Page 27 of With This Ring

I push at them both and throw my arms out wildly, but I may as well be hitting them with feathers for all the good it’s doing. They manage to muscle me outside into a back alley, where another man is waiting, leaning against the green dumpster.

In my inebriated state, I stagger as far away from them as possible, to make sure I have them all in my sights.

Two have blond hair like me, but with brown eyes and the one that was waiting outside is black haired. As much as I can, I catalog their features, knowing if they don’t kill me, I’ll fucking come after them.

I’m drunk off my ass, but I try to clear my head enough so I can memorize as much as I can about them. One of the blond men is taller and slimmer than the others, with a tattoo of wordson his neck that says Lover Boy.Lover Boy?The fuck kind of shit is that? Carter has tattoos all up and down his body, but he’d never tat some dumb shit like that on himself.

The other blond man has a scar above his eyebrow that trails down the side of his face and pockmarked skin. Mr. Black Hair is classically handsome with a square jaw and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. If I wasn’t practically obsessed with my husband and his deep aquamarine eyes, I’d try to shoot my shot at my possible attacker, even now knowing they don’t mean me any good.

The blond with the shitty tattoo steps closer to me. “Give up your wallet and we’ll let you keep your life.”

Chuckling, I worm my way out of my jacket, tossing it to the ground so I can get to my knife faster. “Do you know who the fuck I am?” I slur, the words almost blending together.

“Don’t fucking care who you are,” black hair says, bending down to pick up a discarded bottle. He cracks it over top of the dumpster, the jagged ends flashing in the pale moonlight. “The wallet. Hand it over.”

“I ain’t givin you shit.” It’s not smart. I could toss them my wallet and try to get away, but that’s not me, drunk or sober.

My head is fuzzy, and my fingers don’t want to work, but I try to reach for my knife. My hand grabs at nothing, so I take my eyes off the men for a split second. That’s all it takes for them to be on me, fists and kicks aimed at me.

I fall to the ground, my head hitting the asphalt behind me with a thud. Over and over, kicks are aimed at my face, my gut, my back. Anywhere they can reach. I feel none of it because of the alcohol coursing through my veins, but I do feel myself slipping. Before I sink into unconsciousness, I want to give them something to remember me by.

Rolling onto my side, I make it seem like I’ve given up. That stops the ass whooping and someone bends to take my walletfrom my pocket. Gripping the handle of my blade that I finally found, I bring it up in an arch, slicing through flesh. Blood sprays on my face as whoever took my wallet cries out.

“Fucking son of a bitch.” Mr. Black Hair. I open my eyes and see blood leaking from his cheek.

“Messed up your pretty face,” I mutter with a grin.

He snarls and grabs me by the collar of my shirt. With an angry shout, he slams my head on the ground three times.

Gasping, I try to hold on to consciousness, but it’s a losing battle. My vision fuzzes out, the last thing I see is their backs as they run off down the alley, leaving me here to die.

CHAPTER 11

CARTER

Listening to people cry ranks about as high on my list of shit I can’t stand doing as getting a root canal. But I have to honor the men that gave their lives in service to my family, so I listen to their wives or girlfriends or mistresses wail and holler about justice. Of course there will be blood. I won’t let what happened go unavenged.

Dad and I promise to pay for the services of everyone that was killed before we wire them each a million dollars. We also told them if they ever needed anything in the future, not to hesitate to ask. Their men died for us; we’d always take care of them.

The whole time I was talking to the families, however, my mind kept flashing back to Kai and the pain that was evident in his eyes before he stalked away from me. It was an expression I never thought I’d see on his face and one I didn’t think I’d care about if I did. But it’s really fucking with me that my words caused that look in his eyes.

I’m a fucking fool for thinking aboutmorewith Kai. And that more means not fucking hurting him.

I guess when I finger fucked my cum into him and told him I owned him, I meant that shit. Too bad my brain didn’tcatch up to that memo before I shot my mouth off about the shit I observed between him and Charlie. Now I have to fucking apologize. I don’t apologize. It’s not something I do, because I’m never fucking wrong. But the pang I keep getting in my chest as I think about the hurt expression on Kai’s face, the one he couldn’t hide, I know that this time, I was dead fucking wrong.

Dad comes to the house with me so we can go over what happened with our delivery and the fuckers that blew up our money and men. My house is closer, and I want to get out of this fucking suit.

After I get changed into a pair of jeans, a loose t-shirt and stuff my feet into combat boots, I trek down to Kai’s room. Now that I think about it, I haven’t been to his room since he moved in and I showed him where he’d be sleeping. Kai also hasn’t been to my room. We’ve been moving around each other, less like roommates and more like strangers.

Well, strangers that fucked once.

My cock twitches as I think about Kai’s ass around my dick. Fuck, he was tight, hot, and fucking slick for me. I wonder why he was so wet, why his ass was prepped and ready for me to slide in. Was he fucking himself on his fingers? On a dildo?

I have to stop in the hallway before I get to his room to arrange my cock in my pants. Thinking about Kai’s plump ass swallowing a dildo as he fucks himself on it has my dick so hard, I can’t walk straight.

It takes a few seconds to get my dick to stay put against my left leg, but I get it in place so I can talk to Kai. Hopefully, I won’t try to fuck him when I see him. But when those gray eyes land on me, I sometimes think with my cock, not my actual brain.

Blowing out a long breath to prepare for Kai’s taunting when I apologize, I knock on his door. I stand outside like a fucking asshole, waiting for my husband to deem it necessary to allow me inside his room. I should just fucking barge in.

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