Devil's Despair Box Set: Books 1-3 (92 page)

Once I reach her, I grab her around the waist and she goes hurtling through the air. It has to be said that Sarah was once incredibly athletic. Her arms, legs, and back have a physical strength that few would realize simply by looking at her. Even after her weight loss months ago, she’s strong as fuck and uses her agility to thrash wildly in my arms.

I have her securely pressed against me as I carry her through the crowd of rowdy kids. As soon as we’re clear, I start to put her down, and one teenage shithead, who I’m guessing can’t be older than fourteen, goes in and grabs Sarah’s feet for no reason other than to piss me off. When I yank her foot out of his grasp, her laugh continues, but I lose balance. My back leg trips over a fake rock big enough to hide a small child. I land first, my arm bracing against the fall. Sarah lands on top of me directly after.

She’s not laughing anymore. She’s struggling.

When I sit up and reach for her, she’s holding her hip and her face looks pained.

“You okay?”

She nods, but I notice the tears filling her eyes. “Let me see it.” I reach for her shirt and raise it. I find a red welt and realize she must’ve hit the rock on the way down. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Fine,” she clips, and starts to stand. So stubborn.

I pull her back down to hide her behind a black wall that shields us from everyone in the room. “You’re sure you’re all right? Just take a minute.”

As she stands, brushing off her ass, she tells me, “I don’t need a minute, Travis. We have like five minutes left, and I’m not done with Aceface. This is our kind of family therapy and I’m not wasting a minute of it.”

Her determination, although admirable, concerns me but I give in because it’s not worth the headache. “Go.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll watch you from here.”

Before starts to walk away, she grabs her gun, turns, and shoots me with it.

I could let this shit go. Easily, I could let her walk away without retaliation, but not after the care and concern I just showed her. Shit’s about to get interesting.

With my game face on, I start to stand. Her damn gun never leaves my jacket target. “You’ll lose this,” I tell her.

“Nope.”

But by the time I stand, the five seconds have passed. So, Sarah being Sarah, shoots again and my jacket goes off
a-fucking-gain.
I don’t hesitate to walk to her, grab the wrist holding her weapon, and pull her to me. Her gun drops from her arms as her body crashes into mine.

Without blinking, I pull her back behind the black wall and maneuver my foot around her ankles to trip her. She falls on the black mat the wall stands on, and I brace us before I fall on top of her.

Her breaths are uneven from adrenaline. Her face is flushed from running and I notice the sweat starting to form around her hairline.

We’re face to face and I’m lost in the familiar scent of her skin mixed with her perfume.

The entire scenario creates a whirling sensation in my body as her hands come up to frame my face and her thighs split, causing my hips to drop and fit against hers. If I moved at all, she’d feel what she’s doing to me, even in a crowded arena.

Time passes too quickly, not giving me even a moment to think about what I’m doing—what
we’re
doing. It takes a fraction of a second to lean my face closer to hers. She closes the distance and I feel her breath in my mouth right before she kisses me—
hard.

In reaction, my tongue chases hers—
aggressively.

The crowd around us has fallen away. The blood rushing to my ears deafens all outside distractions.

Her hands wildly run through my hair. The kiss is slow, deep—intense. I don’t stop it and neither does she. Moving one hand from beside her face, I reach down to the hem of her jacket and shirt and lift them slightly to run my thumb against the waistband of her jeans. When I caress her skin, she sucks in a breath that I feel through our connection and it causes me to pull back.

Looking down at her, I see her eyes bright and smiling. She’s beautiful and genuine; no matter her disposition, she’s always stayed real and true to who she is.

“You said I’d lose this,” she mentions casually. “This isn’t losing.”

“No, it’s not,” I reply. This is definitely not losing.

Wrapping my arm around the back of her neck I pull her against me again and take her mouth with mine. I feel the soft, possessive moan coming from the back of my throat.

Her response is the same. Her hands start to roam my lower back, the jacket in the way of more contact. Her legs wrap around my waist and she pulls me further in to her. Her breaths are heavy, reminding me of my weight pressed against her.

The space we’re in is dark, but the colored strobe lights shine on her face with their ever-changing direction. She stills under me and gently removes her hands from my back, inhales, swallows hard, leaving her mouth slightly open, and searches my eyes.

Then she smiles.

“Uhhh, I don’t mean to interrupt you two, but the round’s closing and Ace is looking for you guys. What should I tell him?”

I turn my face to Hayden, who’s standing against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, as if he’s been comfortable there for a while. I hear Sarah gasp beneath me and both arms fall to her sides as though the feel of me next to her was forbidden. When I aim my eyes down to her, I see hers are watering.

Fuck that.

I look back at Hayden; he’s now standing facing toward us but looking out over the crowd.

“We’re goin,’” I tell him.

“You sure? ’Cause the two of you look pretty fucking comfortable.”

“Yes,” Sarah whispers so only I can hear.

She starts to get up, but I leave my body weight on her. Looking into her eyes, I say to Hayden while looking at Sarah, “Walk away and we’ll talk later.”

Hayden doesn’t move so I turn my face in his direction again and find him staring at Sarah with a wondering expression. “Sarah, wipe your eyes and don’t give anything away. Ace can’t deal with this here.”

Sarah nods and I give her room to sit up. By the time I have her standing beside me, she looks okay, but nervous.

“Well, fuck,” she says first. “Lacey
knows.
Rae
probably
knows. Hayden
definitely
knows.”

“Yep.”

“No one seems surprised,” she adds.

“Nope.”

She moves to stand in front of me, faking confidence, and pushes her hair out of her face. “How do I look?”

“You look like Sarah,” I answer casually, trying not to worry her.

“Good,” she answers as she turns around and heads into the other room.

Fifteen minutes later, we’re standing up front and removing all the guns and jackets. Sarah tries to ignore both Hayden and me. He’s been bouncing back and forth on his feet, waiting to see the scores pop up on the large black and white screen above the counter.

In no way does my best friend act anywhere close to his age—no way. By all observations, my sister already has two kids. She’s got her boy and girl, so if you ask her older brother, there’s no reason to keep
breeding.

Sarah’s ignoring me as she stands next to the girls, a few steps off to the side. She’s not said a word to anyone and has kept her attention on the screen as well, for entirely different reasons.

“I bet I won,” Hayden tells the group, giving his much-too-small jacket over to the attendant. “I had to have.”

“Shut up. You didn’t. You don’t win unless you’re cheating,” Lacey snaps.

“Bullshit, Lace. Favors, remember that. I’ll be collecting a few tonight, by the way.”

“Whatever,” she mumbles, tightening her ponytail.

Raegan, happy to get the oversized jacket removed, stretches her small body and Ace moves in and rubs her shoulders to help ease her obvious ache.

Marlee and Toby are sitting on the bench against the wall as we all wait patiently for the scores. The birthday party we played with is settling down and they’ve separated themselves, boys on one side and girls on the other. Their hands are full of pop and candy, and the belches coming from the ten-year-old boys coupled with Sarah having to avoid me in front of the others, is wearing on my last nerve.

I look back at Sarah, who has her arms crossed over her middle. Her face is still red from exertion, but she’s not sweating anymore. Her body is rigid and she looks scared. I shouldn’t have risked being caught. This is on me.

“No fuckin’ way!” Ace yells. “How’d you cheat?”

All eyes hit the screen briefly then fall to Hayden smirking as he looks to his side to find his wife fuming. My sister, on a good day, is fair and honest. On a bad day, she’s quick witted and mouthy. We’re about to witness what she’s like on a
really
bad day.

Her blonde ponytail flies through the air before her voice rises loud enough to create an audience of onlookers who are left gawking at our scene.

“Fuck that!” she yells, pointing to the score. She doesn’t hear the gasps from the parents circled around us, staring at her in shock.

“Damn,” Rae interjects defeated. “I suck. I got my ass kicked.”

Ace bends down to kiss the crown of her head. “I should’ve put favors on the line like Hayden,” he tells her, smiling over her head. The rest of us see him grin, she doesn’t.

Turning around, she gives him as hard a look as Raegan can give and corrects him. “You have a lot of sex, Ace.
A lot.
If you start complaining I’ll buy you some special soap for the shower to make it easier for you to finish without me.”

“Oh my,” Lacey utters.

“I’m nice that way.” Rae finishes with a shrug.

I look at Sarah as she tries to hide her smile.

“Soap you’ll use on me, maybe,” Ace flips back at Rae.

“I win!” Hayden’s arms rise above his head and his palms close in triumph as he makes his final claim to fame.

Marlee and Toby stand without commenting and walk to the counter to get the printout. Someone should frame this for Hayden. He couldn’t have cheated so this appears,
on the surface,
to be legit.

We all start walking away from the counter to let the next group get their scores.

“You kinda sucked today, Trav.” Rae comes to my side to make fun of me.

Sarah joins in and confirms, “He did.”

“I was busy,” I reply quickly, then hit Sarah with a “don’t fucking go there” look.

Rae’s eyebrows rise. “Busy?”

“I had my hands full.”

Sarah looks like she’s choking on the words she was about to say. She chooses to remain quiet.

“Stop!” Marlee yells for us before we make our way out. “
Hayden Merit Flynn,
stop right there!”

Middle name, Hayden. Not good.

When I look at Hayden, his eyes are dancing with humor and his grin is so wide it’s telling on him before the truth comes out.

“Busted,” he whispers.

Lacey lets go of his hand and turns to him. “What did you do?”

“I won. That’s what I did.”

“No, you didn’t.” Marlee hits him in the chest. “You cheated.”

“What the fuck?” Ace asks, but he’s not angry—or surprised.

“How’d he cheat?” Lacey asks as Toby stands quietly by her side.

Sarah’s eyes roll as she waits to hear what he’s done. “Oh God.”

“Whose jacket did you wear today, Hayden?”

He doesn’t answer.

Marlee points to Raegan. “You took Rae’s jacket. That’s why yours was so small and hers was huge!”

“Too far, Hayden. Too far.” Raegan shakes her head, glaring at Hayden standing across from her beside Lacey. “You took my jacket? Why would you do that?”

“I’d like to know how you did it,” I say, wrapping my arm around Rae’s shoulders. She winces from the soreness she feels, so I let her go but remain close to her side.

“Why?” Rae asks again.

Hayden’s hands come up in front of his face; a plea for the rest us to back up. “I need favors,” he tells us his reasoning without any shame. “We’ve been busy and I’m not getting the rightful attention I deserve.”

“Oh, you’re gonna get that attention. You’ve got night shift with Olivia for the next week for this shit.”

Confirmed. Lacey has two kids and in a sense she just grounded her oldest.

“Why Rae’s jacket?” I ask, ignoring the laughing eyes of Sarah that I know I have trained on me.

“I may be a cheater, but I’m a smart one,” he says while grinning and pulling Lacey in to his side where she reluctantly settles herself. “I knew Travis wouldn’t shoot her. He can’t stand a sad Rae. I knew Ace wouldn’t, well, ’cause if he pissed her off . . . soap and all.” Looking over at Raegan, he finishes with an apology. “I didn’t think the jacket was going to be so heavy. Even your little one weighed a fuck of a lot. I’m sorry, Rae.”

“You’re making this shit up to me, Hayden.”

Hayden’s smile falls instantly. Rae’s version of a proper apology from Hayden is to publicly humiliate him in the form of one of her “classic” favorite groups’ songs. I’m sensing Hayden’s in line for Neil Diamond or Elton John.

“Fuck,” he hisses, pulling Lacey with him out the door.

Now it’s her smile that’s reaching her eyes.

* * *

Sarah doesn’t say anything as we head farther into the parking lot. It’s starting to get dark and the kids are outside running around, enjoying the unusually warm winter day.

On the way to the Jeep, Sarah stops me in the parking lot with the sound of her small whimper. When I turn around to see, she’s lagged quite a ways behind me. I realize she’s holding her hamstring and, of course, she’s cursing.

“Damn it, I think I pulled something,” she tells me the obvious as I make my way back to her.

Happy to have the focus off what happened inside, I explain, “You attacked little kids in there, Sarah. This is karma’s way of getting even.”

“I didn’t attack jack shit.
They
came at
me.
”

“They came at you because they weren’t on your team. What’s the name of the game?” I mock her words from earlier.

She continues to hold her leg and takes deep breaths in attempt to steady herself. “Travis, this is bad. It’s knotting.”

Now I’m less worried about the tension from the evening and more focused on her pain. “Did you drink any water today?”