Page 24 of Wicked Pursuit

Understanding dawns, bringing with it even more humiliation. He’s asking if I was assaulted. If it was a justified kill. It would be so easy to lie, but I can’t. I justcan’t. Not about that. “That’s not what happened.” Yes, he kept going even after I had tried to get him to stop, but if he hadn’t been about to be murdered, I don’t know that I would have stopped him… And, sure, he wasn’t exactly honest about who he was, but I didn’t slow down enough to verify… Gods, my head hurts. Maybe it turned into an attempted assault, but that’s not the real reason he’s dead and it feels wrong to pretend he died for any other reason than the selfish impulsiveness that led me to that bar with the intent to fuck my stalker.

Uncle Hook’s shoulders dip the tiniest bit. “If you?—”

He doesn’t believe me. “Jesus fuck, he didn’t do anything to me I didn’t want him to. I went back there of my own free will. Things got out of control, but not likethat.”

His brows slam down, but he seems to rein himself in forcibly. Probably still wondering if I’m protesting too much. This man has been a fixture in my life since I was born. He won’t believe that I killed a man in cold blood any more than my parents will.

Ididn’tkill the man in question, but that seems a small-enough detail considering the fact I’m responsible for his death. More unforgivable yet is the fact that my body still thrums from what Wolf did to me. I came harder with him than I’ve ever orgasmed with anyone else before. All with a dead man at my feet.

8

We make the rest of the trip in silence. As promised, Hook delivers us to the tall building that houses both his family and his crew. These days, Michelle has her own suite on a completely different floor from her parents. Part of me wonders if she’ll be waiting for me too. This reeks of a shitty intervention, but that’s not fair. I’m in a mess of my own making, and as angry as I am with my best friend, if I were in her position, I can’t say I would have done anything differently. Iamacting out of character. Reckless. Putting myself in danger. I can’t even argue that I’m not, because Wolf is proving himself to be a threat right down to his bones. He’s killed at least one person. Likely more.

Upstairs my parents wait for me with Aunt Tink. Mom rushes to me the second we walk through the door. She grabs my hands and surveys my body. No, she’s looking at the blood spattered across my front. “Are you hurt?”

I’mchanged. Altered into something unrecognizable. But hurt? “No.”

“Who was he?” This from Dad. He’s gotthatlook in his eyes, the one that promises violence to anyone who crosses those he cares about.

“One of mine,” Uncle Hook says. “He’s been with us for nearly a decade; he’s a bastard, but she says it was consensual.”

I give him a sharp look, not liking how he phrased that. “Itwasconsensual.” At least to start with. But explaining that means explaining what I was really doing there, which means explaining Wolf, and I’m not ready to have that conversation.

Mom surveys me with those big dark eyes that are like staring into a mirror. “Tell us what happened.”

Now is the time to come clean. To confess that things got out of control with Wolf. To tell them that I have a stalker who’s dangerous and violent. To explain that I encouraged him despite knowing what a shitty idea it was. I don’t know why the words won’t unstick themselves from my throat. Surely it’s better to tell the truth than to have them staring at me like they’ve never seen me before.

I’m not ready to give him up yet.

I am afool. I’m the girl in the horror movie running up the stairs even as the audience screams at me to call the cops, to yell for help, to do anything but help orchestrate my own violent death.

I have to saysomething, though. I take a deep breath. “Luke and I broke up. I guess I’m rebounding pretty hard, and I went looking for trouble. I was in the bathroom to hook up with that guy.” One of my fathers makes a choked sound, but I keep my gaze on my mother. “Someone came in when we were in the middle of it. A guy I don’t know. He killed, uh, the guy I was hooking up with and took off when Uncle Hook started yelling.”

“The guy.” Aunt Tink snorts. “Gods, Ruby, you don’t even know the name of the guy you’re fucking?”

Mom doesn’t look at her. “What we’re not going to do is slut shame my daughter.”

“Who’s slut shaming? I’m just commenting on good survival instincts.” She shrugs, completely unrepentant. “In the future, stick to college boys and businessmen, Ruby. And get their name first.”

“That’s enough.” Da steps between me and Aunt Tink. “Let’s go home.” He cuts me a sharp look when I start to protest. “Now isnotthe time to cling to your independence.”

“Okay,” I finally say, feeling very small.

He turns to Uncle Hook. “Do you need any assistance in the aftermath?”

“No. I’m going to keep this in-house. She was never there. He’s not normally one to get into bar fights, but it’s as good a story as any. You stay in this line of work long enough and old grudges have a way of catching up with you.”

They exchange a look steeped in meaning and history. “Thanks for getting our girl.”

“Anytime.” Hook glances at me. “Don’t stay mad at Michelle for too long. She was only trying to look out for you.”

Honestly, as angry as I am at Michelle, the truth is that her instincts were spot on. Iwasin over my head and sinking fast. I still am.

Mom doesn’t release me the entire way back to the estate. My parents do one of their mindmelds, and my fathers peel off, leaving Mom to deal with me. The reprieve won’t last, but they’ve obviously decided that Mom has the best chance of the three to get the truth out of me.

She barely waits for us to walk into my childhood bedroom before she starts in on me. “It’s hard to lose your first love, but that’s no excuse to put yourself in danger, Ruby.”

“I know.”

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