Sleeves (5 page)

Why had Max given her the key? Was he that angry he didn’t want to speak to Kel?

Well, he could go fuck himself, too, the idiot.

Kel lay there for several more moments, not moving an inch, waiting for the voices to all disappear out there so he’d know he was okay to leave.

“Knock, knock,” a soft voice called out.

“Not here,” he muttered, his mouth dry and his eyes stinging.

“Sorry, I just . . . Can I . . . ?” A sandy blonde entered the curtain and gave him a sad look.

“Who the hell said you could come back here? Visiting hours are over, bitch.”

She cleared her throat and wore a sheepish look. “I . . . Well, my friend Maddie . . . I heard what she said—and, well, yeah, we both came back to the club to talk to you . . . I felt bad she was being so hard on you. I didn’t see what happened, but I wanted to tell you Casey’s really not like that.”

“Jesus—not you, too,” he groaned and rolled up to sitting. He dropped his forehead to his bent knees and rubbed it across them. When he looked up again, her eyes were filled with regret and worry.

“No, not me, too. I wasn’t going to repeat what Maddie said. I only wanted to tell you Casey didn’t even take the money back. She didn’t want it. She refused to take it from Max, your bartender, before she left. She told me in the car you’d tried to give it to her as well when she was in the back with you. She felt bad she somehow hurt you, and she asked me to apologize to you for her. So,” she took a deep breath and blew out like she was exhausted, “she’s sorry. She really feels bad, and she hopes she didn’t mess anything up for you tonight. She won’t be back.” She blew a few loose strands out of her eyes.

As he looked her over more carefully—he
knew
.

This woman was in the back somewhere fucking some asshole while her friends were out here with him, throwing his life into chaos.

“Was he good?” he asked, the right side of his mouth twisting up toward his temple.

“What are you . . . ?” Her brows bunched together.

“You know—the dick you fucked and let manhandle you until your hair was a mess. You reek of him and look like hell. Was it worth it? Was he good enough to ditch your friend when you came here together? That’s what happened, right?”

“At least he didn’t call me disgusting names and force me to get him off before he crashed to the ground like a fucking wasted—”

“Like a
what
?” He bolted up to standing, and in three long strides was directly in front of her, snarling in her face. “Say what you’re thinking. I wanna know exactly how pathetic I am to you.”

“Why does it matter? I said what I needed to. You’re the one that has to deal with living in a cage.” She flung the curtain open and left it that way as she marched across the nearly empty club then left through the exit.

He finally stepped out of it, his limbs flailing as he bent at the waist and dropped his hand down like dead weight to retrieve the business card. Without even looking at it, he shoved it in his pocket and sauntered back to his apartment, hidden in the back of the club.

A few women called out to him, trying to get his attention and talk to him, but all he saw was the look of utter disappointment on Max’s face as he shook his head and flipped Kel the bird.

“I’m taking your cut tonight,” Max told him right before Kel broke into a run and burst into the back entrance of his personal residence.

He flung himself into his bathroom, and out of nowhere, everything he’d eaten that day was flying out of him.

His knees dug into the dirty tile, his hands gripped the grimy toilet seat, and he hunched over the bowl as he vomited until he couldn’t breathe any longer.

“Oh, Christ—it’s starting again,” he grunted before his stomach lurched and he was on round two of heaving up what should’ve stayed buried, along with his past.

“Goddamn fucking woman, messing with my scrambler.” His abs contracted then his face heated and was damp with sweat as that sickly green feeling swamped him, almost taking him down completely.

The moment he threw up the device he’d made to thwart the tracker and had it in his hands, he managed to get up and wash it off with what was left of the little sliver of bar soap he had. Next he found some antacids, chugged them down with some water.

Faster. He had to move faster before they found him.

The second his stomach felt quasi-normal, he swallowed the metal contraption back down. He knew he should run, but his legs were uncooperative and his head foggy.

“Oh, God!” he moaned when he felt the jab and pin pricks of it anchoring into his belly’s inner lining.

He lumbered back out into his bedroom, crashed on the bed and made unintelligible sounds until sleep pulled him down into one of his many nightmares.

It was night. Always night—always the darkest, bleakest, scariest night ever.

“Get rid of it. I told you this was dangerous,” he whispered in the deepest part of the shadows.

“Liam, I want to keep it,” the woman cried, tears racing down her cheeks. “I didn’t free you for this! We’re gonna be a family.”

“I know you think you should keep it, sweetheart, but you simply can’t. It’s not okay.”

She shoved his hand off her shoulder and glared.

“You think you know all the answers, don’t you?” Her eyes twisted into a painful grimace.

He covered her mouth with his, trying to keep her from saying too much or being too loud.

This was unsafe. Everything about it unwise.

The next thing he knew, she was crashing him into the tree behind him, she was tearing his clothes off, and that familiar burn on his skin took over.

But he needed this.

He’d die without it.

“Yes, fuck, yes—your mine,” he ground out, ripping her jeans down her legs, just far enough so he could gain access.

He turned her around, shoved her chest into the trunk of the tree so she couldn’t touch him, and in the process, something pricked into his hand and stung as she dragged her hands down his. Had something bit him?

He ignored it, pushed her panties aside, and he was inside her, thrusting and panting in her ear, “Don’t you dare touch me. If you do, I’ll stop. And you fucking love it when I invade your pussy, don’t you, my little slut?”

“Liam, please . . . God, keep going,” she whimpered, digging her nails into the bark of the tree to keep herself steady.

He was vicious, and he came hard from slamming himself inside her, but he thought she could take it.

She had before.

She always had.

This time though, her whimpers turned to sounds of excruciating pain, like he was ripping her up inside.

His body stopped right away.

He pulled out.

Blood.

Everywhere.

On her legs, on her feet, on the tree, and even on him.

“Oh, fuck! No! I told you—I told you this would kill you!” he said in a hoarse whisper, backing away from her while putting his clothes back on; eyes lifted up as high as they could go from the horror of it all.

She slowly turned around, tripped for a moment as she shuffled toward him and then she screamed.

Her body doubled over, and something red, slimy and disgusting dropped out of her pussy.

It squirmed, and then she was gone.

She fell like a lump with a loud crashing sound; the life sucked out of her eyes.

“My baby!” he choked out, crawling on the ground over to the mass of bloody flesh between her legs on the ground.

He touched it, but it no longer wiggled, and it was cold.

A moment later, there were cars squealing around the corner, and he could feel it. In his navel, the way they always found him when he touched a woman and wasn’t careful.

He was stupid this time, letting his absolute debilitating need for a woman’s touch take over him. He’d climaxed somehow without fainting, and they’d find him once more.

Why had he done this? So stupid!

“I’m sorry, Hannah . . . I love you, and our child.” He kissed her frozen, lifeless lips as she laid there unmoving, then he got up and ran.

He ran until he was blinded by searing pain in his head.

He ran until he barreled his way into a nightclub.

He ran until he didn’t know who he was anymore.

He ran because there was nothing else to do about who he was.

And he ran most of all because his life was a nightmare with no touch and no hope of ever living as anything more than a monster.

Chapter 3

Kel woke in a sweat, his breathing ragged and his heart feeling like it was trying to claw its way out of his chest. He ripped his shirt off and threw it on the floor.

Without delay, he was out of the bed, grabbing for his bottle of Jack Daniel’s he kept nearby and was downing it in voracious gulps the second it touched his lips.

Can’t do this.

Can’t let these dreams happen again.

He wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, pushing his damp hair back and out of the way.

His legs were unsteady, so he lowered himself to the floor and curled into a ball, rocking back and forth.

One.

Two.

Three.

Three more hours, and he could find a way to deal with this.

It was three in the morning, and by six places would begin to open; he could leave, get something to eat and find a hotel to stay at.

He banged his forehead on his knees over and over for what seemed like an hour, swallowing away his misery with each swig of his Jack between those jarring hits to his skull.

When that warm, relaxed feeling took over and his mind went fuzzy, he reached for his phone on his nightstand.

His other hand dove into his pocket, pulling out a little piece of paper and then he was dialing.

Ring, ring, ring.

“Come on, you bitch. Stop fucking with me and pick up,” he muttered into his phone.

“Heh-l-lo?” a soft voice rasped.

“Is this Casey Long?” He read her full name off the card.

“Who am I speaking to?” she asked, sounding a little more alert.

“It’s Kel, bitch—who do you think it is?”

“
Kel
? I don’t know any . . . Oh,
Kellll
.” She exhaled and something scratched across the receiver end of her phone. “Why are you calling me?”

“I . . . Fuck, I don’t . . .”

“Did Jana give you my number? I told her to say sorry, nothing else. Jesus—I knew she’d do something like this.”

“Apology accepted, you dirty cunt, so will you listen to me?”

“I’m hanging up now. I don’t allow anyone to talk to me that way—least of all men like you.”

“Men like
me
?” His vision blurred so he lay down before he got dizzy. Too much Jack.

“Yeah—the kind that abuse women for fun. I’m not into that shit, so you can just call some other woman to fuck around with.” She paused then added, “Besides, I’m sure you’ve got them lined up outside your club door nightly. It’s not like you’re hurting for women.”

“I’m hurting from you.”

“That’s not . . .” The line went silent.

“You did something to me, and I want it back.” He closed his eyes and rubbed them with the heel of his free hand.

“Want what back? Are you high—’cause you’re not making any sense at all.” Her breath pounded into the phone like she was exerting herself by getting up out of bed.

“I’m drunk. I was puking after you left, and it almost caused me a huge problem, but I managed to get it back down quick enough so I won’t get caught.”

“Kel, listen to me—I don’t know what you drank, but you’re scaring me here. Sounds like maybe you’ve been poisoned. You need to get to a hospital and get your stomach pumped right away,” she said, her voice tight.

“I can’t. Hospitals would be the best way to get caught and killed. I can’t ever go there.” His arm flopped to the side and he opened and flexed his fist to get the feeling back in it. His skin was prickling and going numb just thinking about her touch. “You touched me tonight.”

“Kel, I’m serious—get some medical attention, now!”

“No. I want
you
. I want
you
to help me. You said you would. Your friends said you would. I just need a woman—can you understand that? I just need to touch you,” he said, his tone desperate as he searched his foggy brain for the right words to make it all okay. “But you can’t touch me back. I don’t want to break you. I like you.”

A soft breath whispered across the line. “I like you, too, but this isn’t good. You sound sick—like you need some help.”

“Just you. Only you can help me. Can I come see you?”

“What—
now
? It’s . . .” there was shuffling around “. . . three in the morning.”

“Please, I’ll . . .” He groaned and raked his hand down his face. “I had a fucking nightmare, and I can’t go back to sleep. I just can’t. She’ll be there, and there’s blood and my . . . and my . . .” He broke down into a silent sob, his chest shaking and his eyes scrunching shut as he tried to tune out the pain.