Page 12 of Obey

I shouldn’t be saying this. I should know better. But I feel too high to hold back.

“Forks?” Carl asks. “Hold up, Maddox, I’ll get you down.” He moves closer to me, but before he can touch me, Knives yanks him away.

“Fuck off.” Knives goes for the restraints. “This is how you spend your free time, Maddox? You just let anyone fuck you up?”

The words hurt. A lot.

I recoil from them, from him.

Why did he have to ruin the one safe place I have?

If I say one word, Carl will call security, and security will toss Knives out on his ass. I’m surprised they haven’t already, but I can’t bring myself to care.

I don’t fight as Knives gets me off the cross. For a few moments, I stare down at my wrists—which are barely even bruised—until Knives grabs my arm.

“Let’s go,” Knives says. “You don’t belong here.”

It’s hard to think. Everything is blurring together. I can hear Carl arguing, I can see people starting to close in around us. Knives must not understand that Club Alpha isn’t a corrupt place where he can throw his weight around. There are rules here, for fuck’s sake. It’s meant to be safe for normal folks to get their kink on.

“Listen, tough guy, just because you’ve got muscles doesn’t give you the right to boss anybody around. Especially not if they haven’t consented to it. So fuck off,” Carl says. He tries to get between me and Knives.

I don’t have time to tell him that that’s a bad idea.

Knives sneers and grabs Carl’s arm, shoving him aside with ease. “Mind your own fucking business,” Knives snarls. “This is between me and Maddox.”

Fuck. I need to break through this. I’m going to drop hard after it’s all said and done, and I’m going to have to deal with it on my own. I grit my teeth, trying to shake off the endorphins. Now isn’t the time to be pathetic. It’s bad enough that I never stand up to Knives in private.

In public, though?

I can’t let people see me as weak. If that got back to my men…

They wouldn’t understand any of this.

I straighten, narrowing my eyes at Knives. “You can fuck right off,” I tell him. My voice isn’t as steady as I want it to be, but I lean against the cross as I start to find my bearings. “This is my night off, and I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.”

“I’m calling security,” Carl announces.

I quickly shake my head. “No. I can handle it.” He looks like he’s about to protest, but I give him a look. “If you call security, I’m out. No aftercare, nothing.”

He’s too responsible to let me do something like that, and even though I know I’m playing dirty, it’s the only way I know how to try to get this situation defused.

Knives crosses his arms and glares at me. “Handle it? You can’t handle shit, Gray. You’re letting some soft pretty boy whip you because you can’t handle a real man.”

“You’re just jealous it isn’t you,” I snap back at him.

His eyes widen, and I wonder for a second if that’s actually true.

Then he starts laughing. “Because you’re such a catch. Why would I want a guy who gives up when there’s a little bit of trouble? I’d rather find a real pain slut.”

“A real pain slut would never trust someone like you,” I retort. “You’re immature and out of control.” I rub my wrists, shaking my head when Carl tries to get closer to me. My head is starting to clear, but all the shame and anger and guilt threaten to make it fuzzy again.

“You’re a master of control though,” Knives barks back. “Always making sure your own image is?—”

“Excuse you?” I interrupt him. “You don’t get to waltz into this building, crash my scene, treat my dom like shit, and insult me. You just don’t.”

I don’t care that Knives is bigger than me, bigger than Carl, and ten times more dangerous.

The fact that he invaded something I’d needed so desperately, ruining my entire fucking evening, has me too furious to care.

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