Page 21 of In His Veins

On our way out, we pass Paige to tell her we’re going and she waves me off like she already knew. We wait on the street for a ride to pick us up to take us back to my apartment. Drunk college students crowd the street, many of them call out to me. Nathan puts his arm over my shoulder and pulls me close so that my face is tucked into his chest. The gesture makes me feel warm. For a moment, I consider asking for his last name or maybe even his phone number. When the SUV pulls up, we slide in and his mouth is instantly on mine. I melt into the seat, barely noticing when the driver stops at my apartment.

Nathan kisses the back of my neck as I unlock my front door. As soon as we step through the doorway, he starts shedding his clothes as he backs me into my living room. I push off the straps of my borrowed dress and he pulls it down to my waist. I didn’t wear a bra tonight, so the action leaves me suddenly bare. He pauses for a moment to study me. His t-shirt is discarded on my floor, allowing me to admire the contours of his chest and abdomen.

Nathan holds me by the waist before spinning me around. My back is pressed against him and one hand loops around my stomach as the other squeezes my breast. He pinches a nipple and I cry out at the sudden pain and pleasure.

The aching between my legs increases the desperation for friction. I twist in his arms and push him toward the couch, only to flinch. For a split second, the face of Eliott took over Nathan’s. The burning of desire turned to ice. Again, I try to ignore the reaction.

Nathan grins from his seat, hauling me into his lap. My legs settle on either side of him, his hard length pushing against my core. I grasp at the button of his pants as he presses a long, hot kiss against my mouth.

“Condom?” I pant, and he nods.

He grasps my hips as he lifts me off of him a little to reach into his back pocket, studying my face as he pulls himself free and slides the condom over his thick cock. Reaching under my dress, he moves aside my thong and rubs circles over my clit. My head tips back, and I brace myself on his shoulders as he touches me. Nathan slides a finger inside me. Another version of myself might have been embarrassed by the noise it made. This man, however, groans at the sound and grips himself.

He pulls out of me for a moment, making me grind my pussy against his length. When I pull away, he’s coated in my arousal. He curses at the sight and positions his tip at my entrance with clear intention. My heart beats faster, but not in a good way. His pleasure is replaced by confusion as I leap off his lap.

“I’m sorry. I thought I-” I wrap my arms around myself, covering my exposed breasts. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He doesn’t touch me.

We’re silent as we dress—him into his clothes and me into pajamas. He walks to the door and I follow behind him.

“It was nice meeting you,” he says, a small smile on his lips. I smile politely in return.

“You too. Get home safe.” Long after he’s gone, I replay the night in my head, thankful that he didn’t take my dress completely off. The already-awkward interaction would have only been worse if he had. Lifting my night shirt, I study myself in my bathroom mirror.

My skin is marred with an array of nasty scars. My stomach clenches as I run my palm against my belly, feeling the jagged, puckered skin. I turn off the lights and climb into bed, grateful the only person who has seen them was a masked stranger in a sex club.

14

CALLUM

Eliott Cardinal’s blood is still on my hands when Ava brings a man home. I slaughtered the man who cornered her in the alley outside of The Sable House, adding him to the trash after cleaning his corpse of any possible evidence that could be traced back to me. It took very little effort for him to admit to hurting Ava all those years ago. A fitting end, in my humble opinion. I left Ava a memento soon after.

Pulling up the video feed into her apartment that morning, I’m alarmed to see that my presence must have woken her up. By the time she’s in the living room, I’m barely down the street. She’s stricken when she sees the contents of the box, but I know she’ll eventually appreciate the gift after the initial shock has worn off.

While I’m glad to have rid the world of another useless piece of shit, my hands still tremor with unspent anger. There came a point in the night that Eliott knew he was going to die. He spent that time torturing me by describing every vile way he touched Ava when she was so young. Maybe he hoped that inciting my anger would force me to kill him faster. He was, unfortunately, correct and now I have no outlet to direct this hate.

My day grows considerably worse when I pull up her video feed again to see a man in her house changing her locks. While it wouldn’t stop me from getting into her apartment, the inconvenience of it all only makes me angrier.

When I receive a call from Chase a few days later, I’m on the verge of implosion.

“Was this you?” His voice is flat, and I have little patience for his vague questions.

“Be more specific.”

“The body. It’s all over the news. They found a politician’s son in a landfill. Was it you?” He takes on a self-righteous tone similar to the one he used when we first met in the Marines. I pummeled the shit out of him then. We’ve been best friends since.

“If it was?” I keep my voice cool. As much as I’d love to use Chase as my detonator, I know it wouldn’t be fair.

“Goddammit, Cal, you can’t fucking do this. At least tell one of us so we can help you. What happened?” I’m wired so tight that even the intake of his breath irritates the shit out of me.

“He didn’t deserve to live anymore. That’s all I have to say about it.” I end the call and ignore my phone as it instantly begins vibrating again. I spend the day pacing through my house, trying to resist the urge to check on Ava. I hate the Giovanni brothers for putting me up to this. I can’t spend a single fucking moment on anything but Ava anymore, and she has no idea who I am.

I finally cave and grab my phone. Ava is leaving her apartment with Paige, wearing a slip of a dress. I feel white-hot as I climb into my SUV and slam the door. The GPS that I set on Ava’s phone leads me to a club. Vaguely remembering one of the ODs that occurred there, I know I should probably be watching for any suspicious behavior, but find it hard to pull my attention away from Ava.

After several drinks, she’s at the center of the crowd, mindlessly dancing against strangers. I watch her from the corner of the club and take in every rogue hand that strays too far in the wrong direction.

She may not know who I am, but she has to know that someone is out there, watching her and taking care of her. I’ve just decided to approach her to end this charade, when she saunters up to a man who’s been waiting for her all night. He brushes against her breasts as he grinds into her. Her head tilts back in pleasure and I force myself to watch.

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