Page 46 of Wicked Ends
I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that one fucking bit.
I shifted in my seat, leaning forward and polishing off my first beer. I watched Ari unashamedly. This was my turf. I didn’t have to pretend to be anything other than what I was… the man who held her fate in my hands, holding an invisible leash.
She risked a glance around the bar, and her eyes found mine. She jerked like she’d stuck her finger in a socket.
Her full lips fell open, and I instantly remembered that moment the night before when I’d sunk my thumb inside her mouth. How she’d tried to bite me, and hurt me… to scare me away. She lacked killer instinct. Of course she did. She was the type who insisted on bandaging up a stranger’s hand. A woman who saw colors in music.
She was like no one I’d ever met before, and I wanted her. I rarely wanted anything. I’d learned often enough in my life that to want something was to be disappointed. It was safer not to expect a fucking thing, not to want or need anyone else.
I’d told myself I didn’t need a mom to make dinner when I came home from school and pat my head as I sat at the kitchen table and did homework. I didn’t need a dad who came to my hockey games and cheered me on, bragging to his friends that his son saved the decisive goal of the night. I didn’t need an older brother who worked a stable job and went to work every day without the risk of being stabbed or shot or arrested.
I didn’t need anyone. I didn’t want for anything.
But tonight, sitting across the way and watching Ari and her new friends laugh and talk, while she avoided my gaze… I wanted. I wanted her, and I wanted her to fucking want me back.
It was senseless and inconvenient, and yet, I couldn’t deny it.
And just like I’d learned the hard way that it was safer not to want at all, I’d learned that if you did, and you couldn’t stop yourself, the next most important thing to do was make sure you got that thing you wanted as soon as you could… before anyone could steal it from you.
Arianna
Marcus was here.
Marcus was here at The Clutch, and I could feel his dark eyes on me. I tried to concentrate on the story Sally was telling, but my mind was absent, sitting instead with the darkly handsome man at the back.
Sally sang a song loudly with her friend, Misty. Then Wade sang. He was in good spirits and more than a little drunk when he made his way back to the booth.
“Okay, music prodigy, you’re up next.”
“I can’t sing!”
“There’s a keyboard over there,” Misty pointed out.
I shook my head. “I’d rather just drink and listen to you guys.’”
“Boring!” Bill announced and slapped the table. “Here’s the songbook. Choose something to sing. You’ve got to.”
“Let’s let some other people have a chance,” I protested meekly. Fucking hell, I felt on display enough already with Marcusglaring at me from across the bar, never mind getting up and singing a song on stage. Nope, it wasn’t happening.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room.” I subtly pushed the songbook away from Bill and slid out of the booth.
Sally got up as well. “I’ll come with, you can never be careful enough in The Clutch.”
She linked her arm around mine, and we started in the direction of the bathrooms.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, if you’re not careful, you’ll come home with a biker boyfriend.” She grinned at me and then stopped abruptly.
A man sat at the bar, just before the back hallway with the bathrooms. He had one leg stretched out and perched against the wall, blocking access to the hallway. He also seemed vaguely familiar.
“What do you want, Maddox?” Sally asked the guy, in a far more demanding tone than I’d ever dare use on a guy who looked like that. He was handsome, arrestingly so, in an escaped felon kind of way. So, this was Kenna’s hot and dangerous brother? The family photo Kenna had recently showed me didn’t do him justice.
“Could ask you the same thing, Sal. This place isn’t for you, and you know it. Why are you here?”
Sally rolled her eyes. “Because there’s no law against it, and it’s my birthday. Go kick rocks or whatever it is that guys like you do for fun.”
“You couldn’t keep up with what guys like me do for fun, cupcake. Let me know if you want to find out.”
