“Get on the fuckin’ bike, Raine. Please?”
I straddle the seat and she slides on behind me. I close my eyes, feeling her shaking hands glide around my waist.This is torture. I always thought the day I got her on the back of my bike would be fucking heaven—her tits pressed against my back, her tiny hands splayed on my waist—but it’s torture. Sick, twisted torture.
I drive the fastest route possible to my apartment in Alexandria. It’s a converted loft. But as I slide the key in the lock, enter the security code and push open the door, I’m suddenly nervous she’s in my space. I’m not like the other Savage slobs—I keep my shit clean and orderly.
I gesture for her to go first. I know it’s clear because my alarm would be going off if it wasn’t.Speaking of alarms. A scruffy furball comes hurtling towards us. She’s blind and deaf, but there ain’t a goddamn thing wrong with her nose. She sniffs at Raine’s feet, sucking in a noisy breath through her little nostrils. Her tail flicks back and forth at a rapid pace. I know how she feels. My tail would be wagging too if I was given the chance to sniff around Raine’s skirts. Lola paws at Raine’s thigh, coming up on her hind legs and snuffling to be picked up. I never thought I’d be jealous of a dog, but here we are.
Raine’s trembling hand reaches out to pet Lola, but she’s shaking so hard she seems to think better of it.
As she walks farther into the room, her eyes study everything. The minimal furniture, the stacks of books all over my apartment, and the lack of complete and utter chaos.What the hell is she thinking right now? I place my hands on her shoulders and she flinches. “Go on inside. It’s not safe out here in the hall.”
Raine shuffles forward like a fucking zombie. Shock will do that to a person. I close the door behind me and slide all of the locks home.
“Grim, what were you doing at my apartment tonight?” She’s shaking as she stands in my living room, watching me.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“How did you know about my car?”
“I don’t know. Did you tell someone at the club?”
“No. I didn’t tell anyone.”
“I don’t fucking know. What does it matter—be thankful I was there to kill that motherfucker.”
She grips her elbows, hunches in on herself. “Have you been following me?”
“Don’t be fuckin’ stupid.”
She flinches and guilt worms its way through my gut. “Grim, have you been following me?”
“Bitch, I already told you once—”
Lola lets out a sharp bark, and I move around Raine and into the kitchen to avoid her penetrating stare.
“Tell me again,” she says, her voice shaking as hard as her body. “And this time, look at me when you tell me no.”
I exhale through my nose and glare at her. “Yeah, I been watching you. That what you wanted to hear?”
“Why have you been watching me?”
“Because we got a lot of enemies,” I say impatiently. “We got a fucking dick-tonne of people who want us dead, or wanna hurt us by killing off family members, and I can’t stand the thought of you being one of ’em. So, fuck yeah, I’ve been following you. You don’t like it, too goddamn bad, because I ain’t stoppin’.”
“Okay.”
My eyebrows practically fly off my goddamn face. “Okay?”
“Okay.” She nods. “Do you have a bathroom I can use?”
“Down the hall on your left. You know it’s a four-storey drop from the window, right? You’d break your pretty neck just tryin’.”
“I’m not going to run.”
“I just told you I been stalking your arse for a month, and you’re not runnin’?”
“You saved my life.”
“Could just as easily end it too.” I grimace, pissed that my own goddamn mouth doesn’t know when to stop running.