Page 5 of Bathed in Blood

The time I caught him sneaking out of the house to go an after party for the carnival that was in town. He begged me not to tell Mom, his eyes wide and hands clasped together like he was praying. He only stopped after I pinky promised, only to lay out an entire directory of reasons why we should both go. It was the most fun I’d ever had in my life. I was jealous, though,undeniably so. Lewis never let himself be weighed down by consequences, responsibility, or anxieties. No, he just lived. He laughed and danced and did body shots off a man who had body modifications to make himself look like a lizard. He was sixteen. There sat his eighteen-year-old sister on a dusty arena bleacher, laughing and giggling at his antics, but I sat alone. It was the most fun I’d ever had because it was the most funhe’dever had. At that time, at least.

Anton leans up from where he was scowling in the backseat to offer me a drink from his flask. I take it greedily, anything to calm the torrent of nerves in my gut. “Jax, you should get back here. We’re about to hit the city.”

“I—”

“You’ll drive until you see a bar or a man. Dark hair, handsome. Shouldn’t be too hard for a pretty cunt like you.”

Yeah sure; other than the fact that the sun is setting, and I haven’t driven in four years with near night blindness. Oh, and I haven’t spoken to anyone other than the Sullivan brothers in what feels like a lifetime. I don’t even remember how to be normal… how to flirt or not be …her, the side of me they built on tears and vomit. Oh, and blood. So much blood.

My palms are slick with sweat. Thankfully, neither of my companions or the other two muscular men for hire say a word about me constantly wiping them on my pants. The music on the stereo makes it even more difficult to focus on the road, the lights of businesses taunting me with the illusion of normalcy. When it starts to rain, my pulse thuds so loudly, I can hear it whooshing in my ears.

“Hey, scout car said there was a guy stranded up ahead,” one of the men hidden in the back of the large SUV pipes up, making me jump. Four on one seems like overkill, but then again, everything with these guys is. Why Jax didn’t just makeme go with the normal trained team has me on edge. It feels like foreplay.

When the outline of a car comes into view, I swallow hard. “Shit.”

“Well, look at that. Seems God hand delivered him to you,” Anton chimes in. “If that’s not fate…”

The car up ahead is nice, too nice to be having car trouble in the rain at nine o'clock at night. I can see a tall figure walking around it, the hood up, smoke leaking from somewhere. I certainly can’t tell if he’s hot or not.

“Fuck this up, and—"

“I get it,” I cut Jax off, knowing this is one of the few times I’ll ever get away with it as they all duck below the seats.

The SUV rolls up, the stretch of road I now vaguely recognize. The city we’re coming up on is the one I lived in. Nerves flutter inside my stomach as I pull behind the car, my breath refusing to do anything but leave my mouth in rough pants.

You’re not Lana. It’s no different without the stupid costume.

We couldn’t have been driving for more than an hour once they pulled over and forced me to get behind the wheel. Another twenty minutes, and I could be home.

I could see Mom and Lewis.

The rain is cold, the way it always is in the fall, like maybe, just maybe, we could get an early dusting of snow, an unexpected frost to kill off what's left of the flowers. When he steps around the raised hood of the car, my lips part. His white, button-up shirt is soaked from the rain, his short dark hair dripping, the fabric molding to his sculpted chest and arms like you’d see in a painting.

“Uh, hi.”

Yes, brilliant.

He nods, his deep green eyes sliding over to the SUV for a moment too long. My heart slams into my chest as he studies thevehicle. “Any chance you know a lot about cars?” he offers, tilting his head as he looks back down at me.

My words are lodged in my throat as he steps closer. Holy shit, he’s hot. Deathly so. His dark black hair is cut short, the waves giving way to curls. Everything about him screams money, screams that he’s not someone who can just go missing from the side of the road without consequences.

“No, can’t say I do. Sorry, I, uhm…”

The closer he comes to me, the further I step back towards the SUV, every single fiber of my being urging me to get back in and drive away.

“Were hopefully about to offer me a ride?” He smirks, his voice a deep tenor that matches his devilish looks.

I almost say no, I really do.

“Yeah, it’s a shit night to be stranded out here. The city is pretty close.”

He chuckles, running a heavily tattooed hand through his wet hair. “Missed it by that much, huh?”

I force a laugh of my own, my fists shaking as I dig them into the pockets of my low waisted jeans. “Does the wet and mysterious stranger have a name? You know, in case I need to report you for being a creep later.” I don’t know why I ask, or why I watch him so closely as he closes the hood of his car, at the way his muscles move underneath the fabric, flexing and pulling.

I never know their names. She doesn’t care about them.

But Lana did, at one point. I used to collect them on a piece of paper folded and stuck to the back of my vanity with toothpaste. I would tell their families one day… I’d atone.

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