Page 85 of Savagely Yours
Life sent me Mae.
Then it sent me brothers.
Now, I had the puretreasurethat was Larke Tapley, who’d erased the remainder of the bone-deep sense of abandonmentI’d lived for as long as I could remember. That same woman tried to save my life by risking hers. So, when it came to Mae and my brothers, I was crazy. When it came to my girl, I was a fucking savage.
Cerner gasped.
I covered the wound with one hand—to keep Larke’s floors as clean as possible—opened the door, and shoved him out into the hallway. I watched, heart beating a steady rhythm as he twitched and squirmed on the ground. There wasn’t enough light to make out the expression on his face, but I hoped he died knowing that he would spend eternity looking up at the soles of my shoes.
“Just so you know,” I said, crouching, “you never would have made it home. I told you earlier that I wouldn’t be with Larke tonight, so you showed up here expecting her to be alone. Had I not been here and you put your hands on her, trust me, this is the death you would have preferred.”
Men like Neal and Cerner had created these systems, hoping the people they surrounded themselves with would abide by them.
People like me.
People prone to unhinged behavior.
Yet, the real challenge was attempting to blend in enough to exist within a civilized society.
Cerner stopped moving, stopped breathing.
I wiped the blade on his pants and faced the dark corridor just as Ronan emerged. While I didn’t know how long he’d stood waiting, I knew Cerner wouldn’t have shown up alone. However, I’d hoped for Neal. That way, I could have made tonight a two-for-one.
I picked up on the shrill cry of a squeaky wheel, Ronan pulling one of the oversized laundry bins used by the Sanitation staff behind him. I didn’t ask him whether he’d brought the bin, expecting me to kill Cerner, or if Cerner had planned to dumpme in it. He glanced at the door before shifting his focus back to me, and I understood everything he didn’t say.
The bin wasn’t for me.
It had been intended for Larke.
“Neal?” I asked.
He tipped his head in a half-nod.
“Dead or alive?”
He leaned forward, spitting a stream of saliva onto Cerner’s lifeless body, and again, I understood; Neal had not only wanted Ronan to transport Larke in the bin, but the plan had more than likely been for her to be dead at the time. Cerner, not expecting me to be in her studio, had tried to get me to leave to avoid a potential explosive confrontation. However, Cerner and Neal were fucking idiots if they honestly believed I would have walked away, in the middle of the night, to do anything that didn’t involve keeping Larke safe or losing myself inside her.
Cerner and Neal were boys playing around in their daddy’s uniforms, practicing their salutes in the mirror. They’d then leaned too far into that fake experience and attempted to go toe to toe with a real soldier.
Ronan and I silently communicated to move the body, wrapping Cerner up in a sheet of plastic that Ronan brought with the bin. Once we were done, Ronan gripped the bin’s rounded edge to signify that he would take it from there. I tipped my chin to indicate that I would clean up.
There was no reason for us to trust one another. Still, I could tell that he knew I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if he walked Cerner’s body to Neal’s unit and told him I was responsible for Cerner’s death. That I’d avoided killing anyone this long, especially after learning where they’d sent Larke, was an early Christmas miracle.
I grabbed a bottle of bleach from the supply closet and cleaned the hallway and studio entryway. If Larke somehowfigured out what had happened tonight and asked, I wouldn’t lie to her. But that didn’t mean I would let her wake up to the scent of blood and murder.
Once I was done, I showered, dried off, and returned to Larke’s side, naked. The weight of my body dipping onto the mattress woke her up, and the moment our eyes met, she smiled.
“Hey, you,” she greeted.
I grinned. “Hey, yourself. I didn’t mean to wake you. Go on back to sleep.”
Yawning, she slid across the bed and set her cheek on my shoulder. “No, it’s okay. I was dreaming about you, actually. I dreamed that we left Totten and made it all the way to South Carolina, but there was a storm, so we got holed up in an abandoned colonial.”
“Oh, yeah?” I kissed her forehead and let my lips linger on her skin. “How bad was the storm?”
“Hurricane strength.”
“Hmm. Yeah, that’s bad.”
