Page 2 of The Hate We Breathe
JULIET
Present Day…
It’s funny how just one thing can change the entire course of your life. Thirteen years ago, I’d said something to the right person—someone who listened for a change and stopped ignoring the truth in front of them—and Lex’s life had been forever altered. It’s hard to understand the domino effect that followed that one moment.
Cause and effect. Actions, reactions, and consequences. It feels like nothing should have that kind of power—certainly not the death of one person.
But it does—peopledo.
Without people, there wouldn’t be society. Without monsters, there would be no heroes. And without death, there wouldn’t be life.
Irony, thy name is fate.
As I ride back to Silverwood in the back of a van owned by none of the Scorpion Kings with one of my hands clutched in Lex’s and the other in Gio’s as the fourth and final member of our fucked-up group sits in the front next to Viks, I contemplatethe scene we’d left behind. The open bloodied wound of Morpheus’ chest and the knife jutting straight out of it. The lacerations. The blood. The…reliefthat swells up within me.
These last few weeks notwithstanding, I’d spentyearsterrified of one man. Years of repressing the memories and the nightmares. It’s over now, but it doesn’tfeelover. It can’t be that easy.
My mind can’t seem to wrap itself around the fact that he’s dead. Morpheus is gone and he can’t come back fromthe graveto hurt me.
“Jules?” I nearly jump at the sound of Gio’s whisper next to my ear.
Turning my head in his direction as his fingers squeeze around my own, I don’t pull away from him as Gio leans closer and nuzzles the side of my face. “Are you okay?” he asks, keeping his voice in that low tone.
My eyes cut to where Viks is driving at the front of the van. Almost as if the man senses me, his gaze flicks up into the rearview, meeting mine for a brief second. I don’t pull away from the depths that stare back at me. When, after a beat, he returns his attention to the road, I don’t feel as if I’ve won any great battle, but I am tired. Exhaustion burrows into my bones and I sag into the men on either side of me. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since I left them.
Tonight will be different. Tonight, I’ll go to sleep in their arms and wake up still there. Tonight, I’ll close my eyes to the knowledge that Morpheus Calloway—my father’s best friend and the man that assaulted a vulnerable teenage girl—is gone forever.
“Jules…” Despite my lack of an answer, when my muscles relax, Gio cups a hand around my neck. He gently nudges my face in his direction and when I follow the silent request, his lips find mine.
The kiss is sweet, tasting of mint and liquor. I part my lips and let him take it further as his tongue slips past and against my own. My breasts ache and my nipples pebble inside the dress I’m still wearing. My thighs press together only to be urged apart a moment later as Lex releases my hand and instead lets his fingers curl around one knee, pulling it open.
A gasp escapes me as my eyes fly open and I whip my head in Lex’s direction, but Gio doesn’t let me say a word. His fingers hold my chin and direct me right back to him as his other hand grips my second knee and keeps it pinned—my legs forced open as Lex’s other hand moves, sliding my skirt up. Fabric brushes across the tops of my thighs as Lex’s thick fingers shift between them, delving into my panties to find the core beyond soft, hot, and wet.
I’m viscerally aware that we’re not alone. The kiss that Gio uses to steal away any protests isn’t nearly enough to drive back the anxiety of Viks being there. In front, Nolan shifts in the passenger seat and glances back. He has to know what they’re doing to me, but he doesn’t say anything and instead, turns back around to strike up a conversation with our driver.
It’s dark in the interior of the van and we’re all the way in the back with the middle row between us, thanks to the suitcases and other supplies that take up half of the middle row that had forced the issue. I’m grateful now that I hadn’t been willing to wait for them to move everything and had insisted that I’d be fine in the back. More grateful that both Gio and Lex had easily followed me to hold my hands. Though, now I have to wonder if that hadn’t been because they’d been planning to dothis.
The quiet words between Nolan and Viks fill the space, but I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying over the dull thudding of my heartbeat racing in my ears. Lex pulls the crotch of my panties to the side and slides two thick fingers beneath. A low, masculine groan echoes against the side of my throat as he turnsand presses a kiss to the back of my neck which is all he can reach since Gio has my face held in stasis for his continued kiss. I bite down on the urge to repeat the sound myself.
“Fuck.” Lex’s low hiss almost makes me come—that, combined with his fingers spearing into my soaked insides and scissoring apart to stretch my walls drive me so close to the edge that I have to rip my mouth from Gio’s just to be able tobreathe.
In response, Gio releases a slow whimper that fogs into my head with a heady sense of power.
“Is she wet?” Gio whispers his question to Lex and in the next instant, the radio up front turns on.
Thank you, Nolan.Because if he knows what we’re doing then he knows neither Gio nor Lex have any plans of stopping. They don’t give a shit who else is around us and I have no energy to keep them from taking things too far. I’ve missed them too much.
“She’s fuckingsoaked,” Lex all but groans into my neck as he fucks me with his fingers. In and out, he thrusts his hand between my legs with hard, sure strokes. The muscles in my belly quiver and contract and my thighs tighten only to be yanked wider by both of them.Assholes.
“Is that right?” Gio kisses my cheek, hot breath fanning the side of my face. “Is your pussy drooling all over Lex’s fingers, Prep Girl?”
“Playboy, I swear to fucking God, if you don’t—” My threat is cut off as a chuckling Lex withdraws his hand from between my legs and slides his juice-coated fingers up to my lips. He pushes them into my mouth and drags them across my tongue, forcing me to taste myself before turning my head in his direction.
The hard, jolting kiss that he presses to my mouth is sharp and too short. “Turn towards me, baby.” He utters the command in a quiet plea and I’m helpless to resist him.
Gio assists him as the two of them reach down to unbuckle my middle seat belt and turn me so that my back is pressed into Gio’s chest and one of my legs is tucked around Lex’s back. The two of them never put on their fucking seat belts.
They definitely fucking planned this, I think, as Lex slides his massive body down and back as much as he can, practically folding me in half as he shoves both of my legs over his shoulders. My dress is pushed up farther and nudged off my hips until the fabric pools above my belly button. Harsh breaths leave my lips as my insides tighten in anticipation.
