Blowback (13 page)

“But what about Evie?”

“She’s a distraction. You need to focus on taking care of Georgia and getting yourself in fighting shape. You’ve got the build, but you need to up your skills. I’ve got someone willing to train you, starting immediately.”

“I can’t just up and leave her. I can’t.”

“You can and you will, boy.”

“I won’t do it. I’m graduating in a few days, and she’s done next year. I want to marry her, Da. I want a chance at a normal life with her.”

“Let me put it this way, son. If you love that girl so much, you best be leavin’ her alone. Cut ties with her before I cut them myself.”

I shook the memory away and turned my attention back to her. “He said I spent too much time with you and that you were a distraction from my true purpose.”

“Which is?”

“He opened an underground fighting ring. I know I never came out and told you, but I’m sure it wasn’t hard to figure out that he runs drugs and pussy. People cross him, and he wants them punished in front of everyone who might think about defying him. Most of the fights are just up-and-coming gang bangers, bikers, people who just like to fight or looking to up their street cred, but when I fight, it means something different altogether.”

“You fight?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you ever lose?”

“Sometimes,” I said, lifting my shirt and twisting my body to expose a two-inch scar on my lower back. “Not often.”

“Did someone—” She gasped, interrupting her own sentence.

Letting my shirt drop back into place, I said, “Fucker got ahold of a knife during the fight and jammed it into me when I turned my back.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What happened to him?”

“Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”

She shook her head as the color drained from her face. I hadn’t done the deed, but the man who stabbed me disappeared that same night.

“You could’ve told me what he said, Jet. I would’ve understood. At least I would’ve known why you left, though I have to say it hurts that much more to know you started up with someone else so quickly.”

“I couldn’t tell you. He said if I didn’t cut ties right then, he’d do it for me. I had no way to contact you without him knowing. At least I knew you didn’t know where I lived, so I didn’t have to worry about you showing up. We moved to Oakton about a month later, and I’ve been fighting ever since. And about moving on, there was no other girl. I was never engaged… There was only ever you, baby.”

“Why would you lie to Sophie when she ran into you?”

“I needed to make sure you didn’t still have hope for us. It killed me to tell her that, knowing how much it would hurt you when you found out, but you have to know it hurt me, too.”

Her tears started to flow again. My own eyes began to moisten, knowing the life I wanted with her and how it’d been ruined by Niall.

“I almost moved to Oakton a couple of years back, with my ex-husband,” she said and grabbed a tissue off the nightstand and dabbed at her eyes and nose.

The second mention of her ex didn’t make me feel any better than it did the first time.

“What if we had been neighbors?”

“Unless your ex has a lot of money, I doubt that would happen.”

“He doesn’t.”

“We live in a pretty exclusive neighborhood now. Didn’t always, but he moved us up in the world.”

“What does your father claim he does? You know, to throw off people to his actual business.”

“He doesn’t really have to, but he’s got his hand in some pretty good investments. I mean, he wants people to know who he is. Occasionally, the police try to bust him on something, but nothing has stuck so far. That’s what happens when you have friends in high places and you bribe high-ranking police officials.”

“So how does
Jerney
fit into all this?”

“She’s one of his girls.”

“Oh, wonderful. A prostitute. Never would’ve guessed that one,” she said, sarcasm coating her words.

I ignored her comment because what could I say?

“She lied to Niall. Claimed to have been assaulted and raped, but as it turns out, dude arranged the whole thing with her beforehand. Even paid her a couple grand for it. Sick fuck spilled his guts when I went to haul him in tonight. That was the meeting I mentioned earlier that I had to go to. Niall called while I was getting your last drink and told me to take her out.”

“You killed her?” she asked, clutching her chest and jumping to her feet. She backed away from me slowly, glancing toward the door.

Standing, I closed the gap between us, gently placing my hands on her upper arms. “I didn’t kill her. I swear. I couldn’t,” I said shaking my head. “I took her to the bus station and told her to get out of town.”

“But what happens if he finds out you didn’t kill her? What happens if he finds out you’ve spent time with me today?”

I let go of her and headed to the door. “That’s why I have to go… for good.”

“Jet,” she called after me, but I ignored her and picked my shirt up off the floor.

My hand reached for the door. What she said next stopped me from walking out of her life and changed everything.

CHAPTER 16 - EVIE

“I love you, too, Jet,” I cried out. “I never stopped. Please… Don’t leave me again,” I said with a whimper. Tears ran from my eyes like an overflowing spring.

I couldn’t lose him again. What he told me altered everything I thought I knew about him and our failed relationship. He wasn’t the jackass who ripped my heart out and stomped it to bits. He didn’t throw me away for someone else. He was my protector. The same one he’d always been. For the first time in almost a decade, I didn’t feel like a fool over my lingering feelings for him. I know it was fast to declare my love for him, but it was all too easy when I’d never stopped loving him in the first place. “We can figure this all out together.”

He turned to face me. Standing in place for what seemed like an eternity, he finally dropped his shirt to the floor again. His eyes, intense and hungry, skirted over my body. The next thing I knew, his hands held the sides of my head, fingers tangling in my hair as his lips crashed into mine. I instinctively placed my hands on his forearms, digging my nails into him. His kiss, laced with passion and fire, strengthened. My knees threatened to give out on me as they strained to support the weight of his kiss and what it all meant.

For the first time in nearly ten years, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be.

His lips, hot and wet, danced over mine as one of his hands slid down my body, settling on my ass. His kiss satisfied a craving I didn’t realize I had until he’d embraced me. My lips parted just enough to allow his tongue access to mine. He tasted just like I remembered. My arms circled his waist as I clung to his back and pulled him closer. The tiniest of space between us felt like a deep chasm we were both trying our damnedest to fill. There was no way I could let go of him this time. I’d find a way for us to be together or die trying.

His hands glided over my backside, finally settling on the back of my thighs. When he hoisted me up, I wrapped my legs around him and ran my fingers through his hair as I pulled back to look deep into his shadowy eyes.

His body, hard and hot between my thighs, supported my weight with little effort as he carried me to the bed and laid us down. The distinct sound of his boots hitting the floor echoed in the silence of the room. The belt of my robe came undone with little effort under his strong hands. His fingers slid over my hip as he parted the robe, exposing my breast. My nipples pebbled in the cool air.

His pupils dilated, darkening his eyes as he stared down at me like I was a goddess that he’d been privileged enough to witness. My fingers toyed with his belt buckle. His hands covered mine, pulling me up to him.

Our bodies melded together, his erection pressing against me through his jeans. Our lips locked again just before he moved down to the hollow of my throat. The breath left his body as his thumb grazed my nipple. The soft material fell from my shoulders, exposing the rest of my body.

I trembled, anticipating his next touch. Each second that passed between his touches felt like an eternity. His hand finally slid over my belly. I inhaled sharply as he moved to the apex of my thighs, gently circling his finger over me. As if it were a reflex to his touch, my back arched as I let out a quiet whimper.

Pressure began to swell in my belly as he dipped his finger into me and rubbed the tiny bundle of nerves between my legs. I couldn’t stop myself from falling back onto the bed and spreading my legs for him.

“Tell me you love me again,” he said, burying his face between my neck and shoulder, kissing me gently.

“I love you,” I whispered, grabbing fistfuls of his hair.

He rose to his knees and grabbed something out of his back pocket. It only took me a second to recognize the small foil packet. I sat up and brushed my lips against his rock-hard chest as I unbuckled his belt and turned my attention to the button of his jeans. Within seconds, I had it undone and began to push them down his hips. His cock jutted forward as the denim passed over it. I’d never really gotten a good look at it before, but it was an image that would be burned into my mind for the rest of my life, like an ever-present tease.

I wet my lips lightly with my tongue before taking the head of his cock into my mouth and gently sucked. A pained groan escaped his lips as he grabbed a handful of my air.

A few moments later, he ripped the packet and pulled out the condom. I took it from his hand, placed it on the tip, and began to slowly roll it down over him until he was completely sheathed.

Kicking his jeans off the rest of the way, he pushed me to my back and settled between my legs. I pressed my thighs as tightly against him as I could and kissed his neck. He pinned my hands above my head, his mouth claiming mine once again as he rocked his hips causing his cock to rub against me.

“I need you,” I pleaded.

“Tell me there’s only me.”

“There’s only you,” I breathed.

“Tell me this means something.”

“Tell me you won’t leave me again when it’s over,” I countered.

“I won’t,” he whispered, pushing his hips forward in one deep thrust as he entered me.

Flashes of our future and what we could be mingled with the ecstasy washing over us. For the first time ever, I felt like this was where I belonged. Jet was my other half. Always had been and always would be. I was a fool to think we could ever just have a fling.

I saw it in his eyes. He was right there with me, sharing everything I felt, all the dormant feelings sparking back to life. If he’d asked me to spend the rest of my life with him right then, I would’ve said yes with no hesitation, no worry of the danger I could be in. He was my past, present, and future. Anyone else would only be a cheap imitation. That moment erased every other person I’d been with, including my ex-husband, and sent me hurdling toward the life I was always supposed to have with Jet from the second he spoke to me all those years ago.

His hand settled against the hollow of my throat, claiming me that much more as he pumped into me. We stayed entangled, doing our dance until we both came down within minutes of each other.

The weight of his body on mine as he came undone was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever experienced. Knowing
my
body had given him so much pleasure made my heart race that much more than it already was.

“No one was ever as good as you,” he said in a hushed tone. “Let me stay inside you forever.”

“Hold me,” I whispered against his cheek.

Gripping my body, he rolled to his side and pulled my leg over him. He slipped out of me, but he didn’t seem to mind. It’d only be a matter of time before he’d find his way back.

CHAPTER 17 – JET

We lay there entwined with each other. My hands ached to touch her, and there was no use in trying to keep myself from it. What would the point be anyway? We were in over our heads, and I hadn’t even begun to think of how she could fit into my life, but she had to.

My fingers kept gravitating to a raised spot that felt like a line on her hip. Definitely a scar that hadn’t been there before. We might not have fucked but once when we were teenagers, but I’d found myself between her thighs on several occasions. Every time she would beg me to make love to her, I declined for fear that I’d hurt her, though I eventually gave in once I knew for sure she wanted me to be her first.

I’d memorized every bit of her body that I’d seen. She wasn’t marked by any scars back then. Now, I felt similar jagged lines in different spots on her abdomen.

“I want to see you fight,” she said, interrupting our silent bonding.

Her head lay on my chest as I worked a strand of her hair between my fingers in our post-sex bliss. I could’ve spent the rest of my life with her in that bed. The last thing I wanted was for her to see the violent side of me. She’d only seen it once, and I knew it had changed the way she looked at me. Things were never
quite
the same after that, but the real reason I didn’t want her there was because of Niall. He’d never discouraged me from having a relationship after he’d threatened her, but then, I’d never really pushed it either. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he’d stick to what he said about her just to keep me in line. It was better if he never knew about her.

“No,” I said and kissed the top of her head. “I want nothing more than to be with you, but I can’t until I can get clear of Niall for good. I can’t have you around for him to see me happy with someone, even if we pretended you were someone else.”

“I understand, but I think in order to really, truly understand where you’re coming from and the life you’ve been living, and to regain some trust, I have to see it for myself. How do I know you’re not lying to me about everything? I want to believe you, but there’s still that voice in my head telling me not to trust you. You have to realize I’ve spent years thinking you dumped me for someone else without so much as a middle finger flipped my way. It’s hard to come back from that, no matter how much I want to… And I really want to, but it’s going to take some time.”