely behind me and I’m wondering if he wants another go, when he slams the freezer door shut, almost catching my hand inside. “God, you’re such a drama queen,” I grumble, glancing at him. “But that’s fine. I’m sure this headache will go away eventually.”

  “What is wrong with you?” he shouts inches from my face. I cringe slightly and take an involuntary step backwards wondering what the issue is now. “Get out of my house!”

  I chuckle and shrug. “And here I thought you said you were gonna kill me. Granted, it wouldn’t have happened, but I would have liked to get a little dirty again before I headed back to the highway, you know?

  Gray takes a step toward me, and I take another back. This has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with teaching him a lesson. You can’t take things that don’t belong to you—at least not without asking first.

  It’s almost a slow dance that we’re locked in now.

  For every step he makes forward, I take two steps back.

  Over and over until I’m in the hallway and he’s standing just inside his home.

  “So … I guess this means we aren’t friends then?” I ask thoughtfully.

  “Over my dead body,” he barks.

  I grin.

  He arches an eyebrow.

  I shrug, sigh over dramatically, and before Gray realizes what’s happening, I move much faster than he expects. Yanking the door shut between us, I start running up the stairs as quickly as I can. Granted, I’m going to be winded as fuck by the time I get upstairs again, but that’s nothing a little blow job from his man/chick thing won’t fix.

  “Lakyn!”

  I laugh when I hear his angry shout echoing up the staircase, but he should have been a little smarter about dancing with this devil. Usually, I’m not big on revenge and even now, I don’t think that’s what this can be considered. I really just wanna play with his toys before I leave, and in a way, it’ll give him a little mental spanking for the heist he committed.

  Once I’m inside the room, I pull the door closed and start piling shit against it. As much as I can so that Mr. Roid Induced Rage can’t burst right through on the first try. When I’m satisfied that it’ll take at least two of him to push through the door, I let out a tired laugh and slide down onto the floor to rest for a moment.

  Not the easiest thing to do when two pairs of eyes that belong to the same body are staring at you, though. I tilt my head as I look at the meat puzzle. Somehow, it’s managed to sit up now and they’re not exactly even; crooked even. Wonder if he’d let me fix them after I play with them, I muse to myself as I turn my eyes back to who I assume is the Penn of this creepy duet.

  A smile starts to crease my lips as my eyes settle on him.

  He’s a tall—or used to be—skinny fucking thing, and he kinda reminds me of Ichabod. He’s got big, beautiful lips that I bet can do some serious damage, freaky huge blue eyes, and he looks so angry that I can almost taste it.

  Almost, but not quite.

  The girl stitched to hell on the side of him is much smaller than he is. I make this observation after I finally tear my eyes away from him long enough to take her in. She’s looking at me through narrow, chocolate-brown eyes, breathing a little heavily, and clenching her fist at her side of whatever they are.

  I get to my feet and walk right by them toward a large tool chest I can see on one of the other tables. Flipping the top open, I reach in and pull out a box cutter. I hold it up to the light, flick the blade in and out a few times to make sure it works, then walk back toward the soon to be separated.

  “How long have you guys been like this?” I ask them conversationally as I make my way back to stand in front of them. When neither of them answers me, I roll my eyes good-naturedly remembering that they can’t exactly respond.

  Not yet, anyway.

  I slide the blade back out with a smirk on my face and decide to cut the stitching from Penn’s mouth first.

  Leaning in as closely as I can, and just enough to make him uncomfortable, I grip his jaw tightly in my hand, drawing the blade across the worn thread holding those beautiful lips together. It’s more for my benefit than his—he can’t use that mouth if it’s compromised.

  He coughs once, twice, then reaches his hand up to pull the rest of the stitching away.

  “You’re welcome,” I tell him with a grin as I take two steps toward the other side of him. It’s the girl’s turn now and maybe she can shed some light on how to handle the meat head that’s trying to break the door down now.

  She jerks her head away from me violently and almost pulls Gray’s boy back with her, but I reach for his forearm and steady him.

  “Listen, bitch,” I snap at her, “I’ve had a long night. Your psycho not-boyfriend out there won’t let me out. Know why? Cause he’s apparently the jealous type; me? I don’t give a shit. Now if you’re not going to sit still and let me cut this crap from your mouth the nice way, then I’ll have to be unkind about it. And believe me; you don’t want me to see that side of me.”

  “Lakyn! Open the fucking door!”

  More screeches from the other side of the door.

  More sounds of his body slamming dully against the steel.

  I turn to glance at the fortress I managed to build against the door, making sure it’s still standing, before I turn my attention back to the little badass in front of me.

  “Your call. Are we going to be nice about this or do I have to just take what I want?” I ask her evenly.

  Penn reaches down and yanks the box cutter out of my hand. Easy enough to do since I wasn’t expecting it. I raise an eyebrow at him carefully as he looks down at it for a moment before he turns his attention toward meat puzzle part 2 and flicks his wrist. The thread across her mouth almost gives away completely and a small sliver of blood appears on her upper lip.

  “See, now had I done it, you wouldn’t be bleeding,” I chide her as Penn retracts the blade then tosses the cutter across the room. I give him a dirty look. “Why does everyone in this goddamn place seem to make a game out of pissing me off?”

  Penn clears his throat and stares at me for a moment before turning his attention toward the chick. She rests her head on his shoulder as he reaches a hand up and uses his thumb to wipe away the blood on her lip.

  “How fucking sweet,” I mumble, rolling my eyes.

  I turn away from them and decide it’ll be best to figure out where the hell he threw the damn cutter.

  And just as I crouch down and start looking?

  One final, anger filled shove against the door, and my little fortress of this and that gives way.

  Just my fucking luck.

  Eleven

  The Perfect Escape

  Gray

  I lunge for Lakyn as soon as the door gives way, but the slippery fucker manages to get away from me. He moves quickly toward where Penn and Aiden are sitting and drapes an arm around each of their shoulders.

  A devilish grin slips across his lips as he slides the blade out of the box cutter and places it just below Penn’s throat. Aiden shifts uncomfortably, trying to shake off his grip, but he doesn’t let up.

  “Can I ask you something, Gray?” he begins, his eyes on the side of Aiden’s face. “Which one do you love more?”

  “Did he hurt you?” I ask them, ignoring his obvious attempt to incite me.

  Penn raises his eyes toward me, but doesn’t say anything. I can see the obvious sting of betrayal in his eyes.

  It’s enough to make me look away in shame.

  Aiden coughs quietly and when I try to meet her gaze, I find that she’s not even looking at me.

  They hate me, and I have no one to blame for this hatred but myself. I did this by bringing them together in one selfish moment of not wanting to have to give either up.

  Not that the option was ever presented. They never gave me an ultimatum, but there’s something deep inside of me, rooted in a place darker than any night sky I’ve ever seen, that believed this was the right thing to do.

  A muffled buzzing breaks the silence in the room and Lakyn reaches into his pocket, fishing out his cell phone.

  “About time,” he snarls into the receiver.

  Penn uses the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, eyes still boring deep into my soul and I do my best not to break down and beg for his forgiveness.

  Aiden’s too.

  “Well, do you have any idea when? I’m kind of in a bind here,” Lakyn barks to whoever is on the other end of the line. “Fine,” he says after a few moments of listening. He snaps the phone shut, slides it back into his pocket and grins at me again.

  “So? Which one do you love more? I’m on a bit of a time crunch here now, by the way. My ride’s due to arrive any minute,” he says with a smirk.

  “Leave them alone,” I tell him, putting a hand to my chest. “I’m the one you want, and I’m willing to fucking play your games, but leave them out of this.”

  “I have another question for you,” he says, resting his chin on Aiden’s shoulder and looking at Penn. He gets a steely stare as a reply and he laughs, “I see why you like this one,” Lakyn remarks, glancing at me for a moment. “The strong silent type is always fun. Less babbling, more cock-sucking. Maybe I can teach that trick to Ichabod. Anyway,” he continues dangerously, “back to us.”

  Penn shoves his arm off his shoulder and Lakyn pouts at him, feigning being hurt, but Penn isn’t looking at him anymore.

  His eyes are back on me and he looks angry now.

  “Don’t touch me,” he tells Lakyn in a low, throaty tone. “Any problem you have with Gray you obviously know how to handle at this point.”

  It stings.

  Penn’s jab at Lakyn hits me in the fucking heart harder than any punch Aiden could ever throw, and I’m close to tears at this point.

  He leans over and takes her hand in his, shimmies to the edge of the table and gets to his feet. He knows he can’t go anywhere without Aiden and now it’s up to her to decide if she’ll allow him to have the moment with me he’s obviously been waiting for, for so long.

  And she does.

  She slides out from beneath Lakyn’s arm and drops her bare feet to the cool floor below and stumbles along with Penn toward me.

  Side by side.

  A perfect union of love and hate and it’s all directed at me.

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

  Whatever they choose to do in this moment is what I’ll have to accept.

  A car horn blares outside rapidly, the last honk lasting much longer and sounding about as angry as a horn can sound.

  Lakyn grins, “Well, that’s it for me tonight, kids. It was great to meet everyone, though. Maybe I’ll stop by again sometime.”

  Feigning the motions of tossing a basketball through a hoop, he tosses the box cutter against the far wall, slides his hands into his pockets and breezes past us.

  I raise my eyes toward him, never letting him out of my sight, until he disappears out the door.

  “What happens now?” I ask Penn and Aiden softly as I turn my attention back to them.

  “We wait,” Penn answers quietly as he raises a hand to the side of my face and presses his forehead against mine.

  Twelve

  Unlikely Hero

  Lakyn

  I let out a tired laugh.

  Seems that even though Gray has been nothing but consistent in wanting me to leave, he still hasn’t unlocked the damn doors. I’ve tried them all at this point after skipping the gate entirely. Hell, I was even willing to jump out of one of the goddamn windows if I could, but those are sealed shut too.

  I’m getting too old for this shit, I think irritably as I make my way back down to the main floor.

  The horn outside blares again impatiently and I grit my teeth. I’m not entirely sure what my ride expects me to do right now, but considering they don’t exactly know that I’m stuck in here should probably earn a pass with the impatient honking.

  I mean, it doesn’t, but it should.

  The phone in my pocket buzzes again and I fish it out as I head into the bathroom and try to pry open the smaller window inside.

  “Yeah?” I ask into the receiver.

  “Today would be nice,” my ride snaps at me.

  “I don’t think I can get out,” I reply as I grunt and put as much as weight as I can into the bathroom window to no avail.

  A loud sigh is the response, followed by the sound of familiar nagging. “What did you do this time, Lakyn? You know what? I don’t wanna know. I actually have a half a mind to leave you here.”

  “Don’t you dare!” I seethe into the receiver. I sit on the side of the bathtub, tired, angry, and wondering if there’s possibly another door or window I could have missed, when I hear the door to the place open with a bang. “Fuck. I gotta go. If I’m not out in the next ten minutes, get in here and help me.”

  I lean as far toward the door as I can without moving from the window. Seems like Mr. Broody and Moody has turned into Mr. Louisville Slugger now since he’s looking around the main floor with a bat in his hand.

  Pussy.

  I hate when people have to cheat at games like this. I was just fine with him wanting to throw hands, but a bat? That could kill me and that’s not exactly a good time. In fact, that’s the opposite of fun, and I’m finally starting to realize how long ago his sense of humor died now that he’s onto the grand finale.

  The problem with his little scheme?

  I’m not exactly done with him yet.

  Perils against my life be damned—I’m just getting warmed up.

  I take a deep breath, smooth my hair back, and decide to go see what he’s up to. Can’t have fun unless you’re willing to risk your life for it sometimes, and I’ve been doing just fine surviving everything thrown at me so far.

  “Looking for something?” I ask Gray with a charming smile on my face.

  He narrows his eyes at me and I can almost see the rage seeping through his pores. Maybe that’s why he looks so damn young—a self-induced rage sauna treatment to keep the wrinkles away.

  Gray moves the bat from one hand to the other as he stares at me with that ‘roidy glare of his and I glance at my watch.

  Five minutes.

  I just need to keep him preoccupied for five minutes.

  “Still not ready to be friends, huh?” I ask him, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. “By this point, I would have at least considered us acquaintances, wouldn’t you?”

  He takes a step toward me and I have to fight the urge to bust out laughing.

  I get it; he’s big, strong, dangerous, and can probably swing a mean bat. I’m supposed to be scared or some shit for stirring up trouble with his meat puzzle, but I’m not prone to fear.

  Let’s try something different then, I think as I lick my lips.

 

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