“Logan told her I’m a killer,” I say. “He told her I’d kill her eventually, too.”
“Is that what this is about? You let that dweeb get in your head.”
“I was already there.”
“Look, man. I’m not a candy man. I don’t sugarcoat shit. Truth be told, maybe Pri can’t handle the truth, but you have to tell her anyway. And truth be told, maybe it’s not the right time. Maybe she has a hero complex right now for you. Make sure it’s real before you tell her. I don’t know what is real shit or not for you two, but hear this and hear it well. Don’t assume walking away from her is the best way to love her. That’s you fucking up. And on that devastatingly brilliant note, I have to take a piss.” He hands me the bottle, stands up, and disappears.
My mind is replaying this night again. Pri’s parents betrayed her. Logan betrayed her. And then I did the same. I set the bottle down and get up, wasting no time finding Pri. She’s laying down in a lounge area now, a blanket pulled over her. My heart swells just looking at her. If that doesn’t mean I’m in love, I don’t know what does.
I stand there a minute, just looking at her, afraid of waking her up, but she must sense I’m there. Suddenly she jerks up, spies me, and sits up. Then she’s staring at me. And I’m staring at her. And what I see in her eyes is pain hidden behind bravado. Pain I want to erase. I slide down beside her and she holds up a hand. “Adrian—”
My mouth closes down on hers. She resists, at least she holds back, her body stiff, but when my tongue meets hers, she moans and softens in my arms.
For the moment, she’s mine again. And I want that moment to last. Our lips part and I say, “We’ll talk later, really talk. But I need you to be okay with that, baby, because I’ve been drinking, but the idea of you up here and me back there, I don’t like it. And Pri, I’m—”
“I don’t like it either,” she whispers, her fingers curling on my jaw. “Later is okay.”
I kiss her again, wild, passionate, out of control when we can’t be out of control on the plane, not with all the company we have. I lay down with her, behind her, and wrap myself around her. I do exactly what I told myself before I got on this plane that I shouldn’t do. I hold onto her.
Chapter Thirteen
ADRIAN
I lay there holding Pri as the plane hums, steady and calm now, perhaps the first steady calm we’ve had for weeks. Pri falls asleep almost instantly and I wonder if she feels what I do, that we’re above it all here, all of it, the bullshit, the danger, where we can just exist without looking over our shoulders. It also tells me that when she’s with me, she feels safe.
She feels safe.
Despite Logan screaming about me killing her.
I hold her a little tighter and shut my eyes, and I’m instantly drifting into that haze of near slumber with my mind not quite willing to let me rest. Suddenly it seems I’m in the past, sitting at a bar table with Waters in between me and Deleon. It was the first time we were the pack of three we became.
“I need her,” Waters says, motioning to the woman in the red dress at the bar.
Unease rolls through me, but I play it cool. “I doubt her boyfriend will agree,” I comment dryly, sipping my beer. The boyfriend in question is a good six feet plus, muscular, with tats, but he’s no King. He doesn’t stand a chance with Waters.
Waters is watching her, stroking his beard, a recent addition to a face he’s found in the press as of late after a missing woman was connected to him.
The boyfriend, or whoever the guy is with the woman, eyes Waters, and fuck, he’s got attitude. Waters wiggles his tongue at the woman, whose eyes go wide. Deleon laughs as the man puffs up and charges toward us. Deleon stands up and meets him in the middle. The next thing I know, Deleon grabs him and starts dragging him toward the door.
The woman stands up, screaming for help, completely freaked out. But there is no help in a bar packed with Devils. She and her man stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time. She runs for the door.
Waters smirks and eyes me. “Go get her for me,” Waters orders.
I sip my beer and laugh. “If you want someone to help you dip your cock, man, you got the wrong guy.” I down the rest of my drink and stand up. “I’m going to take a piss.” I head for the back of the bar, hoping like hell my gamble pays off and convinces Waters I’m not a fed. I’m the cocky-ass right-hand man he needs.