Fuck me. I’ve never heard her pissed, and right now she sounds like she’s furious.
“If you were some expendable toy, I wouldn’t have put my name on you. I’d have stuck the traditional DD tat on you. I don’t foresee me being done anytime soon, but if I ever am, then you can go home. No strings attached. And I can promise I’ll keep Benny off you if something like that ever was to happen. As for the trust, you have to earn that. Everyone does.”
Pop was once the person I trusted the most, and now… I don’t even want to think about it. It’s not easy to be betrayed by the only family you have.
“I can’t earn it if you don’t give me a chance. And why does it matter? You can find anyone to do what I do.”
She’s fishing, and I really hate that she’s the one with the power right now.
“If anyone could be you, I wouldn’t be making an ass out of myself by essentially begging you to tell me where you are.”
That silences her for a moment. But the silence is brief.
“I haven’t heard any begging,” she says dryly, but I hear the smile in her voice.
Like an ass, I smile back, even though I’d love nothing more than to throttle her.
“This is me begging. Well, as close as I can get. Where are you?”
She sighs and drags out the suspense for a really long time.
“You promise not to do anything to Drake? He was only trying to protect me, which is more than your friends were trying to do.”
I glare at Axle, who averts my eyes. It can’t be hard to overhear her, since the volume on my phone is cranked up to full blast.
“Drake is safe. As for the rest, I’ll make sure that doesn’t become an issue ever again.”
“You keep saying that. Yet everyone around you keeps trying to hurt me.”
Yeah, I deserve that stab.
“Eve, where are you?”
She groans as though she doesn’t really want me to know, and I stand, pacing the room as she takes her sweet fucking time debating what to do.
“Eve,” I say softly, prompting her to hurry.
“One more thing,” she says hesitantly.
Biting back the curse that is on the tip of my tongue, I fist my free hand, growing more impatient by the second. “And that is?”
“No other girls. If you want me, then I need to be enough.” She says the words in a rush, as though she can’t get them out of her mouth fast enough.
“That’s not an issue,” I say without hesitation. It’s not like I’ve even looked at anyone else since she bounced into my life. “Now where are you?”
She’s killing me with these long pauses.
“I’m trusting you, Drex. I’ll text you the address.”
Even though she hangs up without saying anything else, the weight on my chest leaves. I walk out the door, ignoring the doctor who is speaking, ignoring my father as he calls for me, and ignoring everyone else as they chatter and ask questions.
Axle is on my heels, but I ignore him too. Dash walks out from an adjoining hallway, almost colliding with me, but I don’t ignore him. I give him one hell of an acknowledgement by landing a punch to his face.
When he goes staggering backwards, he curses, spitting out the blood that has pooled in his mouth.
“The fuck, Drex?” he snaps.
“You’re walking with a limp because of Eve. I can only imagine you’re the one who bruised her arm. Touch her again, and I won’t stop at a busted nose.”
The anger in his eyes dies, and he has the decency to show some shame. I just walk off, tearing away the hospital bracelet as I go.
“You can’t drive yourself,” Axle says as he follows me onto the elevator.
My phone chirps in my hand, and I look down to see the address she promised to send. She didn’t even have my motherfucking number. Obviously I never foresaw anything like this happening, but I still should have given her my number.
I text her back, telling her I’m on the way, but she doesn’t respond to it. Can’t say I blame her.
Chapter 3
EVE
“I can’t believe you told him where we are,” Drake groans. “I was going to speak to them after the heat had cooled down for a few days.”
Yeah, I’m nervous about the impulsive decision myself.
I eye his arm, since he’s shirtless. He’s covered in tattoos, so it’s hard to see the fresh stitches some girl did. I hope she used sterile tools for that. Not that I could watch.
“He promised me nothing would happen to either of us. I think he just wants to… I don’t know.”
Even I realize how ridiculous it sounds to say Drex just wants me back. What was I thinking?
It’s hard to believe he’d ever hurt me after all the times he’s protected me or tried to protect me. He covered my body with his when those bullets were flying in.