“You can’t have her. She’s mine,” he says, but there’s no strength in his words. No conviction.
The weed is affecting him—I can see it in the way his shoulders have dropped, the way his head lolls slightly to one side. Combined with all that alcohol, he must be swimming.
Perfect.
I take another drag. Blow the smoke directly into his face.
He doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t even blink. Just breathes it in like he’s been waiting for someone to take control, so he can stop pretending he has any.
“Is she now?” I tease as I step into his space. Our chests are nearly touching, the heat radiating off his body cutting through the chill to warm mine. “Then tell me, Kai, why are you getting high in an alley like a delinquent when you could be with her?”
His jaw tightens. “Fuck off.”
“Make me,” I chuckle, before taking another drag.
As I’m about to blow the smoke in his face again, he lunges forward, shoving at my chest hard enough to send me reeling. It happens fast. If I hadn’t caught the edge of the nearby dumpster, I’d be on the ground.
I don’t let the surprise show on my face. Even in his state, that could give him just enough confidence to start fighting back. While I don’t mind my pets putting up a fight, I don’t know how much time we have out here alone.
“That all you got?” I chuckle as I amble back to him, tugging my clothes straight.
Somewhere in the distance, a car alarm starts wailing. Inside the bar, the bass thumps on, oblivious to the tension coiling tighter and tighter in this grimy alley.
I come right up to him, crowding against him. He flattens himself against the wall, but doesn’t sidle free. “Take a shot, boy. Only free one you’ll ever get.”
He tenses like he’s considering taking me up on my offer. Even pushes up the sleeves of his hoodie to bare his forearms…but then slumps back against the wall.
Defeated, before he threw the first punch.
I reach up slowly, giving him plenty of time to stop me.
He doesn’t.
“You know what I think, boy?”
My fingers grip his jaw, and I force his head back until he’s staring down his nose at me. “I think you’re out here because you can’t look at Haven without thinking about me…and we both know how you feel about me, don’t we?”
His nostrils flare, but he still doesn’t fight me. Doesn’t even argue.
The easy answer is that he’s switched to a familiar trauma response. Freezing, until the enemy grows bored and abandons its broken toy.
But then I notice the marks on his throat I thought were just shadowsaren’t.
He shudders when I drag the edge of his hoodie away to let the light fall on his neck, revealing a set of faint bruises.
Haven did that.
My sweet girl fought her bully…and won.
Weed, two beers, and a couple lines of pink cocaine can’t possibly account for the feeling flooding me.
I’ve never found a drug that could induce such intense rapture. It usually only comes after a moment of clarity, whenI’ve come to the realization that someone should cease to exist—for my good, or theirs.
I run my thumb down the column of Kai’s throat, suppressing a shiver when his Adam’s apple bobs with a swallow.
“My, my,” I murmur, sliding my fingers along the marks until I’m mimicking where Haven’s hand must have been. “Looks like she put up quite a fight again.” I lean in, putting my mouth near his ear. “Was her tight, wet little cunt worth the effort, my pet?”
His only answer is a trembling breath that paints warmth against the side of my neck.
