Marked (Marked #3) (27 page)

Taken aback by my anger, he removed it quick. “Just doing my job, sir.”

“Are you sure?” A sarcastic laugh bubbled out of me.

“Babe, fuck this. Let’s go.” Bitty pulled on my arm, tried to make me move, but I didn’t budge an inch. Instead, I pulled her close and kissed her temple, showed with that one act that I had control over myself. “This was a mistake.”

“Maya, if you need to leave I understand, but before you do, I’d like to discuss something in private with you.” Luke had a goddamned death wish.

“No.”

“Do you always decide for her?”

“I agree with Talan. Answer’s no.”

“Bernard, take Janice back to her room. Enough has been said, and I agree with our guest...hostile environments solve nothing.” At the older doctor’s command, the guard jumped into action and within seconds she was removed.

Didn’t stop her from saying goodbye; with a smile and her middle finger up, she exited.

“I’m going to apologize for how out of control this meeting has gotten. Nothing was accomplished, which saddens me.” Bryce took his glasses off, and then ran a hand down his face. “I believe both parties would’ve benefited from a deeper discussion into the actual attack versus the blame game that was displayed a few minutes ago.”

“Sir, there is still the matter of the charges.” Luke’s words were gruff, his anger simmered just underneath the surface. This was out of his hands, and his patient was fucked. “Maya could speak to the District Attorney on Janice’s behalf. Explain, and approve our idea of having her transferred out of state. Going to jail will hurt her—undo everything we’ve accomplished thus far.”

“I’m going to run and check on Janice and see if she needs anything.” Nodding, he ignored Luke and picked up his notes before coming to a stop before Maya and me. “Hear him out, please. Underneath it all, he’s a dedicated doctor.”  With that, the older man walked out and left us with an angry colleague. Anger poured off him in waves.

Problem was, so was I.

“What have you accomplished?” I taunted in a growl. It reverberated up through my chest and was loud enough to make Luke tense. “All I saw was a medicated version of the girl I knew. Yes, she apologized to her victim, but learned no lesson. Empty words.”

“We’ve given her a proper diagnosis.” Dr. Assclown came across the room and stood toe to toe with me. Maya pulled on the arm still in hers, but I disentangled myself before facing him full on. “She’s on the right medication. Attending all her sessions. This place
is
helping her rebuild what she lost, and you’re not going to destroy that.”

“Get the fuck out of my face.” Dead calm, I stood there and waited for just a finger to twitch wrong.
Give me a fucking reason.

“You’re a fucking dick. Neither of these girls deserves what you’ve caused.”

“I’m starting to think you’re just jealous.” His fingers tightened, his arm cocked back, and I let him. “Is it that she’s in no state to let you...”

His fist connected with the side of my jaw. Hurt like a bitch and my head snapped back, but no real damage was done.

None, just a tiny split on my lip.

A drop or two of blood.

When I looked back at him, I smirked. “I’m going to let you have that one. One-shot deal. Fuck with me or Maya again, and I’m going to follow through with my previous threat.”

“Fuck you, Talan.” Adrenaline pumped through his veins; it was going to be his ultimate undoing. “Anytime. Anywhere.”

“Let’s go,” Maya begged, stepping between us as he came toward me. Before he could touch her, I had him by the throat and on the floor. “Oh shit! No, baby. Stop.”

“Last warning, motherfucker.” Pushing off the floor, I rose up and extended a hand out to Bitty, which she took. Grasping it, I walked us backwards and out the door.

But before we were across the threshold, she turned and left him some parting words of her own:

“Don’t call me or search me out. What happens to her is not my problem, never was to begin with. You need something said to the district attorney...fucking call her yourself. We are done.”

Fuck them.

Every single one.

One Month Later…

“What has you so deep in thought, babe?” I asked Bitty while she lounged outside by the pool. In a tiny, teal-colored bikini, she was a vision with all that soft skin and my tattoo—my mark—on display. Naughty little thing wanted my cock and I had denied her earlier, and this was my payback.

We had no time. Everyone was coming over today to celebrate the end of this nightmare.

She pouted her lips for a kiss, and I obliged. “You want the PG version or the MA?”

“No time.” Parting her legs, I crawled up her body on the lounge chair, caging her in. Pressed my hardened length against her heated core and she gasped, fucking trembled in my arms. Her hips rose up and gyrated against me, rubbed her sweet pussy against my cock. “After tonight, you’ll be at my mercy for the next seven days. I’m going to fuck you raw. Promise to permanently ruin you, because by the time I let you up from under me, it will be noticeable with just one look how truly owned you are.”

“Talan...what…I—”

Placing a finger over her lips, I quieted her down. “Shhh, I’ll explain when the time is right. For now, all I want you to do is look beautiful and behave. Just a few short hours, I promise.”

“Not fair.” Those sweet lips pouted.

A laugh bubbled out of me. “You’ll live.” Then, to add salt to her imaginary injury, I nipped her bottom lip harshly. “What else is going on inside that crazy little mind of yours? Not buying the all libido angle here.”

“First, you suck.” Ignoring her sulking behavior, I angled my body beside hers and encouraged her to lay her head against my chest. “No fair using my love for cuddling against me, babe.”

“Never said I played fair. I’m a wiener.” It worked; an uncontrollable fit of giggles erupted out of her. Music to my ears, there’s nothing sexier to me than hearing and seeing my woman happy. Content. “Now, please answer my question, Maya. Something’s wrong, and I want to help.”

Giggles ceased and a sigh followed. “The letter we received two days ago, to be honest. How they managed to get their way in the end is fucked up. I’m not sold on the decision, Talan, and while I like the thought of them both leaving the state, she only got one year of jail time. Just one, and it’s to be completed once her stay in the looney bin is up. My life is worth one year’s sentence. It’s bullshit.” By the end of her rant, she was full of both indignation and ire. Something I understood and struggled to control myself.

We sat still inside the confines of my truck, contemplating everything that had happened. No words could describe the frustration, the anger I felt. How hurt and used Maya felt.

Coming to this so-called meeting only solidified what I already knew; Janice was well aware of what she’d done. While she did need help, and should receive it, she was well aware of what was happening while she attacked my girl.

Said it herself in that apology that has no merit. People who acted without so much as a care got no leniency from me.

“You okay?” Bitty asked me, and I turned to look over at her as if she were insane.

“I’m not the one that is important here. You are.”

A shrug and then a small sigh. “Pissed, but fine. Closure is what I came here to get, and I got as much.”

“How the fuck did you manage to get anything out of that mess?”

Sad grey eyes met mine. “Because I got to see with my own eyes how out of our hands she is. We can’t help her, maybe Luke will, but at this point, who knows? She rationalized how she’s wrong, but still lives stuck in those past rejections. Time will tell if she recuperates, but that too is out of our hands. My conscience is clear.”

“You, sweet girl,” I breathed out slow, “are a better person than I’ll ever be. In my case, I could care less if the assholes live or die. Fuck them. It’s time we live our lives.”

“Fuck them. I like that.”

Just because as a human being you feel slighted doesn’t give you the right or excuse to hurt your fellow man. The world doesn’t revolve around a singular person’s problems or pain. Should I just put a bullet between her eyes because of what’s been done? No. Never.

What she did wasn’t an act of self-defense. This was her mind at war with herself, and she raged. Raged to the point where reality mixed with the delusion she formed in her head of us. An us that would never fucking be.

“Agreed, but it’s done.” Tilting her face up, I pressed a quick kiss over her parted, glossed lips. “The day we walked out of Jackson Crisis, what did we agree on?”

“That it was time to let it go and live our lives.” Soft and with reverence, her tongue came out and traced my lips—savored, before trailing the path down my chin and sucking on my Adam’s apple. “If I remember correctly, your exact words were
‘assholes could die for all I care,’
was it not?”

“Something like that.” Pulling her face back to mine, I devoured her lips. “So sweet,” I hummed against them before letting out a pained groan. “Fucking love the fact you taste of peaches and cream. Every single time.”

“Can’t you two ever behave?” Simon’s voice rang out, and we groaned. Never. Not once had we been given privacy. The fuckers didn’t knock or announce their arrivals. Instead, they barged in and ruined our private moments.

“Guess it’s time to entertain?”

“Afraid so, babe.”

“Get up and quit bitching,” Lance bellowed a second before we heard a splash. “It’s party time, motherfuckers!”

Looking up from my place on Maya’s neck, I smiled. We were all here.

Our friends.

My mom.

Her parents.

Everyone ready to celebrate one thing.

“Ding dong the bitch is gone,” Veronica and Esther shouted in unison while presenting us with a banner stating as such. Everyone was all smiles and happiness, a sense of peace finally settling in. We’d weathered a fucking nightmare storm and came out on top.

“All right, slackers. Time to get the grill going and for the girls to prepare froufrou drinks. Mom,” I called out.

“Yeah, son.”

“Next time get her a gun that shoots bullets, not electrical currents. Thanks.” Her mouth dropped open and a small blush overtook her face while Maya stiffened beside me.

“You knew.” Her voice was low beside me.

“I know and see all. Remember that.”

“Quit picking on my little girl, son.” Matt came over and pulled his daughter up and in for a big hug. “How you feeling, sweetheart?”

“At peace.”

“Hey!” With two fingers in her mouth, Esther whistled loudly to garner our attention. “I have a question?”

“Shoot.” Bitty rolled her eyes at my choice of word.

“What happened to Brian?” Fuck, I loved Esther and her penchant to ask questions.

“You want to tell her or do I?”

Shoulder shaking with laughter, Maya tried and failed to explain what we’d learned two days ago. Her mouth opened, then closed, and opened once more, but nothing other than her giggles came forth.

“I’ll take this one.” Shaking my head, I patted her on the butt once and walked over to retrieve a beer from the outside cooler. “Brian is currently serving a five-year sentence for being an accomplice in the attack. He has no mental incapacities to fall back on as a bullshit excuse, and the county made an example out of him.”

“No,” Came from Lance.

“Shit,” Simon finished off.

I just laughed. “Up shit’s creek without a paddle or protection, he will become someone’s bitch inside. Deserves everything he has coming to him.”

A chorus of
‘amens,’
followed and glass bottles were clinked together.

Here’s to new beginnings.

“Can I take this off now?” she whined for the hundredth time in the last hour. We were in the Bahamas for the next seven blissful days, and she was antsy. Wanting to know what I had planned and why the need for secrecy.

My answer? We needed the breather. To just be, get some sun, watch me work, and fuck a lot.

It wasn’t enough for her, and she pouted—a lot.

There’d been a tattoo convention in town at the same time we were here, and I used it as my excuse. Didn’t hurt that some of my friends in the field got wind that I was here and they invited me to do a demo of my work. More importantly, to mark my girl’s flawless skin once more.

This time, I let her choose what she wanted, and she did well. Right beneath her right breast, I placed an exact replica of my tattoo gun back home. It was beautiful.

So perfect that as soon as my gun hit the tray beside me, I had us through the doors, and back up to our room. Fuck everyone downstairs and the catcalls that followed, I wanted in that tight pussy right then.

“No.” I tapped her on the nose once, before following the path down and over her lips. Didn’t stop as I traced the elegant curve of her neck and then lower until I circled the sternum piercing at the center of her chest. The diamond I had custom made for her looked hot. “Behave, Maya. The reward will be worth it.”

“Just wanted to know if I’m dressed appropriately for what you have in mind.” And then a huff.

“Bullshit, babe.” With both hands on her hips, I lifted her up from the dock and wrapped her legs around my waist. Didn’t want her to have the least bit of an idea of just where or what we were doing. “But
A
for effort.”

“What the!” Her squeak at the action was adorable, and she held on tight. With her small body safe in my arms, I walked up the ramp that led us into the small yacht I’d rented. Once on the deck, I was greeted with a silent smile and nod by the company’s representative.

Extending a hand out while making sure the other held her tightly, I shook his and received the piece of paper in his hand. Looking over at it, it confirmed that all I had asked for the day out at sea had been fulfilled. All accommodations done and the preferred beverages I’d requested on board.

Perfect.

“Put me down, you goof.” Bitty wiggled her body against mine, tried, and failed to touch the floor with her feet.

As soon as the man who’d been in front of me exited, I slapped her on the ass. “Trust me.”

“I do, with my life.” That earned her a very delicious kiss.

Once beside the ship’s steering wheel, I sat my co-captain beside me and placed a pair of noise-canceling headphones on her head. Used the same playlist she’d used in my shop for her first tattoo to make her smile.

For the next twenty-four hours we would be alone at sea, in open water with no one for miles to interrupt us. Where I could enjoy—gorge myself on her sinful body under the light of the moon.

With everything double checked and a very appropriate grope to her ass, we set off. Maya smiled beside me as the wind swept through her hair. It was a mess, but she never looked more beautiful.

“Babe, please take this off already.” Smartass had removed the headphones and had turned to face me with a hand on her hip. “I can tell we’re on a boat; the rocking gave it away a while ago.” With an arched brow, the arch emphasized by the little blindfold I’d made for us on our first date, she dared me to deny her.

Marked: that one word explained what our love had accomplished. How two souls were intertwined, fated to meet and belong to the other. Maya was inside of me, a part of the blood that ran through my veins. She was in every inhale and exhale I took.