In my car, I make a call to confirm with Rudolf what just happened. He’s less than interested in discussing the details of his conversation with his mother, but with a few clipped words, he confirms we are in the clear. I can take her and I have to still leave, but I don’t have to go completely ghost. Just lay fucking low, stay out of town and I’m good with that.
So with that one small detail of our arrangement altered, it’s just enough that if I play my cards right, Holli and I can start living our lives.
Together.
Now I just need to get to her. And hope she’s really feeling what I’m feeling. Hope she trusts me enough to fly away with me and start over.
Ten minutes later though, and she’s not replying to my texts. Not answering my calls.
I consider heading back to my house. After all, she could just be busy. Or out. Left her phone somewhere and not know that I’m trying to get a hold of her. I can head home, settle a few last details, and pick her up in the morning on the way to the airport. In my head, that makes sense. But that’s no longer me. My life no longer makes sense. The next left turn will take me back to my place. Instead, I spin the wheel right and head to her apartment.
A few minutes later, I’m taking the stairs two at a time, making my way to her. But when I reach the second-floor landing, that’s when I hear it.
Her voice.
“Stop it, you ass. Let go.”
My heart jumps in my chest. It’s far off, but it’s her. At least two more flights up but something’s wrong, and I have to go to her.
By the time I get to her fourth floor, every breath is burning my lungs. My heart nearly shatters ribs from the exertion and the fury that someone has a hand on her.
I sprint down the hall, try the handle, but the door is locked.
Nothing comes between us. Nothing. I’ll move the fucking earth if I have to. A second later, my foot becomes the universal key, breaking the lock and sending shards of wood flying. The door swings open, and there’s that Cruzer guy with a hand holding hers above her head, his other one squeezing her chin, holding her face secure.
“Let go.” Her muffled words are shut down by his hand over her mouth, and all I see is red.
“Just shut up.” Cruzer says. “Listen, just shut the fuck up, we can be in on this hustle together. Make a shit ton of money with your looks and my set ups. Maybe we can be more too.”
The promise Walrus and I made to each other never to take a life flashes through my mind and flies out the window.
His hands move to lock around her, pulling her against him, and bile hits my tongue as I lunge forward. My fist hits the side of his eye socket with a crunch.
Holli’s wide eyes go from Cruzer to me, then back.
She ducks, spins, and ends up off my left side, smart enough to know when it’s time to get the fuck out of the way and let things get handled.
“What the—” Cruzer’s hands fly up to his face.
I don’t let the piece of shit get another word out before he gets two more shots. He shrieks as the first one lands on his chin, then the next smacks right into his cheek. Blood courses through his fingers as he brings a hand to cover the pouring crimson liquid, whimpering, backing away.
“Stop! What the fuck?”
Two seconds later, I’m stuffing his bleeding ass out the front door with my foot.
“Your face. In my sight never again. You even think about her, you’ll be in the fucking river wearing a Buick as a collar.”
I slam the door behind me, and I’m on Holli like a rocket.
I don’t think of anything but getting my lips on hers. Feeling her breath in my mouth. Her body under my hands.
She’s shaking, and I hold her tighter, trying to take all the tension from her. Squeezing her against me as our lips move and open to each other. Our heads shifting back and forth as the intensity grows. My dick is thick and ready. I need to be inside her, need to provide proof that everything is okay. That we will be okay.
“One second.” I pull back, looking down into those magical eyes, and step to the door. The knob is fucked from my kick, but there’s an inside latch that will secure it from anyone else coming in. I need to be inside her in the next few minutes, or I feel like I am going to come undone.
She’s standing there with pink cheeks, and a questioning look crosses her face.
“He set it up.” Her words give me a moment of pause, the sadness behind them tightening a knife in my gut. “All of it.”
“What?”
I step to her, holding her cheeks in my hands.
“Cruzer. He set me up. Those guys at your game? The three that shoved me out?”
I draw my brows together and let her continue, but already I’m rethinking my decision to let that piece of shit live.
“They split what they took from me. And then they just did it again in an online game.” Her eyes dart to the monitor that still has the game in progress.
“How do you know?”
“I was leaving the apartment after I just lost in some online game he set up. Lost nearly every dollar I had left.” She meets my eyes. “I was saving it for my school fund. I got out the door, and he was yelling at me to come back down the hall, but I flipped him off, said a few words, and kept going.”
Her hands come up to cover her face on a deep breath. I put mine on top of hers, feeling the shaking, and draw them down, placing them against my chest.
“And?”
“But I decided I needed my bag. My keys. Stomping out without anything maybe wasn’t the smartest idea. So I went back. The door was open, and he was on the phone.”
The rage inside me builds as her eyes shimmer with tears. She’s so fucking tough, but inside there is the little girl I need to care for. The one I need to hold on my lap and tell her I’ve got this. I’ve got her back, today and every other fucking day, until I draw my last breath.
When she continues, I’m ready to peel the plaster off the walls.
“He was talking about setting me up. The three guys at your game? Same three were in this online game. They gang up on me, push me out, then Cruzer gets a cut of the winnings they take from me. And...”
She stops, her shaking stops, her tears stop, and she’s suddenly a tigress.
“Apparently, his other motivation...was to make sure I didn’t have any money to leave. He didn’t want me to be able to pay for my school because then I would have to stay here, and they would keep playing me, or bring me in on the hustle and he could also—”