Page 33 of Slayin Villain
So I reached for her hand.
She let me take it.
Then my hand dipped lower, my thumb brushed the back of her thigh.The same place I once said I’d get my name tattooed, so everyone would know she was mine.
“I miss you,” I said quietly.
She swallowed.“Villain…”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not.”Her voice broke.“But you made me feel like I was nothing.Like she meant more.”
“She didn’t,” I said.“She doesn’t.”
“Then why are you still with her?”
I hesitated.
And in that hesitation, I saw the pain bloom in her eyes.
She pulled her hand back.
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
“Then tell me.”
She looked up at me, and for a moment, I thought she might say something to force me to tell her the truth.That I fucked up big time.That Ember started as nothing but a joke.I planned to walk away.But the joke was on me.Ember was pregnant.
But then she just shook her head.“Not here.Not tonight.”
She turned to go.
And all I could do was watch her walk away again.
Chapter 13
Eve
I stood at the edge of the chaos, high heels sunk into the dirt, one hand on my hip and the other clutched around a sweating mason jar full of something strong enough to knock the sin outta a preacher.I held my Ol’ Man’s drink.
“Lawd have mercy,” I muttered, watching a fire-eater spit flame right over a topless chick swingin’ from a wrecking ball like we’d turned Royal Road into a damn music video.
This wasn’t no ordinary patch-over.Hell no.Kingpin didn’t do anything halfway.This was part Vegas, part Halloween, part hell-froze-over.
He’d been dreamin’ this mess up for months, ever since his brother Bubba called dibs on his day.Kingpin didn’t want elegance.He wanted mayhem.He wanted to show the world that Nashville wasn’t just Music City.
It was the royal throne of the damned.
“Darlin’, you gonna wear a crown or a collar tonight?”he asked behind me, whiskey breath warm on my neck as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
I smiled, southern sweet and venomous all at once.“Depends.You gonna behave or get branded with your own damn initials again?”
He laughed, full and low.“Ain’t no fun unless there’s a scar.”
I looked out at the madness, cages, fire, blood, sex, and country music blaring like God Himself was drunk on moonshine, and thought, This right here?This is our kingdom.
And damn if I didn’t love every outlaw second of it.
