Invincible(33)

“Because…”

Why? Why, Rose?

“Exactly,” he said. “Why the f*ck did you come here?”

“To catch my breath,” I said. “I have a dead woman’s car out there. And the cops are going to find her body. They’re going to look for her car. And I’m going to end up in f*cking jail.”

“Can your brother kill you from there?” Wes asked, curling his lip.

“Fuck you, *.”

“I already f*cked you, sweetie. Nice and tight, the way I like it. Now I can figure out how to save my ass.”

The anger crushed me in a heartbeat. I spit at Wes. I literally hocked and spit at him. It was not as dramatic as it looked in the movies. I barely had any spit and I could barely see it on his chest.

So I slapped him. Right across the face.

Then I turned and ran back into the cabin. I scrambled to find the keys to Macie’s car. They weren’t in my pocket where I shoved them. I was back in the bedroom. On my hands and knees, looking under the bed.

“You ready for it again?”

I looked over my shoulder, realizing my ass was stuck up in the air. “I hate you.”

Wes stepped into the room and slammed the door. “You have no reason to trust me, Rose. And I have no reason to trust you. Let’s talk about what we know. Your brother killed my brother. You brother killed someone you know. Someone shot Aton.”

“You think Luke did it,” I said.

“I don’t know what to think. I am… I’m kind of happy that you’re here. I hope you’re not f*cking with me on all this.”

I found Macie’s keys under the bed and then stood up. I opened my arms. “Look at me. I have nowhere else to go, Wes. He’s ruined my life. He’s controlled me. He’s hit me. I should have never gone with you to see Aton. I should have never gone along with the marriage thing. I should have never come to this cabin the first time with you. It cost my friend her life. That was a clear message from Luke.”

“And I took a bullet for you,” Wes said. He touched his still wounded shoulder. “Don’t forget that.”

“You were going to kill me,” I said. I stepped toward Wes.

He stepped toward me, hands balled into fists again. “I was not going to f*cking kill you. I came to check on you. To help you.”

“After you were part of trying to kill me.”

“I didn’t touch a thing. Other than your picture. Which kept you alive.”

“Your boss put a bomb in my car.”

We kept stepping toward each other. We were an inch apart. Oh God, I wanted to hit him again. So badly.

“My boss did not put a bomb in your car,” Wes said. “Tommy did.”

“You *.”

“Going to hit me again, sweetie?”

I grabbed at his face. A second later our lips were touching.

Fuck… no…

Another second later, a bullet came through the window.



~



I heard a ping and something shatter. Then Wes was on top of me. He swept his leg to mine and had me pinned on the floor. We were just an inch apart.

“Fuck,” he whispered. “Thought you didn’t have a tail?”

“I thought…”

“Doesn’t matter. Are you hurt?”

“No,” I said.

But I kind of was. I was hurt that we weren’t kissing again. I wanted to keep kissing Wes. I liked the explosion of tension. Fuck, it turned me on so much.

Wes pushed from me and stood up. I sat up and looked to the window above the bed. There was a small hole and cracks all around. The bullet had hit the wall.

Someone was out back, trying to attack us.

“Fuck!” Wes yelled. “You’re f*cking bleeding everywhere!” I looked at him and he put a finger to his mouth. “Please! Hold on for me, Rose! Don’t let go!”

Wes backed up to the open bedroom door.

He then motioned to me to watch the door.

He mouthed, From the back door!

Then he made a fist.

Christ, it was just like watching him in my apartment.

We waited.

Second after second.

They clung like minutes.

There wasn’t a damn sound.

Wes then came forward and dropped to his knees. “Listen to me. You go into the closet and stay there. I’ll come get you.”

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“I have to find out who it is.”

“What if it’s Luke?”

“I’ll kill him.”

“You can’t…”

Wes gritted his teeth. “Just stay f*cking here.”

“Okay,” I whispered. “Okay, fine. Go. Good luck.”

“Good luck? Yeah, thanks.”

Wes crept out of the bedroom.

I slowly kicked myself back to the closet door. I opened it and took a shaky breath. I just wanted to kiss Wes a little. Was that so bad?

I moved to the closet and started to pull it shut.

That’s when the gun went off again.





20.


(Wes)



I had no f*cking clue what I was trying to do or prove. Christ. I was a fighter. I was used to going toe to toe with people. I didn’t do sneak attacks. But here I was, opening and shutting the back door without making a sound. Crouching down and walking across the deck as slow as I could.