I probed the welt on my forehead, grimacing. “That about sums it up.”
“How exactly did she get your bow?” Roan asked. He wasn’t trying to hide his amusement.
The five of us tramped through the forest—lost as hell, but figuring if we didn’t go over a cliff, we were heading in the right direction.
“Ever been knocked unconscious mid-ejaculation, Banks?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“I’ll arrange it for you.”
Roan cracked up.
“What are our chances of catching up to her?” Arsenio asked. The question wasn’t for me.
“Approximately six minutes since Cairo confirmed his location and we tripped over his body. Average healthy female— Above average due to years of farm work puts her a mile ahead in those six minutes. Prior knowledge of this area and a... high... motivation to escape,” Jacques said. “We have a slim-to-nil chance of catching up to de Souza.”
“Think she’ll do it?” Legend asked. “Leave town.”
“I read the suicide note,” Roan said. “Parents and grandparents dead. Sister fucked off. She’s got nothing keeping her here.”
“She’s got the university.” I grimaced again. What the hell? Didn’t I sound like a hopeful cuck wishing and praying my girl doesn’t leave me? That hit did more damage than I thought.
Even so, visions of her floated before my eyes. Her fleeing through the forest when I spotted her. Pouncing on my sweet little prey. Drinking the fear in those big eyes. Feasting on her screams. Absorbing her hits, smacks, and hair-pulling. The rage that burned beneath the surface even as she surrendered her submission.
I hitched my step, suddenly so hard I was limping as bad as my Rain would’ve when she ran from me. Yes, mine.
I didn’t care what deal we made. I couldn’t give a shit if she made it to Hunter’s Crest and was currently buying her bus ticket to her sister. I would find her wherever she was. We were bound together in blood, pain, and fire. As I promised her, only fate would break us.
“Up ahead,” Arsenio spoke up. “It’s the barn.”
“We follow her,” I stated. “She won’t want to run through the woods all night. Eventually, she’ll come out on the road and follow it out of town. We’ll pick her up there.”
“Three roads out of town,” Legend said. “Which, Jacques?”
“We’re closest to Abbey Road. If she heads in that direction, she’ll get as far as the river before she has to come out and cross the bridge.”
We broke free of the woods, riding the surge of renewed lust.
Now that I tasted that pussy, I wasn’t letting it get away. I nearly blacked out from her squeezing my cock alone.
“She’s on foot,” I said as we rounded the barn. “Legend, we’ll drop you and Roan off. Arsenio, Jacques, and I will wait out on the...” I trailed off.
The five of us ground to a stop, staring at the truck’s new hood ornament.
“Took you long enough,” Rainey said.
She munched on a bag of popcorn, of all things. Leaves and sticks tangled in her hair. There were smudges of dirt on her cheeks, cut through by tear tracks and decorated with my red handprints. Somewhere she found a baggy shirt that didn’t match the skirt, and a makeshift sling for her shoulder.
She couldn’t have looked more banged up and ridiculous if she tried, but reclined on my windshield, looking at me with that half smirk on her lips, it was everything in me not to tear those clothes off and have my fill for the second time that night.
And this time, I’ll get it right. I circled her. Keep those pretty hands tied.
“Surprised to see me?” She shrugged. “I told you I’d come back to you, Cairo. You didn’t have to be so impatient.”
“What can I say, baby?” I replied slowly. “The noose gave me pause.”
“A momentary lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again.”
She sat up and the guys twitched for their weapons. For the first time in our lives, we stood dumbfounded as she plucked the keys from Legend’s hands and climbed in the car.
“Well,” she prompted when we didn’t make a move to get in with her. “I considered my options, and I’m staying. Nothing and no one is driving me out of my town. If that means you and I are roomies for a while, so be it. I’ve been itching to get out of that motel anyway.”
“You understand what this means,” I said.
“I do.”
“The offer is off the table from here. Stay or run.” I leaned on the door, skimming my hand down her cheek. “You’re ours now.”
“We’re going to discuss this ‘yours’ thing.”
“No, we’re not.”
Chapter Eight
Rainey
Large, painted eyes tracked me—watching. Judging.
Fed up, my hand shot out of the covers and twisted the lucky cat around. Why did Cairo keep that creepy thing on his nightstand? Who’d want that to be the first thing they saw when they woke up?