Page 21 of Merciless Protector

“I am, and I’m going to get you out of here.” The determined set of his jaw and the pitch of his voice made me a believer.

All of a sudden, I broke down. I didn’t know if it was from postcoital bliss or plain gratefulness. I turned to hide the rush of my tears as I buried my face in his chest. “It’s really you.”

His arms tightened around me, and I knew I was right to trust this man. He stroked a hand down my back and rubbed there as I wept.

At one point, the door opened. “Boss said to give you this.”

I heard a rustling but didn’t lift my head. Then the door closed, and I sensed we were alone again.

“This is going to suck, but I need you to get dressed. We need to get out of here before Ruin changes his mind.”

I nodded my head against his body before lifting myself up. The ground was shaky as I stood, but Shawn was there with a hand to help me. Gratefully, the only thing I had to put on was a dress. It was green and sparkly, made of millions of reflective pieces larger than normal sequins. Then there were spiky tall heels which had to have been bought by a man. In my doped-up state, I wouldn’t be able to walk on my own in them because of that, and they were a size too small. I swayed on my feet when Shawn took out his phone and typed a message.

“Whoa. Are you okay?” he asked, catching me around the waist.

“He gave me something. I don’t know what it was.”

He cursed but held me with one hand and finished typing something with the other. Then he led me out of the room, which, to be honest, I hadn’t taken stock of. There was a sofa we’d sat on, and either a desk or table in one corner was all I could remember as we left.

Everything seemed so bright, with music pounding like it was pouring out of the walls as my heart raced. I stumbled a few times as we passed rooms with smells of sex and naked bodies piled on top of each other.

When we entered a larger room, men were sitting in chairs, getting blown by women and men alike. People were fucking against walls stacked in threes like a chain fuck. It couldn’t be possible. Clearly, I was so high I was seeing double. Or was I?

I was so caught up in that scene I hadn’t noticed the door Shawn pulled me through. Fresh air hit my nose and the back of my throat. Bile raced up. I let go of him, ran for the end of the concrete that met fresh grass, and vomited.

My body began to shake and then Shawn was there with a hand at the small of my back, holding me from face-planting. “It’s okay,” he repeated several times before he gave a glance over his shoulder. “We need to leave.”

I nodded but wasn’t really sure it was true. What would have happened if he hadn’t shown up? I’d kept up the bravado to myself about what I could survive. Yet I didn’t know how many cracks would have formed in my mental shields. I let him lead me around the mess I’d left and through the grass. With every step, the spiky heels got stuck in the soft ground. With frustration smeared on his face, he lifted me up, halfway curled around his body and ran for the road lined with manicured trees. Like Cinderella, one of the heels was left behind, but I didn’t care. He was here, acting like the hero I’d built up in my mind. I’d been right about him. I let myself relax some, knowing I was safe with him.

A fancy sedan pulled up as we broke the tree line. Shawn opened the door and slid me in. I tried to move quickly as he got in next to me and slammed the door shut.

“Go,” he called out.

An attractive woman bobbed her head before facing forward to follow his directions. The oddest sensation crept over me. Jealousy. I’d never felt that for anyone ever before. It puzzled me why I would feel it now. I didn’t know this man, let alone claimed him as mine. Yet there it was. The green-eyed monster was glaring daggers at the woman in front of me.

I swung my head in the direction of a masculine chuckle and found Shawn smirking at me.

“Kelsey’s just our driver for the night,” he said with a knowing smile.

Embarrassment covered my face like rose blossoms. Without looking at him, I asked an important question. “Are you taking me home?”

His answer meant everything for who I’d imagined him to be.

“No,” he said, breaking my heart for the first of many times to come.

13

MATT

If there was one thing I hated, it was the look I’d put in her eyes. Lying to her about my name was a necessary evil. I didn’t know how loyal she was to her brother. He wanted me dead and would likely use any information he could find out about me against me. I couldn’t put my twin or my parents at risk for my choice of career.

There was one thing I could do, and that was give her an option. “If you go home, you’ll put your family at risk. Ruin will know I double-crossed him. He will only want to take you back. And wasn’t your sister the original target?”

She clamped her mouth shut and curled into the opposite corner of the back seat. I almost said something when she closed her eyes. But there was nothing I could say that would make this better.

After a while, Tayla’s breathing evened out, and I guessed she fell asleep. I hated even more that I’d left the creepy little monster alive. There were many ways to kill a man, but there had been too many witnesses for me to get out clean. Tayla had been the priority.

I asked Kelsey, “Did he get out?” I didn’t say Griff’s name. I didn’t know yet how far I could trust Tayla. Kelsey would know who I was talking about.

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