Page 13 of Taboo

“Why are you here, Noah?” Her words are barely a whisper, yet full of sadness and exhaustion.

“Levi called me. He says you’re not safe here…”

“I’ll be fine. I’m not your concern.” She interrupts me before I even have the chance to invite her to stay at my house until we get to the bottom of what’s going on.

“I’ll fucking decide when you’re my concern.” She slams the wooden door closed before she locks the deadbolts and walks out of the room. I do what I’ve always done when she’s been this way in the past. I follow her. Pushing the door open, I catch her lifting her shirt over her head. Her tits are looking even better than I imagined and no matter how much I want to turn around, I can’t. She has me locked and frozen in place just watching her, even though she has no idea I’m in here.

“Damnit, Noah. You can’t just walk in here like that.”

“Right. We always let the other one know when we’ve entered a bedroom. Should I remind you about last night?” I walk closer to her, knowing I’ll never be able to touch her, but wanting to so fucking bad that I can almost taste her.

She pulls a tank top over her tits, without putting on a bra and that begins to fuck with my mind even more than seeing her naked did. Her nipples are hard, poking through the pink material and teasing me beyond belief. “We have to go get Levi.”

“What is he in jail for? Maybe he needs a night in the slammer just to learn a lesson.”

“He was protecting me. I have to get him out.” She slides her arms through a jacket and pulls a pair of jeans over her shorts, no doubt opting to spare herself from me watching her naked ass while she moves around the room. A part of me is relieved about that, and the other part wants to grab her by the hair and tell her exactly what she should be doing with me in her bedroom.

She’s off limits. Remember that, you asshole.

“I’ll get him out. You don’t need to be at the police station. She looks over at me, almost frantic while I wait for her to fight me on this.

“I should go with you.” She begins to rush around the room gathering a bag and brushing her long, damp hair.

“Sure as fuck didn’t see the two of you hitting it off quite as hard as you have. Since when did you start liking Levi?” She stops mid stroke through her hair before she points it at me with a glare in her eye.

“You do not get to do this. I came to that party looking for you. You. Pushed me away.” There’s a quiver in her voice before she turns away to busy herself again.

“I know what I said. I still feel the same way as I did last night.” She doesn’t get to know what that truly means. I’ll let her believe what I worked hard to make her see last night. No matter how tempted I am to walk over to her right now and pull her curvy body against me, I have to keep a distance.

“Let’s get him out and then I’ll leave you alone and never bother you again. I just don’t have a car right now.” She refuses to look at me and I don’t force her to.

“What happened to your Jeep?”

“It broke down. Let’s go. I don’t want him there any longer than he has to be.” She walks out of the room and opens the front door. I watch her lock three different deadbolts and that only adds to my list of questions that I’ll have to ask before the night is over. “I see you still love your sports cars.” She makes a quick comment before she opens the passenger door and slides in. I don’t respond because she’s right. It’s my one vice in life. She doesn’t need to know just how many I have stashed in my storage garage downtown.

The rev of the engine breaks the awkward silence in the car and it isn’t until I look over at her that I see her attention focused on the house next door. It takes me a second to see the weasel sitting on his porch just watching us. “Is that the fucker that Levi was talking about?”

“Please don’t do anything. Let’s just go get him out and try to forget this day ever happened.” I choose to listen to her only because I don’t want to even think about going to jail at the same time as Levi and her being left out here with some fucker, especially when I don’t even know the full extent of what has happened.

I do as she requests and I drive us both to the police station. When we arrive, she seems nervous and no matter how strong my instincts are to protect her, I simply open her car door and wait for her to stand next to me.

I’ve asked a bail bondsman to meet me here and it’s reassuring to see him already working with the officers when we walk in. “He’ll need to be present for his court date in two weeks.” It’s quickly obvious that Levi won’t simply be getting a slap on the hand over what has happened and I’ll have to find out what in the hell went on tonight. One look at Kali and I can see regret written all over her face as she takes in what’s being said.

She stops a tear from falling down her cheek and I feel a twinge inside my chest that reminds me of the way I felt when I tried to protect her all those years ago. I know I shouldn’t want to kill someone for her hurting like she seems to be, but apparently, it’s in my nature and something I’m never going to stop doing.

Kali

This day is never going to end. Being inside this place again just reminds me of the hell that asshole has gotten away with all these times. It makes me crazy to think he’s turning this all around now and playing the victim when I’ve tried to get him taken in for being the creep he is and he always seems to slip through the system, no matter how many times I turn him in.

I’m to the point now that I have no faith that justice will ever be served unless something accidentally happens to him when he tries to come into my house again. If that’s what it takes to make this end, then that’s what I’ll do.

I hate that Levi and Noah are now involved. The last thing I wanted was for Noah to find out and start trying to help when he’s made it very clear how he feels about me. I can’t handle him dipping in and out of my life and if he thinks I’m in danger, that’s exactly what he’ll try to do.

“Please wait in the lobby and we’ll process his release.” The young officer seems helpful now that there are two men here with me. It’s amazing how different things are when you come with friends.

Noah pulls the bondsman to the side and they both talk quietly so I can’t hear. I sit and take in everything that’s happened today and wish like hell I could go back to yesterday and never go to that party. It appears to be the turning point that made everything in my life complete chaos.

“All right, get me the fuck out of here.” I stand the second I hear Levi’s voice. He looks at me instantly and the grin on his face may be misplaced in this situation, but holy shit I needed it. He walks over and wraps me up in his arms. His warmth is exactly what I needed and I don’t even look to see if this is pissing off Noah. He can get over himself. This isn’t about him.

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