Page 13 of Crow

Fun times.

“Can you shut the ever loving fuck up?” I growl low under my breath. I don’t realize I’ve said it out loud until Tarynn blinks at me. There’s just enough light from her phone that I see the hurt and confusion on her face. “Sorry.” I shake my head, sending droplets of blood spattering to the ground. “Was just telling that asshole voice in my head to fuck off.”

“Oh,” she breathes, then nods. “I get that. I’m always doing that with myself too. It’s so annoying when your thoughts just won’t shut off.”

“Yeah.” I slap my hand over my bleeding jaw, which sends a lightning bolt of fiery pain through me. My dirty, disgusting hand that was just clawing at the ground.

“Let’s get you inside.” I have no other choice. I follow her to the backdoor and wait while she knocks hard. I keep my hand at my jaw to try and stop the bleeding. “Someone once told me that feelings aren’t facts, and you have to just ignore that snarky stuff in your head,” she whispers, giving me the softest, sweetest smile.

She’s only trying to help.

Oh, love, she has no fucking idea. But I like her. I’m starting to see what all the fuss is about. She’s plucky. Pretty. Maybe just perfect for the both of us.

The door cracks open, flooding us both in golden light, and I shake off Raven’s ominous threat and shove him even further to the recess of my mind. He’s imprisoned and locked away. I’m the dominant. I won’t let him out. I’ll never let him hurt Tarynn. Never.

Maybe I’ll never let him out again, period.

The fuck, Crow? We’ll fucking see about that.

Chapter 5

Tarynn

Patti is a pretty solid, grounded woman. Anyone would else probably have taken one look at Crow’s face and slammed the door on me. Even though her face instantly screamedI don’t want any trouble, and this has a fuck ton of trouble written all over it,she lets us both in.

“Oh my god, what happened?” she asks, looking from one of us to the other.

Crow’s blood has spattered all over the white kitchen floor tiles, so he presses his hand back up over the wound. The red overflows his fingers almost immediately.

“I got a fright, I didn’t realize it was him.” I pinch my lips together to keep a sob from escaping. My heart is a nasty creature, wild inside of me. I can literally smell the metal of that blood. There’s so much of it. More than I’ve ever seen in my life. How much blood can one person lose before it’s too much? I should know the answer to that. What I don’t know is how to apply stitches. I’m still just pre-med. “I know we have a first aid kit. I need to get it.”

Patti stops me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I’ll get it. Grab a fresh towel from the bathroom’s supply and press it against his face. That cut looks deep. I suppose the hospital is out of the question?”

Crow has been silent so far, I assume because it’s hard to talk when someone just keyed a second smile into your chin, but he snorts now. “No hospital.”

Patti shoots him a scathing look. She’s all mother hen to most of us women, even if we’re not much younger than her.

“I just wanted to talk,” Crow swears. His eyes flick to me. “I was going to tell you that I’d changed my mind about the lessons. I’d do it.”

Patti’s soft brown eyes flick to mine, a question there. She must see that I’m okay, because she hurries off.

I do too, snatching up an armful of towels from the staff bathroom just past Crow.

I practically skid across the floor, and thrust the towel against his hands. Black ink meets white terrycloth. He doesn’t make a sound as he presses it to his wound. The way the pristine white turns to scarlet in an instant, makes my belly feel not so hot—and if I needed any further hints that med school isn’t for me, then here it is. I raise my eyes up to his.

“You’ve probably changed your mind again now that I maimed your beautiful face.” Shit. I really just said that. “I-err- I’m really sorry.”

He grunts. “It’s just another scar to join the current club. Some people collect tattoos. I collect scars.”

“And also tattoos.”

His eyes narrow, like he’s holding back the humor he wants to feel, keeping himself in check. “And tattoos,” he agrees quietly.

Patti’s steps are loud as she storms back into the kitchen. The bar is quiet, everyone gone. Patti was going to head up and relieve her babysitter. I feel doubly guilty about that. Shehas precious few hours to be with her kids, and even if they’re sleeping, she needs her rest too.

“I don’t want any trouble with the club over this, Crow, you hear me?” she lectures. The big, boxy first aid kit gets slammed on the stainless steel prep counter with a metallic clang.

“Why would there be trouble?” He seems genuinely baffled, “This was my own stupid fault. I should know better than to sneak up in the dark. I was pissed about you not watching her walk to her car and there I went, scaring her senseless.”

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