Page 15 of Deviant

This was the last thing we needed right now. Abbott De Luca had the power to fuck up my life all over again, only this time it would be for something I’d actually done. I’d kidnapped Alex, and if he brought that to light, I could kiss my exoneration goodbye and say hello to a new prison cell. Alex wouldn’t go along with him this time, but the man still had some clout, or he wouldn’t be out of prison so soon.

And then there was Zach’s claim that Abbott was behind the death of Alex’s mother, but without proof, her old man was just another common criminal. Corporate crime was a far cry from murder.

This could send her over the edge.

I set the laptop aside and ran my hands down my face, mind racing with the what-ifs. Reckless decisions were part of her DNA. But at the root of her soul, she was brave and as stubborn as a mule. She wouldn’t back down until she got the closure she wanted, and if she found out her father was a free man, I had no doubt she’d go after the answers that had been plaguing her, regardless of the danger he posed.

She needed a damn distraction.

Like a fucking wedding—something to keep her focused and safe from rash behavior. I’d let her stew in the bedroom for the night, then I’d give her what she wanted.

And while she was preoccupied with dresses and flowers and champagne, Jax and I would figure out what to do about Abbott Fucking De Luca.

7. Breaking the Shackles - Rafe

The next morning, Alex launched a table lamp at my head as soon as I opened the bedroom door. I ducked, and the thing ended up in pieces on the floor in the hall. She stood on the other side of the messy bed, her eyes a deep shade of green I’d come to recognize as dangerous. Sunlight streamed through the curtains, catching the natural highlights in her dark curls from our weeks spent in the summer heat.

“How could you?” The accusation was a snarl from her kissable lips, but underneath the vehemence in her tone, I couldn’t ignore the hurt. She glared at me, her tits heaving underneath the tight material of her tank top. I was tempted to punish her for putting it back on.

“Babe, calm down.”

“Calm down?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “You left me chained to the bed all damn night.Alone.”

It was thealonepart that pushed her buttons, just as I anticipated. She was a spitfire of anger and indignation, but behind the facade lived a girl afraid of abandonment. Alex could stand on her own two feet—I had no doubt about that—but her fear of being alone without me was the catalyst for rattling her apart.

She picked up the clock from the nightstand and hurtled it through the air.

Taking cover once more, I rounded the bed and backed her into the wall next to the bedside table. I shoved her hands to the wall and scanned her arms for fresh scratches, but there were none. Despite facing the night alone in this room, chained to the bed, she hadn’t harmed herself, and that was a positive sign.

The bedroom, however, hadn’t escaped unscathed. She’d toppled over the chair in the corner, rifled through the dresser drawers, leaving clothing and kinky shit strewn about, and now that I caught a whiff of the crisp morning breeze, I realized she’d broken a window too.

“Are you done throwing your little tantrum now?”

“Not even close,” she hissed.

“Good.”

Her eyes widened, jaw going slack. “What?”

“That’s right.Good. I’m glad you’re angry. Be angry.” I narrowed the inches between us and pinned her with my stare. “Be so fucking pissed at me that you want to take my head off with flying objects.”

Considering the lamp and clock hadn’t met her wrath during the night, I assumed she’d saved them for me. Or more accurately, my fucking head.

She blinked, and I licked my lips at the sheen of tears collecting in her eyes. “Don’t fuck with my head, Rafe.”

“It’s too late for that.” I laced my fingers with hers. “Our heads are beyond fucked.”

“Why are you doing this? Can’t we…let’s just go back to camp.”

Returning to camp would keep her safer, but letting the past dictate our every move had to stop at some point.

“It’s time to get our lives back, sweetheart, and we can’t do that until you deal with whatever it is you’re avoiding.”

“I don’t want to deal with it!”

“Tough shit, Alex.”

She fought my hold, putting all her weight behind trying to fend me off. I slammed her hands to the wall again and silenced her startled cry with my mouth. As I thrust my tongue past her resistant lips, our fingers flexed, pushed, pulled. Her needy whimper threatened to tow me under.

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