Page 3 of Arm Candy Warrior

Magnum steps toward me. In a flash, he’s the same guy who rescued me from the parking lot and brought me back here. So much has happened since then that it feels like a lifetime ago, but Magnum touched me. His hand cradled my face. The same guy who did that is now standing a foot away from me, hazel eyes staring me down. “You can trust me, you know. I’ll try to find out what happened to Brawler and Oscar. For you.”

My face pales. Now that the hype of the shootout isn’t scorching through my veins, I realize I’ve given too much away. “I—”

Magnum shakes his head. “I get it. Don’t say another word. It’s between us.”

He leaves, and I stand in the middle of Johnny’s living room in shock. I reach out to make sure the couch is behind me and then sit down heavily. I thought this world would have lies, deceit, anger, and death. And it does. It has all of that. But it has more than that, too. People like Brawler come from here. People like Oscar and Magnum. They’ve all stepped up to help me, not understanding I’m here for a greater—if not sinister—purpose. A desire that’s overwhelmed my life for so long that I don’t even know what it’s like to have people who care about me anymore. I live in the dark side of my self. I live in the depths of revenge and vengeance and my calm hand pulling the trigger to a bullet that will end the life of the guy who took everything from me. If anything, I thought I’d fit in here.

But maybe I don’t. At least not with the people who care about me.

And maybe I fit in too well with the people I’ve vowed to make suffer.

2

After a long ass shower and picking countless tiny rocks out of my skin, I emerge from the scalding hot water with scrapes down my arms and stomach and my shin throbbing. I find Johnny’s closet in his room and pick out a t-shirt to throw on before moving to his kitchen, so I can ice my leg. Now that my adrenaline has bottomed out, the pain is starting to flare up like I knew it would. Injuries are always worse after your body has calmed down from the excitement of the fight. I wonder what it will be like after coming down from the high of a shootout. The crash will probably suck that much more.

I don’t know what time it is, but my body drags. It’s telling me it’s time for sleep, even though my ears are attuned to the front door, waiting for someone to come in and give me any kind of news. If I’m lucky, maybe Oscar or Brawler will even come in themselves. That’s just wishful thinking. I highly doubt any of those guys come into Johnny’s suite. Especially not Brawler. He’s not even a member of the Crew.Am I?Not because of Johnny, but because of what I did for them. That was my goal all along:Embed myself into their group. Into their lives. Make them trust me.

I need to call my aunt and uncle. I need to check in with them. I need to get ready for school on Monday. I need to watch the latest episode ofThe Witcher. I need to—

Damn. I’m the fucking queen of ignoring things without ignoring them. I can tell my brain not to think about Brawler or Oscar, but my body does it on its own even though I try like hell to distract myself. Eventually, I throw what’s left of the ice in the kitchen sink and lie down on Johnny’s sofa, knowing I won’t be able to think consciously about the fate of Brawler or Oscar while I’m asleep.

I pull my knees up to my chest and pull his shirt down around my legs, using a small square pillow to lay my head on. I drift off immediately. Blissfully, I think, and dream about nothing until I’m jostled awake and lifted into the air.

My body tightens.

“Shh. You’re fine. It’s just me.”

I instantly relax, but then I force my eyes open to see who “me” is.

Dark hair blends into the shadows. “You should’ve crawled into my bed.”

I close my eyes again, my brain warring once more between finding distraction in who’s holding me and wanting to be held by someone else.

Johnny’s hands tighten around me before he places me carefully onto his plush blankets. He moves the sheets back and straightens my legs before pulling the sheets back over me. I’m encased in silk. It’s dreamy. This mattress is a thousand times better than the mattress I’ve been sleeping on back at the shitty apartment.

Johnny climbs in after me, moving his arm under my head to pull me close, swaddling me in his embrace. “You looked so peaceful,” he whispers. “I didn’t know whether I should leave you there or not, but ultimately, I’m selfish and wanted you here with me.”

I try to keep quiet. My mind warring over his words and the effect they have on me, and whether I should even trust my own reactions to him. If a person you hated said the most beautiful things to you, it might put a chink in your armor. It might even continue to put dents and scrapes in the more he kept saying and doing those things. Sure, he’s done some shit that has made me fill those chinks in with plaster to harden them back up, but there are other moments, too.

Like this one.

Johnny talks again, his breath caressing the tip of my nose as he speaks. “I hope you know I was absolutely certain you were going to be okay.” He peers up at me through feathered lashes. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I wanted you to focus on the fight and not what would happen afterward. Hell, we didn’t even know if it was going to happen. We were playing it by ear.”

“What happened after I got out?” I ask, voice hoarse. I’m picturing a smattering of dead bodies with rivers of blood coursing away from them.

I sneak my eyes open, catching him staring at the ceiling. “It was chaos,” he recounts, his body shuddering briefly. “I don’t know when Magnum got you out exactly. I remember looking back and seeing you close to Mag, and that’s when I knew you were going to be safe. Dad and I made our way to the cars with a few others from our security team before we jumped in and fled. We didn’t have a tail, but we took a roundabout way here in case we were being followed.”

“If they knew we’d be coming back here, how come they haven’t tried to retaliate?”

Johnny pulls away, his lips a thin line. “That’s the reason for doing what we did, Kyla. The only way they’ll come back at us is if we didn’t take out their top people. Dad got Roza. I got Evan.”

“Evan?”

Johnny nods. “I owed him for laying his fucking hands on you.”

I blink at him. Fighting is just that, a fight. It’s not to the death. It’s not so that scores can be settled outside of the competition. It stays there. The better person wins. That’s it.

“Hey,” Johnny says, tipping my chin up so I can look him more squarely in the face. “Evan’s one of their top three. He had to go. We just don’t know if anyone got their second in command. If we didn’t, we can expect retaliation. If we did, we’re safe. No one’s going to act unless we know for sure. We’re hunkering down here, and trust me, even if they do come for us, nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t let it.”

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