Brutally Beautiful(78)

Grabbing hold of her face with a tight grip, I tried to make myself perfectly clear. “You are coming home with me.”

Without warning, a slap hit my face that stung like a bitch, “Don’t put me in a corner, Grayson, my f*cking claws will come out.”

My fingers tightened around her chin, making her eyes narrow in challenge.

Her hand shot out for another slap, but I caught it in my fist, tangled her fingers with mine and pressed my forehead to hers. I felt her rage, it rolled off her in strong waves, and I took it, crushing my body against her and covering her mouth with mine. What traitorous vessels our bodies are to fold into each other with violence, melt into each other in danger and anger. Her lips opened to mine and I slipped in, never wanting to leave the heat of her breath, but I had to, I did, just long enough to say, “You. Are. Staying. With. Me.”

From one of her pockets the shrill electronic beeps of a cell phone screamed out. I pulled away from her, allowing her to take the call.

“Hey, Bree. Everything okay? Yeah, you were both sleeping and Kade drove me home.”

She listened to the reply, eyes fixed on mine. I took the bags and started walking to the door to put them in the car.

“That’s great. Yes. Yes. Okay.” She gave a small sigh. “Listen, we can’t stay at the trailer, someone broke into it…Yeah, it’s bad, looks like something out of Scarface…” She started to explain, and then closed herself in the small bathroom to finish the rest of the conversation without me hearing, but I was out of the trailer anyway, getting ready to take her out of there.

The drive to my house was silent. She spent the ride worrying her lip and twisting her fingers around the hem of her coat. We spoke no words to each other until she was standing in my living room, eyes wide, looking about ready to puke.

“May I sit?” she asked in a small voice. “My legs are trembling.”

“Yeah,” I croaked, barely able to get the word out.

Lainey sank to the floor in one fluid movement, like a cascading waterfall. Running to her, I pulled her up, and tugged her over for a better place to sit. I stared at her as she sat, eyes closed on the couch, hands trembling. My brother’s blood, caked all over her was revolting and contradictory to her smooth ivory skin. I traced a trail of crimson with my thumb, rubbing the smear from her cheek. Her eyes opened wide, taking in my closeness and my deeds. My fingers couldn’t help but linger against her face.

Lifting her in my arms, I carried her into my master bathroom and placed her on the chaise lounge chair. I ran the bath and dumped a shitload of bubbly soap inside. I distinctly noticed a sheen of sweat covering her forehead and I swallowed hard. “I have to get that blood off you. I can’t…I can’t look at you covered in blood.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“I want you to stay here with me. You’re not leaving my sight,” I snapped.

“I can’t get you involved in this, Kade. It’s not your fight.”

“You just can’t leave what’s happened here. My brother is in the f*cking hospital so you can’t leave him, and you can’t take Bree away from him.”

“Bree has nothing to do with any of this, Kade. She could stay here with him. Hell, I want her too.”

“You can’t leave me.”

“Kade, please.”

“I’m not letting you leave me. You don’t want to either.”

“Can you stop doing that crap? Just get out of my head and stay out. There’s so much chaos in there, you might get hurt.”