My shoulders drop. “Baby, it’s time,” I tell her. “It’s been four weeks since we left the city. My ribs have healed, and I’m doing better, but every day that we stay here, ignoring that Lux is rebuilding his ranks . . . It’s fucking killing me. He needs to pay for what he’s done. I can’t fully commit to our life here, knowing that he’s still out there. Knowing that he could come searching for us at any time. I want to be present with you, Riley. I want to give you everything you deserve, but I haven’t slept easy since the moment he held a gun to your head. I need to finish this.”
Riley holds my stare, her eyes filling with tears. “I was wondering when this was going to come up,” she says, her tears nothing more than fear for what she knows could come from this. “You really have to do this?”
I nod. “Yeah, Menace. I have to.”
She visibly swallows. “Okay,” she says, clearly not loving the idea, but she’s never been the type to keep me from anything she knows I truly need. She turns back, looking at the home we’ve started building for ourselves. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
My back stiffens. “Whoa, baby. No,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re not understanding. This is just me. I’m not taking you back into that city. I almost lost you there, and I’m not about to risk that again.”
“Right, and I almost lost you too,” she says, defiance thick in her tone, her mind already made up. “This is a two-way street, Stone. I got hurt too. I hung from those chains and was beaten just as you were. I was kidnapped off the street, not once, but twice. I was almost raped. I was left in a coma with burns covering my skin. I lost seven years of my life, and on top of that, I had to watch the man I love almost die in the street becauseof what they did to you. You’re not the only one who has lost something because of Lux Valen, and while I know you would give the world to protect me and keep me as far away from that man as humanly possible, you need to understand that I feel exactly the same way as you do.”
“Menace.”
“No, Stone,” she says, gripping my forearms and really looking into my eyes. “We’re a team now. Where you go, I go. You die, I die. And if you’re going back into the city to get revenge for the hell Lux Valen and the Bone Reapers have put us through, then I’m sure as hell coming with you. No ifs, whats, or buts.”
Shit.
Holding her stare a moment longer, I wait to see if she falters, if the idea of leaving this place for any period of time could potentially sway her decision, but the determination in that beautiful green stare tells me everything I need to know. She’s coming with me, and she’s not backing down.
“Okay,” I finally say, my hand dropping into hers as I already start looking forward to when we return here. “First thing in the morning, it’s go time.”
“Good,” she says with a nod. “Now, come and eat the roast I slaved over all day for you, and then after you’ve thoroughly rocked my world, we can work out exactly how we’re going to take Lux Valen down.”
31
RILEY
The drive back into the city feels so much longer than when we were escaping it, but to be fair, while I was racing down the highway, I wasn’t focusing on the time. I was hoping like fuck that the man I love wasn’t about to die in the passenger seat.
Every mile we drive closer toward the city sends me into a spiral. I don’t want to be here, but I need to be. And just like Stone, I need to see this through.
Leaving Cedar Falls, if only for a few days, is one hell of a risk. Stone is still at the top of the feds’ most-wanted list. There’s still a bounty on his head, and I have no doubt that every asshole with a gun is still searching high and low for him. That is, every asshole with a gun outside of Cedar Falls. But with four weeks between sightings, the feds have had no choice but to divert their attention to other pressing situations. Don’t get me wrong, I can guarantee there’s still a dedicated team spending everywaking hour trying to find him, but as long as we’re careful, and immediately head straight back to Cedar Falls while keeping under the radar, we’ll be okay.
Having Ray and Barbara’s support has gone a long way in settling something deep within me. They’ve become my adoptive family, and from what I can tell, I believe they feel the same. Apart from Stone, I’ve never had anything even remotely close to that. Nobody has cared for me the way Barbara does. Nobody has taken the time to teach me how to cook, teach me how to sew a button, or just care enough to ask me how I’m doing, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
So it came as no surprise that Ray wasn’t completely onboard with us leaving today. We spoke to them at dinner last night, wanting to be as transparent as possible. They know exactly who Lux Valen is to us. They know what role he played in the scars left on my body—what role he had in corrupting Ash—and they know he ensured Stone received a life sentence rotting behind bars. But more than that, they know exactly what we’ve come to the city to do, and instead of putting up a fight and arguing what a horrible idea this was, they simply nodded, understanding why we need to do this. That doesn’t mean they agree.
Barbara doesn’t want to see us get hurt. She’s become very attached just as I have become to her, and if, for any reason, neither of us were able to make it back to our new home, it would crush her. As for Ray, he told us right from the get-go that we weren’t to bring our shit into Cedar Falls, and this is our way of keeping that promise. Because somehow, if we don’t get to Lux first, he will spend the rest of his life hunting us, and that’s no way to live.
Today, Lux Valen will die.
We sit in a stolen minivan, not wanting to risk driving the Charger into the city and being recognized, especially as we sit outside the old Chinese restaurant, watching and waiting forLux to return. We’re being as discreet as possible, watching the restaurant from a little down the street, more than prepared to sit here for as long as it takes. Though it doesn’t go unnoticed that the pool of Stone’s blood that fell on the sidewalk all those weeks ago is still there.
Kinda gross really, and it speaks volumes about the care the city puts into keeping the streets safe and clean. Not that the Bone Reapers are going out of their way to report it and bring attention to their little operation here, and I can guarantee nobody else is either. They won’t risk drawing that kind of attention to themselves.
We came prepared. We’ve got snacks. Water. Weapons. And yes, I even brought a spare pair of panties, because we all know how I like my cookie properly packaged at all times, and I’m not prepared to put her through the same abuse she went through while on the run. Underwear is a must. Unless Stone is between my thighs. And in that case, the only appropriate panties near me are the ones he’s physically torn off with his teeth.
God, he’s such an animal. I absolutely love it.
I’ve had more than my fair share of sexual partners over the past few years. I’m one of those girls who isn’t shy about my fondness of sex. I’ll actively seek it, and most of the time, my chosen partner can get the job done. But nobody has ever taken me the way he does.
Maybe it’s the seven years of deprivation. He grew a hunger for pussy that can’t possibly be sated, and that’s the kind of man I will never let go of. And it’s not just that massive cock. It’s his tongue. His mouth. His skilled fingers. He enjoys getting me off just as much as he likes getting off himself.
When he’s not out in the field, he’s inside of me. We spend every spare moment making up for lost time, but I have to be honest, a part of me is disappointed in myself. When all my memories came back, it became apparent that I had been savingmyself for Stone. At seventeen, there was no way he was about to pop that cherry, but I was ready to wait. I’d already fallen for him, and I knew that he was going to be my first. But after my memories faded away, that part of me went right along with it.
I didn’t even know if I was still a virgin when I had sex for the first time, though it became more than apparent when the guy slammed into me, and it hurt like a fucking bitch. It wasn’t a great experience, and I can’t even blame him. That particular clusterfuck was all on me. I was freshly eighteen and had only been out of the hospital for a few months. I had an itch and wanted it scratched, so I found the first willing guy, seduced him at a party, and went for gold.
In hindsight, I should have taken my time.
