Page 103 of Hate Game

“Don’t you dare!” I look up. Tears blur my vision. The light on the dash highlights his face. I glower. “Touch him, and I’ll cut off your balls and make earrings out of them.”

He chuckles. “Great visual.” His attention swivels to the rearview mirror. “Fuck. That fucker is moving fast.” Sawyer speeds up.

Whoever is behind us stays on his bumper. I see the familiar lights of a gas station up ahead. The car’s headlights disappear from the passenger-side mirror. The car pulls into the oncoming lane and speeds up. At the entrance into the gas station, the car veers into Sawyer’s path.

“Fucking moron! That suicidal maniac.” Sawyer swerves into the parking lot, avoiding hitting the GT-R. He parks and shoves the truck door open.

I wrap my arms around his big arm and hold him with all my weight as I lean back. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”

He shoves me away with one hard push. I fall backward. Fists fly. I scramble out of the car and stomp to the guys going at one another on the ground.

Malice pummels Sawyer as he shields his face from Malice’s fists. Malice rises and kicks Sawyer. “Touch her again, and you are dead. Fucking dead, you hear me?”

“Malice. Stop. He didn’t hurt me.” I set my hand on his arm. He faces me, and I gasp. Black eye. The left side of his face is swollen. Split lip. Split skin above his right brow. He’s bleeding. But if he’s here…

“Big J?”

“Knocked the fuck out.”

“Cassie…”

“Fucking put her mouth and hands on me without my consent. She means nothing to me, Rue.Youare my everything.” He pulls me into his arms. I look up in time to see him wince. He’s hurt. Where? I pull back. He crushes my body to his.

“When he took you, all I thought about was getting back to you so I could tell you I love you, babe. I am hopelessly and utterly in love with you. You are my everything, and I will never ever abandon you.”

“How can you say that when I took the purse money?”

“Took but didn’t steal. And you didn’t do it for destruction. You did it for protection. To protect Olivia. Johnny filled me in before he told me which direction the mother-effer took you.”

“Isaac. Sawyer’s guys have him.”

“Had, baby. Our crew and Isaac’s turned the tables on them. Mason’s playing a game of cat and mouse with them in the fields in the back. He gave everyone their own BB gun.”

“Call him. Tell him to stop.” I glance at Sawyer. He’s speaking with someone on the phone. “They’re not bad guys.” I swipe my sleeve over my nose. “He comforted me while I cried.”

“Aw, Rue. I’m sorry for making you cry.” He grasps my chin between his fingers, tips my face up to his, and claims my mouth. He tastes salty with a hint of iron. Sweat and blood. I deepen the kiss. He took Big J down. My guy took down Big J to get to me. Malice didn’t want me to believe he’d abandoned me. I’m his girl, his everything.

I love him. I love Malice Sterling. I open my mouth to tell him. A large body slams into me, knocking me off my feet. A blast echoes in the night. Hot pain slices across my scalp. Malice tucks me in his arms, and we duck and roll as we hit the pavement.

Another blast echoes in the parking lot. Something hot embeds in my hip. Something wet slides down my face. I touch my scalp. Gooey. Warm. I bring my hand to my face. Red. Blood. Blood?

My vision goes in and out. The pain in my hip slices down my leg. Shouts interrupt the ringing in my head. Blood. Pain along my scalp and in my hip. My eyes roll back in my head. Malice is shaking me. I’m picked up in his arms. He’s running and yelling at someone to call 9-1-1.

I cup his battered face. My poor guy. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Hush. Save your strength, Rue.”

Save my strength? I have enough strength to tell him what I’ve been wanting to say to him since the day we met.

“I love you, Malice.”

My world goes black.

39

RUE

My eyes flutter open. A large figure sits next to the bed with his head buried in his crossed arms. Dark head of hair. Rounded, broad shoulders.

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