Never Kiss a Bad Boy (46 page)

I offered them my palm.

Kite clasped my wrist, while Jacob sliced my flesh. It was a burst of heat that shot up my spine. In wonder, I saw my own blood fall to the ground.

The same spot these two men had made their pact so long ago.

Flipping the handle towards me, Jacob offered the pocketknife. They weren't smiling, their eyes reflected the intensity of this moment.

I knew what they were telling me to do.

Taking the blade, I cut Jacob's hand, then Kite's. My body was awash with hyper-senses; shocking chills, fresh air, the scent of our rusty essence. I didn't resist when they took my fingers, our palms caressing, blood mixing.

“Why are you crying?” Jacob asked.

My laugh was fragile on the corners. “I'm just really happy right now. I thought... part of me was sure I was going to die tonight.”

Kite released me. Using a rag from his pocket, he washed my hand. It stung, but I didn't flinch. “I thought you weren't scared of dying?”

“I wasn't,” I said. “Not until you both gave me something I could actually lose.” Clutching the rag to my chest, I shivered. I couldn't stop, genuine relief had turned my muscles to jelly. “I had nothing. For so long, I just didn't care. No one else did, so why should I?” It was hard to see anything. Fuck, the tears were too much. “Then you two changed it. You changed everything for me.” Lifting my chin proudly, I challenged them to deny my words. “I didn't think I could love
anyone,
and here I am... caught up in you two at once.”

“You love us?” Kite's voice was husky. His hand still dripped a pattern of red.

“More than anything,” I said. I held my forehead, spreading bloody smudges and fingerprints from my wound. I was a mess, inside and out. It was their fault; they should have to witness it.

I was a woman who had given up everything, faced down death, and then realized that the one thing keeping me going was no longer an urge to kill...

But an urge to be with them.

My potential murderers.

My saviors.

And finally, my soul mates.

Jacob was a void, closing in on me until I saw just darkness. His lips were sweet, but his words were more delicious than anything out there. “You're connected to us, now. This blood bond... it's unbreakable. Our love will last as long as we all breathe.”

Kite pushed Jacob aside, his mouth demanding mine. Teeth and redemption, that was his flavor. “I love you, Marina. I'll love you beyond this life. Beyond whatever fucking grave waits for me at the end of everything.”

His promise was ink tattooing on my heart. The three of us had been brought together by death, by fury and hatred and vengeance. All of us were damaged, but together, we had become whole.

What a messed up love this was.

I wouldn't have changed it one bit.

On the river's edge, we sat and listened to the water running. Kite's knuckles, I finally grasped their meaning. This river was symbolic to him. It was the place it had all began. Here, Kite and Jacob had plunged down their murderous path.

They had done it to escape one life, but it had kept pulling them into the dark depths as they grew older.

Swim, his tattoo proclaimed. If you didn't swim, you would drown.

I'd stepped into their lives when they thought they had finally gotten away from here—out of the damn river. It was my fault they'd had to dive back in.

But if they hadn't... I would never have been free.

I wouldn't have gone on living.

They had saved each other, and then in the end, they had saved me.

With their warm bodies on either side of me, our pulse in sync with the cuts throbbing on our palms, I wondered if maybe... just maybe...

I had saved them, too.

Kite

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S
hoving the groceries onto the counter, I wiped my brow and sighed. Did this girl really need so much hot cocoa? Screwing up my face, I packed the boxes away. I was beyond happy that I had a reason to buy this stuff.

I'd fill my apartment with it, if she only asked.

The bandage on my hand crinkled, shiny in the light of the sun that streamed through my window. It had been a few days since the confrontation on that back road. At times, my heart still bounced rapidly when I thought about how we'd sped after Marina through the night.

Waking, finding her gone and discovering the letter... it had been a blur of decisive moments. Jacob had watched me when I'd held the paper out to him, stayed silent as I ranted about how stupid she was to hand it to us. I'd paced and raved and cracked my knuckles.

I'd been furious that we were forced to make a choice.

The luxury of waiting was over with.

The part I hadn't expected... was Jacob.

He'd taken the letter, held it to my stove's burner. With smoke curling, he dropped it in the sink and watched it turn black. His words were flat, calm, and they rattled my brain.

“We need to hurry. It might be too late.”

Jacob was never rash. Something had snapped in him. With my GPS guiding us, we'd burned rubber. I still didn't know what we were going to do, or what we'd find.

A living, breathing Marina?

Or her dead body?

The shot he'd taken at Lars when we found him trying to choke her, it had been meant for the man's head. Jacob had planned to kill him, ignoring any promise we'd ever made to Marina.

His genuine distress had made him miss his shot. The first time in many years.

I understood his fury. Seeing her on the ground, struggling under that monster, had driven me mad.

But she'd deserved her right to exact revenge.

When we'd stood on the scene after that, her body tied up in Jacob's trunk, he'd taken me by the hand. His grip was tight, brutal. The torment in his face mirrored mine on the morning I'd sparred with him; when I'd argued for Marina's future.

“She saved me,” he said, never breaking eye contact. “That day in the club, she kept my identity from being revealed to a dangerous man. Even if she broke her promise and failed our test... she saved me. She didn't have to, but she fucking
did
.” His forearm was bulging under his sleeve. “How can we sentence her to death after everything she's done for us?”

The buzzing in my head became a raging hurricane. Crushing his palm, I yanked him in and hugged him roughly. “You really want to save her?” I asked, willing my voice not to shake.

“Yes. I really do.”

I met my best friend's stare and nodded. “Guess we better clean this shit up, then. What's the point in letting her live if the cops put us all in jail later?”

After that, we'd driven her upstate, all the way to the place we'd made our first kill.

It had been a challenge for me to expose Marina to my past. My old life, my childhood, was the most vulnerable and hated part of me. Telling my story had left me hollow. But she had to know.

It was the only way.

Now, standing at my window, I made a fist.

Two scars burned on my flesh, old and new.

This wasn't the future I had dreamed of, but now, I couldn't imagine anything else.

Nothing was as right as what we shared.

Marina had been the one thing missing from my existence.

Finally...

I had a purpose again.

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S
he stood with her back to me, a vision of ethereal beauty.

The graveyard was blossoming, green with the coming spring. Marina's hair was down, blowing in the breeze in lazy curls. I was filled with the desire to wrap my hands in it, brush it over my cheeks as I listened to her breathe.

Breathe.

I couldn't get over the fact she was still alive.

Watching her from the shade of a tree, I waited. Interrupting her would have been wrong, this was an important moment for her.

She'd set out to get vengeance, and she'd completed that task. Marina's chains had been removed. Peace was slow in coming, though.

Kite and I had both woken to her nightmares, but over the last week, they'd become shorter.

Softer.

She always slept better with us nestled at her side.

Turning, she lifted a hand, capturing her dark strands as they blew into her face. Coiling them behind an ear, her eyes went to the sky. I wanted to see what she did. Whatever it was, it made her smile.

Spotting me, Marina waved, heading across the grass. For the occasion, she'd put on a flowing, butter-yellow dress that waved around her knees. I loved her no matter what she wore, but seeing her so angelic was stirring me up.

Leaning off of the tree, I took my hands from my jacket pockets. I planned to cup my fingers on her cheeks, but she beat me.

Tan arms snaked around my neck, she stood on tiptoe to reach me with her kiss. It was quick, too quick. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

Smiling sideways, I hooked my hands around her middle. “Anabelle insisted I get some air. She said I'd been inhaling more paint fumes than I realized.”

“So you came and found me?” Lifting an eyebrow, she cocked her head. “It's only been a few hours, did you miss me that badly?”

Thumbing her chin, I tilted her jaw up and spoke with cool intensity. “I miss you every second you're out of my sight.” Her blush was a treasure.

Clearing her throat, she stepped back, sliding her fingers into my hand. Our bandages touched. “It's strange,” Marina whispered. Facing towards the cemetery, she looked like she was listening to the wind. It jostled the leaves over our heads. “I'm still having trouble believing it's over.”

Pushing her hair off of her collar bone, I drew her to my side. It was where she belonged. “When Kite and I killed his uncle, I don't think we slept well for weeks. Maybe months.” She angled her face, staring up at me. “Sometimes the scars we carry take time to heal over. Even if the wounds were made for a good reason.”

Her lips glistened, parting and begging to be touched. “I wanted to ask you something,” she said gently. “Your Gram... and your father... what ever happened to them, do you know?”

It was my turn to smile sadly. “My dad killed himself in the psych ward. I didn't know until I was a teen, I looked him up and found his obituary. As for Gram...” Shaking myself, I gazed over the tombstones. They made me think of my younger brother's funeral.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Nodding, I said, “The day we made our bond, Kite and I cleaned up at his uncle's home. I knew we needed to leave, and fast, but I wanted to see her. My nostrils flared from my brisk inhale. “I told her I loved her. She looked up from the TV long enough to tell me that she loved me, too.”

I love you too, Bill.

Lifting her hand, I kissed where the scar was hidden. I said, “She called me my father's name. By then, I was never Jacob to her.”

Wet hurt flooded Marina's eyes. She did me the courtesy of not allowing her tears to spill. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “That must have been hard.”

The wind was cool on my neck. “If she'd been more clear headed, she might have begged me to stay. In a way, her dementia was a favor.” The memory was a pit in my stomach. Rejection made leaving easy, but it had helped form the shell around my heart.

A shell Marina had chiseled through.

Reminding myself that my past was not my present, I hugged her to me and kissed her forehead. Together, we huddled in the shade of the tree and listened to our heartbeats.

My phone buzzed, and without looking, I knew it was Kite. “Come on,” I said, leading her down the slope. “He'll be wondering where we both are. Let's not make him worry.”

Laughing clear as a silver bell, she tugged me down the sidewalk. “Hurry up, then! I want to see what my new room looks like! You've kept me out of your apartment for too long, were you building me a damn castle?” she teased.

We'd moved her belongings from storage, dividing them between Kite's place and my own. He couldn't hog her any longer; Marina's spare room in my place was finished, and I'd gone to great lengths to prepare it to her liking.

The surprise closet full of expensive clothes that I'd prepared would either impress her, or make her furious.

Both of those reactions would delight me.

Following that smiling girl down the street, my heart enveloped my entire chest. It could have burst, surely no man was meant to feel so happy. This was as close to perfection as I would ever reach.

Kite and I had struggled our whole lives. We'd fought, we'd killed, and we'd suffered.

Nothing had brought us true joy.

But now, that had changed.
We
had changed.

In this brutal world, with Marina at our side?

We'd finally found our paradise.

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THE END

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Abell

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I
t had been three days and five hours since my last fuck.

Well, give or take.

I could be wrong about the hour.

Either way, I was antsy as hell. Going this long was like keeping water from a man in the desert. I could survive for awhile, sure, but I knew myself. If I didn't find a nice pair of thighs to dive between, I'd be useless to the world.

So, really, it was for everyone's benefit that I got laid.

I had a few places I liked to roam when I was scouting for a playmate. Bars are stereotypical, but they work—especially if you like the college crowd. Clubs? They were too sweaty for my mood.

Tonight, I'd gone a little out of the way.

The rock concert was in a park that had been strung up with Christmas lights along the fringes. An invigorating chill infused the night air. All in all, it wasn't a bad scene.
I just wish the damn speakers weren't numbing my ears,
I thought with a chuckle.

The band had been playing for twenty minutes, but I couldn't have repeated any of their lyrics. My attention was devoted to scouring the rolling bodies for my next prize.