Chapter Thirty-Five
"Just so you know. You were supposed to come here with Rey tonight."
"And just so you'll remember, I stopped being his Rose this morning."
My brother scoffed in disbelief. "You'll work it out."
"How can you say that? How?"
"I know you. You're not going to let some tramp scare you away, not if you really like this guy."
"He slept with her. Willingly. Besides, he's been pulling back all week so I'm pretty damn sure that's a neon sign if I ever saw one. It never would've worked and this is his way of telling me that. After tonight, and I prove my point, that'll be it. When all of this is over, I'll just go wherever you and Chelle are going and he'll go back to his life. I don't need anyone else."
He sighed, that one sound telling me more than I wanted to know. "I'll always take care of you, Elina. You know that."
"Then why does it sound like you're about to put a 'but' in there?"
"Because I am. I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy. You have to let someone close enough to make you happy. He's not Ford. Hell, even the other one isn't Ford."
"How would you know? It's not like you know either of them all that well."
"I know Rey better than you think."
"He's a cop."
"He's also pretending to be my next in line. I have to know certain things about him no one else does. Most of it is fabricated but some parts are completely true."
"Are we going to have another heart to heart on the way to the race? Considering how well that went last time, I don't think it would be a good idea."
"What I'm saying is at least you've moved on from fucking gangsters."
"Rey's a gangster."
"Not a real gangster. He's like a quasi-gangster.
"Close enough. It's all...it's like Halloween every day for him. He's a gangster."
At that he laughed, one of his big barrel laughs. He was devoid of that lately and it was nice to hear it again.
"I'm starting to think maybe I should've let you out in that skirt."
"Really?" I brightened. "I'm sure we have time to go back..."
"I said maybe, niña." He pulled into a parking space. "Maybe isn't should've."
"Sounds the same to me."
He rolled his eyes and grumbled as he got out of the car. Just like last time, my brother was bombarded, this time more girls coming to the flame than before. I sighed, resting my head back against the headrest. It was going to take him a while to remember I was in the car. Then it clicked, I was one to go against the rules. I could get out on my own.
I grinned and just as I was about to open the door, it was opened for me and a familiar hand appeared. It wasn't my brother's. I could still see him through the windshield. He was smiling a little too eagerly at a leggy blonde to his right. Just to freak him out and possibly not have to take the hand whose fingers spelled 'Over', I reached over and pressed the horn. The girls jumped and my brother just smirked at me. The shrug he gave told me this was my problem and I had to deal with it. As far as he was concerned, Rey was still my Thorn, at least while we were pretending.
And we would be pretending for the rest of the summer even if I didn't want to play along. Hurry up eight weeks.
I brushed Rey's hand aside, ignoring the way the hair rose along my arm as I stood up or the flashes of memories I got from that barest of touches. I definitely had to ignore the look in his eyes as they flicked over the outfit I was wearing and officially met mine.
Since I was mad at him, extremely, I glared at him and slammed the car door closed. There was no way I was in the mood to play pretend with him.
"You're disrespecting me, Oranges."
I flashed him a sweet smile. "Now you know how it feels."
I walked away from him, dirt stirring up as my boots scuffed across the surface. The possibility he would follow me was high and I wasn't disappointed. All it took were a few quick strides and Rey caught up to me, pulling me to a stop by the arm.
"We need to talk," he whispered into my ear.
"See, you keep saying that but all I hear coming out of your mouth are fucking excuses. Excuses I don't want to hear anymore."
"If you'd stop trying to control the conversation then maybe I'd get something out besides excuses."
I took several steps back to put space between us and crossed my arms over my chest, closing my mouth and glaring at him. If he wanted a chance to say something monumental then I was going to give him this moment to spit it out.
"Thank you," he snipped. "Now, about last night..."
"That sounds like the beginnings of a horrible explanation, esse." The voice sent chills up and down my spine and it got worse when the owner stepped up next to me, slipping an arm around my waist in what an outsider would see as a friendly gesture. Since Rey and I were standing a good distance apart, it only brought Rob closer to me, further into my bubble than I would like him to be. "You look good, Ari."
Pretending this was just another run of the mill encounter with someone who didn't matter was hard and I wasn't an actress by any means. I was uncomfortable and he knew that, both of them knew that, anyone who looked would know that. Rob had the ability to unnerve me and he knew it.
And there wasn't anything I could do about it. I had to stand there and take it until my perceived Thorn stepped in. But coming to a Rose's rescue was seen as a weakness unless it was a life or death situation. So either I stood through this, weathering it as best as I could without breaking or defend myself which would conclude in me getting the shit smacked out of me. Again.
It was a man's world I lived in and they loved to remind me of that time and again.
"Rob," Rey said in a glacial voice.
"Let me give you some advice about our Ari, Sanchez, especially if you're going to remain her Thorn." The whole time I could feel Rob staring at the side of my face and he leaned in to nuzzle my hair and cheek. "She's like a black rose. Rare, delicate, and not found in the wild. Engineered in private. Ari requires a certain kind of...touch that not many people know about." When he said touch, his hand slipped up my back and gripped the back of my throat tightly. I sucked in a breath and arched a little to lessen the sting as his short fingernails dug into my skin. "She's used to a certain amount of pain but once you reach just over that level..."
Quicker than I'd moved in a while, I reached back and pulled the gun out of the waistband of his pants, exactly where I knew he would have it. Like I knew he would, he let me go and took a few steps back. I turned and pointed the gun at him, both of his arms rising in mock surrender. But unlike the gesture, there was a smug look on his face.
This was easier to work through without words so I just cocked the hammer. His eyes glittered dangerously at me and several of his lieutenants stepped up behind him about to pull their guns. Like the excellent marksman I was, I aimed the gun down by Rob's feet and pulled the trigger, the threat obvious. Rob was as cool as a cucumber and motioned for them to stand down.
Because of the gunshot, we now had the full attention of the attendees on us. Normally this wasn't that big of a deal. They would look and quickly lose interest once they realized it wasn't anyone important. But since it was me and since it was Rob, everyone was interested and watching.
Rey stepped up behind me, making his body flush with mine from pelvis to chest with his hands resting gently on my hips.
"You tried to blow me up."
Rob smirked. "Did you like that?"
"Helped me get in touch with my Rose side."
He chuckled. "Your luck is uncanny, Ari. Not many people come away normal after their brain swells in their skull. We should start calling you Lucky Ari."
I shot at his feet again and the chuckling came back. "Dispárame, Ari. Si usted tiene las agallas."Shoot me, Ari. If you have the guts.
"The thing about that, Rob, would mean I want mercy for you. And since your brother got it, it's definitely not happening for you. Not from me. Not after trying to blow me up."
All the amusement he was finding in this situation drained out of his face. Instead, hatred and cold distain filled his eyes.
"You'll never get the chance."
"Wanna test that? I've been in a very bad mood lately and my finger is getting a little trigger happy. Wanna see how high your pain tolerance is? I bet it's lower than mine. We can call it feeling each other out."
"Well, well, well," my brother said as he joined the little gathering, grinning with Dom on his heels. "Look what we have here."
"Why don't you call your slut of a sister off, esse, and stop making small talk."
"You tried to kill her, Rob. You should've known she'd try to reciprocate eventually. After all, you blew up her car and she fucking loved that car. Took me all damn day to find a god damn replacement." Rob started swearing under his breath. "I tell you what, though, you apologize sincerely and I'll call her off. Otherwise, I'll stand back and let her shoot you. No one will get in the way or stop her."
"She would never..."
"I don't know," Vince said with a little doubt in his voice. "You do look an awful lot like Ford. She might feel a little nostalgic and shoot you just because of that. Not to mention she's been under a lot of stress lately and she might snap."
"If she shoots me, my boys will shoot her."
"Not if they have guns currently pointed at the back of their heads. See, the great thing about running these things is I have more men here than you do and they're all loyal to my sister. In fact, you're lucky none of them have tried to shoot you themselves already. So what'll it be? An apology and some racing or bloodshed and a trip to the hospital?"
"A la mierda. Lo siento."Fuck it. I'm sorry.
"Ehhh. Try again. Her Spanish is a tad rusty. Concussion brain, you understand."
"I'm sorry, Ari."
My brother looked at me and raised his eyebrows, seeing if I was happy with it. He really wanted me to shoot him but he needed peace more. So I shrugged and lowered the gun, it was good enough for me. Unfortunately, I knew Rob wasn't going to stop in his pursuit to avenge his brother. Just as the barrel pointed at the ground, Rey slipped it out of my hand and raised it himself, shooting Rob square in the thigh. The Black Jay dropped like a sack of potatoes, gritting in pain and unbelievability.
"You said..."
"She wouldn't shoot you. You forgot I was standing next to her when the car blew up. You almost killed me too. Should've considered that in your negotiations." Rey ejected the clip and popped out the one in the chamber. He then pulled a bandana out of his pocket and wiped the gun down before throwing it on the ground in front of the leader of The Black Jays. "That should also teach you not to touch something that's mine without my permission."
"I'll kill you, motherfucker."
"Not if you bleed out in the dirt," Rey said, wrapping his arms around me. "Might want to have one of your boys rush you to the hospital."
I couldn't help but notice as one of his arms slid around my waist and pulled me back so I was even closer, a certain part of his anatomy below the waist was hard. It told me a couple of things; there was something about this situation turning him on, he was willing to do anything to keep his cover, and I was completely screwed.
*
I didn't miss the death glare Rob shot me as Rey and I walked away from him. There was a medic on standby at the race and I caught sight of him looking over the gunshot wound before he instructed the attending Black Jays to get Rob to the hospital. For the rest of my time at the race, not one word was spoken between myself and Rey. He, for the most part, stayed on his side of the group while I remained on the other with Dom or my brother. Both seemed perfectly content to keep me company while Rey had plenty of girls hanging around him to keep him occupied when he wasn't racing. Although, every time I would look over, he wasn't doing anything more than talking to them. Every time one of them made to touch him, he'd discretely move out of the way or catch their wrist to relocate it.
He wasn't in the mood to be touched. Interesting.
For the first time of me being back, I finally felt myself relax. I even got to catch up with some of the Roses I'd known from before and some of the Thorns, all with the ever watchful eye of my brother or Dom. Neither of them let me drift too far away by myself.
It was a good night. I had no injuries, no blood loss, no Rob to worry about. It was nice, perfect.
It got even better when I had to drive both my brother and Dom home because they both drank way too much. They were both relaxed and I was keeping myself out of trouble and listening when they told me to do something. I had one of the lieutenants, the one that was sitting on my front porch earlier today, drive Dom's car back to the warehouse. His name, after he reminded me, was Maurice Powell and he ended up joking around with me for most of the night and surprisingly my brother let him. The only time Vince stepped in was when Maurice asked me if I wanted a drink.
"She doesn't drink," my brother's words boomed in the small area we were occupying.
"It's not like we don't have anything that's not alcohol infused, Vince. I meant one of those."
My brother just raised his eyebrow and went back to talking to the girl next to him.
Maurice and I turned to each other and started laughing quietly. "Your brother is a hard ass," he said as he handed me a bottle of water.
"He just doesn't want me to go into insulin shock. That would totally ruin the night."
"What ruined the night was when you didn't shoot Rob." He was drinking water as well since it looked like we'd have to be the ones driving people home. "That would've made tonight..."
"Bad. Me shooting him would've been...bad. You don't even know how bad."
"Why does he have beef with you? It's not like you've been here long."
"The past. It always comes back..."
"To bite you in the ass. Yeah, I've heard that."
When I got them home, I was happy they were awake enough to get their own asses inside and to a bed. I had to do that once for my brother and it ended up being one of the worst experiences of my life. Let's just say my brother has a farting problem when he's inebriated. I don't know what was with him but he was gassy when he drank a shit ton of beer.
Technically my brother's race car was supposed to go back to the warehouse at the end of the night but he told me, as he stumbled up the stairs half awake, just to park it in the driveway and leave it. That was definitely different since sometimes I thought he loved the carmore than he loved me.
I sat out on the porch for a bit, staring up at the sky and wishing it wasn't so washed out by the city lights. That was the odd thing about where I went to college. From my dorm window, I could see tons of stars despite the university being a well lit campus.
A rumble down the street told me Rey was almost home. I sighed, what was I going to do about Rey? There wasn't much time to think on it. The one headlight swept across the front of the house as he pulled into the driveway. My brother mentioned earlier he'd asked Rey to move back to his apartment again. I didn't know if he did it for my benefit or what but I was grateful. My anger would last longer if he wasn't sleeping down the hall from me.
I thought he would pull all the way around to the back to put the bike in the makeshift garage but instead he stopped next to my car. He never wore a helmet so I could see the look on his face when he spotted me sitting on the porch. The last thing I wanted was talk to him this late at night, and I should've gone inside before he even got close to the house, but I'd stayed. Right where I was.
For some stupid reason.
He turned off the bike and continued to stare at me. "What are you doing out here so late?"
"Is there something wrong with me sitting on my own front porch?"
"No. I just wanted to know."
"Trying to see the stars." I stood up. "But that's not going to happen so now I'm going to bed."
I turned to go in but then he said, "I didn't sleep with her."
I stopped dead and turned back around to look at him in disbelief. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I. Didn't. Sleep. With. Her."
I frowned at him. "But you said..."
"I said what I was supposed to say."
"What's that supposed to mean exactly?"
He got off his bike and grabbed his keys, taking long strides to stand on the bottom step in front of me. Strangely enough, we were now level with each other. Damn, I was short.
"I was told to put some distance between us. I was supposed to sleep with her and I'm man enough to admit I wanted to sleep with her but I didn't. Having you pissed at me was not something I wanted but they thought I was getting a little too attached to you."
"Are you getting attached to me?"
"That's not the point. The fucking point is I didn't sleep with her so you can stop being mad at me now."
"That's not going to happen."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because now I know you lied to me. You literally went from the frying pan to the fire, my friend, and I can tell you the fire is much, much worse. Good job." I patted him on the arm.
"Oranges, I'm being serious."
"And who says I'm not? You don't let the girl you're sleeping with think you slept with someone else. That's a big no-no. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"
"I told you..."
"Your superiors ordered you to sleep with some girl so it would drive us apart. I get it. Believe it or not, I'm not stupid. All you had to do was tell me your higher ups thought you were getting too close to me. You didn't have to sleep with her or even give the illusion of sleeping with her. When it all boils down to it, I'm the gangster and you're a cop wearing a metaphorical Halloween costume. It'll never work out, in any shape or form, and I was stupid to even think it might. You should've just told me, I would've understood."
I wanted out of this conversation and I figured everything was said so I turned to leave. He grabbing my arm and turning me back around, his eyes looking like very dangerous versions of a cartoon character's.
"You took over the conversation again."
"Well what you were saying was..."
"Shut. Up."
For the first time in what felt like forever, he kissed me. Unfortunately, once he started, neither of us could stop. I say unfortunately because I really wanted to haul off and smack him across the face for thinking he could solve this with a kiss but like all the times before when I was deprived of certain human interaction, my body acted on its own.
Stupid lips as they molded and moved with his.
Stupid arms as they wrapped around his neck.
Stupid feet for moving to the edge of the step so my front was pressed against his.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"I'm still mad at you," I said as he hoisted me up around his waist.
"That's ok. In thirty minutes, you won't even remember why you were mad."
"Thirty minutes? Really? It'll take you that long?"
He carried me into the house, opening and closing the door quietly like a pro. "No but I'm going to make this last as long as possible. By the time it's over, you'll have lost the ability to walk. Plus the added bonus of forgiving me."
"Not without you saying I'm sorry first."
"I don't say I'm sorry very often."
"And yet, I'll get it out of you. I have a way of doing that."
Without warning he slammed my back against the door and pulled my face down so he could kiss me again. It was rougher than the last time but for some reason I liked it. Maybe it was the anger I was feeling, who knows.
"I should probably apologize," he said before kissing me again. There was a bit of stubble on his chin and it was scratching against my face so by the time he stopped, my chin felt raw and my lips felt swollen. Not that I minded much. It just added to the flavor.
"Already? That was fast."
"Not about that." He slammed me against the wall and he dropped me to my feet. I was startled long enough for him to grab one tail of the bowtie holding my top up and pull. I could feel the material slide across my skin as the whole thing dropped to the floor. I didn't even remember him unzipping the back of the shirt. Standing literally topless in the entryway of my brother's house was not something I ever expected to happen.
It explains why he thought he should apologize.
This wasn't going to be like the first time we did it, in fact it would probably be closer to the second.
He stepped back a little and looked me over in the dim light. That overwhelming urge to haul off and smack him was back. He was eyeing what he saw with a lust mixed emotion I couldn't quite identify and it was bothering the hell out of me. He reached out to touch me, his fingers heading in the direction of the section of skin that was showing all night but I slapped his hand away. He smirked, seeing it as a challenge, and tried again but the result was the same.
"Oranges."
He reached out again but when I went to slap his hand away he caught mine and jerked me forward until I smacked into him. He grabbed a fist full of my hair and pulled my head back.
"This is going to be rough. Want to tap out now?"
With the one hand he wasn't keeping a grip on, I moved my hand around his hip and under his t-shirt, running my fingers across the ridge of muscle that formed half of the v his abdominal muscles made. Almost as if I was soothing the savage beast, his eyes closed and he let out a breath that had a soft noise to it. Almost as if he was purring.
He even lessened the grip he had on my wrist.
But I was mad at him and I didn't want him to be docile or nice. The dangerous side of him was the only thing turning me on right now and I wasn't going to admit that. There was no reason for him to know that his dark and dangerous side was the only side I wanted at the moment. I wasn't going to take anything less. I just had to...get that engine in him revving again. So starting from the point I'd tiptoed my fingers to, I dug my nails into his skin and dragged them down his stomach. There was no doubt in my mind that there would be five nice sized scratches for the next couple of days.
My brother would call it the equivalent of a dog pissing on a tree, a male cat marking his territory, or tagging the side of the building with spray paint.
Rey hissed and grabbed my other wrist, pulling my hand away from his skin. When his eyes opened they looked down at me precariously and I couldn't help but smirk.
"You wanna play?" I nodded. "Then we'll play."
He brought his mouth down on mine, literally kissing me rougher than anyone ever had. He let go of my hands as they wrapped around his neck and smoothed his up my back in that gentle manner I didn't want. Just as I thought he was about to drift into soft territory again, he did the same to me that I just did to him except he did it to my back. I never knew guys to have nails and I didn't think Rey had any but my back arched in an attempt to get away from the pain he was causing as those white half moons dragged from just below my shoulder blades to my hips. He bit my lip when I tried to end the kiss to yell at him.
I opened my eyes and looked at him.
"Ow," I said meekly.
He chuckled darkly and started backing up to the stairs, towing me with him. This was going to be something.