28
Kane
Fuck Me Up
It’s the middle of the night, silent, but for the breeze outside and the tree branch that scrapes along the roof. I stand by the bars when Jess’ voice filters down the hall from the front offices.
Each word she speaks settles deep in my chest and warms me despite the cold cell I’m locked in.
Such a pretty voice.
So worthy of killing a man for.
Her presence, hernearness,releases a coil in my belly that wound up and took root the second Flynn gave me an envelope full of photos.
The drop was a bust. Everything was a fake, and the second the cops arrived and Chad slid out of the shadows, the feeling that Jess was involved somehow settled in my gut and almost made me sick. I wondered if Abel sent me to the truck stop as a distraction.
While I was looking left, he could snatch Jess and hurt her on my right.
But now I hear her voice.
She’s safe. She’s near me. And she’s sister to a bunch of cops.
I have work to do. Men to kill. A real-estate agent to fuck up. And a woman to get help.
And it all needs to be done before I’m gone.
Soon.
Soft sneakers on the concrete floor move closer and make my heart slam against my chest. For the first time since we met, I’m nervous to see her. For the last time ever, I’ll warn her off and send her on her way.
Shyly, almost like she’s lost, Jess wanders down the hall. I see pale hands first, then jeans. Long blonde hair hanging low. I’ve spent a week running my hands through that hair while I made silent promises of a lifetime of servitude.
I didn’t make my promises out loud, because she can never know that I’ll still be watching.
Even when I’m dead, I’ll be watching.
Bright blue eyes lock onto mine, almost in shock, like she never expected to find me here. Instantly, Flynn’s photos pop into my mind. The tears in her sad eyes. The welts on her body.
So much fucking pain and devastation.
I reach between the bars before she runs and hook her around trim hips. Yanking her to the bars, I pull her in until the breath explodes from her lungs.
“What t–”
“Why are you here, Blondie? I told you to stay with your friends until I came for you.”
“Let me go!” For the first time since we met, she works to push me away. Even when I was a murderer, a scary thug with more ink than skin, she never ran away.
She was a magnet that was stupidly drawn to me.
Stupid, because I was the most dangerous person she would ever know.
This night, right now, might be the last time I’ll ever hold her. It might be the last time my hands will be on her hips. The last moments I’ll have with her. I’m under police watch, which means Abel’s done with me. Whether I nark or not, he’llassumeI did. Which makes me a dead man. But despite my desperation to touch her, to promise my heart and all my worldly treasures, tears spring to her eyes as she pushes away from the bars.
Tears, just like in the pictures.
“Please stop. Please let me go.”