Paxton's Promise (21 page)

“Hey, sunshine,” I answered.

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“Who the fuck is this?” I growled, getting to my feet.

“Pax, it’s Camden. Calm the fuck down. Where are you? I need you to get back to your house right now.”

“Why do you have Gabby’s phone? Where is she?” I demanded.

“She’s with me, but I don’t know how to unlock your gate. Either you give me the code or I wait on you.”

Pulling out my wallet, I set a wad of cash onto the bar. Derek and his guys watched on in concern. “I have to go,” I told them. “Something’s wrong and I have to get back.” Derek nodded and I didn’t waste any more time. Rushing out to my car, it roared to life, the tires screeching as I stormed out of the parking lot.

“Why can’t she unlock the gate?” I asked. I didn’t trust Camden and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give him the code.

“Look, just hurry the fuck up and get here. She needs help.” And with that, he hung up and left me hanging. I had ten minutes to get back to my house and it was the longest ten minutes of my fucking life. So many questions raced through my mind. Why the fuck was she with Camden? And why couldn’t she talk to me?

When my house came into view, Camden’s car was parked outside the gate. I bolted out of my car and rushed up to his. Covered in sweat, he rolled his window down and the heat blasted out. Gabriella was in the passenger seat, draped in a blanket and passed out. Not only was she unconscious, but she was covered in blood.

“What the fuck happened to her?” I shouted, running to her side of the car. Ripping the door open, I reached in and took her face in my hands.

Camden sighed. “It’s not her blood, Pax. We need to get her inside now.”

My body shook with rage. I wanted to kill him for whatever he did to her. Storming over to my keypad, I punched in the code and the gates slowly opened. Once Camden started in through the gate, I got back into my car and followed.

I carried her inside, taking the steps two at a time, and laid her down on my bed. Camden came in and went straight to my bathroom and turned on the shower. The steam started billowing out into my room.

“What happened?” I demanded, clenching my teeth.

“I’ll tell you in a minute, but we need to get her in the hot water. She’s covered in blood and she’s in shock.”

He tried to take the blanket off of her, but I pushed him out of the way. “Don’t you fucking touch her. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be dead right now.”

“Yeah, well, take a fucking number.”

Once I had Gabriella out of the blanket, her clothes were torn and she was covered in dried up blood. I carried her into the bathroom and slammed the door so I could undress her. Holding her naked body in my arms, I sat her on my lap in the shower and let the hot water beat down her skin. The blood washed away, turning the water a light red as it washed down the drain. She had it everywhere, even underneath her nails.

Taking the soap, I washed every square inch of her skin and hair. Thankfully, she started to come around and gasped when her eyes opened. She tried to fight me, but I held her harder.

“Sunshine, it’s me,” I murmured. “You’re safe now.”

After she was rinsed off and clean, I held her in my arms and wrapped her up in a couple of towels.

“Pax?” she whispered.

“Yes, I’m here.” Now that she was covered, I took her into my room where Camden still sat waiting.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

I walked right past him and pulled the covers away on my bed and laid her down, covering her back up. Her skin was cold, even after the hot shower, so I rushed to my closet and snatched some extra blankets. Once she was secured underneath, her breathing started to calm and she passed out again.

“You need to start talking, now,” I demanded angrily.

After having a chance to get a good look at Camden, I saw even he was covered in spatters of blood. I hadn’t seen him in a while, but I’d heard about the jagged scar he now harbored on his face. Running his hands through his hair, he went to the corner of my room and sat down in the brown leather chair.

“She’s been fighting for Scar,” he blurted out.

Eyes wide, I jumped off the bed, my fists clenched by my side. “What the fuck do you mean she’s been fighting for Scar? How’s that possible? She’s been with me.” Not to mention, I thought Scar was in Vegas.

“She’s only done it twice, and I assume she had to lie to you to get away.”

Gabriella wouldn’t lie to me. She’d been with me every single day since she moved in. Then it hit me . . . the date with her mom. And then again tonight, when I was with Derek and his crew.
Motherfucker.
No wonder why she’d been acting weird. “What is Scar doing out here?”

“After my fight with Ryley, he moved everything out to L.A. He knew from the beginning that he wanted to get here and blackmail Gabriella.”

“What happened to her? Start from the beginning and tell me everything.”

Camden sighed and hung his head back. “She did it for you. Scar threatened your life unless she did as he said. So, she did it. She agreed to three fights and after that you’d be set free. But as you could probably guess, that’s not the truth. The letters she’s been getting are coming from a guy named Rage. Do you know him? It looks like he’s had a fascination of her after seeing her the night of the fight in Vegas. He’s the one who wants you out of the way.”

So that was who it was. I’d heard of Rage, but I didn’t know the details. He wasn’t around when I fought at the Dark Side. I heard he was ruthless, and never hesitated to kill. But if he was there with Gabby . . .

“So help me God, he better not have touched her,” I stormed. “Has he done anything to her?”

Camden looked at me and shook his head. “No, not yet. After she almost killed a guy tonight, I got her out of there as fast as I could. When I told her they were coming after you, she snapped.”

“A guy? What was she doing fighting a guy?”

“That’s the twisted part,” he explained. “Scar wanted to cater to his clientele and give them a weak girl they could fuck around with. He made a lot of money off of her. After tonight, I don’t know what’s going to happen. She did her own thing and dominated the douchebag. The pussy even pissed himself because he was scared.”

Over my shoulder, Gabriella laid quietly in my bed. She asked me earlier to show her some moves on how to fight dirty. That was the reason why she asked, she needed my help. “So what happens now? You say they’re coming after me . . . when?”

“I don’t know,” Camden answered truthfully. “But I do know they’re going to use Gabriella as bait. They’ll take her and make you fight.”

“Then I’ll fight. I’ll do anything for her.”

Getting to his feet, Camden glanced over at Gabriella, eyes melancholy. “I sure hope so. I’ve never met Rage, but I do know he’s one fucked up bastard. There’s no telling what he’ll do to her if he wins.”

That was not my worry, because now that I knew, I would be ready. I would fight until the end. Even if I had to kill him.

PAXTON WAS IN the ring with the hooded Rage and the sound of swords clanging together hung in the air. I screamed, but no one could hear me. Rage sliced Paxton’s midsection, and I raced up to the cage, fighting to get in. Over and over, I pounded on the cage, my own fists broken and bloody from the metal.

Lying on the ground, Paxton turned his tormented gaze toward me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered before the life left his eyes.

Rage’s face was covered by the hood, but he dropped his sword and started for the cage door. It swung open and he came straight to me. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t move. Arms holding me firm, I fought against him, beating against his chest. Lifting his arm, he grasped the top of his hood and slowly started to pull it back. I was scared to see what was underneath and fought even harder.

Tears blurred my vision because Pax was dead. He was gone. “Get your hands off me,” I screamed.

“You belong to me now, Gabriella. I’m not letting you go.”

“No!”

“Gabby, wake up.” I heard the words in Paxton’s voice, and it made me cry harder. “Open your eyes,” he ordered again.

The pillow was soaked when I opened my eyes. Looking around, I found Pax in front of me, alive and regarding me wearily.

“You’re alive,” I whispered.

It’d been just a nightmare, but then I realized I was still in it. My mind was a jumbled mess, and I had no idea how I’d gotten back to the land of the living. The last thing I remembered was falling into darkness with Rage above me saying I’d be his soon. By the look in Paxton’s eyes, he knew what had happened, that I had lied to him.

“You know?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes. Camden brought you home, covered in blood and in shock. Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

My eyes burned. “Because I didn’t want you involved. I knew you would try to come to my rescue. They would kill you.”

“It looks like Rage wants that anyway, Gabby. I don’t think we have a choice. I just hate you had to go through all of this alone.”

“I’ll be fine. It was terrifying, but I got through it. The fighting wasn’t a big deal. It’s the knowing that Rage was there, watching me. He was there at the race too, Paxton. He’s been following us.”

His eyes went wide. “What do you mean he was at the race? How do you know that?”

My head hurt, but I sat up and held the blanket to my chest, clutching it tight. Just knowing a homicidal stalker was just outside the room as we had sex made me shiver. “It was after our go in the announcer’s box. When I went back up there to find my phone, I saw a black rose near the door, all broken and torn apart. He was there.”

“Goddammit,” he hissed. “Has he followed us everywhere?”

I nodded. “Scar told me Rage was angry and didn’t like seeing us together. I think that’s why he moved the fights up the way he did. Rage is getting impatient.”

Paxton got to his feet and ran his hands through his hair. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of boxers. “We need to figure out what to do. They’re going to come for you.”

Then Mason came to mind. He was going to help and now that Paxton knew what was going on, we could all work together. “I know that, but I have a plan. I haven’t told anyone, not even Camden about this.”

Paxton came back to the bed and sat down beside me. “What is it?”

I reached for his hand and brought it to my face. My dream still felt real, but in all reality, there
was
going to be a fight and it wasn’t going to be good. “I’ve been talking to Mason,” I explained. “He’s going to get a team put together like he did in Vegas, when he busted the last underground fighting ring.”

“I can’t believe you’ve done all of this behind my back.” He didn’t sound angry, but his jaw was firm, his green gaze unreadable.

“I wanted to protect you,” I whispered.

Lifting a hand to my face, he brushed his thumb across my lips. “You don’t have to protect me, Gabby. I just wish you would’ve confided in me. We could have figured this out together. I’m not going to let Rage or any other fucker take you away from me.”

“You promise?” I asked.

Slowly pulling the covers back, he stood and dropped his boxers to the floor, covering me with his body. He spread my legs with his knee and leaned on his elbows, his mouth close to mine. I opened for him and moaned when he went deep, tasting me greedily.

“I promise, Gabriella. Whatever I have to do to keep you safe, I’ll do it. Even if it means killing this guy to keep him away from you. I promise to always be there for you and trust you no matter what. You just have to trust me too.”

“I do,” I whispered.