He just laughs and presses a soft kiss to my breast. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, rabbit. Now that I know you can handle Riot… we’re just getting started.”
I smile. “By the way, I think I’ve won.”
“No fucking way. You’re moving in. No arguing.”
“I never broke character,” I protest.
“I almost lost a fucking tooth back there, I think I deserve the win.”
“Fine,” I huff, a smile playing on my lips. “But I still want the piercings.”
“And I still want your ass.”
“Deal,” I say, and he looks up at me.
In that moment, even after everything that has happened, in those beautiful red eyes, all I see is the boy who always did everything for me.
Forty-Five
THEN | JAX
By the time we park, I’m convinced something’s wrong. Every nerve ending in my body is lit the fuck up. One thought keeps repeating in my head:protect her.
Meanwhile, the circus is piling out. This isn’t a party—just ten people, maybe. Bear cranks some shitty music from his truck while someone, like magic, shows up with a keg. How they found time to stop for booze is completely beyond me.
Whistle already has Becca pinned against his bike, trying to eat her face. Nobody bats an eye. Lou’s talking to some junior year girl I don’t know, passing a cigarette back and forth. Fiona’s ass-deep in a trunk, digging for speakers that probably don’t even work.
I’m watching everyone’s moves like a dog that hears something no one else can.Since when did I get paranoid?I’ve always been the guy who doesn’t give a shit. Fights, cops, rumors—whatever. Nothing ever got under my skin. Nothing and no one.Until Sisk.She’s here on a fact-finding mission, looking for proof. Something solid she can point to and say the stories are real. That Tar City deserves every bit of its reputation.
She told me her plan earlier: she just wanted to dip her toes in, see if you hear anything when you get close enough. I laughed when she said it. Now, I’m starting to think she wasn’t joking.
If I’m being honest with myself for once?I already know the stories are true.Not because of Ivan or the Knotted-Hair-Girl. It’s because something I’ve ignored my whole life is waking up.My grandfather’s stories.The way he talked about this town like it belonged to us long before we belonged to it. And my father working day and night, trying to buy back a soul our family sold a long time ago.
“Yo, kill the lights!” some genius shouts.
The headlights click off one by one. Bear lights up one of those glass rigs, the bowl glowing black as he pulls deep and coughs. Ash. The chemical smoke drifts across the lot.
Dean slams his door shut and stretches. “Gonna piss,” he calls out to the group by the keg. “Don’t you motherfuckers drink it all while I’m gone.” He’s already wandering toward the edge of the lot.
I lean back against the car, scanning the empty black stretch beyond the gravel.I don’t know what the fuck I’m feeling.It’s a fucked up sixth sense, something screaming that we should go. I’m not one to leave a party early, and I’d never deny Sisk a good time, but I can’t shake this feeling.
Sisk comes closer, sliding her arm around my waist and rising onto her toes to kiss me.
“Relax, Jax. Everyone’s just having fun.”
I press my forehead to hers, trying to steal some of her calm. It’s not working. “We should go,” I say quietly.
Her brow furrows. “Already?”
“I don’t like this.”
She studies my face, trying to figure out what I’m not saying. Then she gives up and just goes for it. Her hand slide into myshirt, palm warm on my stomach as she pulls me down into a real kiss.
Her mouth presses against mine, hard, teeth catching my lip.Yeah, that works.I’m hard instantly. Her body grinds against mine, it’s like she thinks she can hold the bad shit at bay if she just holds on tight enough. For a minute, it actually works. The noise, the Pit, the dread—it all just fucking disappears. There’s just her. The way she tastes, the way she feels, the heat building between us.
My hands grab her hips, pulling her in tight until our clothes are the only thing between us. The kiss gets sloppy. It’s only been a few hours since I was inside her, but my dick’s already hard again, demanding another round right the fuck now.
My head is already running through a list of places we could go, what we could do, when her hand slides down my stomach and presses right against my dick straining against my pants. Her fingers curl, squeezing, and I have to literally stop myself from bending her over the hood of the nearest car.
