Page 128 of Creed

“What happened just now?” Collins asks, her rough voice barely above a whisper. “What’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours?”

I’m not sure I could explain it in a way that doesn’t require me to bring up my shitty past, so I settle on the truth of what’s going through my mind at this moment.

I close my eyes, causing another tear to escape and I feel a warm knuckle swipe the tear away again. Two warm hands settle on either side of my face and a forehead presses against mine. Collins’ sweet fragrance fills my senses. I sniffle as I open my eyes to meet her watery gaze. I’m aware of Creed next to us, but with Collins pressed against me, it may as well just be just the two of us in the room.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, her eyes volleying between mine.

I inhale, breathing in the beautiful woman in front of me before I speak. “I didn’t believe that I could find this with someone. That I could feel this…connected. Happy.” I huff an exasperated laugh. “My entire life, all I wanted was to be loved, but instead I was told that I would die alone.”

Her face morphs to shock and disgust and she reels back as if she’d been slapped. She swipes her ice cream and takes a rather aggressive bite. “Who. The FUCK. Made you believe that?” She asks viciously around a bite of cookies n’ cream.

“His fucking cunt of a mother,” Creed bites out from next to us.

We both turn to look at him and he shrugs. “It’s true.” Collins’ eyes widen and Creed corrects himself. “That she’s a cunt. Not that you’ll die alone.” He chuckles. “Because we are never leaving your ass alone again, Ri.”

“Well, she’s fucking dead-ass wrong, so, you know, fuck her.” Collins deadpans and I can’t help but laugh. I’ve come to love these two people with my entire being and I can’t believe I get to belong to someone so special and get to keep the family I’ve found. “You’re mine, Riley Benjamin.”

A wet kiss smacks against my cheek and Creed lightly headbutts me in my temple. It doesn’t hurt, and it makes me laugh again. “You’re our boy, Ri.” He says, stealing my tub of half-melted ice cream and taking a bite before tossing it on the side table. “Hang on.” He calls as he disappears into the main part of the hotel room and returns a moment later with his guitar case in hand.

“When the hell did you sneak your guitar into the hotel, Creed?”

His face remains casual—borderline giddy—when he shrugs and says, “When I was out whooping Tony’s ass.”

“Uh, what?—”

“The fuck?” Collins and I exclaim at the same time.

Collins is out of bed and sprinting across the room and inspecting his knuckles that I’m just now noticing are swollen and some of them look like they’re split and bleeding.

“I’m not complaining, but is there a specific reason as to why you felt the need to beat the shit out of Tony at two in the morning?” I ask as Collins pulls Creed to sit next to me on the bed, sets the guitar on the floor next to us and rushes into the bathroom and emerges a second later with a wet rag.

She starts dabbing around the agitated skin gently and Creed looks at her like she’s a miracle. I note that there’s a hard edge to his gaze, though. He opens his mouth like he wants to say something but he closes it, exhaling hard through his nose before he runs his free hand through his tousled black hair.

Collins looks at him for a moment and her face pales to a sickly ashen color. “You know?”

He nods. “I know, Stardust.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, looking from me to Creed with wide, watery eyes before dropping them back down to Creed’s knuckles. “I was going to tell you both but I was waiting until the excitement of the concert wore off, but obviously we got a little… carried away.”

“Tell us what?” I ask carefully, not wanting to demand answers, but I have no clue what she’s talking about, though clearly Creed does, and it can’t be good

Collins is quiet for a moment before she recounts her encounter with Tony when Steve had pulled us aside to talk about bullshit we’d already discussed a day prior. She starts to cry and Creed pulls her into his lap and drapes her legs over mine, the two of us comforting her as she tells us about the video that he’d taken when he’d assaulted her at Viper but had no idea that it was him because of the masks they’re required to wear in those vile rooms.

Creed then tells us about how security had called and reported what they’d observed while he was on his way to get ice cream for us, and he’d taken it upon himself to kick Tony’s ass for hurting our girl. I’m shocked because Creed has never been a violent person, but it’s like he’s a completely different man when it comes to protecting Collins. I hate that he got hurt, but at the same time I’m also feeling nothing but fucking elation that Tony finally got what was coming to him.

Creed runs his fingers through Collins’ hair before he cups her jaw and raises her face to meet his. His voice is soothing, but it’s a stark contrast to the menacing, unhinged smile he’s wearing when he says, “He’s gone, he won’t so much as blink in your direction ever again.”

Collins’ face screws up and her brows furrow in confusion. Her eyes flick to mine and I shrug, a little concerned as to just how gone Tony is.

“He’s gone as in…?” She asks, like she’s afraid to know what the real answer is.

He chuckles darkly, scratching at his nose with a tattooed finger before he grins at her again. “He’s not dead, guys.” He rolls his eyes and kisses Collins’ temple. “I just had Asher’s security team take him and Steve away. Callan’s people are holding them at some compound like a couple of prisoners.”

“Wait, what?” I ask, pausing the stroking pattern I was tracing over Collins’ legs. “Steve’s gone, too?”

“Yup.” He pops the p.

“…why?” I ask slowly. I wasn’t a superfan of Steve, either, and for a moment the blood rushes from my face and now I’m afraid of his next words. Collins looks worried, too, considering the what and why of the events that went down tonight. Creed looks at me and I understand the half-truth he’s about to tell.

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