Page 20 of Savage Obsession
Roman doesn’t look over. He stays angled toward the night, a shadow watching for more shadows. I square my shoulders, raise my chin, and shake each hand I’m offered, feeling the weight of their attention and the unspoken question in every set of eyes. They are all wondering how the hell I wound up in their brother’s bedsheet in the middle of a snowstorm.
Fair enough.
“I know it’s proper to offer coffee or something hot on a night like this,” I say, forcing a smile, “but I have no idea where Venom hides his mugs.”
Storm snorts, already moving toward the tiny kitchenette. “Given Venom’s a coffee addict, there’s a stash big enough to caffeinate an army. I’ll get it going while you—” he flicks me a quick glance, not unkind “—spill the beans.”
I watch him move like he’s done this here a hundred times. “How do you know I have beans to spill?” I ask, genuinely curious despite the fear crawling up my throat. Not that I don’t want to tell them everything, but I’m curious as to how easily he reads me. I mentally add that to his list of traits.
Storm huffs a dry laugh as he finds the filters without looking. “Five men do not stop whatever shit they are doing to go hunt down the rebel daughter for nothing. You have something they want. Plus, you were out in this, crashed your SUV, and then the good Doc here saved you. It’s written all over your face, too. You don’t carry bad news well, it sits on you heavily and smothers out the natural light you carry. We all see it.”
My mouth hinges open. “Well, damn.” I blow out a breath. “What am I? A walking neon sign?”
Venom lets out a low laugh. “Something like that,” I watch as his mouth tips with a smile. “Good people usually project and it’s easy to read.”
He brushes a knuckle down my arm and murmurs, “I’ll get dressed.” He looks at the blood on his shirt at the same time I do. Then he’s gone down the short hall, leaving me with his brothers and the thud of my pulse.
I look at the Vulture on his knees silently judging me. Like he has any right to. He’s one of the worst on my father’s crew. There’s nothing he won’t do to someone if his president orders it.
My sheet slips, and I tuck the edge between my breasts. “I have something to tell you. But before I do, I need to go back to my SUV. I left something important. Without it, I can talk all night and it wouldn’t mean a thing.”
“Stupid cunt.” the Vulture spits on the floor in my direction. “Your father will see you in a grave for this.”
Roman moves from the door so fast I don’t track what he does until the Vulture is picking his face up off the floor.
“Watch your mouth,” Roman states flatly.
Okay then.
“Um, thank you. I guess. That makes only three people in my entire life who have stood up for me. My mom, Venom and now a man I’ve just met that wears a scowl like a permanent mask.
“Are you talking about this?” Roman holds up my phone by the corner, the glass cracked and a smear of my dried blood across the front.
My heart leaps to my throat. I cross the room, aware of every eye tracking me, keeping my movements careful and open palmed. Caine blood makes people nervous. I understand.
“Thank you,” I say, stopping a breath away. I hold out my hand. “May I?”
Roman studies me for a beat that feels like he’s using an x-ray on me. I look him square in the eye and let him look for whatever it is he needs to find. I see a depth of pain simmering just below the surface of control in the man. Another second and he blinks. I guess he thinks I’m okay, because he steps in just enough to pass my phone over.
The screen is spiderwebbed but alive. I can work with that.
Roman leans in a fraction more and pitches his voice low for just me. “You are a brave woman. No one holds my gaze longer than a second. Venom better watch his back, or I'll take you from him.”
The words hit something tender. I lay my fingers lightly over his for a fraction of a heartbeat then take the phone and retreat to Venom’s side as he returns, fully dressed, clean and looking at Roman like he might murder him in his sleep.
“Well, gentlemen we find ourselves all huddled together once again in the middle of the fucking night over coffee mugs and secrets. Shit just keeps getting deeper with the Vultures and Euphoria. It’s about damn time we break this ring up and bury these fuckers.”
Ash doesn’t mince words and I can appreciate him being so done with all the violence and the nature of what Euphoria has caused.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Beast rumbles from beside Ash. His voice is surprisingly gentle despite the menace he carries like a second skin. “I know the man’s your father, but you have to understand he’s also?—”
“Hurting people.” My voice is steady now. I won’t cry here. I won’t. “Hurting hundreds if not thousands of people with his actions. I know. My brother fell victim to Euphoria, and he keeps on pushing it, cooking it, selling and doing anything he can to get it into more hands so more parents can lose their kids to the drug that can never kill.” My stomach rolls with disgust. “It is the biggest damn lie I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Silence hangs in the cabin. Storm hands me a steaming mug of coffee. My fingers are shaking hard enough I almost drop it. Venom takes it, curls my hands around his instead, and holds it with me.
I hold my phone up and proceed to tell them how I ended up crashing on their property line in my pajamas. “This will explain everything.”
“Wanna start at the beginning?” Reaper sets his mug down and crosses his arm over his wide chest. Roman closes the door andcomes to stand by the Vulture still shaking in the middle of the floor.
