Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (11 page)

As soon as I stood up, Dominic handed me my
jeans, and I tugged them on.
 
The crowd
was silent, still as marble, watching to see what I would do.
 
I dug my keys out of my pocket and tossed
them to Dominic.
 
He snatched them out of
the air.
 
“Get Becca out of here.”

“What about her?” he asked, nodding toward
Erika who was still on her back, whimpering softly.

I looked back at Erika and gritted my
teeth.
 
I could have her locked up, but
it wouldn’t hold.
 
Technically, she
hadn’t done anything wrong, yet.
 
Becca
was hurt, but she was breathing.
 
The
enforcers would let her walk no matter what I said.
 
If I hadn’t stepped in … I gave my head a
shake, banishing the thought.
 
If I
hadn’t stepped in, I would have lost both of them.

“Let her go,” I said, more than a little
reluctantly.
 
I heard Jared chuckle, and
I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d been hoping I’d slip up and make a stupid
call.
 
The enforcers were the only ones
who had the authority to deal with reckless or unfair alphas, and they were the
only ones who wouldn’t be punished for standing up to me.
 
“She hasn’t broken any laws.”

I glared at Jared for a moment, and his
dark, laughing eyes held mine.
 
He
smirked at me, and then gave me a nod that looked something like approval.
 
I knew what he was doing.
 
Testing me.
 
He was trying to decide if I would abuse my
rank, and whether I needed to be under constant watch.
 
I figured I passed the test, though, because
he turned his back on me and walked away.

I scooped up my shirt, and as I tugged it
over my head, I heard someone say, “Shit, Jade. We need to go.”

~ JADE ~

Marcy was worked
up.
 
So worked up, that as she spoke, I
had absolutely no clue what she was saying.
 
She was speaking in half sentences, starting the thought in her head and
only giving me bits and pieces, and then jumping from one topic to the next so
quickly that I was completely lost.
 
The
gist was that I had pissed off the pack … again, which really wasn’t a new
thing.
 
I tended to piss them off a
lot.
 
Not that I meant to, it just kind
of happened.
 
I’ve always liked to
believe that it was because Erika couldn’t deal with the fact that Dominic and
I had a past, although I couldn’t swear on that, because really, it wasn’t just
Erika that I seemed to piss off.

Marcy was dragging me through the park,
hell bent on getting freakin’ ice cream.
 
The wind was cold.
 
The sky was
black.
 
And all I wanted to do was lie in
bed and pretend as if nothing was wrong.
 
I wanted to forget about the black wolf that wasn’t Dominic.
 
I wanted to pretend I had never met Aidan,
and I seriously didn’t want to think about Ray’s death and why no one was
talking about it.
 
But no, of course I
couldn’t do that.
 
Marcy needed ice
cream.

Baskin
Robbins
was just on the other side of the soccer
field.
 
We stuck to the path, rounding
the field, and from this distance, it looked as if the shop lights were dancing
through the night, as the silhouettes of customers moved passed the window.

“Shit,” Marcy said.
 
Her arm weaved through mine and she jerked me
to a stop.
 
“Jade, we need to go.”
 
She started tugging on my arm, pulling me
back the way we had come.

“I thought you wanted ice cream,” I said,
cutting her a sideways glance.
 
Even in
the dark, she looked guilty.

“Marcy!” someone shouted, and I swiveled,
looking into the secluded field.
 
Someone
was walking toward us, but I couldn’t tell who it was.
 
Behind him, a small group of people, maybe
ten, were gathered.

“Shit.
 
Shit.
 
Shit.”
 
Marcy looked up at me with wide eyes and
chewed on her bottom lip for a second, thinking.
 
“If he asks, you begged me to go out, okay?”
she whispered, her eyes pleading.

“What?” I asked, completely lost, and I
glanced back at the group.
 
Had they been
there the whole time?
 
I didn’t know, and
not knowing made me crazy nervous.
 
I
should have noticed them.
 
I should have
been alert, not worrying about some boy that I had hardly talked to.
 
If Aidan wanted to be part of the pack, that
was his problem, not mine.

“Trevor,” she said urgently.
 
“He told me to stay home tonight.
 
Please, Jade.
 
Just please say this was your idea.”

I wanted to shake her by her shoulders —
literally.
 
“What does Trevor have to do
with anything?” I asked, not bothering to try to hide how pissed off I was.

“He’s my awesomesauce news,” she mumbled,
averting her eyes from mine.
 
She started
kicking at the ground, digging a little hole in the grass with the toe of her
shoe.

Clearly, she needed more than just a
shake.
 
Awesomesauce news and Trevor
seriously didn’t mix.
 
Trevor was not
awesome anything, werewolf or not.
 
He
was a complete douche bag.
 
And I was about
to tell her as much, until I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.
 
Trevor was moving in on us, closing the
distance quickly, so I bit my tongue and started pulling her down the path.
 
I didn’t move fast enough.

“Mac, what the hell are you doing here?”
Trevor shouted, snagging her arm and tearing her away from me.
 
He spun her around to face him.
 
“I told you to stay home.”

Trevor stood stiff, looking down at
her.
 
He wasn’t much taller than I was,
but his bulky frame seriously increased his intimidation factor.
 
His hoodie was snug; hugging his thick arms
and chest, and his white baseball cap shielded most of his face.
 
His jaw was locked, and his grip on her arm
looked painfully tight.

Marcy shot me a desperate look before
focusing on him.
 
“Um, Jade wanted ice
cream.
 
It’s a girl thing.
 
We eat ice cream when we’re upset.”
 
Her voice squeaked unnaturally high as she
rushed out the explanation, and Trevor shifted his glare to me.

His scrutiny made the hairs on my neck
prickle, and like a wave, they slowly rose, as a shiver traveled up my back and
neck.
 
I took a step toward him, trying
to hide how nervous I was, and clenched my fists.
 
“Take your hand off of her, Trevor, before
you lose it,” I said, glad my voice was strong and didn’t jump the way my
stomach was.

“You’re not helping,
Jade
,”
Marcy hissed at me and moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his
neck.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
She was upset about the whole Dom thing.
 
I couldn’t say no.”

Trevor stood stiff, not moving closer, but
not moving away from her either, and he kept his gaze focused on me.
 
“You should have called me,” he said through
gritted teeth.
 
“I told you I didn’t want
you walking around alone.
 
Is it really
going to be like this again, Mac?
 
Not
even a day and you’re already trying to push the limits.”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Marcy said
sweetly.
 
She brought her hands up to his
cheeks, pulling his gaze back to her, and she batted her long lashes at
him.
 
“You said you had pack stuff to
deal with tonight, and it’s not like
Baskin
Robbins
is far.”
 
She glanced over
her shoulder at me, and laid the sweetness on thick.
 
“Look at her, honey, she’s a mess.
 
Ice cream is totally mandatory right now.”

Trevor cupped her face with both hands,
thankfully not looking back at me.
 
I was
sure that if he had, he would have known she was lying.
 
“You make me crazy, you know that,
right?”
 
He bent a little, planting an
incredibly hot kiss on her, so hot, in fact, that I blushed and had to turn
away.

I glanced back at the field as I waited for
them to stop, and relief washed over me.
 
The group had pretty much dispersed, with only two of them left watching
us.

The relief died fast.

The two that were left were heading over
and as they neared us, I realized who they were.
 
Dominic and Aidan.
 
Dominic gave me a completely fake smile and
cleared his throat.
 
“Sorry to interrupt
guys, but did she just tell you that Jade wanted ice cream?”

Marcy made a throaty whimpering kind of
sound and Trevor chuckled.
 
“Yeah,”
Trevor said, his voice muffled by Marcy’s lips.

My body temperature dropped and a painfully
tight knot twisted in my stomach.
 
He wouldn’t,
I thought.
 
Dominic grinned at me and winked, and sweat
beaded up on my upper lip.
 
“Shut up,
Dom,” I hissed, and his grin widened.

“Jade’s allergic to dairy,” he said.
 
“Trev, your girl is lying to you.”

I felt my jaw drop.
 
Aidan moved a bit closer, and Dominic
laughed.
 
I was stunned.
 
Absolutely stunned.
 
Did he really hate me that much?
 
Really?

“You lied to me?” Trevor asked, pushing
Marcy back, and holding her at arm’s length.
 
His eyes raked over her as if he wasn’t really sure if he should believe
Dominic or not.

“Wwwhat?” she stammered, her eyes growing
wide and panicked.
 
She cut Dominic a
disbelieving and completely betrayed look, and said, “No, of course not.
 
Why would I lie about ice cream?”
 
It probably would have been believable if her
voice hadn’t trembled so much.

Knots twisted in my stomach.
 
I couldn’t think.
 
We had been so close.
 
So close to just walking
away.

Trevor growled.
 
It came from the back of his throat, and his
eyes flashed yellow.
 
Marcy started to
squirm, trying to shake him off.
 
I shot
Dominic the coldest look I could muster and he chuckled, and mouthed, ‘
Do your thing.’

It took me a second to process it, but once
I did, I almost laughed.
 
If I hadn’t
wanted to kill Dominic at that very moment, I probably would have roared with
laughter.
 
He was setting us up.
 
Except, we had been seconds away from walking
away, and Marcy had been handling it just fine without Dominic’s seriously
unneeded help.
 
I wanted to march over to
him and smack that grin off his face, but instead, I groaned and stomped up to
Marcy.
 
“Have you lost your mind?” I
snapped, grabbing her arm and tugging her out of Trevor’s hold.
 
“Mac, he’s already broke your heart
once.
 
What the hell is wrong with you?”

Marcy didn’t miss a beat.
 
Confusing Trevor had always been the easiest
way to get his temper down to a bearable level.
 
And Trevor, well, he wasn’t exactly the smartest werewolf of the
bunch.
 
She jutted out her bottom lip in
a pout.
 
“You’re supposed to be happy for
me.”

Dominic chuckled, swiftly moving in between
Trevor and Marcy, cutting off Trevor’s attempt at grabbing her again.
 
I tugged her a bit further away, before
throwing my hands up in the air.
 
“He
cheated on you.”

Dominic’s chuckle turned into a
full-bellied laugh, and I shot him a murderous glare.
 
Why he felt the need to set up a distraction
was lost on me.
 
He could have just ended
it, pulled rank on Trevor, and made him walk away or even better, let us handle
it.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Marcy said,
pacing around me until both Dominic and I were effectively blocking Trevor from
her.

I followed her movement, crossing my arms
over my chest and rolling my eyes.
 
“Oh,
I’ve got to hear this,” I said dryly.
 
“A misunderstanding?
 
How exactly did you misunderstand seeing his tongue down Erika’s
throat?”

“Okay, so maybe it wasn’t entirely a
misunderstanding.
 
But he promised he
won’t do it again.”
 
She went up on
tiptoes and glanced over my shoulder, smiling sweetly.
 
“Right, honey?”

“And you believed him?” I said, before
Trevor had a chance to answer.

“I’m happy, Jade,” she said, and stomped
her foot.
 
“Can’t you just let me be
happy?”

Dominic was roaring with laughter, and it
took everything I had not to burst out, too.
 
Trevor looked so lost, his gaze shifting back and forth between us as if
he was watching a game of tennis.
 
Another minute or so of this, and we’d be able to walk away; I was sure
of it.

“Babe,” Aidan said, stepping in front of
me, “
give
her a break.”
 
He slung an arm around my waist, pulling me
against him, and nuzzled my neck.
 
“Trust
me,” he whispered in my ear, his lips brushing against my earlobe.
 
My breath caught in my throat and I tried to
push him away.
 
He looked down at me with
that knee-melting smile of his and whispered again, “Trust me.”

~ AIDAN ~

Jade gave me a
dirty look.
 
Not just a little dirty, but
mud puddle dirty.
 
I tried to pretend
that it was directed at someone, anyone else, but it wasn’t.

I
should let go,
I thought.
 
I
should let go and just walk away.
 
But watching her manipulate one of my wolves, without a shred of
violence … It was amazing.
 
She was
amazing.
 
And all I could think about as
I watched her was touching her.
 
Being closer to her.
 
I needed her.