Chains (19 page)

I spun her around so her back was to me and turned so we faced the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. “You’re so beautiful,” I whispered against her shoulder, watching her face in the mirror as I pushed my fingers inside her and plucked her nipple with my other hand. Her head fell back against my shoulder. Her breath came fast. “Don’t close your eyes. I want you to see it when I make you come.”

I bent my knees and thrust my hips, rocking her against my hand with my cock between her ass cheeks, strumming my thumb over her clit. She grabbed my hands and pressed them harder against her, high pitched moans escaping her lips. I felt the hot, wet rush and pulsing clench on my fingers. She cried out and her knees gave. I held her up and worked every last throb from her body.

“See how perfect you are?” I nuzzled my nose into her hair and kissed her temple.

“I was going to say the same thing.” She gave me a lazy smile, her eyes glazed and sated. She reached back and wrapped her hand around my cock. “Let’s get in the shower.”

We stepped inside the glass walls. The hot water cascaded over her skin, and I could smell her in the steam. I wanted to taste what I smelled, but she turned me around so my back was to her this time and lathered soap in her hands. She reached around me and covered my chest in white foamy bubbles, massaging with her fingertips and gently running her fingernails over my nipples. I reached behind me and grabbed her ass. I needed something to hold onto or I’d lose it and end up bending her over and plunging into her, balls deep.

Her hands slowly made their way down over my stomach. She followed the V of my hips lower, taking me by the base of my cock in both hands. She gripped me firmly and stroked two-handed, up and down through the slippery soap. “I love your body,” she said against the back of my shoulder, her warm breath tickling my skin. “I love touching you.” She pumped faster, her breasts pressed against my back. “I love the way you feel in my hands.”

I groaned, a sound somewhere between
God
and
gah.
My thighs tensed. My ass tensed. My balls clenched. I gripped her hands with mine and guided her while I came, helping her milk every last drop out of me.

She rose on her toes and kissed my cheek, then trailed her tongue down my neck. “I love doing that to you.”

I turned around and took her in my arms, kissing her until sensation came back below my waist where everything had turned to tingling bliss. “Being this close to you is like jumping the last hurdle, you know?” I walked her back a step until I could run my fingers through her hair under the water. “We were always close in every way except this.”

“I know,” she said, watching her hands run up and down over my chest. “It’s like there’s nothing about you I don’t know. Your heart, your soul, your body.”

“Nothing you don’t own,” I said. Tracing my thumb across her bottom lip and kissing her again. “I’m yours until you don’t want me anymore.”

“Forever then,” she said. “And for all the lifetimes after forever.”

“What do you mean, you’re leaving?” Alex stalked around his desk and stood in front of me. “When did you decide this? Last night when you were drunk off your ass?”

“I wasn’t drunk off my ass. Reno. Remember? I talked to Mike the other day and he set up another fight. It’s tomorrow. Danny wants to get out of here today since Striker found her.”

Alex ran his hand over his head. “He’ll be there.”

“That’s why I need you to come with us,” I said, taking a step closer to him. “I’ll be in the ring. Mike will be with me. I need someone to stay with Danny during the fight.”

“Fuck.” He made a fist and clenched it in his other hand. “I can’t go to Reno.”

He gave me a look that told me it was more than just a scheduling conflict. “What do you mean?”

“It’s outside my territory.”

“Your territory? You’re in some serious shit, aren’t you?”

Ignoring my question, he pounded his fist in his hand. “Fuck it. I’m going. I won’t leave you to deal with him on your own and protect Danny.”

“What happens if
whoever
catches you in Reno?”

“Don’t worry about it. Busting Striker’s ass and keeping him away from Danny is worth whatever they want to do to me.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Forget it. I can handle it.”

He looked me in the eye and it was as if no time had passed from when we shared a room in Striker’s house. He was my brother in blood. In battle. “I know you can,” he said. “But I don’t want to be left out of the fun.”

I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head. “Fine, then you’re driving. Save me some cash if I don’t have to take a cab.”

“Hey,” he said, as turned around to leave his office. “I have something for you. Friend of mine dropped it off while you were out last night.” He went back around his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a gun. “It’s registered to a dead man, so it won’t come back on you if it’s used. Just don’t leave your fingerprints all over it.”

A rock sat in my stomach. “Jesus. My brother’s the Godfather.”

“Not even close. Good guess though. Have you ever fired one of these before?” He examined the gun.

“Once. Fired at a guy and missed—thank God.” It was back in my days of street living, drug using, and debt collecting. “I’m better with my fists.”

“Well, if Striker’s packin’ a gun, you won’t get close enough to use your fists again. I suggest we hit the shooting range in Reno.”

“Danny will shit if she knows we have guns.”

“Better she shit about the guns and be safe than letting him get to her.”

I nodded. “She’ll have to get over it.” I walked over to his desk and held my hand out. He gave me the gun. A Colt M1911. “Nice,” I said, weighing it in my hand.

If it came down to it, I’d use the gun. I’d shoot Striker. Jail would be worth it if that motherfucker was gone from the face of the earth.

“Pack it away,” Alex said. “Give me fifteen minutes to get my things together, and we’ll leave.”

Danny was zipping her bag when I got back upstairs. She glanced at me and saw the gun. “What the fuck is that?” she said, her hands hitting her hips. “No way, Tyler Graves.”

“It’s just in case we need it, okay?” I tucked it in my duffel bag. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

She glared at me. “I swear to God…” She let out an exasperated sigh. “Striker knows where I am and you’re going to risk getting caught with that and being sent to jail, leaving me alone.”

“It’s
because
he knows where you are that I have it.”

“Maybe I should be the one who has the gun then.” She strode over to me with her hand out. “Give it to me. I can protect myself.”

“We can wrestle for it later when we get to the hotel.” I took her outstretched hand and yanked her to me, dipping her back and kissing her neck. “Alex is coming. He’s driving, so we should get downstairs.”

“Fine,” she said, pouting. “But don’t think you can pacify me with kisses. The gun conversation isn’t over.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

Excited by me dipping Danny, Alex The Dog jumped up and licked my face. I groaned. “No dog kisses.” I stood her up and wiped my cheek on my t-shirt.

“I guess I need to beg the lady next door to watch the dog, then,” she said, ruffing up the fur on his neck.

“She looked lonely. She’d probably like a nice guy like Al to share her bed.”

“Actually, she said something about her girlfriend.”

“Well, in that case, you might be sleeping in the couch, Al.”

Alex drove past the motel we stayed in last time, where Mike had us booked again. His GPS droned on and on telling him to do a U-turn, but he ignored it.

“The motel was back there,” I said, pointing behind us.

“I saw it.”

Danny and I looked at each other. “Are you going to turn around?” she asked.

“Nope. No fucking way I’m staying there,” he said. “I got us a couple rooms at the Sierra Spa.”

Alex had more money and connections than God. I didn’t want to stay at the rat trap, shithole motel either. Especially not since Striker found us there last time. The Sierra had to have some kind of security that would make it harder for Striker to find our room number.

I took out my phone and sent Mike a text telling him where we were staying. “Mike’s not getting in until tomorrow, so I’m free the rest of today,” I said. “What do you guys want to do?” Danny needed to let loose. She’d been in bed for days and cooped up in the house hiding out. “Dan, are you hungry? Or you want to go to the pool?”

She looked at me and blinked a few times before smiling, like she hadn’t considered doing anything but cowering behind a locked hotel room door.

“Let’s do both,” Alex said, turning into the hotel and pulling up to the valet. “We can change and grab some food and drinks at the pool bar.”

We checked in and found our rooms. Danny and I had a king-size bed and jetted tub that sat in front of a window overlooking the mountains. “It’s amazing,” Danny said. “I’ve never stayed anywhere this nice.”

“Yeah. Me neither. The pro circuit is where the money’s at.” I leaned against the window and looked down twelve stories. “I know why you did it. You and Mike. After this fight, I’ll stop.”

She stepped up behind me and put her hand on my back. “I don’t want you to end up resenting me. Don’t stop fighting for me. Don’t stop at all unless it’s what you think is best for you. I promise I’ll support your decision.”

Down below on the sidewalk there were people walking, talking, laughing. It seemed so simple to have that life, to not be weighed down by your past, carrying it around all the time like a sack of bones that won’t stay buried. “What about you?” I asked. “Now that you’re clean and have me and Alex to keep your ass in line,” I shot her a wink over my shoulder, “what do you want to do?”

“I don’t really know. I never thought about it. Not even when we were kids.”

“You want to be a princess?”

“I never wanted to be a princess.”

“I know. You were always ready to ride dragons and storm the castles of evil villains.”

“Still want to ride dragons,” she said, laughing.

“I can teach you how to fight. You can join the female UFC.”

“I have zero muscle mass. I don’t think so.” She ducked under my arm and leaned her forehead against the window. “I should probably get my GED. Maybe go to college?” She almost whispered it, like it was so beyond what she should have, she shouldn’t even say it out loud.

I twisted her hair around my finger. “What would you study in college?”

“Maybe I’d be a cop. Or a teacher. Or nurse. I don’t know.” She rolled her head to the side looking at me with her head resting against the window. “What about you? If you quit fighting, what will you do?”

I didn’t know, but Natalie’s words came back to me, and I said, “I could always be a person fitness trainer.”

“You could. You’d be perfect for that. Or you could train fighters, like Mike.”

“I could do both,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “We’ll figure it out.”

There was a knock on the door. “Alex,” Danny said. “I’ll get it.”

“Look out the peep hole first.” I opened my bag as she went to the door. I wanted to get the gun locked away in the room safe before we did anything else.

“It’s him,” she said, opening the door.

“You two ready yet?” Alex asked, stepping inside. He eyed the gun in my hand and shot me a meaningful look. “You ready?”

The steel felt strong and cool in my grip. A powerful answer to keeping the past behind us. “I’m ready,” I said. If Striker showed up, I’d bury our past once and for all.

THIRTEEN

“Ah, shit,” Alex said, darting his eyes down from across the bar. He tipped his glass up, hiding behind it.

The brunette who sat down at the pool bar with a couple of her friends didn’t look away. She was drilling holes through him with her eyes.

“Who is she?” I asked, swiveling my stool to the right to trap him into answering. “An ex?”

Danny leaned forward to see around me to Alex. “She’s beautiful. Were you together long?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, picking at the pile of fries on his plate.

“We didn’t ask if you wanted to talk about it,” I said, motioning for the bartender to give him another drink. “I asked who she is and why she’s staring daggers into your head.”